Florida bans all online devices because writing laws is hard Economic Development Administration destroys keyboards and mice to get rid of malware Forget plastic: Liquid metal 3D printer works at room temperature Deal of the Day PHOTO RCA 46LB45RQ 46" 1080p LCD HDTV List Price: $549.99 Price: $398.00+ Free Shipping You Save: $151.99 (28%) See It GEEK NEWSLETTER More Geek X-47B X-47B becomes first UAV to land on aircraft carrier The Internship Google’s well-paid interns make for noisy neighbors Dota 2 Dota 2 finally leaving beta, officially launching Legere T-Mobile aims to redefine its ‘broken, stupid’ industry with Uncarrier 2.0 Apps Report: 579,001 out of 888,856 iPhone apps are zombies News By Sal Cangeloso Jul. 9, 2013 12:25 pm 3d print metal 3D printing has been getting along just fine using assorted forms of plastic. If you want to get something 3D printed in metal, that’s possible, but it makes things much more complex and takes the process out of the realm of the hobbyist. That might not be the case for long though, as researchers at NC State have figured out how to 3D print structures using tiny liquid metal spheres, all at room temperature. In a paper released today researchers at NCSU noted that, using a metal alloy composed of gallium and indium, they have been able to print free-standing structures from liquid metal. This is possible because of an oxide skin that forms around the liquid metal as it’s released from the placement syringe. This allows the metal to maintain its shape and form different size droplets (as seen in the video) without the structure drooping over or otherwise deforming. Dicky liquid metal 3D structure Incredibly, the alloy (EGaIn) is room temperature while it’s being printed. This is a rather neat trick, but the melting point of that material is about 15.6 degrees C, so that makes sense. After coming in contact with oxygen in the air a gallium oxide skin forms around the material, giving it some structure. The skin is only about 1 nanometer thick and it clearly does not interfere with the droplets coherence to one another. Galinstan metals, like the material used here, are ideal for the application because of their helpful properties — like melting point — but it could limit the future of this process as well. These metals are electrically conductive, which could be useful for some applications, but are also corrosive, which could cause problems when used with other metals. Finally, the materials tend not to be cheap, so for larger applications and future development the researchers will likely start to try out other materials. If this could be done with something cheaper and with less problematic properties it could have real potential, especially as droplet size is reduced. (Update: according to this paper EGaIn doesn’t appear to be too bad of a choice, though it’s likely not a scalable solution.) Interestingly, as the oxide is what’s hardening and forming the structure that holds the liquid metal together, it’s entirely possible (likely even) that the material inside the skin will remain liquid. While the skin is quite thin, oxides can be both strong and tough, enough even to hold the 3D printed structure together. The formation would be self-healing as well, because if a crack were to form in the skin, it would expose inner material and rebuild the oxide coating. The printing technique was announced (or a least co-announced) in a Reddit post in which one of the authors explained how it had been under wraps for years, that NC State holds the patents for it, and that there is no aim for a commercial release yet. The process has been written up in a paper entitled, “3D Printing of Free Standing Liquid Metal Microstructures,” but it is only available with a subscription. #techiez
Posted on: Thu, 11 Jul 2013 10:10:14 +0000
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