Fast Metal 3D Printing with SPEE3D - Cold Spray Additive Manufacturing

[@AndrewAHayes]

Wow! this is a wonderful process, no supports are required like powder sintering for the green part, the finished machined part was just like a a regular fully machined part. This could be a process that would suit the gold mining industry that is usually in places where new parts are hard and expensive to get into the field

[@NathanBuildsRobots]

Yeah. And since it is a robotic system it is actually pretty flexible. You could take parts, install them in the arm, and deposit some additional material, either for conductivity (adding some aluminum or copper directly onto a steel surface), hardness (depositing carbide on an aluminum surface), heat resistance (depositing inconel on a steel or aluminum surface), strength, etc, the list goes on. Sounds like the applications need to catch up with the technology.

[@3DPrintSOS]

Yes! Getting one in the home office! Hahaha well done.

[@NathanBuildsRobots]

They have a smaller one... It's not too much to ask 😅

[@rdyer8764]

New subscriber... Great info, especially from outside of your studio. Glad to be with you!

[@NathanBuildsRobots]

Thanks, I love the technology behind 3D printing. What we can get at home only covers a small subset of the technology that is out there. So hopefully this gets more people thinking about commercial applications, and maybe even the future of desktop printing as some of these advanced technologies become more accessible.

[@MarshallMcFarlin]

Sandblasting. Brilliant 👏 👏 👏 ❤

[@tomaskianicka3343]

Wow, quite an amazing technology.

[@Leviathan3DPrinting]

I hope you do get one for the home office. Amazing video amazing technology. Keep it up!

[@Rushfan102]

Very cool Nathan, keep up the good work!

[@Warranty_Droid]

ngl having that in a workshop, and when you just need a new tool fast that could be really usefull, a bit overkill maybe, but damn cool, "oh i need a new hammer" and just prints it

[@hurzelgnurk]

Very nice!

[@NathanBuildsRobots]

I like how Mark segwayed out of me asking about space and back to their real customers. But really, with how deployable this is, I think it would be ideal for space. Also it doesn't require gravity like most powder bed methods do. Did you check the Rapidia video? They can make knives, and are sending me an axe-head to test out.

[@BikZom]

cool stuff

[@tenchuu007]

I like its jangly earrings.

[@jagevt]

it works hard, it plays hard

[@codiede6690]

If it's stupid but it works, it ain't stupid. 😂

[@Aeros-tech]

Cool ❤

[@Recycled]

9:50 So, printer truck comes to recover a stranded vehicle so it can return to base. Wonder if this could fit on a Humvee..

[@NathanBuildsRobots]

I assume it would be at a FOB, where spare parts for a tank or artillery piece could be delivered in a couple of hours. It’s a pretty niche use-case, but technologies like this need to find a niche, then grow into other applications as it matures. Or it could be deployed on a ship, like an aircraft carrier.

[@corlissmedia2.0]

Great b-roll, and used quite well also. Did you provide the mic for the interviewee?

[@NathanBuildsRobots]

Yes I provided the mic, I wish it was a little more discrete, kind of blingy DJI badging on there which I don't really like. But they get the job done and are super easy to use. Just need to turn the gain down a tiny bit next time. A lot easier to use than video tapes!

[@corlissmedia2.0]

@@NathanBuildsRobots Does the mic have a wind screen? If it does, that might reduce / improve the sound. I found it very gravelly (if that makes sense).

[@NathanBuildsRobots]

​@@corlissmedia2.0 Yeah it has wind protectors, I'll try that out. Also had to filter out some frequencies due to a high pitch wine from some of the machines running at the show. Also I will take off my lanyard because in some videos it brushed against the mic and made tons of noise. Lessons Learned!

[@NathanBuildsRobots]

@@corlissmedia2.0 Also, been watching the Campbell guy. Interesting stuff.

[@corlissmedia2.0]

@@NathanBuildsRobots failures on camera are some of the best teaching experiences. The Hero with a Thousand faces is one of Campbell’s best books.

[@mg_customs8531]

cool!

[@lupusk9productions]

hmm i think the post processing of the parts is a big killer for me... not that i could afford it but like curious why one would pick this tech over some sort of other 3d metal printing process that may or may not need as much post milling. but so cool and different! its cool watching how this one works vs all the other tech out there!

[@NathanBuildsRobots]

I think that should be a lot more robust in transportation and would have less stringent requirements in installation conditions. Plus the powder particles are larger and pose a much lower risk of explosion and respiratory issues in handling. Pretty much every metal additive process requires heat treatment to get good properties, so I don’t think it’s too big of a deal

[@sfdntk]

The major advantage is speed, a part that might need days to laser sinter can take just hours with a cold spray process.

[@jerrysstories711]

Does heat/pressure treating it afterward improve the quality?

[@JoeyBlogs007]

Fascinating. Looks like a low resolution part though.

[@AnotherCG]

This is a very interesting concept for 3d printing. Hulk smash literally.

[@davidthompson9359]

Is there a lower priced desktop version that is or will be available for those that are using plastic 3D printing to move into metal 3D printing?

[@endostatica1405]

No lol

[@codiede6690]

Build it yourself maybe? The essence of the machine would be air compressor, heater, stepper motors and the control board with its firmware. Along with the dust proof enclosure of course. It would take months to years to build and run depending on your spare time, tweaking and adjusting things along the way. But if you already have your head wrapped around "standard" FDM Cartesian printing this would be cool to pull off.

[@jamesocker5235]

Would be great to build aircraft parts for aircraft that are out of production

[@baxrok2.]

So, you need the supplies, the computer systems and personnel to design/input the part, the machine itself and people to run it, then you also need the machining and finishing equipment and personnel to run them. Where's the benefit?

[@endostatica1405]

Learn how to use CAD and how to run it through their on-site information. Anyone who intends on purchasing this machinery already knows how to use it.and the benefit lies both in speed of fabrication and affordability (considering many other printers are priced in the hundreds of thousands and millions.)

[@codiede6690]

All 3d printing is prototyping before it's manufacturing. The job completion time largely stops it being used in mass manufacturing but the flexibility and in house nature always beats shipping times. Their main markets are for remote marine and military deployments. There's another video of the same company working with the ADF were instead of having to bring in a welder with exhaust tubes to fix an exhaust stack and a machinist with square stock to fix a hinge, the print team did both in less than 48 hours. Of course, this is used were practical. Were you to have to replace hand rails and guard rails, that would be done by shipping in the rails and organising the workers the usual way. But yeh, 3d printing is a cool technology with its uses.

[@armarmo964]

Is this practical? What kind of parts will be efficient to manufacture with this technology?

[@jackle3002]

pretty cool, but doesnt look like much in the way of accuracy or tolerances. Would take just as much cleanup and finishing processes as a casted part.

[@Sharp_and_Slicey]

Sad that the defense industry is their main customer. When the government has a monopoly on products it leaves everyone else out

[@NathanBuildsRobots]

The government doesn't have a monopoly, they are just one of the primary customers who can afford to pay the bills to develop something like this. It's the same story with a lot of other tech, PCBs, GPS, air transportation, etc.

[@baxrok2.]

When government gets involved, we all lose, because they destroy everything they touch.

[@Rokmononov]

You’re welcome to buy one…???

[@readbetweenthelines6333]

@@Rokmononovyes

[@microponics2695]

HOw is this faster than melting it in a kiln?

[@NathanBuildsRobots]

Like melting the metal in a kiln, then pouring it into a mould? There are major differences, so it's hard to compare them. both can be used to make near-net shaped parts in a pinch. This process is faster, because you don't have to make a mold, heat up the metal, demold, wait for the part to cool off, and worry all sorts of casting related issues and limitations. Plus its mostly automated and self-contained. I guess you could make a small foundry that is all self-contained and produces parts like what this machine does, but it would have its own set of costs, challenges, and limitations.

[@justkiddin1980]

Why not use pure nitrogen and make it inert???

[@codiede6690]

Flow rate would be very high, make it expensive. 😢

[@sahalin12345]

That`s not looking very precise. How big the tolerances are?

[@ThantiK]

The marketing drivel bullshit coming out of these guys mouths is absolutely impossible to watch. I'm so sick of salesmen. I want to talk to the engineers about this, what are the drawbacks, why aren't they doing any subtractive on this arm between build ups? What are the problems that you have to overcome to get better looking parts out of this verses these blob looking parts which are obviously subtractively milled afterwards? What's the benefit of using this machine instead of just grabbing a block of metal? A commercial CNC doesn't take 3 1/2 hours to hog out the rough shape of a part, so what is the value-add here?

[@baxrok2.]

Exactly what I was thinking! On the other hand, you can talk those military dumbasses in acquisitions into buying anything with the money they get for free.

[@slartibartfass5729]

Was pretty excited till he started to talk about their main customers being "defence" which turned into "battlefields" seconds later. I don't get it: why do we all give mountains of money to people, industries and organisations who finally kill humans and destroy things instead of cure humans and create things? This company would better sell their expensive new machinery to creative people doing good. Watch the Mr. Beast documentary to get some inspiration.

[@NathanBuildsRobots]

Sovereign nations can’t exist without a functioning military. It would be nice if we could just all get along though, wouldn’t it? In reality, lots of technologies are developed by defense spending. To name a few: CAD software, printed circuit boards, satellites, robotics, GPS, radar, drones, telecommunications, air transportation, chemistry, rocket science, nuclear energy. The list goes on and on. It doesn’t mean it won’t find applications in scientific/commercial/civilian/humanitarian use later.

[@slartibartfass5729]

@@NathanBuildsRobots all these things were just funded by us, the people. But we had to give the money first to the military which then decided who got it. I bet there is tons of evidence that spending these trillions of dollars through civil pathways would result in less cost, better fitting technologies and overall more wellbeing. GPS, Glonas etc for example are so complicated, expensive, pretty often doesn't work or not good, and is power hungry on the devices because it's mainly developed to guide cruise missiles into the other sides critical infrastructure and military. Civil GNSS can be cheaper, more accurate better...

[@baxrok2.]

Yup, it's the military and, as he pointed out, the UNIVERSITIES that are essentially extensions of the military industrial complex.

[@sfdntk]

@@slartibartfass5729 Right? There's something deeply wrong with a society that can only focus its scientific and technological progress through the lens of the military industrial complex, as though it makes any kind of sense at all to measure the value of technology on the basis of its military applications. Imagine the trillions in funding provided to DARPA and other "defence" institutions being diverted to civilian research programs, where the primary goal wouldn't be to find more efficient ways to kill distant brown people but to better the lives of all people. The advances we could have, the problems we could solve - I feel extremely confident saying it would lead to a more peaceful world overall, certainly far more peaceful than one that believes in achieving peace through superior firepower. And I'm not blaming SPEE3D for this state of affairs, to be clear. They're doing what they have to do to secure the funding they need to iterate on this technology, and right now that means courting defence budgets. I'm damn sure they'd be ecstatic to sign contracts with anyone other than the military if they could, but as long as we as a society insist on handing control of such vast sums of money to the military, companies like SPEE3D will go where the funding is.

[@Why_ask_]

It is a shame we all just don’t get along. But face it humans kill each other over competing visions for achieving world peace. Until that changes ….

[@rodneynormanhersom3583]

LOL its expensive to get thing to space LOLOLOLOL. then don't send many machines. send the tool to make machines and use that the make your 3d printer lol you just have to build a machine shop on the space station you need to do that anyway so why not