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3D printed boat

Interesting prototyping method. I would be curious to know whether it was designed for actual usage stresses. I noticed they had metal reinforcement where the smashed the champagne. Maybe they just needed a hard area to make the bottle break.

Here's an article indicates they are capable of laying down 1000 lb/hr of polymer. ORNL Partners With Ingersoll Machine Tools to Develop Colossal 3D Printing System - 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing

This article suggests it's aimed at tooling. It would be a beautiful way of making molds for fiberglass if the materials were compatible. Rockford manufacturer creates world’s largest 3D printer | MyStateline.com
 
With the symmetrical nature of the boat (the hull at least) I saw the video last week on t.v. and my immediate thought was that (2) heads could have been used to speed up the process.
 
Thanks a lot- its like revenge of the nerds and putting honest working stiffs out of a job....
It says "world's largest polymer printer" ... aka unreinforced gloop ?

So let's drop a nice 16v149 or two in there, a few thousand gallons of fuel, and take her out Juan de Fuca at max ebb on a nice windy day. Don't forget to pre-alert the Coast Guard :D

They make such a big deal out of "we did this in two days" but if it breaks in the first rough weather, what's the point ?

boat stresses
 
I'm fairly certain that the boat they printed was nowhere near 100 feet long, it looked more like twenty. How long does it take to lay up a 20 foot fiberglass hull? I'd be shocked if it was more than 48 work hours, to say nothing of "months."

When you can 3d print the 99% of the cost in a boat that's not a bathtub, then we'll be onto something.

Is this better than CNC milling a master? and then laying up tooling off that? Maybe. Does it have uses? Certainly. Is it going to revolutionize anything? Hard to imagine how.
 
I'm fairly certain that the boat they printed was nowhere near 100 feet long, it looked more like twenty. How long does it take to lay up a 20 foot fiberglass hull? I'd be shocked if it was more than 48 work hours, to say nothing of "months."

When you can 3d print the 99% of the cost in a boat that's not a bathtub, then we'll be onto something.

Is this better than CNC milling a master? and then laying up tooling off that? Maybe. Does it have uses? Certainly. Is it going to revolutionize anything? Hard to imagine how.

CNC milling a mold that big isn't cheap or fast.
 
CNC milling a mold that big isn't cheap or fast.

You'd mill a master, and lay up (one or more molds) off of that.

I'd be curious to know why you feel the costs would be better for the 3d printer. The gantry on this would cost the same as the gantry on an equivalently sized router. You're talking a foam tooling board in the routing case, so no real resistance either way. So the accuracy and speed would be the same between the two at equivalent cost. So, the machine time to create the surface should be the same. With the 3d printer, you're taking additional time to print the support structure under the skin. With the router you're taking additional time to rough out the material to get down close to the skin. So, approximately, you're trading the machine time to rough a milled master for the machine time to print supports and reinforce the printed master.

Either way, you're going to have to sand and fill the master (or the mold, if you're thinking you can print molds directly.)


If this were such a slam dunk, it'd be being done at a commercial boat builder, not a university.
 
It says "world's largest polymer printer" ... aka unreinforced gloop ?

So let's drop a nice 16v149 or two in there, a few thousand gallons of fuel, and take her out Juan de Fuca at max ebb on a nice windy day. Don't forget to pre-alert the Coast Guard :D

They make such a big deal out of "we did this in two days" but if it breaks in the first rough weather, what's the point ?

boat stresses

Sam- you might recognize that I am well aware of the material issues in marine structures.
I look at this and immediately understand two penalties- weight and material yield.
I don't make those observations because they are besides the point which is that application of a tech which might have use in the industry.

I watched a military helicopter body being lain down from prepreg carbon fiber with a huge CNC- same thing- automation to optimize structure..


EONs ago as I chatted up my pals while we were taking a break from framing up some residential homes.
I mused that this tacking bits of trees together with iron spikes was a primitive way to go about things.
At the time I offered that the construction of the future would be organic based but derived from a type of fast growing algae mat which would induced to grow over a lightweight armature and solidify into a rigid structure.

Screw this chopping up plants and bits and pieces cobbled together I want a mononique organic frame house- no fasteners eh

I own one of the very first one piece composite boats- 41' lain in 1956 from a tech developed during WWII- fiber (linen during war) lain in thermoset plastics- Fiber Reinforced Plastics (FRP).
So currently we use sheets of metal set on frame or fiber set in plastics- largely gone are the days of chopping up large plants for structural planks.
I did see a remarkable skiff years back- they took FRP planks and I shit you not- carvel planked the hull (lapped with edge fasteners and caulk).
Talking about not "getting it"... LOL

I do see a time where foundry products tacked together will be replaced with formed in place materials- alas not my algal mat.... I did dream the big dream though..

Edit-

I can't help but dream the big dreams- this homebuilding thing- we REALLY need to get away from bits and pieces of wood or masonry cobbled together.

How about this- prepreg inflatable structure- inflate and UV cure the shell.
I know I know... pesky things like multi floor homes, stairs etc.....
I am working on it- maybe another beer will help me think..

This current approach drives me crazy though- I just got finished hanging sheet rock in the shop- what the hell - sheets of gypsum and smearing mud over the walls to fair it all up- when the hell do I live- 1440's?

"Honey I've got to finish the kids room- I'm out of mud and will be right back"....

Gypsum - Wikipedia
 
Sam- you might recognize that I am well aware of the material issues in marine structures.
I look at this and immediately understand two penalties- weight and material yield.
I don't make those observations because they are besides the point which is that application of a tech which might have use in the industry.

I watched a military helicopter body being lain down from prepreg carbon fiber with a huge CNC- same thing- automation to optimize structure..


EONs ago as I chatted up my pals while we were taking a break from framing up some residential homes.
I mused that this tacking bits of trees together with iron spikes was a primitive way to go about things.
At the time I offered that the construction of the future would be organic based but derived from a type of fast growing algae mat which would induced to grow over a lightweight armature and solidify into a rigid structure.

Screw this chopping up plants and bits and pieces cobbled together I want a mononique organic frame house- no fasteners eh

I own one of the very first one piece composite boats- 41' lain in 1956 from a tech developed during WWII- fiber (linen during war) lain in thermoset plastics- Fiber Reinforced Plastics (FRP).
So currently we use sheets of metal set on frame or fiber set in plastics- largely gone are the days of chopping up large plants for structural planks.
I did see a remarkable skiff years back- they took FRP planks and I shit you not- carvel planked the hull (lapped with edge fasteners and caulk).
Talking about not "getting it"... LOL

I do see a time where foundry products tacked together will be replaced with formed in place materials- alas not my algal mat.... I did dream the big dream though..

Edit-

I can't help but dream the big dreams- this homebuilding thing- we REALLY need to get away from bits and pieces of wood or masonry cobbled together.

How about this- prepreg inflatable structure- inflate and UV cure the shell.
I know I know... pesky things like multi floor homes, stairs etc.....
I am working on it- maybe another beer will help me think..

This current approach drives me crazy though- I just got finished hanging sheet rock in the shop- what the hell - sheets of gypsum and smearing mud over the walls to fair it all up- when the hell do I live- 1440's?

"Honey I've got to finish the kids room- I'm out of mud and will be right back"....

Gypsum - Wikipedia

Yup....this is just the start, they will fix the problems, recall these ?
 

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You'd mill a master, and lay up (one or more molds) off of that.

Most custom boat stuff I see they are milling the molds directly out of tooling foam with a 5-axis router, then some putty-ing and sanding steps. This works quite well if you're only doing a few p

I'd be curious to know why you feel the costs would be better for the 3d printer. The gantry on this would cost the same as the gantry on an equivalently sized router. You're talking a foam tooling board in the routing case, so no real resistance either way. So the accuracy and speed would be the same between the two at equivalent cost. So, the machine time to create the surface should be the same. With the 3d printer, you're taking additional time to print the support structure under the skin. With the router you're taking additional time to rough out the material to get down close to the skin. So, approximately, you're trading the machine time to rough a milled master for the machine time to print supports and reinforce the printed master.

Either way, you're going to have to sand and fill the master (or the mold, if you're thinking you can print molds directly.)

My comment was more about speed. I don't know that the mold cost would be cheaper. My guess is that it isn't, at least at the current state of the art. It may be faster though. I've seen a lot of similar size molds built out of advantech and tooling foam, they take longer than a weekend to mill.

If this were such a slam dunk, it'd be being done at a commercial boat builder, not a university.

Exactly. It's a cool research project.
 
I must confess I'm thoroughly underwhelmed until we see some sea trials. A boat of that size could be fiber reinforced polymer but this did not appear to be the case here, and that is a larger technical challenge. A work boat of this sort these days would be aluminum, made from parts cut out of plate using CNC machines, so assembly is pretty efficient. With this boat there is also the matter of fairing the hull surface; the close ups they did show suggest the resolution of the deposition was pretty coarse. That's an important issue with 3D printing, especially metal, where for a lot of projects you need your 5 axis mill to go with your printer, so you can think of those costs together. I think 3D printing a plug for a hull at near net shape and then finish machining on the same machine before laying up a hull or two carbon fiber (just to be awesome) would be pretty cool. But if you look at custom hulls like IMOCA60 race boats, plug making doesn't seem to be the rate limiting step as much as the intricate carbon layup.
 
I know this isn't a boat but it's probably more practical and a whole lot more fun to drive. This car was 3D printed at IMTS 2016 and driven out of the booth on the last Friday of the show. They only printed the chassis and they made a big deal about being able to purchase a car and have a choice of bodies to put on it. All electric too.

3D printed Auto_IMTS 2016.jpg
 
Y'all look at a company named Thermwood.

Real industrial application of giant plastic deposition at high volumes and speeds, and they do big business with their machines and routers.

The boat was done by a university as a test, but if you old boomers can't understand how technology progresses, and can't wrap your head around anything not in a factory, go look at Thermwood for applications.

Pro tip, most new technologies start in an acamedic or research frame, even when private sector is fueling it. Look at the partnerships NASA, DOD, and DOE provide.

ETA: Ok, I'm not too lazy to provide at least a link: Thermwood LSAM - Large Scale Additive Manufacturing
 








 
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