Researchers Create Gold Aluminum, Black Platinum, Blue Silver

[ARKM]

Pardon me if this is old news to all of you but I found this cool article for coloring metal using a laser. If it ever becomes mainstream, it could be an alternative to powder-coating or anodizing.

http://www.rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=3106

[Rafalema]

Wonder how much one of those machines cost..

But this is very nice.

[gundamaniac]

That is SWEET. Between the natural silvery color of most metals and the process's capability to turn metal golden and black, that covers all the most popular hilt colors. Would be great if this process became widespread and cheap enough that it wouldn't cost a fortune to color a hilt.

Imagine printing weathering onto a saber using the laser coloring technique.

[Darth Zion]

photoshop would become a bigger part of building a saber with this tech.

[Novastar]

Pretty incredible... :)

[djobitwan7]

That was a great find ARKM. Seems like it can be controlled incredibly well too. Red here, Gold there. Wait! Get that wonderful Sideous prismatic color.

[FenderBender]

That is WAY cool, and it's other applications are mindblowing. Though I suspect it's at least a decade away from commercialized use.

[xl97]

photoshop would become a bigger part of building a saber with this tech.

why?.......

[Jedi-Loreen]

I was wondering the same thing, when I read that post.

[ArkaiHalon]

why?.......

most table top lasers (like mine) are driven from graphics program such as photoshop or corel. The laser is really nothing more than a printer that uses a laser instead of ink. To do the patterns or designs that others have said or are thinking would require an image to be lasered onto the material.

[xl97]

so can you take any image (raster/bitmap).. or do they need to be vector based?

does it convert to vector?

[ArkaiHalon]

Speaking for my machine, I CAN use raster images. They don't size as well as vector (obviously), so I prefer to only use them on when I don't have to adjust the size. I do have a program that can convert raster to vector.

[Rhyen Skytracker]

I hope the technology will soon become available to us and be reasonably priced.

[Thaxos]

"He now believes it's possible to alter the properties of any metal to turn it any color—even multi-colored iridescence like a butterfly's wings."
That would be pretty crazy
Very interesting technology...

[Obi-Dar Ke-Gnomie]

Maybe we can convince Tim to offer this as a TCSS service.

;-)

[Sunrider]

Until they can do this with a laser that doesn't use 1.2 gigawatts per femto second methinks it won't be economical for commercial use.;)

[acerocket]

Bah. What you want is Direct Metal Laser Sintering. Rapid prototyping, but with metal instead of plastic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW-2xaIDtMk

http://www.morristech.com/dmls.asw

[Blue Fox]

Ooooh you have a laser :D

.... does it etch?

[TimeRender]

Until they can do this with a laser that doesn't use 1.2 gigawatts per femto second methinks it won't be economical for commercial use.;)

Did you read the article closely?

"Fortunately, despite the incredible intensity involved, the femtosecond laser can be powered by a simple wall outlet, meaning that when the process is refined, implementing it should be relatively simple."

Didn't see anything about 1.2 gigawatts...

[FenderBender]

Bah. What you want is Direct Metal Laser Sintering. Rapid prototyping, but with metal instead of plastic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW-2xaIDtMk

http://www.morristech.com/dmls.asw

Now THAT is cool, I didn't know this tech had progressed to metal. Is this the next Orbital Machining tool Ace;)

[Skottsaber]

It would be awesome to have your hilt one color and then with a turn of the wrist it becomes another... you could have a Jedi / Sith design going all on one saber!

[Jordandau]

It would be awesome to have your hilt one color and then with a turn of the wrist it becomes another... you could have a Jedi / Sith design going all on one saber!


It would be, but this process uses the laser to burn designs into the metal so that it either absorbs or reflects light at different wavelengths. They also said it takes 30 minutes to work on a piece the size of a dime.

[xl97]

maybe we can get out thumbscrews done!!!!

[Skottsaber]

It would be, but this process uses the laser to burn designs into the metal so that it either absorbs or reflects light at different wavelengths. They also said it takes 30 minutes to work on a piece the size of a dime.

I mean have the hilt two different colors depending where you look.


The result is a piece of metal that can appear solid purple from one direction, and gray from another, or multiple colors all at once.

[Jordandau]

Ok, that makes more sense.

[TimeRender]

In the meantime if you wanted that effect you could try those chameleon car paints.