What printer technology is preferred for 3D printed pieces of high density (98%+) that can print in a UV curable photopolymer thermoset plastic? SLA perhaps?
Need to be able to print in materials having a melting temperature of 250°C+ would be great. (ABS?)
This would be a desk-top home use printer for a small company venture.
Budget of ~$1000
Umm, you either want an sla or you don't
As for the 250c - would the part need to withstand that high a temp ?
ABS melts at 100°C but you print it at 250°C. Are you confusing the 2 ?
ABS is not a laser curable resin and as such irrelevant to SLA...
Please educate me. I know a little about thermoset plastics, and I know a little about UV crosslinking. I've never heard of a material which gets melted, then... what? UV cures? Cools off? Both?
just out of curiosity - what temperature do the uv resins for sla machines actually melt at ?
I'd think it would be quite high - but no clue really :-)
Ultimately I am looking for an alternative to the Stratasys PolyJet Process using DigitalABS (due to the extreme expense of the Stratsys printers).Quote:
Originally Posted by curious aardvark
I will be using the printer to produce injection mold tooling for prototyping.
For that reason I need to be able to produce 3D prints having very high density (low porosity) and high melting temps.
The plastic also must be a thermoset material so that it will not interact with the thermoplastic injected into the mold.
I believe SLA is my best bet, but wanted to tap the collective knowledge of this community first.
This is a good question as well. I would like to know the post-cured melting temp of the UV resins used for SLA.Quote:
Originally Posted by curious aardvark
Looks like 3Dsystems make a producte that when post-cured and heat treated can achieve a Heat Deflection temp of 513°F+
http://www.3dsystems.com/sites/www.3...uestone_US.pdf
how about good old fashioned CNCed aluminium injection moulds ?
The short answer is no.
There is no fdm material that has a glass point over 250C
Like I said no idea on resin melting/softening temps. And a couple internet searches came up blank as well. Doesn't seem to be information anyone wants to share.
Cost of Proto-typing an SLA injection mold = ~$200Quote:
Originally Posted by LambdaFF
Cost to Proto-type an Aluminum mold = ~$3000 to $5000
If there are issues with the SLA mold I can easily make correction to confirm proper production of the injected parts.
Once the design is finalized I will foot the bill to produce the aluminum / steel molds.
That would be true if you were to find a thermoplastic/curable resin that can live up to these temperatures.Quote:
Originally Posted by Overlord475
That is the point of this thread...Quote:
Originally Posted by LambdaFF
Like I noted in an earlier post,
It looks like 3Dsystems makes a producte that when post-cured and heat treated can achieve a Heat Deflection Temp (HDT) of 513°F (267°C)
http://www.3dsystems.com/sites/www.3...uestone_US.pdf
Interesting read:
http://www.dsm.com/content/dam/dsm/s...t.pdf?download
Quote:
Originally Posted by Overlord475
You reckon? Personally a page that wants all my personal details doesn't fit into the "interesting" category. :)
Yes but you didn't want to use a super expensive industrial machine :-)Quote:
Originally Posted by Overlord475
so what you want are the melting temps for standard desktop uv resins.
Dang, was hoping that would be a direct link after putting in my info.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mjolinor
True, wasn't sure yet what machines the 3Dsystems' (Acura Bluestone) or Somos' (PerForm) high temp resins would work in.Quote:
Originally Posted by curious aardvark
Even if you found a SLA material that would handle the temperature, that wouldn't mean it would make a suitable mold for plastic injection. Injection molds have to be tough, strong, and release easily. I doubt that many SLA materials would qualify. It seems you'd be better off printing a positive part and making the mold from it using proven technology, such as a steel-filled epoxy material. Here's some more about the process: http://www.moldmakingtechnology.com/...uction-tooling
Andrew Werby
www.comptersculpture.com
This has been done a number of times over the last 15 years or so
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ch...reolithography
As for Bluestone, I've successfully laminated over it at 185C without a thermal post-cure.
A post-cure will elevate its use temp and stiffness at temp to a degree, certainly worth experimenting with.
Not sure about the prices mentioned in a previous post though. All of the filled resins are on the expensive side and process somewhat slower than conventional resins.
I looked at that article: https://www.researchgate.net/publica..._mould_tooling
and it didn't exactly convince me that direct injection into SLA molds was the way to go. First off, they used a SLA machine that could build parts in epoxy, which is a rare thing; most can't. Second, they just printed a shell, backed it up with aluminum-filled epoxy to draw off heat, and inserted it into a conventional steel mold. Thirdly, it didn't seem to work all that well - "flexural stress" was cited as the major cause of failure. Given that the test parts they used were extremely simple in shape, one would expect more complex ones (that would make more sense to use this method on) to exhibit even worse behavior. Even if you could make this work to some degree, without a major improvement in SLA materials I'm not seeing it as a viable process in industry.
Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com