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The importance of 3D printing with quartz sand is still significantly underestimated
So far, anyone who thinks of 3D printing has rarely thought of quartz sand. Quartz sand is traditionally used in glass production as well as in the manufacture of ceramics, in glass fibers as brake sand or in the chemical industry.
3D printing with quartz sand allows huge installation spaces
The raw material quartz sand, which is available in almost unlimited quantities worldwide, has long since passed its test as a 3D printing material. The one used in 3D printing quartz sand Furan direct binding-(=FDB-) process is particularly impressive because of the huge installation spaces that are possible. With a construction space size of 4 x 2 x 1 meter (apart from 3D printing houses), hardly any currently available 3D printing process can keep up.
The ones that can be realized with quartz sand sand molds are not least appreciated by architects. Designers use quartz sand 3D printing to create individual furniture (not least because of the above-mentioned large installation spaces). Other areas of application include aerospace and the restoration of buildings and furnishings.
Phenolic resin binders should enable further advances in 3D printing with quartz sand
Another area of application for 3D printing with quartz sand was presented to an interested audience at EuroMold 2014 (in Frankfurt am Main, November 25-28, 2014). Specifically, this involves the production of ceramic molds with the help of phenolic resin binders. The specially developed for this purpose “Phenolic Direct Binding Process” According to the developers, it should enable 3D prints of incredibly high resolution and precision and bring decisive improvements over previous sand printing processes in terms of strength and sand recycling.
Germany is the third largest quartz sand producer in the world
Incidentally, after the USA (24.9%) and Slovenia (10.9%), Germany is the third largest quartz sand producer in the world. With a production volume of 11.4 million tons, our country (as of 2003) reached a share of 7.7% of the world quartz sand production. In particular, Uhry (in the south-east of Lower Saxony) and Haltern am See (in the Münsterland) can be mentioned as typical German production areas for quartz sand. The quartz sand is mined by mining from geologically young to very young loose sediments.
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