Chapter 406

As we all know, in nature, metals exist in a combined state, that is, they form so-called compounds.

Only those extremely inactive metals exist in the form of simple substances, such as gold, silver, platinum, palladium These precious metals are also known as inert metals because they are stable and difficult to react with other substances.

Therefore, most of the metals that human beings can obtain in nature are minerals in the form of compounds, which need to be smelted to obtain new metal elements.

However, the physical properties of pure metal are single, which often can not meet the needs of use.

For example, the well-known iron, in fact, pure iron is very soft. Only when it is combined with carbon to form an iron carbon alloy, can it have a hard texture.

According to this physical property, we can process the iron carbon alloy at different temperatures to obtain iron carbon alloy with different properties, which is commonly known as steel.

The history of using alloy is very long, which can be traced back to the ancient Babylonians more than 6000 years ago. They are the earliest known civilization that began to smelt bronze, that is, copper tin alloy.

In the Shang Dynasty more than 3000 years ago, the ancestors of Yan people had been smelting and using bronze on a large scale, and even could obtain sharp swords by forging and other processing methods.

The famous Yue King Gou Jian sword is still extremely sharp even after thousands of years. It can cut more than ten layers of paper with one stroke.

So in human life, alloy can be said to be everywhere.

But it's still very difficult to print alloys with 3D printing.

First of all, theoretically speaking, this can be done, because the definition of alloy is a kind of solid product with metal properties obtained by mixing and melting one metal with another or several metals or nonmetals, cooling and solidification.

Therefore, to print alloys by 3D printing, in theory, we only need to mix the elemental raw materials of metals according to the required ratio, and then process them by laser to obtain the required alloys.

But it's not easy to do that.

First of all, the mixing of metal powder must be very uniform in the overall proportion of raw materials for each sintering. Otherwise, the metal proportion will produce errors, and the printed material performance will also have problems, which will damage the overall structure of the printed product.

Before the disaster, Bluestar had laser 3D printing technology, and even someone printed a set of iron man armor with titanium metal, which can resist rifle fire.

But this is in the closed equipment will be covered with metal powder only about 0.1 mm or even a few microns of a layer, and then laser sintering in the area to be printed.

So repeatedly, layer by layer after sintering, the parts can be printed out.

In this process, if there is airflow disturbance, it will directly blow away the unfired metal powder.

For the time being, it is difficult to print large parts and alloys due to the harsh conditions.

If only the powder particles that have been processed into alloys are sintered, it is naturally very simple, but it is not so easy to process metals with different elements into alloys.

Because a very important factor here is the temperature.

Sintering is to process at a temperature slightly lower than the melting point of the material, so that the powder particles are bonded. However, it is obviously impossible to process different materials into alloys only by sintering.

What's more, if we want to obtain some special alloys, the processing temperature is even much higher than the melting point of the material, and we need to maintain the temperature for a certain period of time to make the material properties change fully.

And these are exactly what 3D printing technology is now difficult to achieve.

But these are not problems for Chen Xin. He can melt the single metal powder particles with laser, mix different metal elements together to form an alloy, and then cool and sinter the alloy to become the required parts. All the 3D printers he makes can do it.

And Chen Xin's 3D printer doesn't print through a fixed frame and print head like traditional equipment, but looks like a small robot.

A small robot carries part of the raw materials, melts them into alloy according to the pre-designed procedure, and then prints them.

When there are enough robots, a large part can be printed quickly.

The inspiration of this technology comes from some science fiction games, in which the so-called nano robots are often used to make objects through 3D printing, which Chen Xin learned from.

It's just that he didn't make the robot that small, but made it into a small UAV.

After he agreed to make a small prototype for the engineers and technicians, Chen Xin quickly finished the prototype through the worktable and manipulator in the shelter, and also upgraded it."This It's amazing Engineers and technicians can't help but wonder when this small 3D printing robot like UAV prints out a miniature model of the Eiffel Tower in front of their eyes.

"This is the small prototype of 3D printing equipment. According to the actual needs, it can be bigger or smaller. The size at present is more common in various occasions." Chen Xin showed the prototype of the 3D printing equipment while introducing it: "it can carry about two kilograms of raw materials at a time. It can be processed alloy powder or a mixture of metal powder. It can be printed online by multiple equipment to print the required large metal components."

"With this, building construction will be much easier!" Engineers and technicians have begun to imagine hundreds of such 3D printing robots working at the same time, making buildings grow like bamboo shoots in the ground.

"Well, it's not only for building construction, it can also be used for mechanical manufacturing and metal processing. The advantage of using 3D printing is that the printing accuracy is enough, the printed metal parts don't even need to be processed, and no matter how strange the shape you need, it can be realized for 3D printing." Looking at the excited look of the engineering and technical personnel, Chen Xin said with a smile: "for some fields that need high-precision parts, this is very useful."

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