Another issue with SLS is that any parts that are manifold have to be 100% infill. If you want larger parts that are light or use less material then a large enough hole has to be designed into the part to let unused material escape.
iPeel aaand with something like a new cura infill you can just drain whole thing out with one hole as its constructed in a way that allows you to do that.
This isn't a significant drawback though, and it's not unique to SLS printing. Any small pinhole will do to evacuate the material, and if you make any closed cavity with any print method, you WILL have trapped material inside, with resin printing, it's air and resin, with laser sintering it's sintering media, and with extrusion printing, it's loose filament strings and air.
Well the video at 2:34 seems to show the powder clumping and sticking to the model pretty significantly. The person in the video is using a brush to free the powder from the actual model. So a semi hollow enclosed model could be a problem freeing up the internal powder. Yes resin needs to be drained but the remaining resin is still in liquid form so no problem.
Material usage is probably not too much of an issue, considering you can only go up to 50% reused material. So the ideal amount of material used is 50% or more.
@@operator8014 air isn't "loose material", and loose filament strings don't get trapped as a necessity of the technology. Even you do get some filament trapped it certainly doesn't fill the entire cavity.
NACAM42 Formlabs is releasing a reprocessor with their SLS Printer so that you can reuse the support material that was brushed off. There is a video on tested about the whole thing, but the cost of the machine, reprocessor and cleaning station is about $20,000USD if I remember correctly.
I always love how honest and real your reviews are. SLS printing does look good for businesses, but that mess and cost doesn't look practical for normal people. Thank you for all the great videos.
Dear Angus, i work at an institute in germany and we can regenerate the heat deflected pa12 sls-material from the build chamber and reuse it for one time. So our Partner, a company can offer the half of the price for the Material. We also have better material properties than the original material. You also forgot the Sintratec S1 from switzerland. We will get one next week. If you are interested, i can send you a Feedback. But nice video, you hit a lot of facts and the answer why they use black material is also correct. I give a thumbs up ;)
In my mind, SLS = Metal sintering for some reason. When I heard it was nylon, I was a little bit surprised, especially given how the material seems to be just powdered plastic.
Yep, between the much higher printer and materials costs, the dodgy dimensional stability, plus the added 'mess' potential for both SLA and SLS, currently not seeing a 'yuge' advantage over nylon FDM.
Me too. The cheapest metal sintering machines go for $20,000. But you will need a binder removal machine and an oven for sintering. No real cheap solutions yet for metal but I suspect it's coming soon. It will be a revolution when it does.
Small volume, affordable, metal sintering machines, even if they are slow, will be something to keep an eye out for too now that these techs are patent free. It's one of the few processes that can actually produce descent metal parts. SLA or FFF(FDM) can't do these in any iteration of the technology. But it'll be good to see these nylon printing machines showing up on 3d hubs and the like by dedicated home users as an option.
high speed sintering will a day replace sls but only for plastics for the first time, the unused powder is 100 % reusable because the chamber isn't heated and the printer is 10 times faster. ruclips.net/video/2jiPUORBu8Q/видео.html
Sls Nylon is very strong and can detail your prints very exactly without leaving a mark, but I think sls for now is way to expensive to be considered for now on. I always like to check on 3dhubs for the types of plastic but my favorite one so far is ABS or SLA because of the lower cost and the smoothness of the plastic
Oh I did not notice you were make anything, I love your channel and your cool guy video. Why won't you create a discord server for your channel? I think it is a pretty cool idea for users to share their prints with other experienced users.
The Geeetech MeCreator I've played around with a little bit, not a huge fan so far. I also need to start printing with the Tarantula, I've only done a benchy for now. It does seem promising for the price, but I'd tend to recommend spending another $100 for a range of printers that are quite a bit better.
I think you are genuently the only youtuber who really goes in depth for all your videos, at least in 3d printing. No better source of trustwothy info than MakersMuse
high speed sintering is the future, the unused powder isn't sintered and the part can be easily pulled out the powder bed. the unused powder is also 100% reusable and the system is 10 times faster.
I think the problem with SLS is that the heat create with the laser dissipate too fast because the laser melt a tiny surface so you need to heat the chamber. I think future SLS will don't have this problem with more powerful lasers.
It's also a problem of electricity consumption, if you melt 1X10kg of a matter you need less power than if you melt 100X 100g of the same matter because the more the part is tiny the faster it cooled and you need an amount of energy to keep it melted. so to melt a part single voxel per single voxel you need too much electricity, to heat the chamber solve half the problem.
Very well articulated and well rounded presentation, and summary, like how you cover the technical aspects and facts, and bring it back into simple relative terms, and not get lost in the jargon, thank you! :)
I agree with you that SLS is definitely the best (and my favorite) form of additive manufacturing. With the strength, volume, and materials that can be used it's certainly a staple in the industrial 3d printing world. As for home use, I don't think it will ever be a viable option for a hobbyist unless they were using it for a business of some sort. SLA and DLP systems are a bit more home friendly, but with the mess of resins and such they definitely have a niche market as well. The video was great as well, and sure to spark a lot of good discussion.
There is no single 3D print tech that will be “the future”, same as there’s no single traditional manufacturing process that “won”. And there will surely be even more processes as the tech evolves.
@@MrGTAmodsgerman Truthfully the future is not good. People are simply too stupid; they keep fixing what ain't broke. The lust for something "new" is the extinction of humanity. There is nothing new, everything has been done already; now we must choose the most efficient road and stay on it.
Great video Angus, the fact you mentioned the powder product shouldn't be handled in a closed residential environment is very important, keep up the great content and be safe !
A couple of stands over from ours at TCT, there was a company doing a clean-out of their SLS printer during the end of show break-down - I should have photographed it - the guy was in a full head-to-toe 'bunny suit', complete with overboots, a full-face breathing mask system, and was connected to the machine via an antistatic strap. I'm guessing that dust gets everywhere, and the particle size makes it a possible fire/explosion hazard (the antistatic strap) under the wrong circumstances.
I imagine the antistatic is as much to prevent him getting a static charge and getting covered by dust from head to toe than anything else. But yeah, that powder has to be horribly messy.
SLS may be not only the future of printing, it is also the past. When I saw the first 3D printed parts, way more than 20 years ago, on tv or industrial fair, metal or plastic, they where SLS printed. And thank you for this detailed explanation. When seen on tv or web clips, they never show the whole process. allways thought it would be much simpler and dreamed of sometimes own one by myself.
My bet is that SLS and SLA is the future for 3d printing based production. FDM will always remain the king of hobbyists and prototyping. Simply because it’s so much easier, safer, cheaper, and least difficult to use. The limitations and complexity of SLA and SLS are minimized by industrial production where many parts are made in batches, especially things such as metal part sintering. The production of the strongest 3D printed parts benefits from economies of scale, especially so when furnaces and potentially hazardous fumes and materials come into play. FDM can be done at such a small scale and with such ease that anyone interested in the hobby or using 3d printing in a practical home application will inevitably come to it as the best all around option. Because this group will make up the vast majority of users it means FDM will remain king. At least until self forming materials come into play, but we’re at least twenty years out from that.
I work in a plating shop dealing with SLS parts, surface density is critical for post processing and you lose that surface density when building thin walled parts. I’ve noticed that shapeways uses lowered density parts to deal with this issue. If you get parts from them, you will need to sand and pick at them to get rid of this. Also a resin coating or primer will help you with cleaning this up, if you don’t have a sand blaster. Definitely would recommend a dusk mask, that would handle the finest particles
The inability to reuse powder is probably why shapeways does the reorganizing of all parts so that they have very little powder at the end that can't be reused. More intertwined parts, more profit.
So we had a 100% price drop in 2 years for SLS. Maybe one magnitude more and we are in the hobby sector. But what about other, power based system, like sandstone - it does not require much heating during the process but needs support in some occasions. .the post processing has extra steps like firing it, glueing and firing again. But some makers or artist who work with clay own a oven. I finished my project on 3D printing yesterday by giving the talk at school. I want to thank you, as you were a good source for information, help and entertainment during the process.
I thought that I was going to see why SLS will be the future of 3D printing, but not one comment was made in its favor. Initial cost of machine, powder cost, shrinkage, high absorbing nylon, little reusability, unrecyclable, small build chamber, not consumer friendly, extremely messy, and respiratory hazard (cancer?), and I believe the point was made to keep my FDM machine and my money. Thanks for the information!
Hi Angus. Haven't seen you down at the brewery for the past couple of weeks! Just one point I'll make on this video. Printing successfully with 100% virgin powder is almost impossible. What you'll find is that the higher the virgin powder, the better the defenition, however, the more the virgin powder, the more the warping/deformation. Pure virgin will warp at 1cm^2 layers. I print at 20% virgin with a new type powder. This provides a good compromise between warping and part quality. I warm up the powder to a point just under the glass transition temperature. Cooling is such a slow process. In ideal circumstances I allow twice the build time for cooling. Thanks for the awesome videos. I owe you a beer next time I see you.
You act like this shirt was some kind of insult bravely worn in front of the masses. It's a fuckin' shirt and it's not even that bad. Not my style nor do I see anything wrong with wearing it.
I am likely to get a Fuse for my business, but I agree with the home stuff, and that is why i think the 3d printing business won't become outdated by home makers just yet. I am looking forward to metal SLS and SLM that is cost effective too since the patents are running out on them too. £1-2mil for one is a little much for me even as a small business to get into.
I worked for EOS and we used 60% used with 40% new powder for PA12. The prints were perfect. Even higher amounts of used powder are possible, but the necessary parameters aren't known yet.
Great video, I hadn’t actually heard of SLS before and this seems like a great breakdown of the concept. On a related note, have you tried sandblasting as a clean up technique on PLA prints?
I think that 5 axis 3D printers is the future. A 3D extrusion printer that can rotate the print at every axis can also do without support material. In addition it could also be used to lay down complex patterns of continuous carbon fibers for reinforcement. You should do a show on the future of 5 axis printers.
It's the granddaddy of printing. Also used in metals (under different power and powder requirements). I think they even used parts in aerospace that were done in 3D printing (metal, not the ratchet key from the space station).
I think this is also the case with Multijet fusion of HP. I've also observed the quality degrades as I reuse the powder. Although it has high reusability ratio, it doesn't guarantee you the output's quality especially when the powder has turned yellowish.
I build dioramas as a hobby ..looking for a system to print 1/35 scale figures ....SLS is a no go for me...SLA printer is something I'm considering. ...possibly selling a few figures at some point ...been watching the prices and I believe an SLA is for me.....thank you for your informative videos I enjoy watching n learning......
This review makes it so much easier to know when to use this technology. Its like ink jet printers, awesome for some applications but overly expensive and too delicate prints for others.
The difference in color is due to the material manufacturer, EOS uses white, which is the base color of the powder that usually is issued by BASF. To correct you as well, the cooling down process of a chamber depends on the building time of the print, if a print is 30 hours long, it will take 15 hours to cool down, so pretty much the half the time of printing. The shrinkage is manageable, all can be adjusted on the program provided PSW or MAGICS when preparing the platform.
Not that it really matters, but as a point of clarity, EOS did not invent selective laser sintering. It was a company called DTM in Austin Texas. They were eventually bought out by 3-D systems.
The different colours are due to the wavelength of the lasers used. The expensive EOS machines use high powered CO2 lasers operates in the 10.6 um wavelength, PA12 absorbs well in that range, downside is the laser system is expensive and takes up a lot of space. The desktop SLS machines use a compact, low cost, laser diode, operates @ 405 nm, powders need to be black in colour to absorb at this wavelength. So the desktop systems use PA12 blended with carbon black.
One correction: SLS nylon parts can often be stronger than injection molded nylon. SLS nylon is PA12, while injection molded nylon is usually PA6 or PA66 and the SLS process allows more complete crystallization, both of which increase strength. However, that makes them more brittle both because of the increased strength and because of gaps left by partially melted material at the interface of each layer. This has been shown by a few different university labs
Lots of good information on SLS there. Parts I've had done look great, not so great for working/structural parts though. And if you have hollows they can be troublesome to clean out and if left uncleaned you get powder coming out over time.
SLS is great but the cost is just way too high still. Maybe it is the future, but if it is it won't be for quite some time. SLS still has a long way to go before it can compete with consumer level FDM printers.
3DprintedLife yes, but its pretty cheap for a bureau to do if you can wait a few days. I am surprised that many 3d printer companies dont use it for parts. Bondtech seem to be the only ones I know.
Takeaway for me is basically if you need SLS parts you use a service bureau like Shapeways. For other stuff can use a home printer. Metal would be cool but I don't see that becoming a less than $5000 home/small business system for a long time.
HP's Multi Jet Fusion technology also uses Nylon Pa12 material and barely creates any waste powder, same goes for binder jetting. Have you looked into that? In addition to that, generally all powder based parts have to be sand blasted just to clean them, so there no way around. However, depending on the blasting media (glass beads, nut shells, graphite) you can achieve various types of finishes.
I Have seen the HP MJF in person. Seems very promising and innovative. There is 2 or 3 different types of materials available right now, (nylon, something "glassy"like, the a more flexible one.) I asked about ABS, but the machine does not get to a high enough temperature for it. A user pretty much needs to use both a printer and their post processing station. The Post processing station is built to cool the print in a controlled manner, and is said to mostly eliminate shrinkage.
I work with MJF. It is fast and creates close to isotropic parts. However, the speed and strength comes at higher materials costs compared to SLS. You need the powder and two agents which are very pricy. Under full load you can run through 4-5k$ in materials per week which means that you could end up paying the machine's price per year just in consumables. Tolerances of 200 microns are not great either but it is one of the most promising technology platforms out there at this stage.
We have about 10 of the large EOS SLS printers at my Company printing in mostly stainless steel. They are excellent printers and create some very impressive parts with a very high levels of detail, ( they should for £1000,000 per machine with the powder recovery system). I have a little FDM printer at home that i use for my personal use, they wont let us print anything personal or fun on the EOS printers because of cost and time.
I'm currently working on an open source slm design. With all the powder handling automated and full melt I believe I will get better material properties and more material options. (Using color spectrometer and machine vision to calibrate settings for different materials).
I have access to an SLS printer. It's expensive, but it's worth it. The outcome is crazy. The level of detail it can produce is a lot better than my 3d printer
Thanks for the update always good to know where the 3D printing world is going. As you say to much cost and mess at the moment, so we will stay clear for now.
I don't think that it'll beat FDM any time soon (especially not in the hobby scene) but metal powder sintering machines, if they ever become consumer friendly, would be amazing because nothing else can really print metal
I would say that the shrinkage isn't a huge problem. I designed fixtures that locates parts on vacuumformed parts and those SLS prints are pretty much spot on the toolside of the vacuumformed part. Which kinda says it isn't far off :)
I love the precision of it... (a good portion of my potential uses for a 3d printer require rather high precision) And the idea you could dye the white stuff... But the cost and mess of it! Ouch!
I use EOS machines for metal DMLS at work, and they are pretty awesome, but obviously expensive. Compared to other DMLS machines I’ve used though, they’re definitely the most reliable
Material costs 5x as much as FDM, most of it is wasted, you can't do hollow internal spaces, can't do multiple materials in the same print, and it takes many times longer to print? Doesn't sound like the future to me. Now if someone comes out with a sub-5K SLS metal printer, that will be a big deal. But even then, it will have to achieve better detail and strength than sintered Filamet.
It will probably find it's (rather big) niche in vintage car repair - it's most likely the best technology to make durable replacement plastic parts at a reasonable price point.
Very good video, full of great info; thanks that! It's nice to see how 3d printing is improving more and more. The market is still quite fragmented (same with VR at this moment) and until it standardizes, the prices are gonna be prohibitive for the regular Joe. But leaving that out, as long as plastic is so expensive I don't see them becoming a mainstream product. I remember when we all used to have one or two regular 2D printers at home. Now a cartridge is more expensive than a brand new machine.
Maybe chamber dividers would be a good solution in order to cut down the amount of powder needed for a build job. Shrinkage is something that can be calculated within the software. More important for my analytic way of thinking might be the way the powder will have to be condensed throughout the build area.
Hello my friend I just retired and I’m thinking of entering the 3D minefield- your reviews are most helpful. There is one thing. When looking on Aliexpress etc apart from the scam of making things look cheap by not including the shipping what is confusing is who exactly makes which printer and who just sells them. Can you enlighten me and perhaps others by a post concerning who the manufacturers are of which printers particularly the lesser known ones- are they all made in the same factory or what. My experience with optical instruments such as microscopes is that it looks like there are lots of makers but there are only about half a dozen each making similar items- very similar situation with guitars too. If one needs to get technical advice from a manufacturer it helps to know if one is talking to someone who actually knows the machine inside out. Sites like yours help but not if warranties are involved. Keep up the great work you are excellent at communicating!
Great Video, Do any of the companies offer advice on what to do with the old powder ? I'm guessing that it would end up as landfill as I can't imagine anyone would be able to recycle the powder due to impurities and the relatively small quantities that they could harvest from users.
Seriously, you think people are going to spend all that time getting all the powder off ? Theres a reason FDM printing became popular and its because with PLA its non toxic and low mess.
The powder removal doesn't have to take a lot of time. Drop the block of used powder in a bag, gently slosh it around, then blow off a tiny bit of remaining powder with your shop vac blower. Removing support material takes vastly longer. It's all just the mentality, and what you're okay with doing. I don't detail my 3D prints, I use them for functional things.
I've seen sls printer that has the first stage cleaning built in, two armports in the case, and an vacuum hose inside. glove up, vacuum the remaining build material (avoids contamination with dust and other particles as well). And then take the part out for final rinsing. avoids quite a bit of the mess.
Can you review the iro3d? It's a $6,000 selective powder deposition printer. It does pretty much any type of metal, apparently has no shrinkage and 100% density. I would be very interested to know whether I can use that to make actual parts for a machine.
@makersmuse there is a company voxeljet that produces parts for "investment casting" and they use binder to glue plastic powder together. similar to ink-jet printers with added z axis!
That said, if you make full use of the build volume (basically, plan your printing sessions so you can fill the chamber with prints, rather than trying to do one at a time), you can largely mitigate the problem of wasted powder...
The material re-usage increases when everything is sintered in close to absolute void of air. As you stated, plastics may absorb humidity, but in void they can't. Also, when unpacking, you should not touch anything and, most importantly, keep the dust in the chamber. Plastics fortunately can be captured with electrostatic charged walls of a container, thus otherwise problematic issues will not even arise. The price tag has been lowered by quite a bit and I am also surprised that a 10 W laser suffices. I suppose that's the power output, not the consumption. And yes, the shrinking. The systems I know have laser sensors which measure the material thickness and adjust the material appliance accordingly. This is even a greater issue with metal prints, because they may crack up to quite some extent.
Thank you for your great thoughts and inputs. I want a new printer, but I suspect the perfect printer does not exist... FDM is cheap and simple to run, but with ugly bridges and supports. SLA looks wonderful, but is brittle, messy, smelly and expensive. SLS looks nice and sturdy but is grainy, dusty and expensive
IMHO the best solutions for surface quality, is ether the Saffire or the Milkshake3D. Both top-down SLA so support structures are more manageable. IF I had to buy one today it would be the Saffire.
Whoever is the first company to make adjustable-size sls printers is going to be wildly successful. Imagine dropping in a new print bed so you don't have to use too much extra powder. :-) Well, we probably have 5+ years before we get these at home. I'll live with my fdm for now.
Yes, I've heard that tech is based on SLS mixed with inkjet tech allowing for full-color prints. From what I've seen, it's amazing. Hope you have a deep pocket!
Also, check out the Sintratec Kit. (see web site) I am a hobbyist and I just had to have an early affordable SLS. It has a very modest build volume of 11x11x11 and retails for 5.5K (I think) The kit went together quite smoothly - over a solid six days. I learned a lot about SLS by building it and found it quite enjoyable. From a home user perspective, It is everything you say - very messy, a heavy waste of powder if you don't fill the volume with parts - I think they claim 50% reuse - you really need to be setup to sort and remix in your virgin powder. I'm getting a sandblaster and have found the surface really needs a scrubbing for that extra quality. (they include a dust vacuum and electric scrubber - toothbrush?) Only the kit is available in the US - I think there are laser power import issues, but I'm not sure. They are very helpful and nice to work with when I have had challenges. I can nail the X/Y dimensional accuracy with galvo adjustment, and the Z is a little more straight forward (it was fine off the bat). It does build strong parts! I am still going through a few learning experiences as I try to push the limits a bit - my current challenge is trying to print chain-mail. There are tons of thermal things to consider. Due to some combination of user error, settings and plain old machine capability i haven't yet been able to make a nice mat of flexible mail that doesn't have a solid area in the middle of it. Anyway, I am still having fun and have no regrets.
I can't wait to see what they come out with over the next few years, would love to have sls at home after they fix the drawbacks. Thanks for sharing and as always Keep Building👍
Hmm... Couldnt you use less powder if you could limit the motion range of the powder smoothing swipe and filled part of the build area with a snuggly fitting cube? Or better jet, had slots where you could insert a separation wall.
Hey Angus, great info you give here. What would be the weight of a fully filled chamber in the Sinter-it, meaning... If I fully utilize the chamber with multiple prints, what would be the price to start the project?
Is the powder degradation due to oxidation of the hot plastic or just plan thermal degradation? Something like an oxygen concentrator (using the waste stream, so youre rich in nitrogen) and purging the chamber would help with oxidation, but not plain degradation. But that would be pushing it even further from home use with even more support equipment.
BASF has a 316L stainless steel infused filament (about $400-500 US), that can be printed on most typical (CRS10 for example). You print (high width to height ratio design is best, 100% infill), send it off to de bind and sinter. Very, very, cool. Can be bought from MatterHackers).
Overall a nice review although some important errors. SLS was invented by DTM, Texas who were taken over by 3D Systems. EOS were not the original or the inventor, in fact there were years of court cases between the two companies. White SLS is not naturally white, it has Titanium Dioxide added to make it white. The aged yellow is actually its natural colour. The powder is pretty inert and tests have shown that it isn't harmful to humans, the particles are large enough to be ingested rather than going into your lungs. Saying that i would never work a machine without PPE. Finally the reason the cheaper machines use non-white powders is not to do with laser power but to do with the laser frequency.
Since you can't really reuse the unused powder, I wonder if you can use it as a sandblasting material. You'd at least then get some value out of what you can't use. Hopefully someone does research into SLS materials, and finds a way to make one that isn't damaged from being in the machine. It'd be perfect to print, sandblast, and reuse the material. Maybe even in the same machine, using air and vibration to clean the part, and have the sandblasting be automated as well. The only problem I have with SLS is the same as I have with SLA, you need a drain hole if you have a solid object. Incorporating drain holes can be really difficult at times, especially if it's a part that needs rotational symmetries, a platonic solid or a stellation of a solid for example; though I have found, within that example, that you can easily have a core object and shell objects with the drain holes between the mating faces. Unless you just want a 100% solid part, but that's time and resources that'll cost a lot more, especially on larger prints.
If they changed there chamber design so that it could be sized to item you are printing then they could cut down on the waisted powder. Must be a way to do that. Great video, lots of information !
Makers MUSE, I really enjoyed this video. You touched on points regarding the SLS technology of the Sinterit Lisa and Formlabs that I have never heard of let alone considered. As your post was initially Oct 12,2017, do you have any updates or follow-ups to advancement of this technologies by these two companies. Additionally, have you ventured acquired either of these machines yourself?
The fact that you can print fuctional chainmail right off the bat without much finishing still makes SLS a firm favourite for me. Once it becomes for affordable, I'll definitely be jumping on the bandwagon. For now, I'll keep pooping out hot plastic.
![Twenty One Pilots - “The Line” (from Arcane Season 2) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/E2Rj2gQAyPA/mqdefault.jpg)
Another issue with SLS is that any parts that are manifold have to be 100% infill. If you want larger parts that are light or use less material then a large enough hole has to be designed into the part to let unused material escape.
iPeel aaand with something like a new cura infill you can just drain whole thing out with one hole as its constructed in a way that allows you to do that.
This isn't a significant drawback though, and it's not unique to SLS printing. Any small pinhole will do to evacuate the material, and if you make any closed cavity with any print method, you WILL have trapped material inside, with resin printing, it's air and resin, with laser sintering it's sintering media, and with extrusion printing, it's loose filament strings and air.
Well the video at 2:34 seems to show the powder clumping and sticking to the model pretty significantly. The person in the video is using a brush to free the powder from the actual model. So a semi hollow enclosed model could be a problem freeing up the internal powder. Yes resin needs to be drained but the remaining resin is still in liquid form so no problem.
Material usage is probably not too much of an issue, considering you can only go up to 50% reused material. So the ideal amount of material used is 50% or more.
@@operator8014 air isn't "loose material", and loose filament strings don't get trapped as a necessity of the technology. Even you do get some filament trapped it certainly doesn't fill the entire cavity.
That price per KG is nuts. I cannot see this taking off for the hobbyist or even small companies till that goes way down.
That's the main reason I don't want one yet. Maybe if someone came up with a "re-processor" or something like that.
That price is ridiculous compared to industrial printers too. I pay 60 a kilo for my labs large machines
JTWorks funny thing is form labs prices are 1/10 of what they used to be 🤔
Also the fuse one is the top of the line there other printer is 3500
ProCreeper 2000 while I totally agree with you - the results do speak for themselves in quality.
NACAM42 Formlabs is releasing a reprocessor with their SLS Printer so that you can reuse the support material that was brushed off. There is a video on tested about the whole thing, but the cost of the machine, reprocessor and cleaning station is about $20,000USD if I remember correctly.
I always love how honest and real your reviews are. SLS printing does look good for businesses, but that mess and cost doesn't look practical for normal people. Thank you for all the great videos.
Dear Angus, i work at an institute in germany and we can regenerate the heat deflected pa12 sls-material from the build chamber and reuse it for one time. So our Partner, a company can offer the half of the price for the Material. We also have better material properties than the original material.
You also forgot the Sintratec S1 from switzerland. We will get one next week. If you are interested, i can send you a Feedback.
But nice video, you hit a lot of facts and the answer why they use black material is also correct. I give a thumbs up ;)
I would also like this information please.
Starting the video: "I'm also going to crush some hopes and dreams in the process." He just smiles, unashamed.
It's what we do around here ;)
In my mind, SLS = Metal sintering for some reason. When I heard it was nylon, I was a little bit surprised, especially given how the material seems to be just powdered plastic.
Yep, between the much higher printer and materials costs, the dodgy dimensional stability, plus the added 'mess' potential for both SLA and SLS, currently not seeing a 'yuge' advantage over nylon FDM.
In my mind SLS = space launch system
Me too. The cheapest metal sintering machines go for $20,000. But you will need a binder removal machine and an oven for sintering. No real cheap solutions yet for metal but I suspect it's coming soon. It will be a revolution when it does.
Well, there is DMLS (Direct Metal Laser Sintering)
Small volume, affordable, metal sintering machines, even if they are slow, will be something to keep an eye out for too now that these techs are patent free.
It's one of the few processes that can actually produce descent metal parts. SLA or FFF(FDM) can't do these in any iteration of the technology.
But it'll be good to see these nylon printing machines showing up on 3d hubs and the like by dedicated home users as an option.
high speed sintering will a day replace sls but only for plastics for the first time, the unused powder is 100 % reusable because the chamber isn't heated and the printer is 10 times faster.
ruclips.net/video/2jiPUORBu8Q/видео.html
bye the way i like your slow motion videos
That's the best explanation of SLS, well done Angus!!
Man, the tolerance test and book were extremely impressive. The precision of SLS makes your tolerance test look useless!
Needs to go even finer!
Always... Until then, I'll just keep fine tuning my FDM :)
Prime Technophilia+ the fineness will always be limited by the powder particle size
Copier toner seems to have all the right qualities, if you don't mind an instant case of black lung disease.
Barely having worked with SLS, this was very informative. Thanks!
Sls Nylon is very strong and can detail your prints very exactly without leaving a mark, but I think sls for now is way to expensive to be considered for now on. I always like to check on 3dhubs for the types of plastic but my favorite one so far is ABS or SLA because of the lower cost and the smoothness of the plastic
Oh I did not notice you were make anything, I love your channel and your cool guy video. Why won't you create a discord server for your channel? I think it is a pretty cool idea for users to share their prints with other experienced users.
mopmop111 thanks! I made a subreddit instead. You can post prints or just about anything at r/makeanything 😊
I just saw your review on the tevo tornado, awesome! but what do you think of the tarantula or the geeetech printer series?
The Geeetech MeCreator I've played around with a little bit, not a huge fan so far. I also need to start printing with the Tarantula, I've only done a benchy for now. It does seem promising for the price, but I'd tend to recommend spending another $100 for a range of printers that are quite a bit better.
I think you are genuently the only youtuber who really goes in depth for all your videos, at least in 3d printing. No better source of trustwothy info than MakersMuse
Thats no cube!
hecadecahyperhedron
120-cell is a little easier to say.
But explaining the fourth dimension might have lost a few viewers lol
thats a space station!
I just came in to read the actual name of that geometry.
You film is the most informative material about this technology for a home maker, I have ever seen. Thank you!
You've convinced me that SLS is not the wave of the future.
high speed sintering is the future, the unused powder isn't sintered and the part can be easily pulled out the powder bed. the unused powder is also 100% reusable and the system is 10 times faster.
John theux I agree sintering powder is reusable in the normal sintering process but not so when using SLS.
I think the problem with SLS is that the heat create with the laser dissipate too fast because the laser melt a tiny surface so you need to heat the chamber. I think future SLS will don't have this problem with more powerful lasers.
It's also a problem of electricity consumption, if you melt 1X10kg of a matter you need less power than if you melt 100X 100g of the same matter because the more the part is tiny the faster it cooled and you need an amount of energy to keep it melted. so to melt a part single voxel per single voxel you need too much electricity, to heat the chamber solve half the problem.
It's the best system to 3D print metal, useable parts or tools. SLA or FDR is still mostly for toys and gadgets.
Model: stereographic projection of a hyperdodecahedron
Muse: "cube"
Me: wut?
Very well articulated and well rounded presentation, and summary, like how you cover the technical aspects and facts, and bring it back into simple relative terms, and not get lost in the jargon, thank you! :)
I agree with you that SLS is definitely the best (and my favorite) form of additive manufacturing. With the strength, volume, and materials that can be used it's certainly a staple in the industrial 3d printing world. As for home use, I don't think it will ever be a viable option for a hobbyist unless they were using it for a business of some sort. SLA and DLP systems are a bit more home friendly, but with the mess of resins and such they definitely have a niche market as well. The video was great as well, and sure to spark a lot of good discussion.
There is no single 3D print tech that will be “the future”, same as there’s no single traditional manufacturing process that “won”.
And there will surely be even more processes as the tech evolves.
So what is the future?
@@MrGTAmodsgerman Truthfully the future is not good. People are simply too stupid; they keep fixing what ain't broke. The lust for something "new" is the extinction of humanity. There is nothing new, everything has been done already; now we must choose the most efficient road and stay on it.
Great video Angus, the fact you mentioned the powder product shouldn't be handled in a closed residential environment is very important, keep up the great content and be safe !
A couple of stands over from ours at TCT, there was a company doing a clean-out of their SLS printer during the end of show break-down - I should have photographed it - the guy was in a full head-to-toe 'bunny suit', complete with overboots, a full-face breathing mask system, and was connected to the machine via an antistatic strap.
I'm guessing that dust gets everywhere, and the particle size makes it a possible fire/explosion hazard (the antistatic strap) under the wrong circumstances.
I imagine the antistatic is as much to prevent him getting a static charge and getting covered by dust from head to toe than anything else. But yeah, that powder has to be horribly messy.
Cubes have evolved since my time.
SLS may be not only the future of printing, it is also the past. When I saw the first 3D printed parts, way more than 20 years ago, on tv or industrial fair, metal or plastic, they where SLS printed. And thank you for this detailed explanation. When seen on tv or web clips, they never show the whole process. allways thought it would be much simpler and dreamed of sometimes own one by myself.
My bet is that SLS and SLA is the future for 3d printing based production. FDM will always remain the king of hobbyists and prototyping. Simply because it’s so much easier, safer, cheaper, and least difficult to use. The limitations and complexity of SLA and SLS are minimized by industrial production where many parts are made in batches, especially things such as metal part sintering. The production of the strongest 3D printed parts benefits from economies of scale, especially so when furnaces and potentially hazardous fumes and materials come into play.
FDM can be done at such a small scale and with such ease that anyone interested in the hobby or using 3d printing in a practical home application will inevitably come to it as the best all around option. Because this group will make up the vast majority of users it means FDM will remain king. At least until self forming materials come into play, but we’re at least twenty years out from that.
From experience FDM printed Nylon is a lot tougher than SLS Nylon.
I work in a plating shop dealing with SLS parts, surface density is critical for post processing and you lose that surface density when building thin walled parts. I’ve noticed that shapeways uses lowered density parts to deal with this issue. If you get parts from them, you will need to sand and pick at them to get rid of this. Also a resin coating or primer will help you with cleaning this up, if you don’t have a sand blaster. Definitely would recommend a dusk mask, that would handle the finest particles
The inability to reuse powder is probably why shapeways does the reorganizing of all parts so that they have very little powder at the end that can't be reused. More intertwined parts, more profit.
So we had a 100% price drop in 2 years for SLS.
Maybe one magnitude more and we are in the hobby sector.
But what about other, power based system, like sandstone - it does not require much heating during the process but needs support in some occasions.
.the post processing has extra steps like firing it, glueing and firing again. But some makers or artist who work with clay own a oven.
I finished my project on 3D printing yesterday by giving the talk at school. I want to thank you, as you were a good source for information, help and entertainment during the process.
I thought that I was going to see why SLS will be the future of 3D printing, but not one comment was made in its favor. Initial cost of machine, powder cost, shrinkage, high absorbing nylon, little reusability, unrecyclable, small build chamber, not consumer friendly, extremely messy, and respiratory hazard (cancer?), and I believe the point was made to keep my FDM machine and my money. Thanks for the information!
For Commercial? Possibly. But not for consumer 3D printing. At least that's my idea.
Hi Angus. Haven't seen you down at the brewery for the past couple of weeks!
Just one point I'll make on this video. Printing successfully with 100% virgin powder is almost impossible. What you'll find is that the higher the virgin powder, the better the defenition, however, the more the virgin powder, the more the warping/deformation. Pure virgin will warp at 1cm^2 layers. I print at 20% virgin with a new type powder. This provides a good compromise between warping and part quality. I warm up the powder to a point just under the glass transition temperature. Cooling is such a slow process. In ideal circumstances I allow twice the build time for cooling.
Thanks for the awesome videos. I owe you a beer next time I see you.
May I take this opportunity to commend you on your bravery for wearing that shirt ;P
I'm not brave, I just don't care :)
I kinda like the shirt tbh
hes pulling it out tough
@@MakersMuse I like the shirt and Love the attitude!
You act like this shirt was some kind of insult bravely worn in front of the masses. It's a fuckin' shirt and it's not even that bad. Not my style nor do I see anything wrong with wearing it.
I am likely to get a Fuse for my business, but I agree with the home stuff, and that is why i think the 3d printing business won't become outdated by home makers just yet. I am looking forward to metal SLS and SLM that is cost effective too since the patents are running out on them too. £1-2mil for one is a little much for me even as a small business to get into.
I worked for EOS and we used 60% used with 40% new powder for PA12. The prints were perfect. Even higher amounts of used powder are possible, but the necessary parameters aren't known yet.
Great video, I hadn’t actually heard of SLS before and this seems like a great breakdown of the concept.
On a related note, have you tried sandblasting as a clean up technique on PLA prints?
I think that 5 axis 3D printers is the future. A 3D extrusion printer that can rotate the print at every axis can also do without support material. In addition it could also be used to lay down complex patterns of continuous carbon fibers for reinforcement. You should do a show on the future of 5 axis printers.
Wow, I had no idea about the lack of full reusability of the powder. Great information to know before buying such an expensive machine.
I’ve never even heard of SLS before now. Great video!
It's the granddaddy of printing. Also used in metals (under different power and powder requirements). I think they even used parts in aerospace that were done in 3D printing (metal, not the ratchet key from the space station).
aserta wow that’s crazy! Thanks for the info!
I think this is also the case with Multijet fusion of HP. I've also observed the quality degrades as I reuse the powder. Although it has high reusability ratio, it doesn't guarantee you the output's quality especially when the powder has turned yellowish.
I build dioramas as a hobby ..looking for a system to print 1/35 scale figures ....SLS is a no go for me...SLA printer is something I'm considering. ...possibly selling a few figures at some point ...been watching the prices and I believe an SLA is for me.....thank you for your informative videos I enjoy watching n learning......
This review makes it so much easier to know when to use this technology.
Its like ink jet printers, awesome for some applications but overly expensive
and too delicate prints for others.
The difference in color is due to the material manufacturer, EOS uses white, which is the base color of the powder that usually is issued by BASF. To correct you as well, the cooling down process of a chamber depends on the building time of the print, if a print is 30 hours long, it will take 15 hours to cool down, so pretty much the half the time of printing. The shrinkage is manageable, all can be adjusted on the program provided PSW or MAGICS when preparing the platform.
This makes my manufacturing nerd self happy. Great video.
Not that it really matters, but as a point of clarity, EOS did not invent selective laser sintering. It was a company called DTM in Austin Texas. They were eventually bought out by 3-D systems.
It's amazing how far the technology has come
The different colours are due to the wavelength of the lasers used. The expensive EOS machines use high powered CO2 lasers operates in the 10.6 um wavelength, PA12 absorbs well in that range, downside is the laser system is expensive and takes up a lot of space. The desktop SLS machines use a compact, low cost, laser diode, operates @ 405 nm, powders need to be black in colour to absorb at this wavelength. So the desktop systems use PA12 blended with carbon black.
One correction: SLS nylon parts can often be stronger than injection molded nylon. SLS nylon is PA12, while injection molded nylon is usually PA6 or PA66 and the SLS process allows more complete crystallization, both of which increase strength. However, that makes them more brittle both because of the increased strength and because of gaps left by partially melted material at the interface of each layer. This has been shown by a few different university labs
Excellent episode. Very interesting technologies that are becoming more affordable everyday for the consumer. Keep up the good work.
Lots of good information on SLS there. Parts I've had done look great, not so great for working/structural parts though. And if you have hollows they can be troublesome to clean out and if left uncleaned you get powder coming out over time.
I seriously thought FDM stood for
Filament Dispensing Machine. Thank you Angus. You saved me from embarrassment at a local gathering.
SLS is great but the cost is just way too high still. Maybe it is the future, but if it is it won't be for quite some time. SLS still has a long way to go before it can compete with consumer level FDM printers.
3DprintedLife yes, but its pretty cheap for a bureau to do if you can wait a few days. I am surprised that many 3d printer companies dont use it for parts. Bondtech seem to be the only ones I know.
Takeaway for me is basically if you need SLS parts you use a service bureau like Shapeways. For other stuff can use a home printer. Metal would be cool but I don't see that becoming a less than $5000 home/small business system for a long time.
Did not know about the issues with reusing the powder, that is very interesting and inconvenient . Thanks for explaining it
HP's Multi Jet Fusion technology also uses Nylon Pa12 material and barely creates any waste powder, same goes for binder jetting. Have you looked into that? In addition to that, generally all powder based parts have to be sand blasted just to clean them, so there no way around. However, depending on the blasting media (glass beads, nut shells, graphite) you can achieve various types of finishes.
I Have seen the HP MJF in person. Seems very promising and innovative. There is 2 or 3 different types of materials available right now, (nylon, something "glassy"like, the a more flexible one.) I asked about ABS, but the machine does not get to a high enough temperature for it. A user pretty much needs to use both a printer and their post processing station. The Post processing station is built to cool the print in a controlled manner, and is said to mostly eliminate shrinkage.
I work with MJF. It is fast and creates close to isotropic parts. However, the speed and strength comes at higher materials costs compared to SLS. You need the powder and two agents which are very pricy. Under full load you can run through 4-5k$ in materials per week which means that you could end up paying the machine's price per year just in consumables. Tolerances of 200 microns are not great either but it is one of the most promising technology platforms out there at this stage.
My guess is you are using the MJF, the post-processing station, 1+ build units, and a sandblaster as that is what HP used during the demo? :-)
yeah that's the minimum equipment required
Worked with an eos M290 Metal Printer before. It is a very impressive machine creating amazing parts.
We have about 10 of the large EOS SLS printers at my Company printing in mostly stainless steel. They are excellent printers and create some very impressive parts with a very high levels of detail, ( they should for £1000,000 per machine with the powder recovery system). I have a little FDM printer at home that i use for my personal use, they wont let us print anything personal or fun on the EOS printers because of cost and time.
Fantastic explanation as always. Thanks for keeping us informed Angus.
I'm currently working on an open source slm design. With all the powder handling automated and full melt I believe I will get better material properties and more material options. (Using color spectrometer and machine vision to calibrate settings for different materials).
I have access to an SLS printer. It's expensive, but it's worth it. The outcome is crazy. The level of detail it can produce is a lot better than my 3d printer
Thanks for the update always good to know where the 3D printing world is going. As you say to much cost and mess at the moment, so we will stay clear for now.
Paul Thomas This is not where its going. Its where it came from. Good explanatory video anyways
I meant in terms of cost and production not Origin Doh!
For metal printing this, and it's big brother SLM are the only way to go.
I don't think that it'll beat FDM any time soon (especially not in the hobby scene) but metal powder sintering machines, if they ever become consumer friendly, would be amazing because nothing else can really print metal
I would say that the shrinkage isn't a huge problem. I designed fixtures that locates parts on vacuumformed parts and those SLS prints are pretty much spot on the toolside of the vacuumformed part. Which kinda says it isn't far off :)
I love the precision of it...
(a good portion of my potential uses for a 3d printer require rather high precision)
And the idea you could dye the white stuff...
But the cost and mess of it! Ouch!
This is SLS... And This is A SUPER DISTRACTING SHIRT...
I use EOS machines for metal DMLS at work, and they are pretty awesome, but obviously expensive. Compared to other DMLS machines I’ve used though, they’re definitely the most reliable
Material costs 5x as much as FDM, most of it is wasted, you can't do hollow internal spaces, can't do multiple materials in the same print, and it takes many times longer to print? Doesn't sound like the future to me. Now if someone comes out with a sub-5K SLS metal printer, that will be a big deal. But even then, it will have to achieve better detail and strength than sintered Filamet.
They already print titanium parts for aircraft like this.
It will probably find it's (rather big) niche in vintage car repair - it's most likely the best technology to make durable replacement plastic parts at a reasonable price point.
Very good video, full of great info; thanks that!
It's nice to see how 3d printing is improving more and more. The market is still quite fragmented (same with VR at this moment) and until it standardizes, the prices are gonna be prohibitive for the regular Joe. But leaving that out, as long as plastic is so expensive I don't see them becoming a mainstream product. I remember when we all used to have one or two regular 2D printers at home. Now a cartridge is more expensive than a brand new machine.
Maybe chamber dividers would be a good solution in order to cut down the amount of powder needed for a build job. Shrinkage is something that can be calculated within the software. More important for my analytic way of thinking might be the way the powder will have to be condensed throughout the build area.
Hello my friend I just retired and I’m thinking of entering the 3D minefield- your reviews are most helpful. There is one thing. When looking on Aliexpress etc apart from the scam of making things look cheap by not including the shipping what is confusing is who exactly makes which printer and who just sells them. Can you enlighten me and perhaps others by a post concerning who the manufacturers are of which printers particularly the lesser known ones- are they all made in the same factory or what. My experience with optical instruments such as microscopes is that it looks like there are lots of makers but there are only about half a dozen each making similar items- very similar situation with guitars too.
If one needs to get technical advice from a manufacturer it helps to know if one is talking to someone who actually knows the machine inside out. Sites like yours help but not if warranties are involved.
Keep up the great work you are excellent at communicating!
Great Video,
Do any of the companies offer advice on what to do with the old powder ? I'm guessing that it would end up as landfill as I can't imagine anyone would be able to recycle the powder due to impurities and the relatively small quantities that they could harvest from users.
Seriously, you think people are going to spend all that time getting all the powder off ? Theres a reason FDM printing became popular and its because with PLA its non toxic and low mess.
"This technology is NOT for home users".
Formlabs will also be releasing a cleaning station simultaneously which should make the cleaning process pretty fast.
The powder removal doesn't have to take a lot of time. Drop the block of used powder in a bag, gently slosh it around, then blow off a tiny bit of remaining powder with your shop vac blower. Removing support material takes vastly longer. It's all just the mentality, and what you're okay with doing. I don't detail my 3D prints, I use them for functional things.
I've seen sls printer that has the first stage cleaning built in, two armports in the case, and an vacuum hose inside. glove up, vacuum the remaining build material (avoids contamination with dust and other particles as well). And then take the part out for final rinsing. avoids quite a bit of the mess.
Like the idea of a combined unit!
Also using an ultrasonic cleaner after rinsing (& rinsing a 2nd time) would guarantee total removal of any powder!
Can you review the iro3d? It's a $6,000 selective powder deposition printer. It does pretty much any type of metal, apparently has no shrinkage and 100% density. I would be very interested to know whether I can use that to make actual parts for a machine.
@makersmuse there is a company voxeljet that produces parts for "investment casting" and they use binder to glue plastic powder together. similar to ink-jet printers with added z axis!
Well that was a little depressing; especially the material re-use fact...
Perhaps blending the material in the blender could make it better for reuse.
Cool, my Blender models could use a blend blended in the blender
That said, if you make full use of the build volume (basically, plan your printing sessions so you can fill the chamber with prints, rather than trying to do one at a time), you can largely mitigate the problem of wasted powder...
The material re-usage increases when everything is sintered in close to absolute void of air. As you stated, plastics may absorb humidity, but in void they can't. Also, when unpacking, you should not touch anything and, most importantly, keep the dust in the chamber. Plastics fortunately can be captured with electrostatic charged walls of a container, thus otherwise problematic issues will not even arise.
The price tag has been lowered by quite a bit and I am also surprised that a 10 W laser suffices. I suppose that's the power output, not the consumption. And yes, the shrinking. The systems I know have laser sensors which measure the material thickness and adjust the material appliance accordingly. This is even a greater issue with metal prints, because they may crack up to quite some extent.
Thank you for your great thoughts and inputs. I want a new printer, but I suspect the perfect printer does not exist... FDM is cheap and simple to run, but with ugly bridges and supports. SLA looks wonderful, but is brittle, messy, smelly and expensive. SLS looks nice and sturdy but is grainy, dusty and expensive
IMHO the best solutions for surface quality, is ether the Saffire or the Milkshake3D. Both top-down SLA so support structures are more manageable. IF I had to buy one today it would be the Saffire.
Very informative Angus, thank you! I hadnt even considered the Nylon absorbing moisture even after the sintering.
Great Information - My Eyes Have Been Opened.
Great summary of the current state of play Angus! I keep having to stop myself buying a Lisa until I can deal with all the practicalities...!
Love the knowledge you're giving to us.
Whoever is the first company to make adjustable-size sls printers is going to be wildly successful. Imagine dropping in a new print bed so you don't have to use too much extra powder. :-)
Well, we probably have 5+ years before we get these at home. I'll live with my fdm for now.
SLS - Seriously Loud Shirt
Is it possible that you get a testprint of the hp jetfusion and review it? I would be interested
Possibly! I'll send a few emails out.
Maker's Muse thanks man!
Yes, I've heard that tech is based on SLS mixed with inkjet tech allowing for full-color prints. From what I've seen, it's amazing. Hope you have a deep pocket!
Also, check out the Sintratec Kit. (see web site) I am a hobbyist and I just had to have an early affordable SLS. It has a very modest build volume of 11x11x11 and retails for 5.5K (I think) The kit went together quite smoothly - over a solid six days. I learned a lot about SLS by building it and found it quite enjoyable.
From a home user perspective, It is everything you say - very messy, a heavy waste of powder if you don't fill the volume with parts - I think they claim 50% reuse - you really need to be setup to sort and remix in your virgin powder. I'm getting a sandblaster and have found the surface really needs a scrubbing for that extra quality. (they include a dust vacuum and electric scrubber - toothbrush?) Only the kit is available in the US - I think there are laser power import issues, but I'm not sure.
They are very helpful and nice to work with when I have had challenges. I can nail the X/Y dimensional accuracy with galvo adjustment, and the Z is a little more straight forward (it was fine off the bat). It does build strong parts! I am still going through a few learning experiences as I try to push the limits a bit - my current challenge is trying to print chain-mail. There are tons of thermal things to consider. Due to some combination of user error, settings and plain old machine capability i haven't yet been able to make a nice mat of flexible mail that doesn't have a solid area in the middle of it. Anyway, I am still having fun and have no regrets.
I can't wait to see what they come out with over the next few years, would love to have sls at home after they fix the drawbacks.
Thanks for sharing and as always Keep Building👍
YOU'RE AUSTRALIAN! I WOULD HAVE NEVER CALLED IT. GOOD ACCENT! (I'm Aussie too)
Hmm... Couldnt you use less powder if you could limit the motion range of the powder smoothing swipe and filled part of the build area with a snuggly fitting cube? Or better jet, had slots where you could insert a separation wall.
I’m convinced now that SLS will break my wallet D:
I think I’ll just now make my own out of a diode laser and some beach sand, wish me luck! :)
Your shirt is awesome!
Need to wear it more often :P
You should watch Curious Droid channel. That guy's shirts are so insane, he now says what the shirt is each episode!
but that shirt remind me of the spring of Mario Bros idk why
Great video mate. A real shame about re-using powder not being viable. Maybe one day we will have materials we can use over and over?
Great job explaining this Angus. I also like your shirt.
Hey Angus, great info you give here.
What would be the weight of a fully filled chamber in the Sinter-it, meaning... If I fully utilize the chamber with multiple prints, what would be the price to start the project?
Is the powder degradation due to oxidation of the hot plastic or just plan thermal degradation? Something like an oxygen concentrator (using the waste stream, so youre rich in nitrogen) and purging the chamber would help with oxidation, but not plain degradation. But that would be pushing it even further from home use with even more support equipment.
Learned a lot watching this - thanks Angus!
BASF has a 316L stainless steel infused filament (about $400-500 US), that can be printed on most typical (CRS10 for example). You print (high width to height ratio design is best, 100% infill), send it off to de bind and sinter. Very, very, cool. Can be bought from MatterHackers).
Overall a nice review although some important errors. SLS was invented by DTM, Texas who were taken over by 3D Systems. EOS were not the original or the inventor, in fact there were years of court cases between the two companies. White SLS is not naturally white, it has Titanium Dioxide added to make it white. The aged yellow is actually its natural colour. The powder is pretty inert and tests have shown that it isn't harmful to humans, the particles are large enough to be ingested rather than going into your lungs. Saying that i would never work a machine without PPE. Finally the reason the cheaper machines use non-white powders is not to do with laser power but to do with the laser frequency.
Since you can't really reuse the unused powder, I wonder if you can use it as a sandblasting material. You'd at least then get some value out of what you can't use.
Hopefully someone does research into SLS materials, and finds a way to make one that isn't damaged from being in the machine. It'd be perfect to print, sandblast, and reuse the material. Maybe even in the same machine, using air and vibration to clean the part, and have the sandblasting be automated as well.
The only problem I have with SLS is the same as I have with SLA, you need a drain hole if you have a solid object. Incorporating drain holes can be really difficult at times, especially if it's a part that needs rotational symmetries, a platonic solid or a stellation of a solid for example; though I have found, within that example, that you can easily have a core object and shell objects with the drain holes between the mating faces. Unless you just want a 100% solid part, but that's time and resources that'll cost a lot more, especially on larger prints.
If they changed there chamber design so that it could be sized to item you are printing then they could cut down on the waisted powder. Must be a way to do that. Great video, lots of information !
How difficult would it be for them to provide smaller build "chambers" to hold less material than the full build volume?
Makers MUSE, I really enjoyed this video. You touched on points regarding the SLS technology of the Sinterit Lisa and Formlabs that I have never heard of let alone considered. As your post was initially Oct 12,2017, do you have any updates or follow-ups to advancement of this technologies by these two companies. Additionally, have you ventured acquired either of these machines yourself?
The fact that you can print fuctional chainmail right off the bat without much finishing still makes SLS a firm favourite for me. Once it becomes for affordable, I'll definitely be jumping on the bandwagon. For now, I'll keep pooping out hot plastic.