OpenSLS Laser Sintering 3D Printer Made From Hacked Laser Cutter

Rice University bioengineering researchers have hacked a cheap Chinese CO2 laser cutter into a low(er)-cost laser sintering 3d printer and used it to produce fine objects such as liver structures. They claim it can be made under 10000 USD.

Materials used on it are nylon, sand, Candelilla wax, polycaprolactone (PCL) and other. 

Since there is a 40-80 W of laser energy, they use custom build inter gas module to prevent burining of the material.  

They have also made it open source, which deserves some gratitude from the community! Thank you Rice team! Sharing is caring!

Here is the short presentation video:




Here is the powder distribution mechanism in action:



Project has a very detailed and extensive documentation well worth reading if you are interested in laser sintering and bioprinting.

GitHub with all the files:

https://github.com/MillerLabFTW/OpenSLS

Rice Uni news article:

http://news.rice.edu/2016/02/22/modified-laser-cutter-prints-3-d-objects-from-powder/

Ver detailed RepRapWiki page:

http://reprap.org/wiki/OpenSLS

Detailed PLOS research paper:

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0147399

If you want to make something similar, do keep in mind that lasers are dangerous, and nylon powder and simillar micro-powder materials are flammable and can also go KA-BOOM. Stay safe kids.

Here is the photo gallery: