Aluminum (aluminium) printing
Posted by sid
|
Re: Aluminum (aluminium) printing October 15, 2013 10:15AM |
I've been reading for a while your posts and other stuff on the web about laser sintering, I've got to tell you: this is something that I don't understand much, but, in my opinion, the only way to learn is to read and discuss about it. 
In my opinion to sinter powders (aluminium in this case), maybe we should start to pre-heat a chamber on an Inert gas environment, yet there would be a problem, problem which is to make the chamber oxygen free, on which leakages could deal a real problem, maybe. While this is happening we also need to be careful about the "insides" of the machine, avoid meltdowns of parts and stuff, in this case I think it would be best to use galvos to drive the X and Y on the farther position as focus lenses can handle, yet a simple belt-driven X-Y system would also work, it's only about speed!
Definitely this would be something that I would put my effort into... I'm finishing my prusa and meanwhile I'm already trying to figure out a way to go "powder".
I think those milestones need to be reached to sinter aluminium, for example, I haven't said before, the insulated pre-heated chamber would possibly alow us to be able to melt and bond 2 layers at the same time with better control, the inert gas atmosphere to avoid oxidation and other build environment contamination, pressure leakages possibly could be a problem, the gas pumps,the vacuum pumps, and of course, a powder bed that also doesn't let powder go into threads, joints, motors, etc.. (a piston mabye?).
I mean, all this when dealing with aluminium, I guess. I don't actually know if it has to be that perfect, but when we think "Nylon" or "Teflon" it can get a lot easier, on the other hand we still need to deal with binders and stuff to get things going.
Regards,
Dz
In my opinion to sinter powders (aluminium in this case), maybe we should start to pre-heat a chamber on an Inert gas environment, yet there would be a problem, problem which is to make the chamber oxygen free, on which leakages could deal a real problem, maybe. While this is happening we also need to be careful about the "insides" of the machine, avoid meltdowns of parts and stuff, in this case I think it would be best to use galvos to drive the X and Y on the farther position as focus lenses can handle, yet a simple belt-driven X-Y system would also work, it's only about speed!
Definitely this would be something that I would put my effort into... I'm finishing my prusa and meanwhile I'm already trying to figure out a way to go "powder".
I think those milestones need to be reached to sinter aluminium, for example, I haven't said before, the insulated pre-heated chamber would possibly alow us to be able to melt and bond 2 layers at the same time with better control, the inert gas atmosphere to avoid oxidation and other build environment contamination, pressure leakages possibly could be a problem, the gas pumps,the vacuum pumps, and of course, a powder bed that also doesn't let powder go into threads, joints, motors, etc.. (a piston mabye?).
I mean, all this when dealing with aluminium, I guess. I don't actually know if it has to be that perfect, but when we think "Nylon" or "Teflon" it can get a lot easier, on the other hand we still need to deal with binders and stuff to get things going.
Regards,
Dz
Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.