Sintered metal objects from a standard FDM 3D printer

[DeltaV]

Filamet(TM) metal-infused filament with Bronze, Copper (soon Brass, Nickel-Silver?) for producing high-density metal objects, sintered in a kiln, after being printed on a cheap, run-of-the-mill FDM printer. Wondering about shrinkage/deformation from heating, but this sounds promising for non-m/billionaires.

http://www.thevirtualfoundry.com/

[Diogenes]

Filamet(TM) metal-infused filament with Bronze, Copper (soon Brass, Nickel-Silver?) for producing high-density metal objects, sintered in a kiln, after being printed on a cheap, run-of-the-mill FDM printer. Wondering about shrinkage/deformation from heating, but this sounds promising for non-m/billionaires.

http://www.thevirtualfoundry.com/

Now that is very interesting. Thanks for posting that.

[prestonbarrows]

At scales to be at all relevant, say, 12" cube width and above, plain old machining is practical and cheap. Porous, sintered messes based on plastics will be dimensionally unstable and a horror show under vacuum.

[hanelyp]

How does this compare to lost-PLA metal casting? I'm guessing not nearly as good.

[KitemanSA]

What would happen if we printed with YBCO infused PLA on a spherical table? Maybe we could print a proper, superconducting bowed cube-octahedral Polywell in one go. If we switch between plain PLA for the running surface, copper infused for the case, and YBCO infused for the windings…

[usesbiggerwords]

http://www.thevirtualfoundry.com/

Looking at the list of "Customers who trust", it's all universities and government agencies. Perhaps this is telling...

[jrvz]

“ In the case of copper, the highest density achievable would be about 97 density with 15 percent shrinkage, but shrinkage can be kept to under 7 percent with 10 to 12 percent porosity.”

So, definitely not vacuum tight. And I don’t see anything about printing superconductors.

[KitemanSA]

“ In the case of copper, the highest density achievable would be about 97 density with 15 percent shrinkage, but shrinkage can be kept to under 7 percent with 10 to 12 percent porosity.”

So, definitely not vacuum tight. And I don’t see anything about printing superconductors.

Nitrogen (LN2) doesn’t diffuse much.
Has anyone ever even suggested YBCO to them?