These will be useful in future

[Richard Moss]

This is the kind of thing that will enable owners of "modern" cars to keep them on the road in future. I can't believe how cheap they are becoming:

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/3d-printers/7933506/

[TheOldMan]

We are getting there surprisingly quickly.
At that price point they aren't not much practical use yet. Model making, prototyping for form but not functions, teaching aid etc. Fun though!
When Selective Laser Sintering of metal gets to the price point that many local businesses can afford one, we really will be 'cooking with gas'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_laser_sintering

[stanker]

This is the kind of thing that will enable owners of "modern" cars to keep them on the road in future. I can't believe how cheap they are becoming:

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/3d-printers/7933506/

Good find Richard.

They have already made a complete weapon, I believe, so should be capable of making a nice fuel filler neck.

Regards

Ian
.

[dollysprint]

I know nothing of this technology but from what I understand it uses a powder compound and a laser to make it "weld" together. Question is how robust are the parts going to be that it makes?
I believe anything can be copied from scan but how would you scan the internals of an 800 fuel filler, for example. And what happens when a part is made of mixed materials such as copper windings around a magnet as in a motor or bi-metallic strip.
Am I being ignorant here or are there limitations to what this thing can do.
I believe this thing was originally only meant to print working models of parts in "plastic" for designers to evaluate.

Dave

[BlueRover]

At the moment, the plastic used isn't as hard as a proper blown moulded polythene but for some things they work ok.
The powder/laser printer is a different method altogether, these current printers extrude a melted plastic string which makes the shapes with a preset wall thickness so as long as you have the required 3D information, any shape is possible. I suppose you could make thicker walls by doubling up on the plan sections or select a larger diameter nozzle. These DIY printers are a basic copy of machines costing tens of thousands of Pounds.

As for durability with liquids such as petrol I suppose different plastics will be available, I see three sorts recommended for the one Richard has specified.

[scoobyh123]

Can thse things print in 95 Shore hardness polyurethane? Even 60-70 Shore hardness would be good!

Reason for asking is the supply of anti-toll bar bushes worldwide for the 800 is now pretty much gone and even the aftermarket people (Polybush etc) only list the front bush for the 25mm (Vit Sport/diesel or Police spec) ARBs.

I'm working on making some moulds to use cold-cure polyurethane rubber (95 Shore - or was it 85? I'll have to check) to reproduce them and my moulds will be capable of making them for smaller bars too but progress is slow. Also trying to reproduce the drop links as they seem to fail very quickly, i'm guessing it's because the rubber in them is already 20 ish years old.

Same goes for C27 rocker cover gaskets and the side panel gaskets on the cylinder heads.

So can these 3D printers print in PU or shall i keep whittling my moulds?

[Richard Moss]

Good question, no idea. I do know that I have read several articles about low volume cars and prototypes where they say that 3D printers are being used to speed up development and production of plastic parts.

[scoobyh123]

Now you mention printing plastic parts for development, i remember hearing a story about a 3D printer that prints it's own spare and/or updated spare parts. I do wonder though how the owner is meant to print a spare part if that part is broken and stopping his printer from working.

[Richard Moss]

Printthem in advance and stick them in the cupboard

[scoobyh123]

Perhaps i should have explained better - part of the service contract was the printer could be interrogated remotely by the makers and then the file for the replacement spare part was emailed to the customer. With a broken printer it could be a tad tricky to print the part to fix it?