Nickey, Lets say you want to build a carb. Take the data and set it up in the machine. You want it out of stainless? Now the machine will start to run the part. It will scan the first layer of the model then it will lay a layer of steel over it and senter that with a CO2 laser. The machine will keep scanning and laying powder untill it finishes the part. This machine will also build it at .003 thou. layers at a time. Now picture this, you are basicaly taking a powdered metal and melting it with a laser all in a matter of seconds.
The real news here is that the technology is becoming (almost) affordable. The machine that really turns my crank is the laser sand sintering machine. From a computer 3D model, the machine builds an actual sand mold with or without cores. Just take the mold to the foundry and pour the aluminum. From 3-D model to actual casting almost overnight! If you wanted to copy an existing part, you could "Leno" scan the outside of the parts and scan rubber molds of the cores, build the mold on the CAD tube and then sinter the actual mold. Unfortuntely, this process is still very pricey. For those of us that work with this stuff on a regular basis, you have to stop once in a while and think about how truly cool this is and what an advancement it is over the old school wood pattern world.
You can take that plastic part and make a sand Mold around it. Then all you have to do is pour the metal in, it melts the plastic and since the metal is heavier the metal sinks and the plastic flows out the top. Ive seen this done with a foam type part but it might work with the plastic too. It wouldnt be great for complex parts but for a manifold it would.
You can also build it in SLA quickcast style. Send it to a casting house. they will then pour a ceramic on it and burn the quickcast patern out. Now you can pour metal in to the ceramic and Pop goes the part.
yeah. the "spacer" is a water soluble support.. I have the same Adjustable wrench on my desk! lenos machine is not the 14K printer his is capable of much more than the 14K unit. squablow. the idea behind the REPRAP is just that.. I generate the "drawing" and send you the "file" you print the part.. check this out: http://recycled40fordwoodie.blogspot.com/2008/12/inventor.html the brackets shown, were on ebay.. they sold for MUCH more than I felt they were worth.. here's the finished latch plates http://recycled40fordwoodie.blogspot.com/2008/12/tailgate-latch-plates.html I saved the photo (from ebay) placed the photo into my cadd software (autodesk inventor) and "traced" the jpeg image from which I generated the part. (because I knew some distances between holes I was able to drive all the dimensions..) I could now send my part file (3d model ) to a 3d printer. or email it anywhere.. granted this was a "simple part" which didnt 100% require this technology.. BUT it was a good exercise for me and an excellent example for my students.. IF I had multiple views of the same object i could develop a 3d model from damn near anything..
Werd For centuries one of the highest forms of foundry work, investment casting, was virtually unchanged since ancient times. Yes the materials and processes were refined, but still the same steps. The possibility of going direct to a ceramic mold or instantaneous production of a first-piece wax pattern opens the door to a new world of casting. May not seem like much to the layman, but it is poised to revolutionize the industry. You don't need nearly the same 3d printer technology to make a foundry pattern that you would a full-strength metal product. This is very real in the next 20 years FWIW SLA patterns make shitty investment cast patterns. The goo makers like to tout their foundry friendliness, but they all have terrible thermal expansion properties, horrible gas issues, and are absolute bitches to make any kind of decent casting with. But it is a pattern, and that's something. Tomorrow is rapidly approaching......
I'm sure Jay Leno has one of these set ups in his garage. Where do I send my resume to get a job working for Jay in his shop?
Better as sand patterns, but you lose a lot of detail with traditional sand compared to investment casting. Depending on what's being produced, investment casting can make it with threads & splines, ready to go with minor cleanup. Investment casting can also do an insane variety of shapes that can't be done with loose-piece sand moulding due to backlock issues. Liquid wax knows no backlock when it's dripping out in the kiln. If you think about it, the closer to net shape when the metal cools, the closer you get to producing real, useable, average joe items with this technology. The guy at home scans it, cleans up the cyber version, adds a logo & some fins (for coolness), emails the file to the foundry, and receives a piece that needs little more than thread chasing & a few minutes of dremel work before paint. Generally with sand casting you have to have some machinist skills to make it useable.
Yup, the plastic rapid prototype parts can be used for sandcasting patterns, as long as they are built with an appropriote shrink factor. This works best for loose pattern castings. Where cores are needed, a skilled pattern maker needs to help out to get all the core prints, gating, etc correct. Likewise, core boxes can be made from plastic.
Types of things that are investment cast and used directly with very minor cleanup..... Gun parts, triggers, safety levers, etc Cast rocker arms Seat belt inertia catch mechanisms The park pawl in a transmission The list goes on and on but just think of the possibilities of replacing every unobtainable little knob or trinket your 50 year old car needs with your choice of bronze, aluminum, or steel. The key to reasonable pricing is getting the guy at home to do all the labor intensive design stuff so the foundry is just download, print, cast, cut, ship. The same computer power that makes this real, will aslo have to be applied for accurate computer generated gating & risering. That doesn't exist today either. Revolutionary! Speaking of a Revell-ution, imagine what easily produced net shape metal parts would mean......you could scan plastic models and bring em to life.......
We have one of those dimension machines at my work and all though it is extremely handly, we have had some parts come out of the machine unexceptibly off.
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