Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: My 3D printer software done - lasers!

Hi Folks,

I've been stalking this thread with some interest - and was just
wondering what your take on laser sintering is?
A little scan of Ebay reveals that chinese-made 40W+ CO2 lasers are
rather affordable nowadays, surely, rather than battling multiple print
heads and streams of molten plastic and filler material, it would be
easier to just lay nylon powder and fuse it with a nice cohererent beam?

In this way, you'd just keep laying plastic powder, join what you want
with the laser, and get the packing material for free..(you could even
recycle what you shake free)
I don't know the power calculations, but I'd guess you'd need more than
40W to fuse aluminum powder - though I may be wrong, powders may be
somewhat insulating and thus prevent the aluminum from conducting away
its heat as it would do if it were a homogenous chunk of metal. Though
of course, with all the terrorism talk, its getting harder to get
aluminum powder nowadays anyway...

Is anyone going down the sintering route?
I've seen some pretty nice laser sintering machines (Eureka magazine was
showing of a titanium valve built in-place about a year back!)

Regards,
Abby
(http://www.silverkatt.co.uk)