3D Printing

[milkmania]

Originally Posted by Lars

Used to work for a company that would use one to make prototype horns for concert loudspeakers. From what I remember, the matieral in the prototype was far inferior to that used in the injection molds. Basically they break easily.
The guy who made the bimini must have a printer that is much stronger..?

one of the youtube posts was saying they use a 3D printer to make the molds for injection molding

[pmkkdx]

we have several 3D printers within our company that we use for prototyping and fit checks but the material is not really suitable for structural usage.

A designer that used to work for me, ventured out and purchased a very high end 3D printer ($250k+) that uses a variety of different materials from flexible like rubber up to extremely rigid. He must be doing fairly well after about 2 years in business.

http://solidprototype.com/ check out the prototypes page

[ctjahn]

He uses it for prototyping stuff for his car collection....

[MIskier]

My Naval Architecture department has one that the navy financed that was over 200k and is capable of printing many different materials and has very good resolution...but even with a machine like that the work envelope is rather small and the material is expensive.

For a class last spring the project was to design a propeller and then we got to print it. The prop was 14" dia and the material cost was $125.

As of right now they are great machines to give the business types something to see and feel and to test proof of concept but as of right now they have a way to go before you are printing production quality parts at an economical rate.

[CruisinGA]

Played with several different machines when I was in school (mech eng).

Example of a company who's entire business model is built around the technology - Invisalign.

[richieboy]

That is very cool. Thanks for sharing.

[milkmania]

Click, print, shoot: Downloadable guns possible



http://finance.yahoo.com/news/click-...092031591.html

[Traxx822]

Originally Posted by milkmania

Click, print, shoot: Downloadable guns possible



http://finance.yahoo.com/news/click-...092031591.html

I read this on Christmas. Crazy they printed a weapon and it fired 6 times before it broke. Its like the Jetsons. Soon everyone will have one of these 3d printers. No more lost keys. Just print new ones.