Engineering360: "Liquid Metal Printing in 3-D"

I was thinking of converting diesal engine fuel injectors to do this type of stuff.. incorporate heat bands like in an injection molding machine and there's your print head.. ???

That's a start... but prepare for failure...

Companies are investing huge in the development of this technology. And there are a lot of issues to be worked out.

March 3, 2016 - ARC Group Worldwide, Inc. Announces New Proprietary Thixomolding Process

To my idea the shown technology is most interesting. To avoid oxidation can the processing be carried out in vacuum. Is it as such possible deminishing porosity as well to avoid the need of Hipping operations and just heat treatment to obtain desired mechnical properties.

To avoid oxidation can the processing be carried out in vacuum.

Yes, there are a few more,...

• inclusions due to improper metal applications, not always porosity but application.
• proper jointing of the material to avoid delamination
• application of the material...

What about using cnc wire feed welder? And they already use inert gas/argon to create an external inert atmosphere.

Also instead of heat bands the electricity would melt the alloy, or use magnetic induction and a combination of electricity...

good ideas

There maybe some quality issues such as Splatter... so the issue is quality.

Other issues is the duty-cycle of the unit. If one is using a welder.

"Duty cycle is a welding equipment specification which defines the number of minutes, within a 10 minute period, during which a given welder can safely produce a particular welding current. For example, a 150 amp. welder with a 30% duty cycle must be "rested" for at least 7 minutes after 3 minutes of continuous welding."

10-4 on that. Also Laser and Hi Frequency vibration i think could be contenders for this apparatus.

Just been doing some more research on the University of YouTube and came across this plasma coating process they call sputtering.. very interesting.

Also i think the best 3-D printer so far has got to be the Carbon 1.

So now what about combining the two technologies together?

Carbon 1 is kinda like a Holographic projector that uses light and oxygen in many different types of compound solutions to solidify a pattern.... so what about solidifying certain types of plasma compound substrates inside an actual hologram?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OEz_e9C4KM