Scan & 'Print' in 3D > replicate almost anything

[nota]

Amazing!

7.45 minute video

[henk4]

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

[ruim20]

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.

[RacingManiac]

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....

[Zorlox]

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.

[henk4]

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....

I think you misunderstood, the plastic parts coming out the machine serve as as the master copy, from which you can easily replicate the metal parts. Of course you will not put in plastic gearboxes...

[Rasmus]

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

[RacingManiac]

I think you misunderstood, the plastic parts coming out the machine serve as as the master copy, from which you can easily replicate the metal parts. Of course you will not put in plastic gearboxes...

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.

[henk4]

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.

I think Leno indicated that going Chinese or Indian might be cheaper, but not necessarily better.

[Alastor]

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.

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.

[RacingManiac]

I think Leno indicated that going Chinese or Indian might be cheaper, but not necessarily better.

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.....

[digitalcraft]

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.

[Alastor]

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.

This is already true. The scanner is only needed when the part was designed by a different company. Most descent size companies are going to generate any new design using CAD, and if you have the native CAD file you can just send it to the 3D printer directly.