I saw a video about this a few days ago, one thing that’s not addressed is what aluminum alloys this works best with. Some alloys aren’t suitable for casting. And separately you need to flux the molten solution to separate out oxides and make sure there’s no voids or inclusions in the metal object.
That said, this is brilliant and could easily have huge impact in non structural applications or prototyping.
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I saw a video about this a few days ago, one thing that’s not addressed is what aluminum alloys this works best with. Some alloys aren’t suitable for casting. And separately you need to flux the molten solution to separate out oxides and make sure there’s no voids or inclusions in the metal object.
That said, this is brilliant and could easily have huge impact in non structural applications or prototyping.
Would this device actually work out to be cheaper than a cnc machine milling out a solid alloy block?
For skletonized stuff, the reduced waste in raw materials might make it compelling. Those large solid blocks of quality material ain’t cheap.
I imagine the turnings are recycled
You can't mill internal cavities and other structures that are possible by additive manufacturing.
This isn’t really additive manufacturing though, it’s more like cnc casting if I understand correctly.