Incredible machine/tool

Post by **polo2k** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 6:52 pm

I have just found a video that I think is worth sharing
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There is a lot of waffle in there but its worth watching right to the end, there is a comment 30 sec from the end that made me think TRUNNIONS!
if your watching it with no sound, the finished prototypes they make are "made" fully assembled!
just ... WOW

Post by **Dean** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:00 pm

Quite remarkable!

Post by **bmcecosse** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:03 pm

He could of course have simply made a mould for his casting - directly from the glued-together D valve ! I hope the machine can actually feed data directly to a CNC machine - to make a new one directly. But they don't say that! I am however impressed by J Leno's knowledge of the steam engine workings!!

Post by **rayofleamington** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:13 pm

Parts for old english cars being made in China with very poor quality?
as if... ;-)

Post by **polo2k** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:33 pm

bmcecosse wrote:He could of course have simply made a mould for his casting - directly from the glued-together D valve ! I hope the machine can actually feed data directly to a CNC machine - to make a new one directly. But they don't say that! I am however impressed by J Leno's knowledge of the steam engine workings!!

If you watch him, at some points he seems to be day dreaming lol

Post by **Peetee** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:59 pm

I can't see how that 'wrench' came out as two, functioning interacting parts and not one complex moulding as the scanner can't read what is happening within a shrouded internal thread.

Post by **alanworland** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 9:19 pm

Impressive!

Post by **alex_holden** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 9:47 pm

It's a bit odd how disparaging Leno was of skilled machinists. 3D printing in plastic is no substitute for machined metal parts. The replacement for that slide valve he was waving around will have to be machined somehow.

Apparently there are experimental 3D printers in development that will be able to produce sintered metal parts, but they are likely to be less strong and will come out of the machine with a slightly rough surface finish (because they are essentially made up of millions of tiny blobs of metal welded together).

3D laser scanners are good at getting a representation of a fancy shape into a computer (though obviously they can't handle anything they can't see - eg. the underside of a lip) but it's no substitute for physically measuring dimensions with calibrated gauges when a high degree of accuracy is required.

As Peetee pointed out, there must have been more work than they admitted to in going from the 3D scan of the adjustable spanner to the printed item. I suspect they dismantled the master spanner, scanned its parts individually, then assembled them in the computer before printing.

Post by **les** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 9:53 pm

Jeez, what does it take to impress you guys?

Post by **alex_holden** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:36 pm

Sorry - seen them before (though the small size/relatively low cost of their scanner is nice), and Leno's unrealistic and misleading claims ticked me off. Both machines have their uses; reproducing unavailable mechanical parts for old cars isn't one of them.

Post by **rayofleamington** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 10:32 pm

I can't see how that 'wrench' came out as two, functioning interacting parts and not one complex moulding as the scanner can't read what is happening within a shrouded internal thread.

did they say that one was scanned?
99% of the parts made on rapid proto machines are from 3D models made by CAD packages.
The plastic wrench and the plastic D valve are of course no use for anything apart from looking at.

Once upon a time, I had some prototype plastic covers made by rapid prototyping. They even managed to include the customer logo in the part. We sprayed one black and it looked like a 'real' part from injection moulding.
They were made for an assembly process trial to make sure it could be fitted easily by an operator in a few seconds of line time.
However, assembled to the gearbox, we had the rapid proto put on vibration test (people whinged about that being a waste of time, but the parts were available and the gearbox test was being done anyway, so we figured there was nothing to loose). The rapid proto part passed the vinration testing, so had a lot less to worry about when the tooling was laid down.
We'd looked at vibration modes in FEA, but nothing beats a real test for letting you know things are ok.

Post by **alainmoran** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 10:32 pm

Some of the commercially available 3D printers can print in metal too ... although it's never going to be any substitute for a properly machined and treated casting.