Reply To: Fusion Oil

[Aeronaut]

Henning wrote: There’s another technique called “Electron Beam Melting” (EBM): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_beam_melting

It’s done in vacuum, so no corrosion problem with air.

And they already tested it with Beryllium (that is AlBeMet): http://www.arcam.com/technology/ebm-materials.aspx

But still only one material.

Outstanding! Now we can optimize for both modes- thermal or electric with rapid prototyping tools to test all the ratio and geometry variations.

The laser sintering demo flick that I looked at yesterday showed a machine that was optimized for prototyping, rather than serial production. Seems that it would be relatively easy to add robotic material feeds and masks, since its all controlled from a CAD drawing.

I goofed yesterday when I said using a few DPFs to make superheated steam was ridiculous. It turns out to be the most cost-effective way to deploy FF. Considering that Rematog conservatively estimated it would take 100 FFs to repower just one of his 3 boilers using 5MW FFs, the entire 1.6GW project would cost around $300M before engineering studies and structural modifications if you plan to re-use the existing building.

Now, if as few as 2, or as many as 60 thermally-optimized FFs can make that much superheated steam, we gain at least a 5:1 price advantage over last year’s price estimates, which also risk being too cheap for credibility. Looks like I have to learn about superheated steam and once-through boilers this week.

Update- ArCam works with many materials, although they’re still certifying the more popular metals. But if you click their auxiliary equipment tab, you’ll see what looks like a sandblast cabinet and read that the powder is blasted onto the surface. That implies a screw-type industrial air compressor and poor control over each layer. Still, it’s nice to know about. Could be a great way to build cathodes en masse.