why so few 3DP printer projects?

Powder and inkjet printing
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tibi3000
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why so few 3DP printer projects?

Post by tibi3000 »

Great work!

I was looking for info on open source powder printers, bumped on your website yesterday and have been absorbing all (well, probably only 1%) info on your site for the past two days. Seems that I read the posts on the HP45 cartridge at the perfect moment, great to see it work!

I assembled my own FDM printer (Rostock Max v2) and I'm tempted to look more into 3dp printing for circumventing some of the limitations of FDM. Seems your Plan B printer is one of the most advanced - if not the most advanced - open source printer out there.

my question: why are there not more 3DP printer projects ? Is this due to patent limitations, complexity of powder printing or because the community in general has less interest in 3DP printing?

Thanks for sharing your insights on this!
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dragonator
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Re: why so few 3DP printer projects?

Post by dragonator »

Hello and welcome. You did indeed find this site on the right moment. I do have more inkjet (and by extension 3DP) related projects in the future with the HP45.

I have seen about half a dozen functional 3DP printer designs. Some are bodges inkjet printers, some are full DIY 3DP printers the C6602A. That is indeed where all open source projects end. The answer to your question is in 2 parts I think.

The first is that 3DP (powder and inkjet) printing is quite complex. The basic gantry part is fairly straight forward, the powder handling system is somewhat more difficult, but the inkjet part is very difficult. I have seen stand alone projects where a single inkjet printer is hacked, but there are very few inkjet printheads available to makers to design a 3DP printer with. There is the C6602A, which was the printhead for Focus and Plan B, but it is severely limited. Basically, if you want one, you (or the group working on it) will have to be capable of completely hacking a printhead, designing a printer (WITH electronics) and write most of the software. The printhead alone is already a massive undertaking and I (with the help of quite a few very skilled people) have only just been able to get proper ink out of the HP45. There is no foundation to build upon like with FDM printing (yet?).

The second part lies in the capabilities of 3DP printing. While I find it very interesting to work on and it most definitely has some great features, 3DP printing is quite limited in it's uses. FDM printing produces sturdy, usable parts. When the printer is done, the most* a user might need to do is remove support (*massive oversimplification). 3DP printing is more difficult because all parts from it need post processing. The parts need to cure in the bed for hours, need to be gently cleaned, and then impregnated or baked to get them to full strength. All in all the process is more complicated and messy, making it less desirable for most users.

That is not to say that it does not have advantages. 3DP can print way more complicated shapes, can print in powders that are a lot cheaper than 3D printing plastic (potentially euro's per kilo) and can print some unique materials (like cement, sugar and ceramics). It can even print in color, but the next generation printer I am designing will not support color initially. If a user desires these advantages and is willing to compromise on the printing process, 3DP is a great choice, but otherwise, it is too much work for most. Remember that designing a 3D printer like this from scratch runs into the quadruple digits money wise and requires hundreds of hours of work.

This is why 3DP in my opinion is less popular. Any of these reasons alone would still make it a reasonable project for more people, but combined they prevent 3DP printing from reaching more people. You need both a good reason and a lot of time to develop 3DP. Hopefully my next printer will be able to push more people into 3DP, but only time can tell.

And for the patents. The first ones have already expired. I have been told that in the Netherlands and other small countries the patents are not being paid for anymore and have thus expired. As far as I know a key patent will expire December 2017. The first one was already Kickstarted a year or so ago.
cgandy
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Re: why so few 3DP printer projects?

Post by cgandy »

You can start with one of 3d printing techniques like SLM, SLS and DMLS. These technologies use powder metal to form 3d objects in layer by layer pattern. Their results are also efficient and accurate.
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dragonator
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Re: why so few 3DP printer projects?

Post by dragonator »

SLM and SLS are great techniques that are more versatile than 3DP. However, plastic SLS is already really difficult and almost an order of magnitude more dangerous, expensive and difficult than 3DP. Metal SLS and SLM is even more dangerous and expensive. For what the techniques can do, it is more than worth it, but it is not really comparing apples to apples.
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