3D Printing
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Anyone here have experience with 3D printing and 3D printers? My company is looking at investing in one this year and I am very far out of my wheelhouse. I understand how it works and what goes into it, but I don't really know the names in the industry or which device is better then the other... pro/cons etc.
Just trying to get a feel for what is involved and who the players are.
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I've looked at Makerbot. But even their XL model doesn't seem to fit the desire. I was linked to the 3D Print Cell by TypeAMachines but I haven't heard of this company before so not entirely sure about it.
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This is so new really that I have no idea. I know that dremel makes a small one (@art_of_shred keeps getting fliers with them in it).
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No personal experience but from what I've read the machine is 50% of the equation. Other half is being proficient with the CAD software / design tricks they use. Go get some of the CAD files and play around with them a bit, I think the software (in some cases) is free.
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@MattSpeller said:
No personal experience but from what I've read the machine is 50% of the equation. Other half is being proficient with the CAD software / design tricks they use. Go get some of the CAD files and play around with them a bit, I think the software (in some cases) is free.
Yep, we've got 6 engineers on staff and our CAD program now has the ability to directly print to most 3d printers. Dassault Systems has really been pushing the 3D printing space for as long as I've worked for my current company.
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@Bill-Kindle would know a bit about this
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@MattSpeller said:
@coliver said:
Yep, we've got 6 engineers on staff
Booooo thats cheating haha
We've got more then that, they are the ones that are going to start working on this when/if we get it. Just realized that I would need to update all of our Windows 7 engineering machines to Windows 8.1 in order to directly print to a 3D printer from Solidworks. Not that big of a deal but something to note.
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HP has some of the better production grade equipment out there. Most of the stuff I've seen is more for the hobbyist and not good enough IMHO for production use, unless you plan on making little trinkets to sell at the fair.....
http://www8.hp.com/us/en/commercial-printers/floater/3Dprinting.html
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@Bill-Kindle said:
HP has some of the better production grade equipment out there. Most of the stuff I've seen is more for the hobbyist and not good enough IMHO for production use, unless you plan on making little trinkets to sell at the fair.....
http://www8.hp.com/us/en/commercial-printers/floater/3Dprinting.html
Thanks I will check that out.
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IIRC, they do tri color printing. The one's I have seen in person as stated earlier are hobbyist models that only do one color at a time.
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@Bill-Kindle said:
IIRC, they do tri color printing. The one's I have seen in person as stated earlier are hobbyist models that only do one color at a time.
Got it. To be honest I'm really not sure what our end goal is. I was asked for my opinion and didn't want to say I don't have one, I will mention how far out of my skill set this is.
From what one of the engineers mentioned we would be looking at printing low utility/load parts that we currently make out of metal to save weight on some of our "mobile" products. Which are few and far between for sports construction.
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This is one aspect of printing I have not touched yet...sadly...
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That Dremel unit looks really cool. I kind of want to just go out and buy one.
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@coliver said:
@Bill-Kindle said:
IIRC, they do tri color printing. The one's I have seen in person as stated earlier are hobbyist models that only do one color at a time.
Got it. To be honest I'm really not sure what our end goal is. I was asked for my opinion and didn't want to say I don't have one, I will mention how far out of my skill set this is.
From what one of the engineers mentioned we would be looking at printing low utility/load parts that we currently make out of metal to save weight on some of our "mobile" products. Which are few and far between for sports construction.
The use case is there but they better be prepared to spend some money on it. I remember reading about a 3D metal printer too that was being used for surgical tools. Can't find the link and video ATM but I do remember it being a Japanese company.
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@Bill-Kindle said:
@coliver said:
@Bill-Kindle said:
IIRC, they do tri color printing. The one's I have seen in person as stated earlier are hobbyist models that only do one color at a time.
Got it. To be honest I'm really not sure what our end goal is. I was asked for my opinion and didn't want to say I don't have one, I will mention how far out of my skill set this is.
From what one of the engineers mentioned we would be looking at printing low utility/load parts that we currently make out of metal to save weight on some of our "mobile" products. Which are few and far between for sports construction.
The use case is there but they better be prepared to spend some money on it. I remember reading about a 3D metal printer too that was being used for surgical tools. Can't find the link and video ATM but I do remember it being a Japanese company.
We are a metal shop so that would be really cool.
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I've seen metal printing services. Don't have any idea as to cost or availability but I do know that they exist today.
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@scottalanmiller said:
I've seen metal printing services. Don't have any idea as to cost or availability but I do know that they exist today.
3D Systems does direct to metal 3D printing... which is really cool.
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Relevant video from CES 2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7riJ7Dr0AU
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Once 3D printing is cheap enough, it is really going to change a lot of things. Amazon will primarily deliver plastic and metal printer cartridges instead of finished products much of the time.
