Can you use solder in a 3D printer?

[untitled86]

From what I've read, Sn63Pb37 solder melts between 182 and 183 degrees. Why can't you put something like that in a 3D printer instead of ABS, etc. ...Of course I'm asking because I'd like to know if I can draw/print a PCB

[cassetti]

Depends, have you ever seen SN63Pb37 in 1.75mm diameter? 2 issues, first, the fumes would be EXTREMELY hazardous, second, I don't think solder would be stiff enough for the extruder to properly feed the material.

I've seen two different low-voltage conductive plastics hit the market in the past 6 months for 3D printers. The conductive plastic can be used as tracers within a print (dual extruder setups), it can also be used to print connection terminals for plugs, and most interesting, I've even heard it can be used as a capacitive touch interface. I haven't personally played with these filaments - but I think they are your best bet for now.

[Polygonhell]

There have been attempts to print circuit boards using solder, the results were pretty rudimentary, it's apparently difficult to control the flow, at least one of the versions I saw used two heads, one to print plastic valleys, the second to fill it with solder.
There are certainly many easier ways to make a PCB.
On the conductive plastics, most of them should be called "resistive" plastics they tend to have very high resistance.

[Jimustanguitar]

You probably couldn't just print a trace on something by replacing the filament. But I bet you could bridge the eyelets on a prototyping board like this one http://www.futurlec.com/Pictures/EXPBRD.jpg Solder likes to flow into things more than it likes to stick to itself.

I'm sure you could design an extruder (definitely not a bowden style), but the hard part would be making the solder flow start and stop. Solder doesn't have much of a plastic state (when it's gooey) like ABS and PLA do. It would be like printing with water, I think it would bead up and surface tension would clump it together. Maybe you'd need a chilled bed?

For prototyping, you could print plastic over the copper board and then photo or chemically etch it (using the 3d printed layer as a mask). Have you tried that?

[Jimustanguitar]

You could use a syringe extruder and solder paste. Then just bake it to fuse everything when you're done... I wonder how that would work.

[untitled86]

What about just printing the valleys then using a spackle blade to fill them with solder paste?

[halley]

What about just printing the valleys then using a spackle blade to fill them with solder paste?

A guy named Jerrill just posted a proof of concept for this technique. He makes his own nozzles down to 0.1mm, and recently made a little 555 chip PCB with valleys for traces. He then used a "circuit ink" pen and filled the valleys. For low-duty circuits this probably works okay, but for anything that you couldn't make in 1970 circuit technology is still a ways off.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCzmQLZKNA8[/youtube]

[agonnella]

how about the company camt? I think they started making it.

[626Pilot]

On the conductive plastics, most of them should be called "resistive" plastics they tend to have very high resistance.

Yeah, the one I saw on YouTube yesterday was 100 ohms per centimeter. They called it "conductive"

I think for printing solder you'd need a wax nozzle (featuring full flow shutoff) or a direct-mount extruder with really long retraction settings. That might work if you tuned it just right. I don't know how resistive solder is, though. Tin and lead so maybe not as good as copper. I just don't know how much worse. Might not matter at all. What I do know is that the existing "conductive" ABS filament is useless for most purposes.

I did see a guy using chemical wizardry to create a conductive ink using copper nanoparticles. The process is lengthy but it looks like you could do it for a reasonable price. The copper particles have to be sintered by hitting it with a xenon strobe a few times. I think the question is how much copper you can mix into filament before it stops wanting to extrude or remain cohesive. Might be better to just print a circuit onto paper or plastic film, sinter, and sandwich it into a 3D printed enclosure.

[homerjay]

people have inkjetted solder bumps for C4 type chip bonding for 10+ years.
http://www.microfab.com/archive/about/p ... jmep98.htm
http://iopscience.iop.org/0960-1317/19/12/125021

[Lochemage]

This one is interesting: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ele ... -instantly

A conductive pen that doesn't require you to shake or squeeze the material out, also it only resists 20 ohms.

[626Pilot]

They say 50-100 milliohms of conductivity per square mil but I don't know how that turns into ohms of resistance at a given length and trace width. However it does look like I could just put it in a pen holder.