Here's a skull made with a resin rapid prototyping (3-D printing) system. One layer of plastic at a time.
Here's what the device looks like. These things have been around for a while.
Posted on 11/11/2009 6:10:26 PM PST by saganite
A group of engineers working on a novel manufacturing technique at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., have come up with a new twist on the popular old saying about dreaming and doing: "If you can slice it, we can build it."
That's because layers mean everything to the environmentally-friendly construction process called Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication, or EBF3, and its operation sounds like something straight out of science fiction.
"You start with a drawing of the part you want to build, you push a button, and out comes the part," said Karen Taminger, the technology lead for the Virginia-based research project that is part of NASA's Fundamental Aeronautics Program.
She admits that, on the surface, EBF3 reminds many people of a Star Trek replicator in which, for example, Captain Picard announces out loud, "Tea, Earl Grey, hot." Then there is a brief hum, a flash of light and the stimulating drink appears from a nook in the wall.
In reality, EBF3 works in a vacuum chamber, where an electron beam is focused on a constantly feeding source of metal, which is melted and then applied as called for by a drawing -- one layer at a time -- on top of a rotating surface until the part is complete.
While the options for using EBF3 are more limited than what science fiction allows, the potential for the process is no less out of this world, with promising relevance in aviation, spaceflight -- even the medical community, Taminger said.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Cool!
Maybe we can use it to give the Republican leadership
a spine, one of titanium would be nice.
Next November, right after the election, the Democrats will be wanting to use that technology to give them new butts.
Refrigerated jello would be more than they have now.
They don’t say a thing about how long it takes to build up a part by this process.
Let me emphasize: how l-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ng it takes.
It takes a while.
They already have electron beam type welding. Thompson Center used to use it to fasten the barrel lugs on the Contender barrels. Now I think they just use tig or mig for that.
Yes and no. Forming with resin is old to the point where there are turnkey "home" units available (another peripheral for your shop computer).
This is the first that I'd read of forming with metal layering. Seems to be a similar method, but completely different process.
[I too, could be wrong]
>> Maybe we can use it to give the Republican leadership
a spine, one of titanium would be nice.
When they’re done with the titanium spine, maybe they can take some brass out of the scrap bin and fabricate a gonad or three for the Pubbies.
Umm... Guess what that bright light is during TIG, MIG or plain ol' arc welding? ELECTRONS.
"Electron beam welding"? LOL!
Here! Watch me beam some electrons from my E7018 electrode down to this steel plate...
LOL
E7018 my butt!
I can do it with E6010!
so there.
Well, yeah, but some people want their projects to look NICE when they're finished. ;-)
bump
sounds familiar to an engineering process i saw on a forensics show.. they took a scan of a skull, and replicated one sheet of paper at a time one layer at a time, lasers burned each sheet and then they were glued together producing a 3-d duplicate skull made of paper from the scan.. pretty amazing..
Bah!
I can butt weld rusty 14 gauge with wet 5/32” E6010 and make it look like wire feed.
I only exaggerate a little. Usually.
What you said could apply to any new technology that’s ever been invented. I see this as the next big thing. Maybe not tomorrow, but within the next 20 years. Who needs factories when you can take recyclables and turn them into products, tools and machine parts. Those who predict the demise of our country are overlooking one very important thing—our ingenuity.
The military is on this technology. What they would like to do is be able to send machines like this forward near the battlefields and cut down their logistics requirements. Imaging just having bags of metal dust which can be made into anything on site, rather than fabricate back here and send across the globe.
Here's a skull made with a resin rapid prototyping (3-D printing) system. One layer of plastic at a time.
Here's what the device looks like. These things have been around for a while.
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