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Induction 3d printer


Metal 3D-printer based on induction heating...

Dear friends, I developed own metal additive technology and i created experimental implementation of it .This experimental implementation may call as metal 3D printer. And now i want to continue developing of it, that to create fully functional version of metal 3D printer which will able to print unique metal parts...

The ideal goal is to print parts not only from metal, but also by various composites...

Details

I started this project in 2016 when i been on first year of bachelor. More active work i stated from 2018. I developed own metal additive technology and i created experimental implementation of it. This experimental implementation may call as metal 3D printer. My own metal additive technology based on physics of induction heating and fused deposition of melted liquid metal (there is some analogy with plastic 3d printers). Welding wire is used as a consumable material (In experiments i have used aluminium alloys).

Welding wire has much more cheaper cost than an metal powder for SLS,EBM etc..

If use my technology then may give significant lower cost of all system due to my technology is not using laser modules, ovens for debinding, metal powder, etc which has relatively  high cost. 

I showed some photos which describes my current results of printing first lines (tracks) and dropjets from aluminium alloy. My target regime of printing -  lines than dropjets. I have look that i was able to achieve lines without support between two points! - probably it is additional advantage.

Potentially, this technology allows to create printers with scalable work volume.

My metal 3D printer consist of several modules. An main module is print head. Each module i developed and created manually. I used analytical and numerical methods that to develop them. It is very complexity to find such solutions which may be optimal by all variables...

At first time, FASIE fund helped to me. But financial resources were limited within the program -  to show the overall viability of the technology. Due to the lack of this resource ( btw i did more experiments than i planned) I have so far reduced the development activity on this project. And for the same reason i don't have fully functional 3d printer, but i have success to show the overall viability of the technology.

P/S 1: Dear friends, it is important for me to get  helpful participation (Donate). My development activity on this project will depend on it!!! if you want to write feedback, please write in private messages.

P/S 1: Pay attention to the fact that this project while isn't open-source.

P/S 3: I understood that this description is abstract, in fact, my technology is much more complicated and takes a lot of time to describe it. By this reason description will be continued.

This project also was as my bachelor's diploma project, and i have defended it on excillent.

You can donate to the project.


  • Some module)

    Sergey R. • 01/21/2021 at 20:18 • 0 comments

                    I decided to show this module which responsible for wire feeding. I have created this module at summer 2019. This module has high feed torque because there i utilized DC motor, has wire seeking capabilities and torque sensor. I had thoughts to use industrial servo, but i didn't use it due to budget reason and other reasons. That to control position of wire, i implemented position controller by using optical encoder (form old device), PID regulator and DC driver (which supports PWM). PID regulator i have implemented at AVR microcontroller on C++/C. I note that PID regulators need turning of own coefficients, but i did it via additional homebrew PC software. That to use encoder i have used hardware counters and timers at the microcontroller, for better reliability. Also i programmed serial software interface that to manage this module. With torque sensor this module can provide graph of it in to any module and PC in real-time . Also i developed some special parts that to create the wire feeder.

                    Maybe this description abstract because this project isn't open source, thank you for understanding. If you have ideas please write in DM).

  • That to print layers....

    Sergey R. • 08/14/2020 at 20:17 • 0 comments

    Main problem that to give a lot print layers is microfluidic problem inside an nozzle. That to solve it me need try several another variants of nozzles which has another sizes and even shape, but if i change size of nozze it cause use termal isolator (from ceramic) with another sizes and custom shape. All it expencive for me (i'm student) and all i manufacture it on foreign fabrics... .

    If you think that project is perspective, You can do donate.

    Pay attention to the fact that this project while isn't open-source...

    In the near future I will make a detailed financial estimate that to continue the project. In a rough approximation, this 5000 - 8 000$ (that to give print layers and how, therefore, the first test prints of detals ).

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