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To: schurmann
3D printing cannot replace more traditional methods of manufacture and construction in all cases. For example: it’s not going to make firearms.

Firearms require tempered steel: springs and hardened parts (hammers, triggers, sears, pins etc) simply cannot be made the way 3D printers build up material in increments, to create an object.


MIT creates 3D printed graphene that’s lighter than air, 10X stronger than steel

You also need to consider that current firearm designs were designed with previous centuries' manufacturing methods in mind. New design tools and new manufacturing tools (3D printers) and new materials will lead to some new and very deadly weapons.

Much of what you need is just waiting for you to place your order.

Graphene 3D Lab, Inc.
42 posted on 01/10/2017 9:24:49 AM PST by Garth Tater (What's mine is mine.)
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To: Garth Tater

“... Much of what you need is just waiting for you to place your order.”

No it isn’t.

Garth Tater has not the first idea of what he is talking about.

No one in gun manufacturing, nor in gun repair, speaks about “10x stronger than steel.” Lots of materials are “stronger” but cannot be fashioned into a gun that will fire more than one shot or have much chance of not injuring the shooter. I realize I’m on very thin ice here, but I suspect the market is not very big for guns that aren’t durable, safe, and reliable - no matter how cheap they are.

Nothing but steel - properly alloyed, carburized, and/or tempered - has to date demonstrated the requisite properties of toughness, hardness, and resistance to high-temperature erosion required in a firearm.

And the requisite levels of these properties cannot be bestowed on an accreted mass while it’s being built up. The part must be shaped first, then heat-treated and/or surface hardened.

And no firearm can be assembled from parts by the uninformed and unskilled: safety, reliability, and durability cannot be attained unless everything is properly fitted, which cannot be done in advance by any automated process. The difference in dimensions, between “won’t work” and “explodes on firing” is too small. No cutesy software-controlled workaround will do the job.

Springs cannot be built up by any 3D-print method. And no firearm can be made without them. The design details are irrelevant.


62 posted on 01/10/2017 6:09:04 PM PST by schurmann
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