3 D printing

[Baumannator]

Wow - science fiction to science fact - GREAT post

[DaveB]

Very informative,thanks Jim

[Jon]

We have a load of the titanium and stainless steel printers at work. They make some proper fancy stuff, honeycomb or mesh structures inside parts like Blue said, or simply building only the stressed areas of a part and leaving out the rest, which leaves a weird organic looking shape.

They've improved a lot in the last few years at our place. Still need finishing ops though if any accuracy or surface finish is required. Takes too long anyway for production.

They've been playing with it for 25 years now but have only started to take it seriously in the last few years. And they're still a bit cagey about using it for actual flying aircraft parts. Mainly development work and tooling so far.
Strength is apparently getting there but I've seen a lot of stuff with cracks in it..

I don't think people are going to have onein the garage any time soon but I reckon we'll see more machines shops getting them that will make you stuff.

I don't get to go on them but to be honest the best thing about them having them is that they've got me a wire EDM for the finishing ops, which is an awesome machine in it's own right.

[Blue]

I had assumed the logical conclusion of this technology would be to print components where they were needed, no need for offshore manufacturing, no need to transport stuff around the globe or even the country. Get on the net, find your parts, pay your money and print them off. Perhaps it will never evolve to that level or robotics and AI will be the cheaper option. Be interesting to see how all this new technology will actually be implemented, whithin not too many years there won't be any work for humans to do any more which will be more than a slight problem...

[db]

When 3-d printers can make 3-d printers.... Then we're in trouble!

[MrNorm]

I'm old enough to remember 25 years ago when we called this "Rapid Prototyping" (yes the technique has been around that long), in fact I've probably still got tucked away in my desk some throttle bodies made using SLA (stereolithography) and by a laser & paper/resin approach which made parts that looked like wood!! Even then it was popular to demonstrate how you could make geometries that were not possible with other methods. In those days it was a very expensive niche technology that only large companies (Ford in my case) could afford. What seems to have changed is that although there is still some truth to that for hi-end stuff, the availalbility to the masses brought about by cheaper 3D printers and also CAD technology being widely and cheaply available has made this a viable (and great) option for the likes of us to make one-off parts that if mass produced would cost a fortune to tool up for.

I don't think that this technology will replace mass production techniques where every cent counts - it won't be quick enough, cheap enough, or fast enough to produce the parts that are needed by the millions to produce the stuff we like to buy at the prices we want to pay. But definitely a place for small production, specialist niches etc. Exciting possibilities!

[Jon]

I had assumed the logical conclusion of this technology would be to print components where they were needed

I believe the US military already do this. make new parts to fix stuff in the field..

[Super Sloth]

There's an article in classic american about this very topic.
A chap remade some vents for his chubby restoration.

[Steve]

I could do with another knee....got me thinking......

[latil]

Think no more......https://www.fairfield.org.uk/knee-repla ... echnology/

[Steve]

Amazing but only a matter of time before this was on the cards. I think I got one designed for Shrek