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Major Advance in 3D Metal Printing
I just got emails about this earlier today. I have no idea on the cost (I’m waiting for my rep to quote it) and it won’t be released for sale until 2018, but if this tech works out then we’re looking at a truly massive breakthrough in affordable (for businesses anyway, not yet consumers) 3D metal printing. Probably still out of the price range for my business, but this is a significant move towards affordable 3D printing of high-quality metal parts.
First up we have a desktop (really benchtop) metal printing system. Nothing like this has been out before.
Next up we have a high-volume version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUOCiRktuCo
The second video demonstrates the mass printing of an impeller, with an estimated cost of under $5.00 a part. If they are correct, that is a very affordable price.
Amazing.
Published in Technology
There is a lot of coverage of 3D printing at the GE blog…the company does see significant applications beyond prototyping, and is now making jet engine fuel nozzles with 3Dp, eliminating assembly steps allowing considerably more design flexibility.
One recent post here:
http://www.ge.com/reports/mind-meld-ge-3d-printing-visionary-joined-forces/
The vacuum tube was invented in 1904. Hot, fragile power-sucks. It took 40+ years to come up with the transistor. They are only getting started.
It all depends on the printer. The low end ones have an OK resolution, but you can see that they have a rough finish. The higher up the printer line you go, the better the resolution and the greater variety of materials you can get. This is the one we have:
http://www.stratasys.com/3d-printers/idea-series/mojo
It has a minimum layer thickness of 0.007″
But you go up to this:
http://www.stratasys.com/3d-printers/production-series/stratasys-j750
And you are down to a 14 micron resolution.
Actually that’s been the standard way to do it, it’s just really slow.
At the ConEx show in Vegas this year I watched a robotic welder that could “print” very very large metal parts, layer by layer by slowly welding up a structure. It was extremely slow, but you had a very strong part (albeit with a rough finish) at the end.
So I take it manufacturing auto parts to spec is a fair ways off with 3D printing?
Depends on the part. Plastics? Already there for short run parts and specialty replacement parts. Metal parts? Depends on the expected duty cycle of the part.
See here, for instance:
And here:
Tolerances are typically a bit worse than traditional methods. How much worse depends on the specific method. The video looked like a sintered thermoplastic method, so I doubt you can get tolerances below a tenth or two of a milimeter.
Wow.
You can’t ignore the most important development in 3d printing – chocolate.
To all the naysayers out there or those that feel like lecturing on how 3d printing will “never” replace traditional manufacturing…..just remember never is a very long time.
That’s outstanding actually. Thanks.
Skip says you can get to 14 microns. If I’m doing my conversion correctly, that’s .0014 mm. That’s millimeters, not inches.
Edit. Wrong decimal place. That’s .014 mm. That’s nothing special. OK, high tolerencing is not a plus.
Psst! .014 mm. Still, it isn’t bad.
LOL, yeah I caught it myself. It’s not bad but CNC machines do that easily.
Good enough for a lot of jobs though.
There are some medical grade machines too. Those invisalign braces? They’re all printed to order.
I think my dentist prints certain types of filling, too.
Inlays and onlays probably.
Yeah, I can see how having a 3D printer handy is beneficial there. Quick turn arounds and odd geometries.
Crowns are another big one. Not having to get a temporary account and come back for a second appointment is pretty awesome.
Both. You could use a 3D printer to make one time use plastic 20 oz cup lids. But why would you?
Currently, there are a few really good uses for short-run 3D printing.
At least one small audio equipment manufacturer put the CAD for several of their parts (knobs and such) out for free. That way, if a customer breaks or loses a piece, they can get a new one reasonably fast (if they have access to a 3D printer, of course).
Replacement parts for outdated machines? Oh, yeah. Not that many gadgets really need top-spec toughness. Knobs, cases, brackets… a whole lot of things that make up our things can easily be made of relatively weak plastics and metals.
The thing that will really kick off 3D printing as a broad-use tech is ready availability of free/cheap CAD files. There are a few sites that host that sort of thing, but they’ll be as ubiquitous as photo-sharing sites in a few years.
I’ve had a mania for taking stuff apart since I was a small child, especially plastic stuff (I find it fascinating). And let me tell you, having decent plastics does make a difference. Injection-molded engineering plastics are so much tougher and nicer.
That said, I have printed several replacement parts in the past year. But not everything that brakes has been amiable to 3D printing. Sometimes I cast stuff out of resin, other times I use polymer clay.
It’s already been 30 years, though. That’s like saying consumer sewing machines will replace the textiles industry. They each have their place.
From your loathe America post. Don’t mean to divert (I got another comment coming up on actual fabbers), but:
I love this country with a breadth, depth, and density that is neither scale-able nor negotiable, and mostly (for me, ’cause I always end up crying like a [CoC]) indescribable. But this country is well worth loving. I grew up a TCK, so ‘pon my return to the US of A, I had to compare and contrast what I saw in the US with what I’d grown up with. I fell in love. And do so over and over again.
We have sharp, jagged, ragged differences about what our body politic should do, is doing, will do. But as passionate (or histrionic/vitriolic/venomized) as our public discourse has been, you would be hard pressed to find any countries that have handled it as well as we have, at any point in history.
Was going to post a post (that’s either really good writing, or really bad) on The Things That Bring Me Joy. I was headed home and transitioned from the Dixie Highway to the Overseas Highway.
I saw a kid, pumping hard on a bike, back-pack on, long hair flowing in the wind, with a crazy grin on his face.
I love this country because, as bitter as our internecine disputes are, no one is looking to trash that kid’s bike, or hack his arm off with a machete, or execute him because of national politics, state politics, or municipal politics. I love this country.
I worked with a guy named Sar. He had an amazing “tattoo” of silvered flesh from the knuckles of his hand up to his shoulder. Kind of like how hipsters get sleeve tattoos without even knowing who they are, except not. Counter-sniper fire had hit his arm and traveled up; the result was glistening, silvery scars. He earned those amazing scars whilst serving as a sniper. At the age of 13.
Sar willingly tied his fate and destiny to the United States. Has put his life on the line for these United States again, and again, and again. He exemplifies diversity, patriotism and love of liberty.
That’s why I love these United States, and will never loathe us. Or US.
Compared to plain ABS from a printer? Yeah.
But there are some newer and better printer plastics out there, and some of them are quite strong. PLA is what, 2.5 times the strength of ABS? The only issue would be getting that slick finish you get from injection molding, and for the vast majority of uses, that’s certainly not critical. I’d much rather have a not-as-perfect but perfectly functional item in my hand in a few minutes than a somewhat nicer one that I have to spend a day making – or a couple of days waiting for a shipment from the manufacturer.
If you need even higher strength, there’s always nylon-carbon fiber. Right now, it’s mostly for the more expensive printers, but give it time. It’s nice looking, and pretty damned strong – approaching machined aluminum in raw strength.
Absolutely, but a heckuva lot of good stuff got made to tolerances of .0006 inches which is about what 14 µ is.
Heck, if I’m careful, I can do .001″ on my hand-crank manual mill, 25µm.
Aside from a few parts in my computers and the finicky bits of my firearms, I don’t think there’s a lot of stuff in my house that needs that sort of tolerance to work…
I’ll stick with tinfoil. It fits anything.
What would be really cool would be to have men’s clothes that fit again instead of one or two sizes that fit all, badly. I’ve often wondered why we don’t have it already.