A Novel Strategy of Additive Manufacturing Applied to Metal 3D Printing

Polymer 3d printing machines are widely used in a variety of industrial and educational fields to produce prototypes, ornamentals, and hobby parts. Their efficiency, ease of use, and affordability are the key features that let us benefit from this additive manufacturing method (AM). In contrast to polymer printers, metal 3d printers are facing issues intended to be addressed by the present study. To this end, the most important of these issues were highlighted for the commonly used metal 3d printing methods, namely powder bed fusion, material extrusion, and binder jetting. After a discussion about these methods in detail, it was concluded that although some of them show remarkable mechanical properties when supplemented by other post-processing methods, still these methods are practically difficult to use and are much more expensive for becoming available like polymer printers. Furthermore, a new cost-effective strategy was proposed that would make metal printed parts with decent mechanical properties affordable for small knowledge enterprises and projects with a minimal budget. This new strategy is composed of different available methods, which makes it predictable and accessible. The main idea is that high precision 3d molds are printed to cast metal parts in the same machine that the mold is printed. In this manner, the mold is directly printed on the print bed without the requisition of a powder bed. More research on metal 3d printing methods may lead to a more desired solution that may revolutionize the way we design and manufacture.