I was looking closer at the details Lloyd posted (Thanks Lloyd!)on Aluminum. I
was aware that Shapeways had started advertising Aluminum(actually 89.5%
aluminum, 10% silicon, and .5% magnesium) but I hadn’t lookedat it too closely.
One of the big challenges with some 3D printing processes isthat they are 2
stage with the first being to build the structure and a secondto clear out any
residues before the next step to create the final object. Thisis how Select
Laser Sintering or SLS printing works (step 1 stainless steel, step 2 infuse
with bronze). The net result of this is that it makes it very difficultto do
coolant passageways, which I suspect is one of the key reasons serious
designersjust stick with DMLS. Also the level of detail with processes aside
from DMLS isok but not fantastic. I couldn’t tell from the Aluminum processing
descriptionon Shapeways whether it had the same issue as well (it mentions a
cleaning stepbut no final processing) but I’d be curious to know if anyone has
had successwith it. Also, if DMLS is now down in the $10 per cm^3 all inprice
it’s probably good to take a serious look at that as a potential option. Inmy
view, while there are cheaper routes the time and investment spent trying
toperfect them outweighs the extra cost of DMLS. One of the really nice
thingsabout 3D printing is that the time that would otherwise go into
fabrication canbe spent elsewhere and to someone with limited time I find it
worth the extracost.
