Posted By lownote on 02/12/2009 4:43 PM
Can someone tell me the advantage here? It's a naive question--why can't Leno just...cast the replacement part, using the original broken part to make a mold? Because at the end of the process, he has a copy of the part in plastic, and he'll either
A: use the part to make a mold
B: take the plastic part to a machinist
Which is--check me if I'm wrong--exactly where he'd have been with the original broken part. I agree, the technology is dazzling, but to make a working steam engine model in plastic using the printer, you'd need...a working steam engine model to scan. I suppose printing it might be easier than casting each part and assembling it? Maybe not--how long does the printer take, how expensive is each run?
It's amazing stuff but I'm not sure I see the advantage over, say, resin casting or molding in plastic
The video oversimplified the whole process frankly. There are many benefits actually. You see, one of the things they didn't really explain was that you get a 3D CAD model out of the scanned part. There's a good deal of "clean up" work done between the scanning of the pat and the printing of the part. And normally, that's done with a CAD program. The part that is made is a full size prototype...that you can fit into whatever you need to ensure it's the right size. Once you've convinced yourself it's right, then you can use the CAD to generate the files that a CNC machine uses to make a mold. By far, the making of a mold is the most expensive process in going from an out of production item to a replacement item. This helps you reduce mold making mistakes.
Another benefit is that you can redesign the "old" part before making the mold using the CAD software. This might be done to make the item more sellable or more reliable or cheaper or to reflect a new material you are going to make the production item out of. You can also rescale things...an obvious benefit if you are into modeling. One of my son's customers scans full size tanks and military vehicles and then prints plastic models of them. That business you saw in the video of making a working model by printing it with the dissolvable links fits very nicely into the world of high end, expensive models where complete, working subassemblies can be produced in one printing move. Or...in the design of a toy...where the output is a full sized working plastic toy.
If you read about all the parts problems that folks have in our hobby, this technology suite might become helpful in the future. Imagine a manufacturer being able to use the 3D CAD files that were developed to produce a locomotve as the basis for making a plastic repair part needed by someone? No more having to have a warehouse of spare parts...or a "fkeet" of hanger queens that you've stripped parts from. Part order comes in, you print the part, and ship it back to the purchaser. Or if you run a fixit shop...or the fixit shop at a manufacturer and you need a part...you just print it. Heck, you could put up a web page with all the parts for any locomotive or car or building or turnout on it, and let the purchaser directly order the part, charge it to his credit card, have it cued for printing, print the mailing label, etc. All the vendor would have to do it put the part in a box and stick the label on it.