Open source and design machines
Free 3D printer designs have been allowing you to build your own factory at home for some time now. The limitation is that you can do anything as long as it's plastic..
But, how about building a metal part - a brake drum for your car, the part of a washing machine that you no longer find in stores or something like that? This is now also possible, and thanks to the same team as Dr. Joshua Pearce, of the University of Michigan, us United States, one of the main creators of the so-called Era of Free Machines.
3D printing
Domestic manufacturing is already economically viable. As always in the open-source field - whether free software or free hardware - the metal 3D printer is a work in progress. at the current stage, she is capable of "to print" just simple parts, like gears. But, how the design and control software is open and freely available, all interested can start to improve it. "Within a month, someone will do a better one than ours," evaluates the Dr. Pearce.
Metal printer
second pearce, the metal 3D printer can be built by assembling equipment costing around US$1,500.00. Instead of print heads, like those injecting polymers into traditional 3D printers, this one uses MIG welding equipment, which deposits the metal layers by melting electrodes.
This implies that, unlike well-behaved plastic 3D printers, the metallic 3D printer emits millions of sparks everywhere, requiring all the care and training necessary to deal with welding.
"I really don't know if we're mature enough to handle this. But I think that, with the open source approach, we are on the brink of a post-scarcity society, Star Trek type, where 'replicators' can create a wide range of objects on demand, resulting in wealth for all at a very low cost. Very soon, we will be able to do pretty much anything," glimpse the dr. Pearce.
The Metal Object 3D Printer Design can be found at www.appropia.org/Open-source_metal_3-D_printer.
Article taken from http://www.portalcad.com/blog/