Problem Statement:
Jewelry manufactures currently use SLA 3D printers to create molds for investment casting. Unfortunately, there are several steps between 3D printing a resin positive and the production of the mold.
Solution:
I designed a binder-jet 3D printer that uses a cylindrical coordinate system to rapidly print a sand mold. It prints a single helical layer of powder and binder that spirals upwards. The idea was it would be faster and cheaper than traditional binder-jet because it prints in a single, uninterrupted process.
Project milestones: 1st place 2020 NVC competition
Funding: $10,000
Status: Incomplete
Obstacles:
I was new to thinking about startups and instead of thinking about what the costumer needed, I was very committed to the initial idea and how I wanted to implement it. I wanted to using sodium silicate as the binder, because that's what I had experience with, and I wanted to use a very long, proprietary printhead that was sold by HP and used in their binder-jet printers. Both of these requirements were limiting and ultimately we ran out of money trying to make them work. If I could do it again, I would be more flexible and choose a well-tested binder and printhead combination.
