A curious post on Reddit hints at a new metal 3D printing process.
This one is truly a mystery. We don’t know the name of the company involved — or even the country in which it’s being developed. The post was made by an anonymous account ”Weird-League-1844”, which has posted only about this project.
That would all normally suggest extreme skepticism, but after reading through this several times, it may be real after all. Let’s take a look at what was stated by Weird-League-1844:
- The process is being developed and is not ready for prime time.
- The process involves selective deposition of metal droplets, like inkjet, but not as fine.
- Prints are at this time in the centimetre range.
- The target price for the eventual machine is “four figures”, or under US$10,000.
- Bronze material and several other alloys have been tested.
- No sintering is required; the process produces finished parts.
- They have their own slicing software.
- The company involved has chosen to be stealthy for now.
That’s what was said. We really don’t know the price, build volume, release date, material compatibility, print speed, environmental requirements, or even who’s making this 3D printer.
A single image of what appears to be a print sample (with a sliced 3D model for comparison). What can we see in this image? Some observations:
- The print definitely appears to have been built by repeated deposition of metal droplets. These would solidify immediately and form a solid object.
- The dimensions of the part are 22mm wide, which aligns with the centimetre scale mentioned above.
- The dimensions of the part differ slightly from the sliced representation.
- The dimensional difference is larger in one dimension than the other, which is very curious.
- The sliced representation seems to have a lower density of droplets in the interior of the part, suggesting a porous design?
- The part does strongly resemble the desired geometry shown in the sliced representation.
- The build plate is circular, which suggests a delta motion system, but that doesn’t align with an inkjet-style approach.
- The build plate has a highly textured surface, unlike traditional metal build plates.
- There is minimal splatter adjacent to the part, confirming the droplet approach.
- Why would droplets be off target if they are being “dropped”?
- Could the speed of the motion system be so high that some droplets could fly off target?
Real or not, this does seem to be a promising approach that has not really been done previously. I am interested to see how this plays out, especially if it functionally works and they are able to achieve a sub-US$10,000 price point.
Via Reddit
