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