14 DAY TRIAL // 3D printers that can create items out of metal, like steel and titanium, aren't unheard of, but the technique they rely on is dangerous and expensive. A teenager believes he can offer an alternative.
Selective layer sintering, the technique normally employed by metal 3D printers, melts metal powder layer by layer by means of a specialized laser.
Sagar Govani, a 17-year-old teenager from Virginia, has come up with an approach that mimics the way FDM (fused deposition modeling) plastic printers work.
Basically, he uses a metal filament, like a spring, instead of powder, and an electronically heated coil to melt it, while a nozzle deposits it layer by layer.
The solder he is using right now is a mix of antimony tin and selenium. He's trying to find out how to make the filament stronger while giving it a melting point lower than the current 274 degrees C / 274 525 degrees F.
After he refines his invention a bit, Govani intends to post a Kickstarter campaign that would fund his creation via crowd investments. Not sure when the campaign will go online though.
Hopefully not long. After all, the price of $150 / €150 is more than promising (he says he can produce his printer for $75 / €75).