/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>1307800
>It might, give it 10 years.
I highly doubt it.

For one, the laser power needed is an issue. And each metal used requires a different setting for refractory properties. The same reason the cost of laser-cutters that can cut anything thicker than paper haven't gone down is the reason why DMLS won't be going down much anytime soon. Higher powered lasers are more expensive to produce.

Second, the metal powder itself has to be within a 40 to 90 micron particle size and has to be spherical. These are not the cheaper morphologies for metal powder, but they are the easiest to flow consistently. Switching to cheaper metal powders requires extremely specialized equipment that the printer manufacturers simply aren't familiar with.

And then there's the third issue: fume handling and powder recovery. When you buy a DMLS printer you're not buying just the printer. You are typically also buying accessory equipment to go with it so as to avoid killing the people using it, and so that you can remove the parts from the build area while recycling the powder for reuse.

There are other deposition methods that are somewhat more likely to be able to reach a wider market and a lower price-point, but they're not as mature as DMLS.