adouglas89
Plastic
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2021
Hey, I have for many years had an avid interest and thought a lot about a technique called Shape deposition manufacturing. I think it has a lot of potential if it were to be developed, and would like to hear what others think.
I was a machinist for several years, mostly operating a 4 axis milling machine. I became acquainted with the strengths and weaknesses, and developed a desire to make things that are not practical to make through any known methods. Due to the combination of accuracy, geometry, and not least, material quality.
I think we really need to develop something. 3d printing just will never give the accuracy. Metal 3d printing seems refractorily expensive.
Maybe I'm wrong, and cheaper systems will be developed, some kind of metal printer with a companion 5 axis mill system, some soluble or meltable support system.... Idk though. That seems a very long way away.
There has got to be a better way to make truly high quality mechanical parts, but all these printing companies are working on is only giving low quality parts. The tolerances are just not anywhere near enough to make real things that are really valuable, a large fraction of the time.
I think this approach of making a highly precise mold by putting a layer of material down sort of wholesale, that is without much precision, then milling it into shape, repeating with a support material, then removing the support material, then filling the mold with the types of resins used in resin casting, has great potential.
It's kind of hard to explain, because the power comes from concurrently solving a relatively broad range of problems, rather than one main strength.
The resin could be filled with carbon fiber for great strength, isotropic. Such materials are almost as strong as aluminum 6061, apparently.
With an automatic tool change router that was built and calibrated well, you could squeaze some pretty high accuracy out of this, if only you could find a good set of build and support material.
It is a bit complicated, though.
Shape Deposition Manufacturing
I was a machinist for several years, mostly operating a 4 axis milling machine. I became acquainted with the strengths and weaknesses, and developed a desire to make things that are not practical to make through any known methods. Due to the combination of accuracy, geometry, and not least, material quality.
I think we really need to develop something. 3d printing just will never give the accuracy. Metal 3d printing seems refractorily expensive.
Maybe I'm wrong, and cheaper systems will be developed, some kind of metal printer with a companion 5 axis mill system, some soluble or meltable support system.... Idk though. That seems a very long way away.
There has got to be a better way to make truly high quality mechanical parts, but all these printing companies are working on is only giving low quality parts. The tolerances are just not anywhere near enough to make real things that are really valuable, a large fraction of the time.
I think this approach of making a highly precise mold by putting a layer of material down sort of wholesale, that is without much precision, then milling it into shape, repeating with a support material, then removing the support material, then filling the mold with the types of resins used in resin casting, has great potential.
It's kind of hard to explain, because the power comes from concurrently solving a relatively broad range of problems, rather than one main strength.
The resin could be filled with carbon fiber for great strength, isotropic. Such materials are almost as strong as aluminum 6061, apparently.
With an automatic tool change router that was built and calibrated well, you could squeaze some pretty high accuracy out of this, if only you could find a good set of build and support material.
It is a bit complicated, though.
Shape Deposition Manufacturing
