Printing furniture with liquid metal

MIT researchers have developed an additive manufacturing technique that can print rapidly with liquid metal, producing large-scale parts like table legs and chair frames in a matter of minutes. (Learn more: news.mit.edu/2...)
Self-Assembly Lab research team:
Zain Karsan, Kimball Kaiser, Jeremy Bilotti, Bjorn Sparrman, Schendy Kernizan, Jared Laucks & Skylar Tibbits
Watch more videos from MIT: www.youtube.com...
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is an independent, coeducational, privately endowed university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Our mission is to advance knowledge; to educate students in science, engineering, technology, humanities and social sciences; and to tackle the most pressing problems facing the world today. We are a community of hands-on problem-solvers in love with fundamental science and eager to make the world a better place.
The MIT KZbin channel features videos about all types of MIT research, including the robot cheetah, LIGO, gravitational waves, mathematics, and bombardier beetles, as well as videos on origami, time capsules, and other aspects of life and culture on the MIT campus. Our goal is to open the doors of MIT and bring the Institute to the world through video.

[@chuck80y]

Did people forget what the first plastic filament printer prints looked like when they first rolled out? Refinement takes time.

[@KickCaesar]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing this has a lot of potential!

[@zachmoyer1849]

eh even if "perfected" it really can only do a simple parts. An automated mig welder could do what they are doing way better

[@ww-pw6di]

@@zachmoyer1849 Do show me the mig welder and wire that's going to beat out scrap aluminum and what looks like a ~1cm nozzle. You're going to spend 12 hours on a shitty chair frame with your mig welder while this thing does it in minutes.

[@zachmoyer1849]

@@ww-pw6di yeah that is the only reason its better speed but my point is it can do only one type of thing quickly which is also something that can just be quickly molded.

[@ww-pw6di]

@@zachmoyer1849 Your "point" was that an automated mig welder could do what this machine could and we've already determined that to be horseshit. Now onto your NEXT point; no you can't "just" quickly mold something because making molds takes significant time and resources and very expensive machinery to use the mold. Making a shitty chair mold and a shitty table mold for a production run of 1 is going to take you even longer than using the mig welder. (You can avoid the costs with hand making shitty molds using lost wax casting or the like, but you're still going to spend at least 12 hours of work on a single item since now you're also making a replica of the item before even casting.)

[@blip_bloop]

It seems like an iteration on existing sand casting. Still super cool and useful though

[@vladimirlenin843]

A automatic sand cast maker is gonna be nice

[@nelsonianb1289]

As someone who spent countless hours 3d printing in college this will be incredible on the architecture end

[@NamelesshunterGaming]

This is Fucking amazing! I can imagine prototyping getting a real boost from this. and if you combine this machine and a cnc final products can be smooth and perfect.

[@josephr5804]

If you don't quite understand: This is similar to polymer printing in liquid media, where the print is suspended by the liquid media. Instead, in this instance, they use fine sand heated to a high temperature.

[@GoingtoHecq]

I am shooketh. This is actually pretty smart. Must have been hard to pull off.

[@primenumberbuster404]

Fun to see people crying over this. My Brother in gaming, this is a beta version protocol and there is heck ton of advancements still left. The whole idea is very cool and effective with upcomming years.

[@andrewdoesyt7787]

Crying? What do you mean by that?

[@raiden72]

​@@andrewdoesyt7787My guess is that somebody asked an AI to summarize this video and then comment. It just doesn't sound human enough

[@joaolemes8757]

​@@andrewdoesyt7787 there are people commenting about the looks of the end product, which is, I'll say it, terrible, and this guy is arguing that this is equivalent to a beta version of a game (industry in which his bother works at), and many improvements may come from it.

[@ShibsKensei]

​@@joaolemes8757​ He is not saying his brother works in the gaming industry, he is doing a play on the phrase "My brother in Christ", he swapped out Christ with gaming. 😂

[@joaolemes8757]

@@ShibsKensei true!

[@macberry4048]

I haven't seen anything really interesting created with 3D printers but it does seem like 3D printers are becoming more powerful and more interesting, with the patents expiring

[@drxym]

The only advantage I see to this, is you can get some rough shape out fast to mill into something better. But it's hardly better than casting with a form and getting something far more precise. And the issues with conventional 3d printing techniques are vastly overblown - 3d metal printing isn't easy or cheap but it produces parts used in automotive, aeronautic and space industry that can withstand immense pressures and heat. Is is a perfectly viable way of making complex parts vastly in excess of dribbling some molten metal into a groove of glass as shown here.

[@al6243]

That's seems to be highly dependent on the assumption that its level of technology is definitely going to remain as it is even after years in the future, and not possibly vastly improve as it has with so many technologies when other new materials and technology are discovered or developed.

[@XXCoder]

Nice. I want one, since it can easily recycle benchies and junk fun prints

[@EGarrett01]

1:40 "The researchers want to keep iterating on the machine..."

[@anonymouse527]

sounds sexy

[@manofsan]

Instead of creating a trench or furrow in the glass beads, can't they do it in a ceramic paste instead? Or maybe in some high-temperature wax paraffin? ❓

[@ericclone]

The energy needed to keep aluminum above its melting point at all times.

[@xMegaVideos]

It's called insulation.

[@Ponen77]

excellent....a few more years of refinement some tinkering with ai and we can print our own T-1000...it cooks, cleans, does the dishes and for those lonely hearts out there it has "fun mode".

[@FindecanorNotGmail]

Shouldn't you wear respirators/filter masks around those microscopic glass beads?

[@henrychan720]

How do you address shrinkage issues with denser prints?

[@KSCPMark6742]

Such ssues are known from sand casting and the shrinkage rules are well known, it would be factored into the design. Besides these parts are clearly meant to be machined afterwards.

[@woodwaker1]

That would be tough to heat tighten that nozzle.

[@zachmoyer1849]

would make more sense to just print it with a low res welding printer like you showed i really dont see any potential for this.

[@AlexanderGee]

If you don't call this machine ZenGarden you are missing a real trick.

[@ABean56]

Is that gallium or a different material!?

[@albertomorillo7119]

Very interesting! How are you going to have more volume in the Z axis? Something like a SLS?

[@TheJonathankang]

Just attach molten aluminum to aluminum on xy plane once it's solidified.

[@albertomorillo7119]

@@TheJonathankang they are printing inside a thick layer of glass. They can put another layer t ocontinue bulding in the Z axis, like SLS, coating a new layer of glass

[@xfxox]

@@albertomorillo7119 wouldn't the glass film on top of a previous layer prevent it from welding together ?

[@albertomorillo7119]

Well, maybe, I dont know this technology, neither I’m expert in foundry, but looking at the parts and the machine itself looks like they can move the nozzle and control how deep it goes. If they are printing with a single path because of the glass, maybe could be difficult to add more layer, but if not, they can go easy in z direction. Also the glass could melt and go to the surface of the metal, if not this could affect the part and make it weaker, so in that case , it will depend on the application. ( sorry about my english, I hope I explained myself properly) By the way, it will be amazing if I could talk with this guys about it, its a very interesting develop indeed

[@chveyk]

судя по "виду" - это не алюминий. А "ЦАМ" - для плавления алюминия надо температура выше 600 градусов Цельсия - при аткой температуре тигель и сам расплав начинают отлично "светится". Чего нет на видео!

[@calorus]

Very cool, would like to know what the the maximum flow rates (kg/s) are, and how long the molten working time is.

[@MrUnkownGuyAC]

The working time would be dependent on how fast those glass beads cool it off and the flow rate would be limited by the amount of mass left in the crucible, since it is gravity fed. An improved version of this would involve some sort of pressurisation so the injection can be more precisely laid out.

[@StephenRayner]

Nice work guys!

[@isenfirecat]

I wonder if someone could do this with molten glass (not talking about sand casting, but talking about glass in place of metal or plastic). Prolly wouldn't be feasible tho due to the high melting point edit: wait, are y'all working with glass dust w/o a mask or am i trippin??

[@picklesdill5462]

Try a spinning nozzle for better control.

[@theGoogol]

That's one way to sidestep a patent

[@yeetmeister0704]

they choose aluminum because its infinite recyclable but how do you keep the glass beads from sticking to the aluminum when printing, this will add glass to the aluminum when you "recycle" it

[@richdobbs6595]

When sand casting, there is relatively little sand that sticks to the part. I'd expect that something similar happens here. Glass in scrap aluminum gets scrapped off in the dross when melting aluminum for casting. The infinitely recyclable tag attached to aluminum smelting refers to the quality of the aluminum not degrading, but being restored. This is in contrast to plastic recycling where recycled material is broken down and is necessarily lower quality than equivalent virgin material. But both plastic and aluminum recycling introduces impurities that provide a practical limit to the amount of recycled material that can be used.

[@itwasaliens]

Imagine printing molten metal at a microscopic or molecular level!

[@shreklol960]

can it make tall stuff?

[@jguitar23]

Luv this!❤

[@shininio]

If I got a dollar for every 3d printing video or article that uses the word "groundbreaking" I would be a millionaire. Furniture will never be made this way, there are enough great materials and processes to make furniture, so this is a ridiculous attempt. It is in no way better that currently used methods or materials. The fact that some "genius" is trying it at MIT doesn´t make it newsworthy.

[@sgtjonzo]

im sure theres better applications than this because welding and pipe bending would be infinitely more useful

[@AdamBechtol]

Not quite the the groundbreaker it's touted as, but a bit neat. As people said it's just kinda mixing 3D printing with casting.

[@garrettmandujano2996]

Smaller more dense glass beads = higher resolution?

[@richdobbs6595]

I think the problem would be the surface tension of the aluminum itself. When sand casting, you ram the sand in so it is closely packed around the mold. The aluminum, from the height of even a few inches flows into every crack. But the top surfaces where you pour in the aluminum are rounded. With this system, the sand is loose, so it would be difficult to form fine features. Also, to create fine features you would need to have a smaller nozzle, which would slow down how fast you can print.

[@patrykx4577]

What a great technology for use in future moon space station

[@98f5]

This is just casting?

[@AdamBechtol]

Mmmmmm

[@fzicre]

a game changer indeed

[@Kultakala_Design_Studio]

Amazing 👏👏👏

[@jb3757]

Now you know why future spaceships are rough.

[@watersharer]

A game changer? Marketing speak for it doesnt do anything well, change the rules. This is a solution for a problem that doesnt exist.

[@mountainbiker9330]

But Hey!

[@jehhuty]

Aluminium

[@CantPickTheNameIwant]

WOW, new game-changer but game is still the same

[@juan.2438]

HR Giger furnitures

[@male20yearsold]

Give it a 100 years of progress... the will be the Zeniths from orizon Forbidden west😮

[@al6243]

KZbin "experts" strikes again with their many naysaying. Completely forgetting how technology works. Technology will generally keep on improving as more materials and other technology are developed or discovered. Early mobile phones were bulky, had limited functionality, expensive, and so were deemed useless and having zero potential. Now mobile phones are ubiquitous, can be thinner than a pencil and surpass most of the computers of the past. Early versions of 3d printing were criticized for being too expensive and incapable of printing complex structures. Now they're getting cheaper and are able to print more and more complex figures. Robots from Boston Dynamics were intially extremely clumsy and had to be connected to many wires. Now their robots are wireless and capable of advanced movements like parkour. Point is, this is not the final form of this particular technology. It has the probability of improving significantly like so many technology has.

[@Sashko_Dee]

Pfft, they call it liquid metal and it's not even a mimetic polyalloy. Seriously though, this tech looks pretty cool.

[@dougcox835]

It might be easier to do this with other, more low temperature metals than aluminum.

[@richdobbs6595]

Lots of folks do aluminum sand casting in their garages. KZbin is filled with instructions on how you can build a furnace. I did it for a couple of hundred dollars. In the grand scheme of things, aluminum is the low temperature metal that is approachable to hobbyists. Copper, bronze and iron are the metals that cause problems.

[@dougcox835]

@@richdobbs6595After posting that I looked it up and was surprised. Solder would be great but not at all strong. That's another problem. Low melt metals tend to be softer. I didn't see pot metal on the chart but I think that should be relatively cool. The reason I'm obsessed with temp. is that heat=energy=expensive to run.

[@xotster]

Please let no world exist where humans have to sit on those chairs...

[@TheLifeFruit]

you wouldn't download a car

[@TV19933]

Massachusetts institute technology is 1th place university ranking i assume so brilliant university chair is beautiful multiple machine using superlative American technology

[@gallodeplata]

Sand benders, here the last thing that sum up our litle foward steps

[@jkyoft78]

Interesting. Only 10000X more expensive than current techniques.

[@solitariocamel]

wait 999 years and we will make it better.

[@arturjogi2667]

...why? This would be much cheaper than current metal 3D printing, do you know how expensive it is?

[@Bob-jn8gt]

@@arturjogi26673d printing with casting wax is much cheaper and provides better qualities

[@richdobbs6595]

Okay. A current plain-jane mass produced lawn chair costs $40. A grad student in engineering probably cost $40K per year in stipend, books, etc, and the professor probably wants to get $100k per grad student in support. Maybe another $100K in support for the University? (spitballing, since my grad student experience is decades old). So lets say this research project gets funded for $500K for two years. And well give it 4 chairs and a table but to keep it simple, we'll say 10 chairs. So the cost per chair is $50,000 per chair. So the cost is only 1250X more expensive than current techniques. But it really isn't fair to consider this in competition with mass produced chairs, but instead it should be compared to hand crafted artisanal chairs, so more like only 100x more expensive than current technology.

[@solitariocamel]

@@richdobbs6595 good point.

[@DanFrederiksen]

No, MIT. Much too crude. Try magnetic field guided deposition

[@TheGuyWhoComments]

That’s very irrelevant

[@manofsan]

What about electroforming / electro-deposition ?

[@DanFrederiksen]

@@manofsan yes. maybe photo electric deposition to guide with lasers or masers

[@manofsan]

@@DanFrederiksen - electro-forming / electro-deposition of metal is done inside an electrolyte solution. I've read about attempts to use lasers for this inside the liquid medium, but I don't think microwaves are possible inside the medium.

[@jonmichaelgalindo]

Not sure they know what "3D" means.

[@pisunets]

It seems much easier to bend the tubes that way

[@s-t-f]

Aluminum, no thanks!

[@mah_siseua]

why? the material is common in industry production even used for aerospace. just differed by its alloy & purposes

[@gvi341984]

How do we deal with Martian soils

[@dougcox835]

I'm thinking about the same. The sand is just to provide some support while molten. I want to know how they are going to get bauxite ore on Mars. Surely it's there, but it will need to be mined.

[@hd-be7di]

"Printing furniture" that's kind of a stretch... it doesn't print finished products so technically it's not a 3d printer... it's some sort of hybrid printer mill :P

[@arbozaliyan]

Using welding seems easier

[@rightsdontcomewithpermits7073]

And looking much much better.

[@Otheisis]

@@rightsdontcomewithpermits7073 and without loss of metal due to the approximation of the dosage

[@TheGuyWhoComments]

This is a prototype

[@arbozaliyan]

@@TheGuyWhoComments it is a bad prototype then.

[@TheGuyWhoComments]

@@arbozaliyan have you ever seen modern 3-D printing versus the prototypes?

[@marckez4420]

No offense, but it doesn't look pleasing to the eyes.

[@herobrine1847]

Too bad the products in the video look like absolute shit

[@liquidpza]

Prototypes aren't products and often look like garbage during early stage iteration on technique. Internet heros are often so quick to judge instead of engage in constructive criticism. How about: What's on the development roadmap to help ensure higher quality parts? I hope that the people around you don't put so little thought into judging your hard work.

[@liquidpza]

That said, it does look pretty bad.

[@richdobbs6595]

This isn't ever going to be used for mass-produced consumer products. Better to think of whether this could be used to produce industrial structure on the moon. For that sort of purpose, this seems like something worth exploring even though it probably isn't going to win.

[@paulbracken6956]

ok so when ai... becomes yeah here comes terminator

[@manofsan]

lumpy low-res terminator

[@ladc8960]

🤘🏅

[@0r94n1z3r]

Use masks while working with glass dust, jeez!

[@qweqwe9678]

so ... casting. Yeah, real inovation right there , lol

[@KSCPMark6742]

Sure, I'm sure you do sand casting without a mold everyday, pull out the part and make another sand casting in the same sand right away, again without making a mold.

[@richdobbs6595]

@@KSCPMark6742 Still, it seems like a stretch that this can be competitive with 3d printing a pattern, automating the creation of a sand casting from a custom pattern, and using lost PLA casting. You'd need to find the niche where it is valuable to create really low quality castings. Like lunar construction of a mass driver!

[@sMVshortMusicVideos]

Let's use this to address the home ownership and climate crisis, this with potentially Bigelow aerospace structures and native American earthen mounds could make such a big difference.

[@TheGuyWhoComments]

This is the mit not a government controlling organization or charity

[@GrayCo]

This is not 3D metal printing technology. And it's even a stretch calling it metal printing. The whole process demonstrated is a waste of the advanced capabilities of the CNC gantry. Anyone who has poured molten aluminum from a crucible into a mold would qualify being called a metal printer under this stretched printer definition. Most any home metal casting foundry - using either electricity or propane, can melt aluminum and create molten aluminum the same as in the video. Home metal casters commonly use recycled or scrap aluminum for their projects. Many home casters use petrobond sand as the medium in the mold that defines the shape of the part. Petrobond sand produces far better surface finishes than shown in the video and petrobond sand will result in parts that have reasonably consistent diameters - much better than the results shown in the video. The crude method demonstrated in the video uses gravity to deposit the molten aluminum into a channel drawn in the glass bead medium. The only advanced feature demonstrated in the video involves using a CNC gantry to move the crucible of melted aluminum. The speed of the CNC gantry can be easily adjusted while it moves along the pattern in the glass beads. A far better use of the CNC gantry would involve using traditional sand based molds with sprues. The CNC would be programed having with the coordinates of the sprues. The nozzle would move to each sprue and insert the molten aluminum into each, The rate of the pour into the sprues could be refined to produce parts having the best surface finishes and the fewest bubbles/flaws in the finished parts. A pressurized crucible using a heated nozzle which can control the rate of flow and quickly start/stop molten flow would be the new frontier of metal casting.

[@albertomorillo7119]

So FDM technology with pellets is not 3d printing because the extruder is like a mini plastic injection machine? In fact, most of the deposition technologies are based on CNC, even using the same kind of code. Also, the metal printers that use metal wire are just a CNC or a robot arm with a welding machine (mig/mag). Everyone with a welding machine could make their parts by hand. Of course, this technology needs more development, but by definition, it's a 3d printer technology

[@Frrk]

The whole benefit of the technology is that you don't have to make a mold first. The nozzle just goes into the beads at your desired height.

[@SiXiam]

So, it is true. The world is getting dumber.

[@TheGuyWhoComments]

How?

[@SiXiam]

@@TheGuyWhoComments I don't think this research in any measurable way is on par with what I expect from MIT.

[@TheGuyWhoComments]

@@SiXiam it’s still cool though, and will be useful in the future when refined

[@TroyRubert]

Now that's stupid like a fox. Technology is just nature we taught to do cool tricks.

[@TheGuyWhoComments]

Do you want to go back to the forest and hunt, or do you want to complain about new tech

[@TroyRubert]

@@TheGuyWhoComments lol what?

[@TheGuyWhoComments]

@@TroyRubert “ technology is just nature we made to do tricks” correct me if I’m wrong but it sounds like you’re anti-this new technology

[@TroyRubert]

@@TheGuyWhoComments 100% incorrect the exact opposite

[@TheGuyWhoComments]

@@TroyRubert OK my bad

[@ShakeyLimbs]

Looks terrible, hard pass

[@cesarsfalcao]

Looks and costs terrible, bad move for now.

[@TheGuyWhoComments]

It’s a prototype hat do you expect

[@zoenagy9458]

leaded? Final finish looks creepy, not stylish, put a woman on the team please

[@user-nx1fp6fv6r]

Keep these ideas to yourself until they dont look like absolute trash. What a joke.