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and Video:
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3D Printing of Liquid Metals at Room Temperature
Nov 27, 2013
9 Replies
Although you *can* print gallium alloys at room temperature don't put the resulting objects anywhere near bare aluminium or you will be sorry.
It is a lot more reliable to print things using a variant of the lost wax process to make a mould and then cast in conventional metals.
Regards,
Martin Brown
I wonder if you could make a metal object using the 3D printing technique by electroplating? Bit slow, perhaps.
Cheers
Syd
Yup. Doing it with hot metals is difficult, dangerous, and leads to a lot of badly warped parts when you're done.
Cheers
Phil Hobbs
Video sped up x50!
I've always wanted some of those low melting point indium/gallium alloys.
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Hmm can't find a price. George H.
Try this instead...
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...I mean, what could possibly go wrong?
Cheers
Syd
Roughly $300 /kg for Gallium. Keep it away from aluminium and follow the MSDS. Indium content dominates the eutectic price these days.
Regards,
Martin Brown
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Does "bare aluminum" exist in the real world? If it does, it's not for long.
Watching gallium chew its way into aluminum is pretty amusing. Happens fast. Gallium is also inconveniently reactive--it scums over like molten solder.
Cheers
Phil Hobbs
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics
160 North State Road #203
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510
hobbs at electrooptical dot net
http://electrooptical.net
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