Hello All,
I recently received my first gold plated SS model and the goal of this model was to evaluate whether or not it may be possible that this method of manufacturing could successfully produce a particular class of parts. Generally, I'm encouraged by the print. There are a number of features that were very important and were produced accurately enough for functional prototyping use. In particular, the bolting pattern on the flanges as seen in the first attached photo were particularly impressive considering the method of production.
However, I ran into one defect that renders the part unusable for the desired application. As seen in the first picture, this structure has two flanges. These flanges need to be flat. In the received print, one of the two flanges is perfect. It's perfectly flat. However, the second has a huge amount of curvature. Please refer to the second picture, labeled as "Flange 1.jpg". As seen when placed next to a ruler, there is ~ 2 mm of curvature deviation across the face (the middle touches the rule, both edges are ~ 0.5-1 mm away).
Since one of the flanges is perfect, I would tend to think that this effect could only be caused during the brass infusion part of the process. I.E. when the part is being packed with powder perhaps it wasn't properly supported? As if the powder was just dumped on top of it as opposed to being pushed in from the sides. I could forsee such a method to cause this part warping.
All design rules as far as I could tell were upheld. All walls were at least 3 mm thick.
Can anyone think of a reason for why this deviation would occur? Any thoughts on how I should address this in the model?