3d rapid prototyping

[lyon]

I have been using 3d modeling and rapid prototyping for casting aluminum and iron, It is really blowing my mind that I can make these prototypes so easily in 3d, get a prototype in the mail a few days later, take it a few miles from my office to a foundry and they will cast as many as I want. I am going to make some bad ass stuff this way.

[john70t]

3D printing is getting seriously cool: bone, cellular tissue, and titanium implants.
World's first 3D-printed lower jaw implant gives 83-year old patient her bite back

Ambulance with mobile CAT scan on the scene. New parts printed while in transit. Ready for surgery on arrival.

[mjohnson]

We use lots of this technology in our "widget" development programs for the nuclear deterrent. Can't overstate how much I want to make a "Skill Level 4" snap together kit of an ICBM warhead...

The metal stuff is so good now that it may actually replace traditional mfg methods for some of our widgets.

The future is pretty cool...

[Mahler9th]

Very cool and scary at the same time.

I worked with some of the people that put CAT scanning on the map, and I know plenty of folks developing IP and so on for medical apps in this 3d arena. Opportunities abound.

You can be sure that the big medical companies are onto this. For example, Medtronic. Now run by an ex-GE Medical guy. They have teams of business and technical folks working on this. I bet there will be some interesting IP litigation down the road.

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally Posted by island911

I've had a 3-D scanner for years. Let me strongly suggest you not mess around with digitizing your sculptures. It's a real PITA to get a 3D model of swoopy surfaces that can be 'played with.'

...It's one of those things that sounds cooler than it actually works out to be.

I will strongly second this assessment.

We first put a toe in the digital ocean way back in the mid to late '80's, designing our first airplane parts in CATIA V2 R2. I well remember the first part model we NC machined from one of our datasets; we all stood around it in utter amazement, like the apes around the monolith in 2001. Prior to that day, all contoured surface models were developed by splining plaster between carefully shaped and positioned profile templates; work done by highly skilled model makers. The end product of their labors were very much "art" - very precise "art".

Well, we soon ran into problems mating digitally defined parts with template and plaster defined parts. So, the obvious thing to do was to go in and scan our older plaster models and create digital models of them. That's where the fun started...

In the digital world, surfaces are built from intersecting curves, and those curves are defined by equations. Anything from simple straight lines and constant radius curves to splines defined by 30, 40, or more degree polynomials. Even with that degree of freedom, however, digital curves are no match for a guy with a french curve. And therein lies the problem.

Curves drawn by hand on vellum, then translated onto aluminum templates (filed in by hand to match those curves) defy mathematical definition. We would gather points along a given vector when we "scanned" (with a CMM, laser tracker, faro arm, and some other equipment), then try to drive a spline through those points. Absolutely impossible to do that when constrained to some sort of mathematical definition, no matter how many degrees of polynomial your given system could crunch.

So, we tried the "point cloud" approach just to store the data. The simplest surfaces wound up with a "brazillion" points and were so data heavy we could not manipulate them. Much less machine anything to a point cloud at least to the level of accuracy and smoothness we required.

Anything hand made will encounter these same issues when attempting to digitize it. Granted, one may be satisfied with current accuracy levels for sculptures and replacement body parts, but we just couldn't make it work in our biz. Turned out to be far quicker, cheaper, and more accurate to start anew from a blank sheet. Or screen...

[Schumi]

I work with high-accuracy (<0.001" level) 3d laser scanning, rapid prototyping/rapid casting/direct sintered manufactuing of prototype parts, and the back and forth with CAD involved in these processes.

Higgins, a lot has changes since those days. I've had clay models that someones carved by hand and a model that was crated via surfaces generated in CATIA from a laser scan of that clay. then made by an RP machine, both painted, sitting in front of the person who modeled the original, and they could not tell the difference if their life depended on it.

I wish I could speak of examples from my work that involve such tech but everything I can think of is bound by some heavy NDA requirements.

[Jeff Higgins]

Cool stuff, Mike, most certainly. And certainly the timing of our efforts was simply too early in the game. We couldn't afford to dick around with it at the time, so we were forced to make some decisions. By the time scanning technologies had matured to a level of usefulness we could actually use, we really no longer had the need. We had redesigned everything we needed off the board and into in the digital world and have long since moved on.

I have spent a good part of my career in CATIA - thousands of hours on V2, V3, V4, and now V5. I've done an awful lot of complex compound contour surface modeling in my day, from aero surfaces to interior surfaces.

I left our Interiors division about eight years ago and got into the repair end of the biz (AOG), but before I left Interiors, I was able to leave my mark on a lot of what the flying public sees. I'm proud to say I completed the final surface modeling, and designed all the part forming tooling, for parts of every currently produced Boeing commercial aircraft interior (and many flight control surfaces and other stuff).

When you take your seat in any Next Gen 737, any 767 -200LR or -300ER, any 777, 747-400, or 787, look around - the contoured ceiling panels, sidewall (window) panels, door bustles, and contoured stowbin doors are all my work. Every one of them. An Interior consultant actually concepts and designs all of this stuff, but when it came to putting their shapes and ideas into digital data, that's where I started.

Since my return to AOG (I was there years ago), I've made extensive use of RPM parts to help vet out ideas for repair tooling. It's a great help to be able to "grow" parts of a proposed tool, grab some mechanics and head out to an airplane, and play with it before they have to deploy with the real one to some god-forsaken corner of the globe to fix an airplane. What a huge boon that has been for us. Now we don't have to go along as much.

Anyway, lots of cool stuff going on in this world.

[gtc]

I had a part 3d scanned once. The model was a PITA to work with, but it saved us quite a bit of trial and error, and the finished product fit much better than if I had continued to try to design the part entirely in solidworks.

I have a reprap kit coming in a week or two. I'm looking forward to assembling it and seeing what it can do. I know the parts they create aren't all that great, but it should be fun to play with.

[intakexhaust]

I need a few resin molds right now from original parts for a low production run of sand cast replacements. Anyone know of this service in the Chicago area? Scott

[lyon]

recent 3d prototype...

[dlockhart]

Originally Posted by intakexhaust

I need a few resin molds right now from original parts for a low production run of sand cast replacements. Anyone know of this service in the Chicago area? Scott

yes

We have had stuff done but it has been a while. I do not recall who the vendor was right now. I'll do some checking later.

[fred cook]

Saw this once several years ago at Georgia Tech (2000 or 2001). The system there used a vat of liquid that would turn solid when hit with a laser. The build that I saw was of a human skull that was being created using MRI scans as the data source. The purpose was so that a surgeon could do a practice operation using an exact replica of the patient's skull. The skull being made was the exact size and shape and was hollow on the inside with the bone thickness correct. Very cool piece of equipment!

[NutmegCarrera]

Scott-
Midwest Proto is a company in the Madison WI area that does very good work.
We use them for SLS and/or FDM modeling techniques. Because of complex shapes and very light weight requirements, we use components made by them in our machines as final parts.

Contact me via PM if youd like specific contact info.

[intakexhaust]

Originally Posted by NutmegCarrera

Scott-
Midwest Proto is a company in the Madison WI area that does very good work.
We use them for SLS and/or FDM modeling techniques. Because of complex shapes and very light weight requirements, we use components made by them in our machines as final parts.

Contact me via PM if youd like specific contact info.

Thank you and will follow-up. I'm very much old school but in awe of the new technology.

I have a small side gig sort of taking on a life of its own for the vintage woodworker machine enthusiast market. Thanks to the advent of the PC and net it's neat to see the old stuff survive, gain interest and carry onto the new generation. Ironically, the machine I service to the customer base was invented in 1947 and produced in Menlo Park (S.F.). Revolutionary at the time and was a great success. Same story continues today in Menlo Park but now as a leading technology center. I need some parts reproduced and hopefully can be done more affordable.

Scott
ps. Road America / Plymouth WI - fave road course!

[gtc]

I was going to put this in the recent 3d printed guns thread, but this thread seemed more appropriate.
I think it's pretty cool to see someone making an affordable stereolithography machine, for about the same cost as some of the makerbots.

FORM 1: An affordable, professional 3D printer by Formlabs — Kickstarter

[john70t]

Shapeways " Upload your 3D model for printing."
plus free software.