Herman K

Replicating 928 parts... printing in 3D producing 928 parts?



enjoy

fraggle

Almost scary that Sintered metal print might be Cheaper than rape by porsche. Manufacturers should wake up here and realize that doubling the price of an easily replicated part does not help loyalty to the brand, profit or customer service perception. The cam gear disaster is a perfect example of this. The old price for a proven iffy consumable (that shouldn't be) was irritatingly tolerable at $200 each, but at twice that we might as well come up with another solution. Porsche may come with desist orders but like most things if the need is there capitalism will win over goddamn lawyers.

Mike Frye

I was watching a car show on Speed Channel a couple of months ago and they had Jay Leno on there. He was talking about using one of these (he has one in his shop) to fab up 3D versions of parts that are NLA and then giving them to someone to replicate in brass or aluminum or cast metal. He was also talking about using it to make things like replica hood ornaments that could then be painted to look exactly like chrome but much easier, lighter, cheaper and eco-friendly than making en exact replica part.

The amount of savings in time and labor would quickly make up for the initial outlay in a shop with moderate workload I would think.

These have been around for a while but I think they're just now starting to be able to make things that are strong enough to be used instead of just to prototype things to check fit and finish.

Amazing stuff.

sweet928

I discussed this here a few months ago -- as we're using this machine in my industry to produce outsole prototypes for the shoe business. It's truly amazing and just like the video. (BTW, print time is about 15 minutes and cost 15 bucks (vs. $1500 and three weeks the old fashion way!) The airline / aerospace industry is in development of entire airplane wings made from Titanium dust -- that is stronger and all one piece! The cost savings are exponential. Instead of cutting to shape you print to exact tolerances. No waste! This is a quantum leap fellas. NLA parts is just gravy for the goose. One day you will be able to print cars, houses, space ships. No molds or dyes needed. One off anything. It's a game changer!

Mike Simard

Geez, not that damn plastic wrench again. This technology is surrounded by so much hype and BS. The wrench is NOT as strong as a normal metal one as they claim, it's plastic and would cost a thousand bucks to do what they did. If they were honest they would tell you that it's neat but there are limitations and the materials are inferior to traditional ones but this topic always gets treated as though it were superior in every way and everyone gets giddy about the possibility that everything can be made this way.

Landseer

Plastic wrench / stereo lithography / ABS printers are one thing. Isn't this a sintered metal version, which bumps it an order of magnitude in utility? When that happens the game will change.


Son is involved with selling laser XYZ scanners on articulated arms that basically map everything in their path and pull the dimensions in space to multiple decimal points into 3D modeling software. Customers are using variants of them on archealogical digs, forensic scenes and mapping rooms of pipe racks to produce as-built drawings. And extremely accurate parts measurement in production. Reverse engineering is about to take a giant step forward.

He is hoping to set the new equipment up next week under a lift to experiment scanning underside of 928 and some various wheels. Trying to get used to using all the accompanying software

sweet928

What I was talking about is this;

http://i.materialise.com/blog/entry/...strike-fighter

Sigma Labs inc. a company made up of Los Alamos researchers has just recieved a grant from the US Air Force Materials Research Laboratory to create a monitoring and control system for 3D printing titanium. Monitoring and control might seem boring but making 3D printing more precise, efficient and repeatable is exactly the kind of thing the technology needs in order to be used in actual manufacturing.

The system is to be used for the Joint Strike Fighter and will acording to CEO Richard Mah “create a quality-assured manufacturing process which will improve titanium’s utilization ratio by a factor of 5 or more, thereby saving millions of dollars in materials costs per aircraft – for military and civilian aircraft alike.”

So, this is no fanciful dream “oh won’t it be wonderful once everyone uses 3D printing to make tea cups.” This is a business decision to use 3D printing to save costs on what is one of the biggest US military procurement projects ever undertaken. Only a few weeks ago Roll Royce started a project to improve 3D printing so that it can be used to manufacture aircraft engines. There is also much more going behind the scenes since there are for example patents on 3D printing warheads.

The 3D printing process used for the Joint Strike Fighter parts is Electron Beam Melting. EBM is not the process we use to 3D print titanium, that is DMLS. EBM machines are made by Arcam. With EBM a beam scans a bed of powder which is in a vacuum. Then all the contours of the part are melted by the beam and then the rest of the layer is melted. You can see a video of the process here. The link will open in your video player. The video is also quite possibly awesome. EBM is not widely used by 3D printing services but NASA and the US Air Force love the technology and are spending a lot of money researching it. EBM is also the technology NASA would like to use to 3D print moonbases.

There is currently a huge focus by the media on 3D printing in the consumer space. But, 3D printing in actual space, 3D printing patient specific inplants and other medical devices, 3D printing in manufacturing and 3D printing in aviation are all developing very quickly also. Welcome to a 3D printed world.

Image used under Creative Commons, Attribution mashleymorgan. Via Money.MSN.

tmpusfugit

EBM printing has a great deal to offer, I see that Arcam now is certified to make medical implants using their process. Some minor investigation of pricing suggests their machine is currently well into 6 figures and the cost of doing a gear like our cam drive gears in aluminum is +/-$2500, each. So, as prices come down, and they will certainly come down longer term, this technology may be a solution for a lot of parts we need. But, I would like to see some spec sheets on surface finishes, hardness, overall strength, shear strength, compressability, on and on.....also, hardcoating is necessary on current technology, would that be required on EBM parts?....just thinking out loud....