A solution for parts that are no longer available
 

ZCorp's 3D Printer replicates a wrench - YouTube

A friend was talking about this at lunch on Friday. A 3D printer that can "print" a car part. This is the answer for the increasing number of parts for the older MB's that they are no longer making or stocking. It looks like this will work for any plastic part. Metal parts or rubber I am not sure if it is ready to do that.

Richard

That's amazing. Thanks for sharing.

That is incredable.:eek2: I wonder what the wearability of the part would be?
according to the video, the wrench is as strong :confused: as the real thing.
might be pricy then again maybe not. HMMMM.... maybe some valve adjusting wrenches.:D

How about a crack free Blue dash?

Probably copy right rules to contend with. :cool:

Charlie

... hardly an exact copy of his wrench... it looks like they took the scan, then changed it completely for one they had already in the computer. his wrench does not have the little key wring on it, his wrench had 5 worm gear teeth, the plastic one had 3, his wrench was much finer construction...
I think it was a demonstration for TV...
on another note, PM is offering a homemade 3d printer as a prize in a contest that uses trimmer line as the "ink"... pretty cool...

At the very least, they could print a 3D form or a template that could be used to cast a true part.

Very nice CAM capability.

I think the material is a hard nylon and resin, from what I gather from the video. I think wearability would be great for something that is going to replace a simple plastic bushing or plastic part. For something that needs to be flexible where the original part is rubber, I think this would be a challenge.

Neat, but in real world terms any part we need can already be made. Problem is cost. I have a foundry and machine shop, so need a new engine? Realistically no one could afford to do one from scratch, just think about the time to do the patterns, and drawings, let only the machining time.

Don't get me wrong it is nice to see what new technolagy can do. As the tech gets more advanced one off/short run parts get cheaper. Demand will go up as these cars get older, and are treated as collectable cars instead of everyday transportation, as demand goes up so will prices for parts, then there will be a point at which short runs of rare parts will become worth doing. Right now we seem to have enough junk cars to pick off of.

I wonder if they can vary the properties of the finished product. Could it make rubber and plastic bits? That's where the benefit would really be in my opinion.

I wonder how the fusing of the powder is done - did it say on the video? My sound it out! Standing waves?

This is a buddy of mine's son, he has a small 3D printer so the price couldn't have been too astronomical. Geek of the week: Emmett Lalish - YouTube

I almost did not read this thread. WOW ! incredible !

they retail for about $1300

it's the same model PopularMechanics is giving away as a prize this year...

Thats reasonable, I wonder what parts that are in demand, and unavailable, could be made by one of these printers.

I fear, that this printer from makerbot would be for designing a proof, or for art, not for actual product use...

Jay Leno uses something similar for his cars that need parts.

More steps tho.
Jay Leno?s 3D Printer Replaces Rusty Old Parts - Articles - Jay Leno's Garage

Is that because of the material of the end product? Or the limitations of color choice?

vstech has it. These are also called rapid prototyping machines. Not usually something you want for production quality parts because of material properties and the cost of the parts.

This 3D printer uses plastic beads and sprays a superglue like resin into the pattern of a single layer of the part. Then another layer of the plastic beads is laid down and repeated until the part is built up. The solidified part is then extracted from the build tray and voila!

My college just purchased one of these the last year I was there, I remember it was around $30k. The build tray was around 1.5x1.5'. The parts were pretty decent and we changed the bead material a few times trying to figure out what it was capable of, but found that it wasn't any good for any structural or load bearing parts. We did build a small wrench and it worked pretty well, but it's not something you want as a wrench.

The second type of machine I'm familiar with I used at my last company and was in charge of it's use. It's called stereolithography. Instead of having a particle material and spraying a resin, there are two resins used. One is for the part (usually plastic, although we did have a rubber resin) and a support material resin. It looked exactly like a printer in that it would spray the pattern of the part, laying down both build resin and support resin, but on the return pass each time it would expose the resin to UV light. Each pass the tray would lower keeping the same distance between the sprayer heads and the surface of the part to be built. After the part finished you'd let it sit for 30 min to cure and then remove all the support material.

With stereolithography you could get much better and much more intricate parts than you could with 3D printing and use several types and colors of plastics and rubber. But the cost for a machine with a 16x16" build tray was $50k and the material for say 15 medium size parts was $2k for support material and $2-3k for each resin pack. The resin is only good for two months before it goes bad so a constant supply is needed.



The third type I've used I can't remember the name of the process but it involves two spools of material. The build material and support material are plastic tubes around 20 AWG and are heated up and fed through a head which "draws" the part on the platform with the now flexible material.

As far as I can remember it was a pretty cheap machine and pretty cheap to run, but it produces really rough looking and fragile parts.



If any of you need plastic parts made like trim pieces I'd find someone familiar with a 3D modeling package (Pro/e, AutoCad/ SolidWorks/Catea.. or any of the free ones) and send the file to a place like ProtoMold. There are companies out there who exist only to supply prototype parts of plastics, rubber and metal. But the price may be an issue since companies want these things quickly you might be looking at over $300 per part/order.

Yes! It looks like Jay Leno has this process perfected and knows what he is doing with this technology.

Making car parts? They make cars nowadays with 3D printers: Urbee: The world's first 'printed' car rolling off the 3D printing presses... | Mail Online

The problem is that he's dissing the machinist and factory that make the system work.

The parts that he's printing are scarce or non-existent, but why not make a copy and then take that to the machinist, metal worker or casting house? The parts he's using straight from the printer are poor quality, even the metal technologies are those of compressed metal powders. These parts WILL fail.

Jay does send the parts off to a machinist. One of the items he "made" turned out to need a thicker wall, it was mocked up and reproduced.

Gear cutters can't make a living anymore, so they sold their equipment overseas, that's business.

Not really. There are plenty of shops around who will fab a part up for you. Fewer than in recent decades but it's still a thriving industry. Especially for the many companies based in the US who are restricted to use US based shops.

I think the bigger problem with the 3D printing fad with hobbyists comes from the price of machine shop, at around $80/hr people don't want to pay $600+ for a part. Finding an easier way isn't necessarily the better way.

This seems likely to me too

This 3D scanning technology is the impressive part for me - use that information wisely and get someone who knows about conventional manufacturing techniques to make a proper part for you.

Are the prices quoted in this thread for just the scanning machines?

I think only the printing machine prices have been in the thread...

the scanning price is mentioned in the Jay leno video though.

The scanning technology has been out for a while now. Not always in 3D, but in the Quality Control field optical comparitors have been a big leap ahead in terms of taking actual parts and translating them to computer models.

As long as you can get the dimensions reasonably well, either using the 3D scanning in this thread, Probe Table or just sitting down with a set of calipers/micrometers the model of the part can be made.

OT: nice job on that steering box tool btw. I'm went a different route because the lowest quote I had for it being made out of tool steel was $625!I think they were just for the parts being made.

Eh?

I paid 10% of that - do you want me to send you one? I'm sure the shipping will be the same again!

Oh man could you pretty please?!

I've been adjusting the working piston using a grotesque looking modified hub bolt socket.

I'll PM you with the address. How much would shipping be to 20882 in Maryland, USA?

Zcorp's printer uses a powder to make the part. It's solid but after repeated use the part breaks down.

Dimensional uses abs plastic and is incredibly durable.


My opinion on 3D scanning is that unless you spend big big money the scanner will suck.

Alternative - Printrbot: Your First 3D Printer by Brook Drumm — Kickstarter

Making a plug for a cast seems to me the best use of the technology. I think it's viable for such a task.

As the newest technologies are based on ceramics, they may be able to take a ceramic mixture and quickly churn out ceramic engine parts that would need little re-fining to complete.