The application of 3d printing that impressed me was making combustion chambers for Rolls Royce jet engines. Lasers used to fuse metal powder into complex internal forms not achievable with standard technologies. This was for production, not prototyping.
That is definitely impressive.
I guess I miss industry more than I realized.
@the same mountainbike: The tech has already evolved such that you can model something and print it that way. In fact, we have a 3-D scanner that can model an existing part, turn it into a multi-layered drawing, then it can be fed into a 3D printer to make either a direct part or a mold. Voila, instant copy of something, with only a few tweaks necessary to make it all work.
Is your machine capable of creating thin walled items in deliverable-product materials?
When I saw this process many years ago it could create great detail, but not out of finished-product materials.
It may even evolve to the point where computer models will download straight to the printer,
Has been that way for awhile. We send CAD models in native or STEP format direct to the machine software for interpretation and printing. No different than CNC machines working on castings or billet materials…
TT, you’re right of course. I don’t know why I even said that. It was a dumb statement. {
@the same mountainbike: I’m not sure what the minimum thinness is that it can print without the product being too flimsy/brittle to use. It is never used for this purpose in our applications for it. It is normally used for mock-ups of parts no smaller than your thumb, and that don’t have a very intricate structure, at least as far as really small details go. Most of these are used to produce molds for RP.
This technology is great for molds. The casting house I mentioned earlier also has cut costs and improved their relationships with their customers significantly by creating prototypes with the machine and sending them to the customer prior to beginning mold creation. I has eliminated a lot of change orders (tweaks) that so often require new molds and wasted materials, and the customers love the feature too. The company also is better able to make design change recommendations to the customers to reduce the costs of the molding of the parts.
It’s great technology. Having now seen two companies make “tub” bodies for cars using it, both 4-seaters, makes my blood rush. The times they are a-changing.
Some of what little TV programming I watch involves programs showing how things are made. I’ve always been utterly fascinated by industrial machinery and love to see it in action even if it’s a blur in real time.
Some years back I took a tour of the logistics center at Tinker AFB and the machinery was mind boggling.
They’ve got enclosed robotic welders where various gasses are used to control the environment inside the cabinet and it’s fascinating that a razor blade can be snapped in half and welded back together with a precision bead that is almost microscopic.
Took a tour of a fruit juice cannery once and it was amazing to watch all of that metal moving in harmony. They even gave a case of grapefruit or orange juice to everyone…
This "printable gun" issue has raised serious issues. The program was offered on the internet (I don't know if it's been removed) and law enforcement agencies went ballistic, including the NSA. It would completely and totally eliminate the possibility of traceability of firearms.
Meh…it’s not anything that couldn’t have been done for a century with common metalworking tools. If anything, it’s less of a “bang for buck” (literally!) than doing it the old fashioned way.
P.S. Does that printed gun have a rifled barrel? If not, it’s just an overpriced zip gun.
I’m not sure what the minimum thinness is that it can print without the product being too flimsy/brittle to use.
That, of course, depends on the material. We recently built prototype housings with a board retention feature (snap clip) that is on the order of 0.035". The “clip” had a built in slope of 5 degrees of draft. The allowable bend radius of the clip was on the order of 15 degrees.
You can “print” virtually anything if you choose the right machine and material.