DMLS- putting plastic printers to shame
 

Very cool shit. NASA is using 3D metal printers to make parts for the Ares rocket J2-X engine. The engine is based off of the Saturn V. Turns out, if you have a strong enough laser, you can do a whole lot more than make silly plastic parts- you can zap damn near any metal into ready-to-use shiny metal parts. It's called Direct Metal Laser Sintering.

http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/J2X/po...869180794.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=1CizD2YLTGg

"Here is the big deal: making it was very cheap and very fast."

I'm guessing that "cheap", in this case, is a rather relative term. :lol:

JC

It;s NASA- anything under $10 million is cheap...

This will scale, price will drop. Neat technology.

Hey, print me a part.

Imagine being able to print new parts for an old bike.

...Old car...

Find something old, in need of a resto? Scan it, print new parts.

This will not scale and will never be made available the general public as a useful affordable product for legal reasons. At most, it will be limited in both use and type of materials that you could use.

Nope. Someone will refine the process, get a new patent. Make something better, faster, cheaper...technology marches on.

Print me a flywheel, would you?

I can see that happening with existing companies who are still making parts but for older vehicles where parts are more difficult to manufacture and/or come by? I'm betting someone finds away around it then.

Legal reasons, as in safety?

So, we'll just have to buy one made by the Chinese.

Problem solved.

JC

You know we will, too.

They probably spent $1million formulating what cheap is.

Cool technology. I'm sure with time, it'll become more available.

I have to wonder though, why they didn't just use a normal CNC machine... Would have been able to make the entire part, instead of having to weld on the flanges.

But the CNC wouldn't be able to hollow out the whole pipe. At least I don't think it will.

James

"fully dissassemble your gun and e-mail me the scans of all the parts"

If they have the cash to purchase a machine to do this, they won't need someone doing that...

While we're on the subject of printing parts...print me a spleen, would'ja, love?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14946808

Yup, for the bargain basement sums of $2.5B in development and $47M in construction costs, you can turn out $5000 widgets for just $500. Should pay for itself by the time that Star Trek replicator technology is old hat.