Replies to post #78193 on Liquidmetal Technologies Inc (LQMT)

[iateclube]

Yes 3D printing does present a dream fulfillment for BMG, but have you noticed that all the 3D printing companies have crashed in value and that 3d Printing of liquid metal is far far away, according to everything we know about cooling, size, and so on, it may never happen
at least in time to save this company.

[longinus]

I know there are patents in CIP that detail 3D printing of parts from BMG but I haven't read them yet. Is there a fusion step after 3d printing to strengthen the part? Tricky part to fuse without creating crystalline areas in the finished part.

There was some discussion of this here a couple of months ago. We have patents filed that describe the concept of 3D printing of BMG, but they don't seem to present a solution to the inevitable problem of boundary crystallization with additive deposition.

My thought was that perhaps if the entire process were carried out in an isothermic, specially formulated neutral buoyancy gallium or molten salt bath just above the solidus temperature, the part could be printed with viscous alloy, then "flash frozen" when finished. There also seems to be quite a bit of progress with electron beam welding without crystallization, so perhaps that is enabling tech for 3D printing, as well.