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RE: Is 3d printing a viable alternative to injection molding?
If you figure in the cost of the mold on the injection molding the printed numbers will be a lot higher. The main strength of injection molding is quantity production costs, but the mold is Thousands of dollars to produce and maintain.
The change over to a different part for 3D printing is a lot easier too! You could print all the parts for an assembly, one at a time, and make four assemblies, when they are ordered, with zero inventory. :)
True. there is other consideration as well though. like time. I did a quick calculation of my capacity at home and it is app one piece pr hour plus removing prints and setting up again every 6 hours, so it would be a few days to print them. Casting and injection molding is a lot faster. There is also the strength of the parts. even though 3d printed parts are surprisingly strong, injection molded parts are stronger. but I agree, I could probably have set the numbers even higher
Valid printing time problems. Mine is slow too, but unattended time is free, and is there a practical problem with ten, or a hundred units running in parallel?
There are beginning to call this additive manufacturing and there is no reason this need be done with plastic. I troubleshoot flame spray equipment in use now, that deposits metal powder, through a hydrogen flame, onto aircrraft landing gear, to raise up the surface. This old gear, is then ground back to original specifications and returned to service!
The technology is in use now.... :)
3D printer made by people repairing turbines and similar pieces
https://www.beam-machines.com/products/magic-3d-printing-machine.
This can enable different materials on thin layers, this is really interesting.
Nice toy! Maybe a little high for garage use, but very nice! Here is a filament that will work in Our printers, and allow the use of the lost wax process to cast what ever metal you want to match the printed part.
:)Direct metal printing is still a game for the select few, but printing for casting is very much doable. I have been doing quite a few masters for sandcasting and though I have not tried it yet I have all the equipment for doing investment casting from prints
Excellent! I got some Delft Clay from Rio Grande, that acts like sand casting, but is Very fine for detail. I need to order the ceramic dip coating, but ready on everything else.
Wax printing just looks fun! I can get hot enough for steel, but not stainless yet.
Wow steel and iron - thats hot. I have "only" done bronze and silver. i have some posts about my experiments with casting metal from prints. Here and here.
I have other posts with similar content but these where the most obvious ones. The main reason for wax casting is detail. Even with delft sand(which is also what I use) the details of investment casting is way better, which means less work afterwards (I assume the ceramic coating is similar to investments casting?). Also the limitations on shape is less.
Yes the ceramic coatings are the shell for the investment casting. They usually dip in fine several timers, then in coarser material for added strength on the form. When you do precious metals, they recommend a centrifuge to avoid porosities, but I have not tried that, and it seems like a good flux would lift out problems well. I have been watching you pour, and you are ahead of me on videos! That I have NOT tried yet! Keep on pouring! :)
It will be interesting to see if 3d printing matures to the point where it's feasible for large production runs over other methods like casting and injection molding.
I know for a fact that coloplast , a big danish medical supplies producer, is alreay using 3d printing , not only in their development, but also for initial production runs. 3d printing will probably never beat injection molding when the piece count is in the tens of thousands, but it just might for runs of a few thousand pieces. and then there is the possibility of making the molds from 3d printed metal(or some other heat resistant and durable material). I think that will definitely see some use.
Yeah, a lot of the people I've heard talking about commercial 3d printing as an alternative to traditional manufacturing talk about metal printing, either as a way of making molds or making personalized items that are a little nicer than the norm.