Here the latest updates on printed parts or machine updates will be posted in regard to the metal base system. Press the Read more button at the bottom of the message to see more pictures and videos.
The 4th and 5th beta systems have been delivered and are now also actively used. I have learned a lot from building, integrating and testing these machines and the feedback from the 5 beta customers is very helpful. I'm also preparing the design of the next batch of machines with all the things that were found in these systems. So far only minor things have been found and most of them are related to diagnostics and production.
Last week the second and third machines have been delivered.
Today the first beta system has been delivered in Breda the Netherlands. The installation went without much trouble and the test print performed as expected. In about another month the other 4 beta systems will be delivered.
With the partial success of printing copper I found that Bronze with a much lower heat conductivity could be very interesting. After doing some simple tests I found that bronze is actually very easy to process. The energy absorption seems to be very similar to copper but the reduced conductivity makes this easier to print than stainless steel. I have been using a bronze with 85% copper and 15% tin, the nice thing is that this powder is also less expensive than stainless steel.
I have been doing the first tests with copper powder. From the first test it is clear that it is possible to print copper with the blue 30 watt laser.
Just for fun I made a small demonstrator hammer head on the machine. This has a nice ammount of different features, overhangs, small parts and also large surfaces. As a bonus it has the Metal-Base logo incorperated in the head. I filled the small hex holes in the head with some black epoxy to get a more durable surface as the walls of the hex are less than 0.5mm thick.
Since the new year I have been experimenting with aluminium powder and I can now conclude that this material cannot be processed by this system. Compared to conventional LPBF printers the blue laser diode should have almost 3x more efficiency than the infrared lasers that are used. Unfortionately there is also another factor at play since the aluminium has a very high thermal conductivity. I believe the problem lies in the absolute power of the laser spot, the blue laser has a relatively large spot size of 0.15*0.18mm. Compared with other systems that generally have a spot size of <0.1mm the watt/mm2 is about 3x lower. This causes the powder to only loosely bond and because of the large thermal conductivity of the build plate the powder does not fuse correctly to the build plate. I believe the system will have to go into the 100watt power range with the same spot size as now to be able to print aluminium.
With the year ending and all the holliday interruptions I did manage to achieve the first light and the first print on the new system. The quality is already quite good but still needs some small finetuning.I have also ordered the aluminum powder for the prototype machine so I can also start developing the process for that material in the beginning of next year.
I have started recieving all the components of the new printer and I have started the assembly process, not all components have arrived but it is almost ready to start the motion system testing.
I have finished the design of the new machine and made a little animation of the system. The parts have been ordered and starting end of november the assembly of this system will start. More info will follow once the parts arrive.
A selective laser melting machine contains a couple of risk that need to be mitigated so the machine can be used safely.
