That's amazing stuff. It may be old tech, but it's the first time I've seen it. Imagine, perfectly cast hood ornaments and other trim that is pitted beyond repair. You could smooth it out with body filler, scan it, have it cast and plated. The possibilities are endless! Super cool!
This should answer the question that one reader had about the mannequins at the Dallas Autorama. I just want to meet the original. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=334821 Scrump
I saw that technology 10 years ago at SEMA when the cost was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. It blew me away when they scanned a piece of chain, then made it with one of their logos on a quarter size coin. The finished piece is a 5 link chain that is 4 links and the coin, moving like a real chain. I still have it in my treasures drawer. Now that they have been able to cut the cost to 3K, even small manufacturers will be able to afford it.
The one at G.M. that I worked on was $12 million, so we didn't get to "play" with it. We did make a complete, and I mean complete LS 350 with it. Even the bolts, bearings, and valve springs were ABS plastic. We lubricated it with graphite and could spin it by hand. Cool stuff back then. It's refreshing to see the technlolgy come down to street level pricing, and it will be even more cool once the average joe can access the technology from a home PC to have custom parts cast by a foundry, and then delivered to his front door to bolt onto his rod... Should only be a couple more years before we see the advertisements on the net..... "Download our design software, CAD your parts, and we will cast them and deliver!!!". Cant wait!
Well I thought they were gonna scan it and throw a chunk of steel in that box and a new one come out ..
I understand scanning the exterior and reproducing but, I don't get how it can scan the internals of moving parts so they can function. wtf? For example when it scanned the crescent wrench, it knew the adjustment pin was free through the head and not just what it could see from the outside. I thought it was just going to be a block of plastic that looked just like a wrench.
Just used the new technology,dpm,to make some steel parts with internal cooling lines for non confomal cooling.this technology has some really cool posibilitys.It actualy uses sintered metal built up to make a finished product.Burl.
I'm going to buy one of those, point it at my partner's secretary and take the resulting product for a weekend in Bermuda - wonder what a white plastic well-built redhead likes to drink? dj
we have a 2d scanner at my work with about a 3 foot table. slap any template gasket etc on it tell it how thick it is to get proper measurements and a laser just like in the video scans it. the school i went to also had a 3d plotter.
Just interface that 3D scan with Solidworks, plug it in to a horizontal, and presto. I could do with out the plastic version. If you used the ABS part for a cast mold you would have to enlarge it to have stock to mill off. Still pretty damn cool for only a couple G's
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