Silver and 3D Printing: A New Source of Demand?

At the end of July, The Silver Institute released a report called The Outlook for New Electrical and Electronic Uses of Silver. Prepared by Metals Focus, it looks at three potential areas of growth for the white metal: flexible electronics, light-emitting diodes and interposers.

Those are all exciting applications of silver, but they’re definitely not the only new uses of the metal that are garnering attention. Another — perhaps unexpected — arena in which silver is making waves is 3D printing.

Here’s a brief overview of how silver fits into the 3D printing landscape.

In terms of where silver enters the picture, Jeffrey Ellis, The Silver Institute’s senior technology consultant, states in the firm’s most recent newsletter that two types of 3D printing processes involve silver.

The first “is the equivalent of casting silver into a 3D printed mold such as those made of plaster-fortified wax” — in other words, a mold is created using a 3D printer and molten silver is then poured into it. That method is the more common of the two and is used by companies like Sculpteo, i.materialise and New York-headquartered Shapeways, whose goal is to give “anyone the ability to quickly and affordably turn ideas from digital designs into real products.” A quick glance at the company’s website shows that many people are doing just that, using 3D-printed molds to create jewelry, other accessories and more.

The second, which Ellis describes as “direct laser sintering, a process of forming a solid with heat that does not reach the melting point,” involves silver more directly, but is “a relatively new technique that has yet to be widely adopted.” Explaining why that’s the case, he notes that silver’s high reflectivity “is a serious challenge because so little of the light is absorbed to accomplish the fusing.” One company currently working on overcoming that difficulty is Cookson Precious Metals.

Ultimately, that technique may lead to some very interesting uses of silver. Ellis notes that it could allow government and private mints to produce coins and other objects, and will perhaps also be used to manufacture “batteries and other electrical components.”

Read more at ENGINEERING.com

by ENGINEERING.com via Fabbaloo

Reusable HDPE Material Introduced by Diamond Plastics

Germany’s Diamond Plastics GmbH, has introduced a new, reusable plastic powder of laser sintering.

Named HDPE HX 17, the material is can be processed by nearly all laser sintering systems, and is cheaper than other materials in its class. Moreover, HX 17 has the added benefit of being reusable allowing for significant savings when it comes to handling.

While HDPE HX 17 only comes in a single color, dark grey, its smooth surface finish allows for post-process painting making it ideal for industrial designers looking to make realistic product demos or vacuum form master castings.

In addition to those properties HX 17 can be lased in 100 micrometer thick layers and is resistant to acid, alcohol, oil and gasoline. Diamond Plastics also says their material can be welded and cross-linked with other materials as well.

Read more at ENGINEERING.com

by General Fabb via Fabbaloo

Civil, Architectural and Mechanical Models Come to Life with the ProJet 4500 3D Printer

3D System’s ProJet 4500 claims to be the only “continuous tone, full-color plastic 3D printer” on the market. It is capable of printing models with nearly one million colors. The ProJet 4500 accomplishes this through the use of a proprietary plastic powder called VisiJet C4 Spectrum.

Every part of a 4500 model can be imbued with color thanks to the ProJet 4500’s 0.1mm axis resolution. Furthermore, the machine’s color printing technology allows its models to showcase either seamless color gradients or abrupt color switches depending on a user’s input.

While the features of the ProJet 4500 might sound a lot like the ProJet 660, the 4500 is actually a much more versatile machine. The main point of difference between the 660 and the 4500 centers on the materials that each printer uses. While the 600 uses a gypsum-based powder the 4500 uses a polymer stock. Leveraging the strength inherent in plastics, the 4500 is capable of producing parts that can withstand conditions that would cause a 660 model to break.

Because of its added strength the ProJet 4500 has a greater application portfolio than the 660. Functional models as well as high-quality display prototypes can be created using the 4500.

Because of its added strength the ProJet 4500 has a greater application portfolio than the 660. Functional models as well as high-quality display prototypes can be created using the 4500.

According to Steve Cory of Objex Unlimited, the ProJet 4500 is a perfect complement to his company’s ProJet 660. “With the 4500 we’re able to build any models that we think would be too delicate to build on the 660”. Aside from being more robust Cory was also quick to point out that the 4500 excels at printing thin-walled, complex parts for both mechanical and architectural applications.

Diving into the mechanics of the ProJet 4500, Steve also complimented the system’s Piezo-style printhead technology: “With the 4500 we don’t see any costly, time consuming printhead changes. For that reason we can run the 4500 with little to no downtime.”

Read more at ENGINEERING.com

by ENGINEERING.com via Fabbaloo

New Composite Resins Could Lead to Larger, Stronger 3D Printed Structures

In wind farms across North America and Europe, sleek turbines equipped with state-of-the-art technology convert wind energy into electric power. But tucked inside the blades of these feats of modern engineering is a decidedly low-tech core material: balsa wood.

Like other manufactured products that use sandwich panel construction to achieve a combination of light weight and strength, turbine blades contain carefully arrayed strips of balsa wood from Ecuador, which provides 95 percent of the world’s supply.

For centuries, the fast-growing balsa tree has been prized for its light weight and stiffness relative to density. But balsa wood is expensive and natural variations in the grain can be an impediment to achieving the increasingly precise performance requirements of turbine blades and other sophisticated applications.

As turbine makers produce ever-larger blades—the longest now measure 75 meters, almost matching the wingspan of an Airbus A380 jetliner—they must be engineered to operate virtually maintenance-free for decades. In order to meet more demanding specifications for precision, weight, and quality consistency, manufacturers are searching for new sandwich construction material options.

Now, using a cocktail of fiber-reinforced epoxy-based thermosetting resins and 3D extrusion printing techniques, materials scientists at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have developed cellular composite materials of unprecedented light weight and stiffness. Because of their mechanical properties and the fine-scale control of fabrication (see video), the researchers say these new materials mimic and improve on balsa, and even the best commercial 3D-printed polymers and polymer composites available.

Read more at ENGINEERING.com

by General Fabb via Fabbaloo

3D Printed UAV will Auto-Follow; Film Sports Exploits

Extreme sports enthusiasts will never miss a flip, turn or jump again with the new AirDog and AirLeash products from Latvia-based Helico Aerospace Industries.

Via the AirLeash wrist-worn tracking device, created using PolyJet-based 3D printing from Stratasys, users can capture live aerial video footage of themselves

The AirDog is a programmable “quadcopter” drone that works with the AirLeash (a remote tracker worn on the wrist) to follow you while you are surfing, snowboarding or biking. A camera mounted on the AirDog captures the action, wherever it goes, from above.

AirDog – the world’s first automated drone designed to track and video outdoor sports and activities – has been entirely 3D printed using Stratasys FDM 3D printing technology

Read more at ENGINEERING.com

by General Fabb via Fabbaloo

Construction Steelwork Makes its 3D Printing Premiere

Using the latest 3D printing techniques, or more accurately, ‘additive manufacturing’ – the Arup team has produced a design method for critical structural steel elements for use in complex projects.

The work signals a whole new direction for the use of additive manufacturing in the field of construction and engineering. The research also shows that additive manufacturing has the potential to reduce costs, cut waste and slash the carbon footprint of the construction sector.

We created a redesign of a steel node for a light weight structure using additive manufacturing. Arup has a lot of experience with these kind of structures, for example the tensegrity structure of the Kurilpa Bridge in Australia. The complex geometry of these kind of nodes are an ideal showcase of the possibilities of this new technique.

Read more at ENGINEERING.com

by Site Admin via Fabbaloo

Walmart CEO Says Retail Giant May Buy 3D Printer Company

At an event during the re/Code Conference Walmart’s CEO Doug McMillon hinted that his company might be in the market to acquire a 3D printing company.

According to McMillon, “Three-D printing is interesting to me, [Walmart] can use 3D printing over time for replacement parts.”

When pressed on whether Walmart would be interested in buying 3D printing companies, McMillon stated that the idea might be the best solution “in some cases.” Though the company has been on the lookout for valuable acquisitions recently, owning a 3D printing company of their own could benefit a company already known for excellent logistics.

Read more at ENGINEERING.com

by Site Admin via Fabbaloo