Amazing!
7.45 minute video
Amazing!
7.45 minute video
that will come in very as very useful, especially that the parts come out in working condition.
scaling up a little will also solve some of Madame Tussaud's problems
"I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting, but it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously." Douglas Adams
Not really ground breaking news, but nice, what i really want is the RP machine. SLA or SLS would be nice i'd love to be able to make my 3Ds.
Last edited by ruim20; 03-13-2009 at 07:39 AM.
"Religious belief is the “path of least resistance”, says Boyer, while disbelief requires effort."
its also crazy expensive, the its thousands of dollars for something that most of the time may not be functional, and for anything that has some strength to it it'll be even more....
University of Toronto Formula SAE Alumni 2003-2007
Formula Student Championship 2003, 2005, 2006
www.fsae.utoronto.ca
I was looking for a DIY 3d scanner a couple years ago and stumbled upon DAVID 3D Scanner which I think would let you scale it up or down in CAD software and then CNC or 3d print the part after you've modified it to your liking.
So if you had a laser level, video camera, a pc, a corner, and a reprap, you could have your own similar setup for much much cheaper.
"I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting, but it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously." Douglas Adams
I got to play with some of those parts at last year's Interbike when Dimension had a booth. The resolution of the parts is really impressive compared to earlier printers, and the fact that you can print a set of gears that come out in working order is just neat.
..and there's always the $2750 Fab@Home kit Main Page - Fab @ Home
Turning money into memories.
I am talking about rapid prototyping technique in general...they have their place because even if the parts are expensive, it'll be cheaper than screwing up the whole batch of mass production parts and find out that it doesn't work. But on consumer level, unless you are someone like Leno, its not necessarily cheap to go that route.
University of Toronto Formula SAE Alumni 2003-2007
Formula Student Championship 2003, 2005, 2006
www.fsae.utoronto.ca
It really depends on the end user. The department I work in has the same Dimension SST 1200 3D printer. For small quantities it can be either significantly cheaper or faster to use the 3D printer. I built a metal prototype that cost $10,000 for seven fab parts. That would have been about $25 worth of plastic on the 3D printer. The printer only cost around $25,000 so you don’t need to be doing mass production for it to be a good investment.
Also rapid prototypes are invaluable in early design for ‘show-and-tell’. When people can touch and hold something it seems to help them understand the design much better than looking at pictures.
Not to mention the plastic is fairly robust (no one expects it to be fully functional) and you can always do part of design in metal (or whatever production material). Then you just glue or screw the plastic parts to the metal parts. You can sand and then paint the plastic for demo’s and most customers will never know the difference.
"In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not."
Not necessarily Chinese or Indian, as Alastor's post indicated, you need an initial invenstment for that technology. If you are in need of some custom machine part, it may not be feasible to do a rapid prototype, then produce the actual part. There will be people who it'll make sense to own a $25000 machine, but there are times when pay for only 4 machined parts from the shop down the street, even if 3 of them is wrong, will be cheaper.
There are definitely types of RP that significantly costlier due to types of plastic used. We had a RP intake donated by one of our sponsor that costs $5000 to make, it is supposed to be strong enough to be structural and have some temperature resistence.....
University of Toronto Formula SAE Alumni 2003-2007
Formula Student Championship 2003, 2005, 2006
www.fsae.utoronto.ca
That's pretty damn cool. One of the things I see is that not everyone will have a scanner, instead companies will keep an online database of millions of parts that can be printed when needed for casting anything. Auto companies can keep databases of all their historic parts that are no longer produced and build them to order for customers basically forever.
I dont if I'll make home tonight
But I know I can swim
under the Tahitian moon
"In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not."
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