3D Printing

[MaineDad 85]

Have any of you guys seen this yet. It's still too hard to believe!

Watch this video;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZboxMsSz5Aw...tube_gdata_play

What's next?

[btrrg1969 11]

Jay Leno had something like that , only it wasnt printed , it was like plastic being blow into an open space and it formed objects , and they too moved . Very cool stuff

[CasualObserver 3,406]

That is just about the coolest thing I've ever seen. Wonder how cheaply they could print me some #1533 transmission bearings? Bound to be cheaper than Toro! :D

[MaineDad 85]

Did you see the piston that was printed?

[rmaynard 14,922]

I've seen a similar process done in metal.

[btrrg1969 11]

I found the video of Jay's "Plastic Printer" , here is a link , hope it works http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/extras/artic...ty-old-parts-1/

[SousaKerry 500]

We use 3D printers at work to develop prototype containers for our customers so they can get a "real feel" for the product before it goes into production. What they aren't telling you in the video is how many hours it took to print that wrench and how much it cost. The epoxy resins we use are very expensive and are no where near as hard as steel. It also takes quite a bit of sanding and polishing to get a part to look as good as what they made.

The technology is fairly new and I am sure it will get better but don't hold your breath till you can go buy one down at office max for a few hundred bucks. I think ours was close to 6 figures

[wh500special 2,055]

Kerry,

Awesome that you have one of these suckers at work! Are you sure it's a 3D printer? It sounds more like stereolithography to me with the resins, etc.

I've had some parts made by SL before and I have to admit it is truely an awesome invention. Both 3D printing and SL are great for making "masters" for molding additional parts.

Cool stuph!

Steve

[shorts 182]

I've run intake parts on the dyno made from a gelatin/cologin material using that technology back in the mid 90's, and yes it's an awsome technology, cad design your prototype parts, test them for performance/flow and then use them make the tooling for the production parts out of carbon fiber, total turn around from concept to the racetrack 48 hrs.

[Coadster32 793]

The e-mail link is going around like hot cakes right now. Awesome!!

[JUSS10 250]

i was shown one of these in my modeling class at school. though we dont have one exactly like this we have multiple 3D printing machine that use many different materials at school. i think we currently have 4 different types of 3D print machines, way cool stuff. I have made quite a few prototypes with them!

Justin

[HorseFixer 2,012]

WoW unbelievable! :woohoo:

[71_Bronco 1,072]

I am in New Product Design at my job, and have done a few "3D Printouts" of my concepts & designs.

The "printers" we use are by a company called "U-Print". They have made the process a little easier and sophisticated. What they use, is a string-type plastic (similar to weed-whacker line) that gets feed into a "printer head". The head melts the plastic, and deposits layers of plastic that are roughly .010 thick. It just keeps building layers until you get your model. The nice part is that it is ABS plastic, so it has a decent strength and comes in may colors.

[MikesRJ 552]

Hmmmm, many here don't realize that there are those among you who've worked in that industry on the OEM side for years ...

http://www.3dsystems.com/products/sls/index.asp

http://www.eos.info/en/products/systems-eq...ng-systems.html