Science Nation: Additive Manufacturing: 3-D Printing Beyond Plastic

Geometric block with holes. Caption: It's time to print something, well, a lot harder: metal.

At Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Christopher Williams heads the effort to further advance 3-D printing with copper, a widely used conductor in electronics. Williams is using a process called binder jetting in which an inkjet printer selectively jets glue into a bed of copper powder, layer-by-layer. The printed copper product is then taken to a furnace to fuse the particles together. With support from the National Science Foundation, Williams is addressing a major challenge in the 3-D copper printing process, which is to eliminate the porosity that develops in the part during the process. Part of the National Science Foundation Series “Science Nation.”

(Source: DCMP)

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  • Science Nation: Additive Manufacturing: 3-D Printing Beyond Plastic

    Type:
    Video
    Format:
    Streaming
    Accommodations:
    English Audio Descriptions - Visual, English Captions - Auditory
    Languages:
    English
    License:
    DCMP Membership
    Author:
    National Science Foundation
    Length:
    3 minutes