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[Lyle Williams]

Time spent in administrative processes and approvals adds up too.

[Jonathan Johnson]

Modern additive manufacturing can literally scan a sample and replicate it (not perfect but good).

We are not quite at Star Trek technology, but additive manufacturing promises to change many things (for the better).

JR

When will it be good enough to make things out of copper and nickel? You know, like those corrosion-resistant discs that feature sculptured reliefs on each side, that sit in the ashtray of your B-52.

[Frank Koenig]

When will it be good enough to make things out of copper and nickel?

I think it already is. They can certainly do titanium. Currently, fuel nozzles for some production gas turbines are being manufactured in Ti as a single piece where formerly they required a dozen or more individual parts and had a less optimal shape. You may already have flown in a plane with AM fuel nozzles. It's moving pretty fast at the high end.

On the other hand, I had a chat with a friend who works at a Very Big Company where they tried to use some consumer-grade, desktop machines to make prototypes of small plastic parts that eventually would be molded. The dimensional stability turned out to be so poor that they were unusable. In other words, after a month they warped to shit.

--Frank

PS:They have the entire cockpit of a B-52 at the Castle Air Museum out in the San Joaquin Valley. If I ever get there again I'll be looking at the ashtrays. When I was last there I kind of pissed off the docent by starting to recite Slim Picken's lines from Dr. Strangelove while sitting in the left seat 

[Scott Holtzman]

I think it already is. They can certainly do titanium. Currently, fuel nozzles for some production gas turbines are being manufactured in Ti as a single piece where formerly they required a dozen or more individual parts and had a less optimal shape. You may already have flown in a plane with AM fuel nozzles. It's moving pretty fast at the high end.

On the other hand, I had a chat with a friend who works at a Very Big Company where they tried to use some consumer-grade, desktop machines to make prototypes of small plastic parts that eventually would be molded. The dimensional stability turned out to be so poor that they were unusable. In other words, after a month they warped to shit.

--Frank

PS:They have the entire cockpit of a B-52 at the Castle Air Museum out in the San Joaquin Valley. If I ever get there again I'll be looking at the ashtrays. When I was last there I kind of pissed off the docent by starting to recite Slim Picken's lines from Dr. Strangelove while sitting in the left seat 

The folks back home is a countin' on ya

[John Roberts {JR}]

When will it be good enough to make things out of copper and nickel? You know, like those corrosion-resistant discs that feature sculptured reliefs on each side, that sit in the ashtray of your B-52.

They are already doing additive process fabrication with metal media. The big auto companies are early adopters to reduce time to market... printing metal prototype components. I suspect hollywierd is already doing lots of 3D printing for molds/costume appliances(?).

Additive for mass production may be a ways off.. but 3D printing a IM tool has to be a ton faster/cheaper than N/C milling one...

When I made my IM mold (in China maybe 10 years ago) we 3-d printed up a proof sample before cutting metal (n/c mill no doubt, but check twice, cut once).

JR

[Stephen Swaffer]

I was working with a vendor that is building us a one-off automated machine-that is their specialty.  In any case, the engineer showed me some 3-D printed parts he just recieved for another job-a fairly intricate plastic part that would have been extremely difficult if not impossible to make with traditional methods-cost was about $150 each.  It's quite a game changer.

[ProSoundWeb Community]