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Posted by David Sherman on Tuesday, February 10, 2009 at 19:37:58 :
In Reply to: Re: rare parts dilemma? Check this out! posted by Tim Holloway on Tuesday, February 10, 2009 at 18:13:33 :
The scanner and the "printer" are two separate machines. I think they're even made by different companies. The main use of the "printer" is for fast prototyping. That's what we were looking at it for years ago. When you're designing complicated, compact mechanisms, hand-held devices, and the like, there's no substitute for actually making the part and seeing how everything fits.
As for the scanning and replicating in ABS, I would think that would be most useful for testing the fit and cleaning up any problems before making the real one. In the case of something like that curved water passage casting he showed, you could use the plastic part to make a wax of it for investment casting.
All in all, I think the "printer" would be more handy in an engineering model shop than in a car repair shop, but a guy like Jay can afford to buy every neat tool out there even if he only uses it once or twice.
I agree with you that it would be great if the software could account for shrinkage and make an oversize part as a casting pattern.
I wonder if they're working on an "actual part" machine that would make the part out of some directly-usable material. It could possibly use an electric arc or flame spraying to built up a part, or could use chemical vapor deposition in a vacuum chamber. It could possibly put down powdered metal in some kind of binder which would then be sintered into a finished part. Even if the first model only made low-stress parts, it would still be very handy if it could turn out a usable metal piece directly.
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