Posted on 02/08/2014 12:06:09 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
China is investing heavily in 3D printing, just like those in the U.S. and Europe.
In June, China announced a gigantic 3D printer, which they claimed was the world’s largest at the time, with a 1.8 meter build diameter. Basically the thing could print out a nice sized bathroom vanity if you wanted it to.
Southern Fan Co. (As Translated from Chinese), is completing a printer this month which will be able to print out metal objects approximately 6 meters, or 18 feet in diameter and 10 meters long (33 feet). The metal parts can weigh up to 300 tons.
The company will be able to print out the entire frame of just about any four wheeled automobile on Earth.
There is a 3D printer in China for large titanium parts. They are fabbing the titanium main frame of the windshield of a domestically made C919 passenger aircraft. A Huaming team used 3D printing technology to make the part. It only took 55 days and cost less than $ 200,000. Normally they would order from Europe and it would cost $ 2,000,000 for production by die forging and delivery would take up to two years.
There are already several large scale industrial 3D printers in China, including the one in the image above, in which a team at Beihang University has been able to print out several complex titanium alloy structures. This includes parts used in satellites, rockets, and nuclear power plants. These are actual parts, and not prototypes for parts. Also larger parts such as titanium alloy landing gear for jets, as well as large main force bearing frames of air crafts have been, and continue to be produce by this printer.
Airbus in Europe has a project to develop fabrication of large passenger plane wings. They are needing to develop new materials.
Carbon nanotube reinforced polymers are being developed.
maybe we could print up some 3d legislators to replace the 2 dimensional barstards we have now
Ha!
Great post!
$5,000 for a couple of dolls?
Just heard where a kid recently printed, on a library printer, for $60, an $18,000 prosthetic hand for his friend.
Now that’s a great application of this technology.
And it’s “small”.
Boeing is working on printing whole airplane wings.
We live in a world today, where people put “crap’ in the headlines of their articles.
Yea, they once said a personal computer would never make it into the workplace.
I see much worse on a daily basis, including f**k, s**t, c**t and more.
That kind of answer applies to anything.
Wow.
Is this really a 3D printer or a highly automated factory?
A 3D printer used ‘ink’. This doesn’t seem to.
Good catch. I noticed that too. Our language is decaying along with our culture.
3D printers don’t use ink that I’m aware of, most use some type of plastic, although there are new breakthroughs in materials used recently:
New 3D Printer by MarkForged Can Print With Carbon Fiber
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3116497/posts
Titanium powder used to print automotive parts in 3D news
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3107347/posts
3D Printers That Build Entire Houses: Aims To Print 2,500 Square-Foot-Homes In 20 Hours [Video]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3089269/posts
First 3-D-Printed Metal Gun Shows Tech Maturity
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3089029/posts
Well worth it if they're action figure dolls....
From a hobbyists perspective (small scale aircraft models), I’m really enthusiastic about the speed in which this technology is advancing.
But I’d guess, just like in the hobby world, that apart from very custom jobs, the advantages to 3D printing will be in creating the masters used to make molds for things like vanities, etc. If you’re going to turn out thousands of vanities, or similar objects, printing each individual one doesn’t make a lot of sense.
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