SinterHard's Metal 3D Printer Filaments Launch on Kickstarter

The Sinterhard Engineering Team, based in MA, endeavors to revolutionize the way small, intricate industrial parts are made all on their own with their Sinterhard metal filaments which are actually composed of ABS or PLA filament that is mixed with aluminum or stainless steel. Use of this filament is not meant for the small-scale enthusiast, but rather for use in large-scale manufacturing, meant to replace metal injection molding and ceramic injection molding. The team has launched a Kickstarter campaign, hoping to raise $15K by May 6th, in order to fund the project. Find out more about the project in the full article: http://3dprint.com/56373/sinterhard-kickstarter/


Below is a photo of the stainless steel and aluminum powders in use for Sinterhard:
http://3dprint.com/wp-content/upload...um-Powders.jpg

I think a few more info on how to do this at home would go a long way.
That, and shipping out of the US...

Well you'd need some industrial kit to do it at home.

Aparently this is a existing technique that's just replacing injection moulding with fff printing.

I'm intrigue about how you remove plastic from metal and still have the same size and detailed part left. Which you then heat to the point that the metal fuses properly. So you'll need a serious oven/forge as well as the kit to remove the plastic from the metal - this is NOT an at home project :-)

Oh, when I say "at home", I mean more in a non pro context than "at home".

But I'm thinking that aluminium won't require heat as intense as steel and that probably can be fixed with a burner and an empty steel barrel. The only question is how long does that heat has to be sustained to be effective, and how precise has the temp range to be ?

I wrote him an email telling him that many enthusiasts would do it for fun if he could detail that, he answered he'd try and mail me some instructions : he's just worried people would try that with their home oven. Which, admittedly, WOULD be stupid.

As to the second part : I'm guessing the binder is a very small part of it. And I think the result will be quite porous and light. That's were his design instructions are probably important : to avoid stress deformation I'm sure there are quite a few things to take into account.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LambdaFF

As to the second part : I'm guessing the binder is a very small part of it. And I think the result will be quite porous and light. That's were his design instructions are probably important : to avoid stress deformation I'm sure there are quite a few things to take into account.

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I assume you mean the 'brown' part would be porous? This is, after all, derived from an established process for creating _finished_ parts, besides which the very similar( though differently marketed ), recently kick started 'Filamet' offering from Virtual Foundry was talking final densities of 99.5 percent and above pure metal. :-/

Or am I reading 'porous' wrong here, in the context of end-use metal parts?

Also, if 'de-binding' removes the binder BEFORE sintering, I'm confused as to precisely holds the part exactly in shape? Should I be thinking sand sculpture??? :-/



Joel