SLS machine

A project log for open-hardware transparent polygon scanner

laser scanner which uses transparent instead of reflective polygon

HexastormHexastorm 02/27/2019 at 21:430 Comments

With several industrial parties, I have discussed the possibilities of the Hexastorm in laser sintering, in specific powders.
Single mode laser diodes are expensive in the IR range. High power laser diodes are typically multi-mode. A possible supplier is . The diodes have a wavelength of  1 micrometer and a power between 3 and 7 W. It's assumed their price is in the order of 1K euro. You can pulse them at 20MHZ so they are suited for laser scanning. A problem is that these fibers are multi-mode lasers so the spot will not be so nice. The fibers have a diameter of 50 and 100 micron for 3 and 7 W respectively. I spoke to an expert and a spot of 100 micron should therefore be feasible as it is a 1 on 1 projection and the numerical aperture is not compressed a lot.
EOS spends uses a  galvo system and C02 laser and the power is between 40W and 80W. EOS has a minimum feature size of 0.5 mm. Formlabs uses a fiberlaser with a galvo and something like 5-10W power. Hexastorm could provide that with one module.
To provide a viable commercial alternative for EOS, you can use 25 modules in parallel.
You would have a power of 75W or 175W. If we assume the price per module is 2K euro the total price would be 50K euro. You would also need a translation axis which is assumed to cost 5K euro.