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The iro3d SPD metal printer

The iro3d selective powder deposition printer is the first high quality low cost metal printer available for $5000 and access to a high temperature furnace or kiln.

It works by filling a cruible with sand and metal powder one layer at a time. Metal powder is placed in the shape of the part, while a sand support powder is poured everywhere else. At the top of a part, a long metal powder chimney or runner will be built up from the part.

When pouring is completed, an optional shelf and then metal infill and carbon in the form of coke will be placed on the top of the pour on the top of the chimney. A bulbous crucible top will be placed over the crucible, and sand will be added to completely fill the bulbous top. The whole crucible will then be heated in a furnace or kiln to melt the infill metal, which will seep down into the metal powder sections of the pour. After everything cools off, the crucible can be opened, sand and coke poured off, and you will be left with your metal part.

The powders are distinguished between a rough and a fine... (RF and FN respectively.) The rough power may have larger particle size and better thermal conductivity. The amount of fine powder used in a print depends on the surface area of the part. A cube will use less fine powder than a heat sink with fins of the same size.

First Order Suggestions:

It can be a bit challenging to know what to get for your first order. We are giving some loose suggestions, along with an explaination of what each consumable is used for.

Stainless Steel Crucible

Usually the Stainless steel crucible is good for roughly 10 runs. It also has a much better seal than the other crucible option we are currently developing which improves the part quality by reducing air mixing during the hot stage. We suggest just 1 or 2 crucibles.

Specifications

Top and Bottom Half

Size: 4 inch (~10 cm) square tubing

Total Height: About 8 inches (40 cm)

Life: Roughly 10 cycles

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$89.95

Stainless Steel Shelf

The Stainless Steel Shelf is used to even out the weight of the infill metal and create a metallic collector to guide all of the infill metal toward the runner. The runner is the metal powder chimney that rises up from the part to the top of the pour. Usually these can only be used once. The current copper infill comes in 3 inch square pieces, and does not require a shelf. We suggest 0 to start.

Specifications

~3.5 inches square (9+ cm square)

Collects infill material

Single Use

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$2.49

Iron Build Powder
The build powder holds the shape of the part in the crucible. It is not absolutely necessary to stock the rough Iron build powder, as the fine iron powder can be used in place of rough build powder, but it may not conduct heat quite as well. In your average part you will use about 2x more rough build powder than fine, but the ratio varies depending on the actual part. We suggest 1 bottle of fine build powder and 0 or 1 bottles of rough build powder.
Fine Iron Powder Specifications Bottle of Fine Iron Build Powder Approximately 8.8 lbs (~4 kg)	Picture Coming $44.00
Rough Iron Powder Specifications Bottle of Rough Iron Build Powder Approximately 8.8 lbs (~4 kg)	Picture Coming $44.00

Support Material

The support powder holds everything in the crucible in place. It is not absolutely necessary to stock the rough support powder, as the fine iron powder can be used in place of the rough build powder, but it may not conduct heat quite as well and it is much less expensive. For your average part, you will use about 4x more rough than fine support material. We normally suggest at 1 bottle of the fine powder, and 1 to 4 bottles of the rough support material.

You can reuse the easily filtered support powder from one print as the toping-off powder on subsequent prints.

Fine Support Material Specifications

Bottle of Fine Support Powder

Approximately 8.8 lbs (~4 kg)

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$49.95

Rough Support Material Specifications

Bottle of Rough Support Material

Approximately 7.25 lbs (~3.3 kg)

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$29.95

Coal/Coke Carbon Chunks

A little carbon in the form of coke goes a long way, and can be reused. We suggest 1 kg to start.

Process Material

2.2 lbs (1 kg) bag.

Sacrificial

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$6.60

Copper Infill

We currently only have treated copper infill available at this time. The amount of copper needed for each print depends on the weight of the print. The object will be about 60 percent copper and 40 percent iron. A typical run for a 0.5 kg part will take about 0.1 kg of coke, 2.5 kg of rough support, 0.5 kg of fine support, 0.3 kg of iron powder and 0.4 kg of copper infill. Some metal is wasted in the infill process in the runner.