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3D metal printing

crickets

Hot Rolled
Joined
Jul 3, 2021
If you want to do any of this at home, you'll still need a chemical debinder, in addition to the furnace.

Powder Metallurgy - Sintering Temperatures for Some Common Metals

Aluminum sinters around 600C or 1100F. Common aluminum alloys wouldn't be very strong coming out of the furnace because they age harden at much lower temperatures, around 400F.

The aluminum powders available for DMLS machines appear to be the high silicon variety to achieve good strength straight out of the printer.

I think the idea with these filaments is that the binder evaporates at high temperature, so additional chemical treatment isn't necessary to remove the binder.
 

Orange Vise

Titanium
Joined
Feb 10, 2012
Location
California
I think the idea with these filaments is that the binder evaporates at high temperature, so additional chemical treatment isn't necessary to remove the binder.

Is there some more documentation available on that?

I'd be curious as to how this method avoids contamination.
 

Hightemp

Aluminum
Joined
Nov 2, 2010
Location
Virginia, USA
Came across this entertaining video regarding metal 3D printing, seems relatively easy for small shop and even home use :

https://youtu.be/tw9VF1V-Lzc

That's basically what the BASF filament mentioned in post 18 is. The big plus with the BASF stuff is that they send you a coupon to send your parts out for debinding and sintering so all you need is a standard 3D plastic printer.

We tried it. Parts were decent. Biggest issue was that the filament is really hard on the extruder, so budget in replacing those components on your printer.
 








 
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