StrongPrint - A 3D Printer that prints in metal

[Eddie]

A French man named Jean-Michel Rogero is working on creating a 3D printer that can print in a variety of metals. He is far from being a completed project, but he truly believes that it will be finished and it will cost him less than 1000 Euros. So far it can only print 3 layers deep but adjustments will be made and he expect it to be able to print full objects. It is based on the welding process, but it's a 3D printer. He has built his for under 600 Euros, and he believe that in the near future there will be safer version available for anyone to purchase for under $10,000.

Read more about this incredible 3D printer at: http://3dprint.com/4787/3d-metal-printer-600-euros/



What do you think? Is this feasible?

[JRDM]

I don't know if the Creative Commons license is weak in itself. A license doesn't defend itself, so non-defense is the weakest link here. if someone violates it, you actually have to be prepared to lawyer up. There might be some open hardware or CC legal defense fund, I don't know.

On the wait for cooling, current slicers do offer a wait delay. Another thing that would be better, but is more complicated, is a computer connected IR camera. Move the welder out of the field of view, watch until all metal is below a certain temp, and do the next layer.

[DrLuigi]

Well kinda a TIG welder on a REPRAP,
Still great that its under 1k though, But with all that heat it probably will bend quiet a bit when cooling down, so i aint sure if you can actualy make stuff with a welder and still being 0,1 or even 0,5mm precise.

Do hope for him that it will be able to get some prints, but i simple aint sure about it yet as Welding isnt realy that precise on itself so far i know, But i aint a welder either... I did it a while ago but i don't have great experience with it.

[Feign]

I've worked with some very talented people who could reliably MIG weld to within 3mm tolerance by hand. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if you can get it close to 1mm tolerance with an automated setup like that. I agree though that the machine would need delays to let each layer cool somewhat to prevent sputtering and trapped gasses.

Also, all those printed plastic components aren't going to last terribly long with the amount of heat and UV they're soaking up from that arc. The UV from a MIG welder is serious business, about 5-6 times more intense than standing in full sunlight on a clear day if you're close to be operating the welder itself. And at the range the carriage is from the arc, I'd say it has about six months to live before it starts crumbling.

[Kolergy]

Hi, thanks for your interest

concerning the Creative commons, Weak might not be the most appropriate term I should have used , it couls be beter worded as limited, the CC licence protect a "work" which is defined among other things as a literary work ore a shape that could be 3D. but it dose not protect a function. on the other side patents protect functions. One possible is to make the effort to describe the functions performed by the designs that are puts under the CC. Up to now most of the people where just dumping the design on thingiverse without much explaination because the functions where self evident. But this approach appears not to be protecting enough.

Concerning cooling, you are nearely right I plan to use a pyrometer on the head at terms, it is infact it is what I have experimented manually.

Concerning tolerences: 0.1mm is clearely out of the league, I consider 1 mm as a good target at the begining the result should be considered as near net shape with the functional faces needing some machining to be functional, for the print I have done up to now the metal sheet has been bending a lot with the heat. A friend from the fab lab has recently made for the printer a 1 cm thick steel baseplate on which the metal sheet can be bolted which I hope will limit the deformations by spreading the heat & by holding tightly the metal sheed.

Concerning the plastic part Feign you are probably right, infact at the start I was fearing that the ones just above the torch would melt but up to now it is doing well, as you said with time the UV will damage the plastic although ABS is decently resistant to UV.

[Roxy]

Also, all those printed plastic components aren't going to last terribly long with the amount of heat and UV they're soaking up from that arc. The UV from a MIG welder is serious business, about 5-6 times more intense than standing in full sunlight on a clear day if you're close to be operating the welder itself. And at the range the carriage is from the arc, I'd say it has about six months to live before it starts crumbling.

Yeah... But guess what??? That means you have 6 months to get things working well enough to print yourself some metal parts!!!!

[Feign]

Yeah... But guess what??? That means you have 6 months to get things working well enough to print yourself some metal parts!!!!

You make an excelent point... But the trickiness of getting a MIG welding process to make precision parts could take that six months of working time down to the wire.

Can the printer make it in time to save itself? (cue dramatic music.)

[Papa Steve]

3D welder ...
This is a project I've been working on (part time) for almost a year. The idea was incubating in my brain for about a year before actually starting the project.
Being that welding produces considerable heat it didn't seem wise to have any plastic parts on the machine so with the exception of the plastic coating on the wires everything is metal.
The machine motion control is solid, reliable, accurate.
The biggest problem so far has been isolating the transient voltage created in the welding start cycle.
Next step of problem solving will be altering the slicing software to suit the unusual needs of welding.
See the build diary
http://molten3d.blogspot.com/