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My layman impression of the part is that it looks like a traditional piece. Is there anything about it that couldn't efficiently be done with traditional machi

My layman impression of the part is that it looks like a traditional piece. Is there anything about it that couldn't efficiently be done with traditional machining? If not, is the next step to leverage the additive process to produce a unique design? Meshes, hallows, etc.?

taneq 11y ago
This was my thought - it's an awesome read and 3D printing definitely has its place, but its strength is generally in one-off or very-short-run custom items rather than building mass produced parts.
- pencerw 11y ago
  Those are definitely good use cases, yup. There are a few things I can do to increase the value of this part (or similar ones), and in general the high end cycling market tends to require a lot of 1) lightweight structures, which additive is good for, and 2) customization. It's also worth thinking about this in context: Even without offering any customization, the cost to buy my part in batches of ~40 actually works out pretty well (caveat: this is a decidedly high end bike part). With forged, machined, and composite parts, that's an extremely low purchase quantity; in most cases, you'd never come close to amortizing the tooling & setup time. That said, I'm definitely interested in exploring other products, and new business models for how to sell them. This part is just the first step in that process :)
pencerw 11y ago
Totally fair question. This part would be really hard to manufacture traditionally - there's a hollow in the middle of the part that couldn't be machined, so you'd have to machine it in two parts and then weld it. That said, this design is very much NOT optimal, and there's a lot I can do to tune it for the process. I'm working on that more in the coming months; first I needed to 1) prove that the process could produce a functional part, and 2) get access to more advanced design software (topology optimization + lattice structure generation). Stay tuned!

taneq 11y ago

This was my thought - it's an awesome read and 3D printing definitely has its place, but its strength is generally in one-off or very-short-run custom items rather than building mass produced parts.

pencerw 11y ago
Those are definitely good use cases, yup. There are a few things I can do to increase the value of this part (or similar ones), and in general the high end cycling market tends to require a lot of 1) lightweight structures, which additive is good for, and 2) customization. It's also worth thinking about this in context: Even without offering any customization, the cost to buy my part in batches of ~40 actually works out pretty well (caveat: this is a decidedly high end bike part). With forged, machined, and composite parts, that's an extremely low purchase quantity; in most cases, you'd never come close to amortizing the tooling & setup time. That said, I'm definitely interested in exploring other products, and new business models for how to sell them. This part is just the first step in that process :)

pencerw 11y ago

Totally fair question. This part would be really hard to manufacture traditionally - there's a hollow in the middle of the part that couldn't be machined, so you'd have to machine it in two parts and then weld it. That said, this design is very much NOT optimal, and there's a lot I can do to tune it for the process. I'm working on that more in the coming months; first I needed to 1) prove that the process could produce a functional part, and 2) get access to more advanced design software (topology optimization + lattice structure generation). Stay tuned!