RE: Was it just a dream...

From: Brent Stucker (stucker@egr.uri.edu)
Date: Mon Feb 02 1998 - 16:22:00 EET


That's not entirely correct (see below for context of this reply). The work you
are talking about was performed as my Ph.D. research. We didn't use any
plating techniques. What we did was to process polymer-coated zirconium
diboride powders in an SLS machine, debind the polymer and infiltrate with
copper. This created a ZrB2/Cu part (Zyrkon) that has EDM electrode
properties far superior to conventional graphite and/or copper electrodes.
That work is now on-going at the University of Rhode Island under my direction.
The note I just wrote to the rp-ml about automatic CNC tool path generation
is part of the effort to make these electrodes more accurate. (This is part of
the focus of the Rapid Manufacturing Center--RMC--that Doug VanPutte
wrote about yesterday.)

If you have any questions about EDM electrodes from RP, or the RMC, feel free
to contact me at your convenience.

Brent Stucker

_________________________________________________
Dr. Brent Stucker
Assistant Professor
University of Rhode Island
Dept. of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Gilbreth Hall, 2 East Alumni Ave.
Kingston, RI 02881
ph: (401)874-5187
fax: (401)874-5540
stucker@egr.uri.edu
web: http://www.egr.uri.edu/ime

----------
From: Jack Feng[SMTP:cjf7@psu.edu]
Sent: Monday, February 02, 1998 8:23 AM
To: rp-ml@bart.lpt.fi
Subject: Re: Was it just a dream...

Henri,

It is not a dream.

Professor Walter Bradley and his colleagues in the Mechanical and Chemical
Eng. Depts. of Texas A & M University have done plating by selective laser
sintering polymer coated powders of zirconium of EDM electrodes.

Regards,

Jack Feng
Penn State Berks-Lehigh Valley College, U.S.A.

>Henri Koukka wrote:
>>
>> ...or did I see an article somewhere about using plated SLA-part as an
>> EDM-electrode. If I remember correct it could be used for making cavities
>> approx. 1 inch deep. If you know something about this, please let me know.
>>
>> Henri Koukka
>> Research assistant
>> Helsinki University of Technology /
>> Lahti Centre
>> e-mail: koukka@ltk.hut.fi
>
>For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/
>
>

For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/

For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jun 05 2001 - 22:44:48 EEST