3D printing
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A969c1
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Fri May 03, 2013 9:11 am
3D printing
Would this be a viable option for any parts or components for us? I just saw where a guy made a .380 pistol with one of these things. I know plastic being the primary medium somewhat limits what you could make, but rendering a part and then printing it would beat the hell out of trolling ebay or CL.
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Piledriver
- Moderator
- Posts: 22777
- Joined: Sat Feb 16, 2002 12:01 am
Re: 3D printing
There are a lot of different plastics you could use though.
If all else fails, you could make the unobtanium part more or less to spec, mod to fit and use that as a core for casting.
The printer short circuits the long+expensive "make the prototype" part of the cycle in a major way.
If all else fails, you could make the unobtanium part more or less to spec, mod to fit and use that as a core for casting.
The printer short circuits the long+expensive "make the prototype" part of the cycle in a major way.
Addendum to Newtons first law:
zero vehicles on jackstands, square gets a fresh 090 and 1911, cabby gets a blower.
EZ3.6 Vanagon after that.(mounted, needs everything finished) then Creamsicle.
zero vehicles on jackstands, square gets a fresh 090 and 1911, cabby gets a blower.
EZ3.6 Vanagon after that.(mounted, needs everything finished) then Creamsicle.
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Devastator
- Posts: 3493
- Joined: Tue Nov 06, 2007 6:51 am
Re: 3D printing
Message Fusername on this forum. He has a 3d printer.
Devastator's Build Thread
Sandrail
2.4 liter, supercharged Chevy Ecotec
"If everything seems under control, you're just not
going fast enough."
Mario Andretti
Sandrail
2.4 liter, supercharged Chevy Ecotec
"If everything seems under control, you're just not
going fast enough."
Mario Andretti
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raygreenwood
- Posts: 11907
- Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2003 12:01 am
Re: 3D printing
Yes and no.
I have been having this same conversation with my employers and some other industry people right now. The engineers believe that in 2 years everything will be made by some 3-D printer (i, exaggerating of course). I find that those who think that this will all come about in short order...generally do not have that much real experience based knowledge with the materials at hand, current production techniques and the needs different products put on different materials.
Yes...as pile noted...there are quite a few plastics that can put through some of the better 3-D printers. Quite a few in the sense that there are more than a handful. Very few in the sense as compared to the vast range of major and subtle plastic alloys that industry actually uses.
Bear in mind a few things. Injection molded and cast parts have a specific grain structure, a specific surface pressure (depending on mold pressure, temperature and cooling cycle)....and due to these details and the high pressure aspect....very uniform lack of voids and bubbles and a very stable durometer (hardness).
In general...without excellent design and engineering....most "jetted" resins of a like plastic to an injection molded part will have nowhere near the tensile and shear strength. They may also not have the same density, weight and heat/cold stability. Inkjets put the resins down in micro-droplets based in picoliters (actually a bit larger for 3-D modelling inkjets). Because you need many, many, many layers of overlapping droplets to build up shape and size.....its not a smooth grain structure....but not exactly porous either.
However....as I noted....if you do enough work....and do enough testing...and understand your plastics and resins well enough.....it has been found that if during the design you change the orientation of the bed where you are building the part...strategically and by design....to orient the "grain" of the layers of resin micro droplets....you can in certain cases actually end up with a grain structure that is stronger than a cast or injection molded like part.
However.....the part with altered grain will generally not be as smooth and will most likely need finish machining to connect to something else.
Most of the engineers do not understand plastics that well...especially plastic parts that must then go into or through another process that adds heat, chemistry or pressure to them. Its not as simple as simply saying ...."look...I made it...its shaped like yours and made of the same plastic...so it must be the same".
This is not to mention the fact that colorants for most plastics are only required in 10ths of a percent. Every colorant or admixture changes the recipe and shrinkage rate and distortion radically.
Then you get into metal with EBM and other types of sintering for exotic alloys.....which can be fully usable and strong...and very expensive...and very slow to make...and still need to be engineered in order to work within the process. Not just a cranked out CAD drawing. Fantastic stuff and getting better every day.....just not yet a miracle. Ray
I have been having this same conversation with my employers and some other industry people right now. The engineers believe that in 2 years everything will be made by some 3-D printer (i, exaggerating of course). I find that those who think that this will all come about in short order...generally do not have that much real experience based knowledge with the materials at hand, current production techniques and the needs different products put on different materials.
Yes...as pile noted...there are quite a few plastics that can put through some of the better 3-D printers. Quite a few in the sense that there are more than a handful. Very few in the sense as compared to the vast range of major and subtle plastic alloys that industry actually uses.
Bear in mind a few things. Injection molded and cast parts have a specific grain structure, a specific surface pressure (depending on mold pressure, temperature and cooling cycle)....and due to these details and the high pressure aspect....very uniform lack of voids and bubbles and a very stable durometer (hardness).
In general...without excellent design and engineering....most "jetted" resins of a like plastic to an injection molded part will have nowhere near the tensile and shear strength. They may also not have the same density, weight and heat/cold stability. Inkjets put the resins down in micro-droplets based in picoliters (actually a bit larger for 3-D modelling inkjets). Because you need many, many, many layers of overlapping droplets to build up shape and size.....its not a smooth grain structure....but not exactly porous either.
However....as I noted....if you do enough work....and do enough testing...and understand your plastics and resins well enough.....it has been found that if during the design you change the orientation of the bed where you are building the part...strategically and by design....to orient the "grain" of the layers of resin micro droplets....you can in certain cases actually end up with a grain structure that is stronger than a cast or injection molded like part.
However.....the part with altered grain will generally not be as smooth and will most likely need finish machining to connect to something else.
Most of the engineers do not understand plastics that well...especially plastic parts that must then go into or through another process that adds heat, chemistry or pressure to them. Its not as simple as simply saying ...."look...I made it...its shaped like yours and made of the same plastic...so it must be the same".
This is not to mention the fact that colorants for most plastics are only required in 10ths of a percent. Every colorant or admixture changes the recipe and shrinkage rate and distortion radically.
Then you get into metal with EBM and other types of sintering for exotic alloys.....which can be fully usable and strong...and very expensive...and very slow to make...and still need to be engineered in order to work within the process. Not just a cranked out CAD drawing. Fantastic stuff and getting better every day.....just not yet a miracle. Ray