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You might want to sit down, because this one is exciting. The Virtual Foundry has just launched Filamet™, a new metal infused filament that makes any FDM 3D Printer, a 3D Metal Printer!
Yes, really…
We just got used to the fact that only high-end printers could manage metal and most mortal makers would have to make do with simple plastics. That just changed, you can now print Copper and Bronze on any 3d Printer.
This new filament from the Wisconsin-based company could literally be a game changer, disrupting the current course of 3D Printed Metal. They’ve launched with copper and bronze, but you can expect to see more metals in the near future.
The Virtual Foundry’s patented process works not only with metal,but they will follow up with 3d printable Glass and Ceramic products over the next 6 months. So maybe you don’t have to upgrade your 3D printer after all and even the most basic desktop unit could become a complete manufacturing facility thanks to this quantum leap in material science.
How does it work? It’s basically a highly infused plastic, just enough plastic to get it through your current printer. Currently this is a mere 11.5%, an amount considered below the theoretical limit only a year ago. The 88.5% of mass that remains is high purity metal powder. The prints can then be simply polished, or more interestingly be post-processed to remove the small amount of plastic. The resulting product is 99+% pure metal, which is as close to pure as many of us will ever need. The Virtual Foundry says they continue to improve the process and expect future versions to be closer to only 8% plastic.
This project surfaced on Kickstarter last year, where it raised 135% of the target funding. The Virtual Foundry, though, has been on a mission to bring metal production to our desktops since before 3D printing was even an option. It worked with cold-casting and electro forming in the old days, but now technology has caught up and 3D printing looks to have given them the answer.
We haven’t got our hands on the finished product just yet. But the big launch at the Hubble Auditorium at Lockheed-Martin suggests that the team has really cracked the code.
“Printer manufacturers have struggled for years to bring metal printing down into the price range of the average individual or small business,” said Bradley Woods, the man behind this technical breakthrough. “Filamet™ takes the opposite strategy. Rather than bring the high-end down, it simply expands the capabilities of current 3D printers.”
“We expect materials to account for a large portion of near-term product innovation in the 3D printing market. Our company offers an immediate solution to producing real and useful metal prints on the desktop 3D printer that you already own.”
This filament could turn your desktop printer into a rival for the serious commercial machines and could even prove to be better. That’s because metal printers are notoriously slow and a large printer can actually take 48 hours to produce a single print.
So while the end result might be spectacular, it simply might not suit your workflow even if you could afford to have one in your home workshop.
Consumer printers are designed with the average user in mind, so they offer a realistic compromise of price, resolution and speed. With the addition of this metallic filament, then your home 3D printer could become a real manufacturing weapon. We can suddenly make copper and bronze statues and parts without access to a kiln and that could be a maker’s revolution on its own.
Prints can take less than five hours with a consumer printer and this new material is even big news for big business.
Companies are into this too
The technology has attracted big names like Calvin Klein and a company that wants to license the technology to fabricate consumable parts for its facility that 3D prints Uranium fuel cells for nuclear reactors. The technology works with any 3D printer,which means that even commercial companies with several printer scan now opt to use their simpler units for faster, cheaper production.
This opens up so many new avenues and the science itself could be a launchpad for other companies to create their own innovations. We’ve often said that the biggest step forward will come from the materials, but even we didn’t see a company turning today’s printers into complete metal, glass and ceramic production facilities.
We can’t wait to see the products in action and to test this filament for ourselves. If it turns out to be half as good as the claims then it has the capacity to change everything.
http://www.theVirtualFoundry.com & [email protected]
More images at http://www.thevirtualfoundry.com/showcase/
The Markforged Metal X is a new kind of metal printer. By printing metal powder bound in a plastic matrix, Markforged has eliminated many of the safety risks associated with traditional metal 3D printers. That means no loose powder, no lasers, and none of the traditional safety precautions. It’s safe to use in a shop environment with minimal facility upgrades.
In practice, the Metal X is essentially a very advanced FFF 3D printer. Featuring a precision machined gantry, a heated chamber and print bed, and advanced extrusion hardware, the Metal X is equipped to reliably print you durable parts. It is intentionally designed, with wear components and consumables — including print sheets, nozzles, and brushes — accessible and trivial to swap.
The Wash-1 is a solvent-based debinding system. It primarily uses Opteon SF-79, a high-performance fluid designed to offer superior cleaning power, higher efficiency, and safety in an environmentally sustainable way — Opteon SF-80 or Tergo Metal Cleaning Fluid can be substituted if needed.
The Wash-1 operates with simple ventilation and features an extremely simple user experience. It’s been tested and verified as a shop-safe system.
The Markforged Sinter-2 and Sinter-1 are highly optimized tube furnaces used for sintering 3D printed metal parts. They provide leading edge sintering reliability and run times and are equipped with advanced safety features. The Sinter-2 is more advanced than the Sinter-1 — featuring a larger working volume, more precise temperature control, and a mechanical door interlock.
The Sinter-1 and Sinter-2 typically have run times between 26 and 31 hours. However, the Sinter-2 can process small parts in express mode, where it can sinter up to 250g of parts in just 17 hours.
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