- Joined
- Jan 27, 2013
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I've seen tons of videos and whatnot on DMLS for plastic and metals but this technique doesn't seem very doable for a home 3d printer.
My idea on solving the metal printing problem was to use a laser to melt the tip of a metal rod through a feeding mechanism.
Obviously there are some design hurdles and I've thought this out quit a bit. Here is a list of problems And solutions i've thought about:
1) High powered lasers can get expensive. I see you can buy 1-20w diodes in cmount style for less than a few hundred dollars. Still trying to figure out a complete price but i have a goal of around $500 or less(possibly more but not by much to make this a worthwhile project) for the complete laser setup; diode, driver, case, optics, etc
2) focusing a laser on a small target is difficult. I've seen the cmount modules on aliexpress for around $15 but it seems the size would still be close to 1mm or more unless i customize it...and the laser cutting heads are around $100 but require mirrors and whatnot.
This leads me to my question on toroids. Since a laser beam is just an electromagnetic wave, couldn't you use an electromagnetic toroid to 'quench'/focus a beam tighter?
3)Feeding mechanism would require a 'purge' when near the end of a rod to prevent slippage...this isn't too difficult if i purge & Cut the new rod to the focal point. The idea would be the angle between the head/feeder is 45 degrees and 22.5 degrees from level for hopefully greatest accuracy....maybe less than 45 degrees?
4) tensile strength of melted metals in layering. Solutions include combination of foward and reverse feeding the rod combined with providing an opposite magnetic charge between the feed rod and the part to promote magnetic attraction from melted tip to the printed part, plus trying to center the beam between the feed tip and metal part in order to get a more consistent bond temperature. For this i would also want to provide time for an area to cool while working on another area, also using as thin of layers as possible.
5) oxidation. I was thinking aluminum would be a good starting point for metal plus its cheap, but oxidizes easily. Vacuum chambers and filling the chamber with a gas seems like overkill...so i thought of a low/medium pressure nozzle to apply nitrogen to the working area to prevent oxidation.
Any helpful input would be much appreciated. I am a software engineer and have a very high mechanical aptitude but don't have a lot of knowledge of lasers so if anyone can point me in the right direction on this would be awesome. I was thinking of adapting one of the open source firmwares to handle my specific application and use a reprap printer design to minimize reinventing most of the mechanics.
My idea on solving the metal printing problem was to use a laser to melt the tip of a metal rod through a feeding mechanism.
Obviously there are some design hurdles and I've thought this out quit a bit. Here is a list of problems And solutions i've thought about:
1) High powered lasers can get expensive. I see you can buy 1-20w diodes in cmount style for less than a few hundred dollars. Still trying to figure out a complete price but i have a goal of around $500 or less(possibly more but not by much to make this a worthwhile project) for the complete laser setup; diode, driver, case, optics, etc
2) focusing a laser on a small target is difficult. I've seen the cmount modules on aliexpress for around $15 but it seems the size would still be close to 1mm or more unless i customize it...and the laser cutting heads are around $100 but require mirrors and whatnot.
This leads me to my question on toroids. Since a laser beam is just an electromagnetic wave, couldn't you use an electromagnetic toroid to 'quench'/focus a beam tighter?
3)Feeding mechanism would require a 'purge' when near the end of a rod to prevent slippage...this isn't too difficult if i purge & Cut the new rod to the focal point. The idea would be the angle between the head/feeder is 45 degrees and 22.5 degrees from level for hopefully greatest accuracy....maybe less than 45 degrees?
4) tensile strength of melted metals in layering. Solutions include combination of foward and reverse feeding the rod combined with providing an opposite magnetic charge between the feed rod and the part to promote magnetic attraction from melted tip to the printed part, plus trying to center the beam between the feed tip and metal part in order to get a more consistent bond temperature. For this i would also want to provide time for an area to cool while working on another area, also using as thin of layers as possible.
5) oxidation. I was thinking aluminum would be a good starting point for metal plus its cheap, but oxidizes easily. Vacuum chambers and filling the chamber with a gas seems like overkill...so i thought of a low/medium pressure nozzle to apply nitrogen to the working area to prevent oxidation.
Any helpful input would be much appreciated. I am a software engineer and have a very high mechanical aptitude but don't have a lot of knowledge of lasers so if anyone can point me in the right direction on this would be awesome. I was thinking of adapting one of the open source firmwares to handle my specific application and use a reprap printer design to minimize reinventing most of the mechanics.