
Amaze project aims to take 3D printing 'into metal age' - ximeng
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24528306
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jacquesm
There are tons of commercial solutions that allow 3D printing of full-metal
parts, the 'metal age' for 3D printing happened a long time ago.

It's mostly a matter of price point, can you do it cheaply enough to compete
with other processes (small scale casting is expensive too). Large volume
metal parts are as a rule cast (which technically is an additive process too)
and then the rough part is reworked a bit.

The niche for 3D printed metal parts is an interesting intersection between
turn around time, strength of the resulting part, precision and capital
investment to buy a printer (or to be able to rent one). In the end it's all
economics.

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ohwp
_" Additive manufacturing (or "3D printing") has already revolutionised the
design of plastic products."_

Well additive metal manufacturing is not new [1] and already revolutionized
the design of metal products. The Amaze project is just joining forces to
think out new designed components.

[1] Example:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zApmGFDA6ow](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zApmGFDA6ow)

Edit: There are 3 methods (I know of) for 3D metal printing:

    
    
      Metal powder is fused with a laser, layer by layer.
      Metal powder is sprayed at the focal point of a laser and fused / added to the object.
      A ceramic mold is 3D printed and molten metal is cast into the mold.

~~~
evgen
You can also use "lost wax" casting (or variations on same) with 3D printing:
build the positive model in wax or similar material, plaster/sand around
model, melt/vaporize positive material in furnace, and then cast into mold.

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blueblob
Because a plastic 3d printed gun wasn't dangerous enough...

This would be really cool but kind of goes with the point made by the author
of

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6551278](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6551278)

~~~
atrus
Guns are not hard to make.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDgHi_9_LX0](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDgHi_9_LX0)

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chromaton
What is this announcement about, exactly? 3D printing with metal has been
around for quite a while.

The porosity problems mentioned in the article have been solved. The machines
from EOS are good enough to print small rocket chambers.

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phorese
_Using traditional casting techniques often wastes precious source material.
Additive manufacturing - building parts up layer-on-layer from 3D digital data
- produces almost "zero waste". "To produce one kilo of metal, you use one
kilo of metal - not 20 kilos," says Esa's Franco Ongaro._

I don't understand. What traditional casting technique makes 95% of your metal
unusable?

