[HN Gopher] Low Cost Metal 3D Printing by Electrochemistry
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       Low Cost Metal 3D Printing by Electrochemistry
        
       Author : FlyMoreRockets
       Score  : 20 points
       Date   : 2021-01-23 17:45 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (hackaday.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (hackaday.com)
        
       | dogma1138 wrote:
       | Long way from that, and quite likely never going to be viable for
       | printing actual parts.
       | 
       | There already is a "low cost" desktop metal 3D printing technique
       | via sintering, you can buy filaments with 90%> copper and a
       | sintering forge while expensive is can still be done on a
       | relatively small budget <$2000.
       | 
       | Yes there is shrinking that needs to be adjusted for but that can
       | more easily be done in software.
       | 
       | Electroplating requires a clean environment, high voltage and
       | usually rather odd and sometimes nasty chemicals.
       | 
       | FDM metal printing on the other hand can be done on a $200
       | printer just as well as on a $3000 FDM one.
       | 
       | Beyond that it would be interesting to see what SLA can offer
       | since there are already ceramic resins that need to be sintered
       | and I don't see a reason why metal resins can't be also
       | fabricated in the same manner.
       | 
       | I don't see powder deposition laser sintering becoming a consumer
       | product either but there are already desktop printers that do
       | that too they are just rather expensive.
        
         | petermcneeley wrote:
         | This has been around for quite some time and its primary
         | advantage is its microscopic resolution.
         | 
         | http://www.ece.ubc.ca/~mm/papers/Madden_JMES_1996.pdf
        
         | FlyMoreRockets wrote:
         | I can see an immediate appliation for this technology: printing
         | combustion chambers for regeneratively cooled liquid rocket
         | engines. Electrforming is state of the art for these engines
         | already. Sure, it's slow, but production rates aren't typically
         | very high.
        
           | dogma1138 wrote:
           | Oh I'm not doubting that this has a lot of industrial
           | applications, I'm doubting the desktop and cheap part that
           | essentially means it's suitable for a consumer application.
        
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