5 ms·

Can my factory manufacture these designs?

ineedasername 7y ago
I don't know anything about your factory. But if you mean, can they do it from the perspective of IP/proprietary data etc., then that's the bottleneck to solve. The DPA could easily cut through that bottleneck if existing factories could quickly be retooled to manufacture existing, proven & approved designs. The alternative is to retool to produce novel, unproven, unapproved designs. If you have a factory, great! You'll need to retool it though. Which design would you rather target? A simple, proven, approved design tailor made for this sort of situation? Or the simple, tailor made, but unproven new ones that are being thrown together in a few weeks?
- _curious_ 7y ago
  "Which design would you rather target? A simple, proven, approved design tailor made for this sort of situation? Or the simple, tailor made, but unproven new ones that are being thrown together in a few weeks?" Perhaps both paths will prove necessary and valued?
adammunich 7y ago
What capabilities does it have?
- jbay808 7y ago
  What capabilities does it need? GP's point was why do we need new designs when company X already has a proven design. Well I can't access that design; it isn't published. My factory has cleanrooms, CNC tools, presses, waterjet cutters, testing equipment, and more, and a lot of flexibility and is presently running well below capacity. But I can't even assess whether that tooling is sufficient to make that design. The open source designs do at least solve this problem.
  - systemvoltage 7y ago
    Injection molding - The TOP thing we need to get mass manufacturing going. I just watched NYTimes front page video of Georgia Tech students trying to 3D print their way - it is unbelievably naive to use 3D printing in a situation that needs thousands and hundreds of thousands of parts. It defies common sense and elevates 3D printing to a new buzzwordy things by the media. Do you have injection molding tools and mold making expertise?
    - kilburn 7y ago
      While it is very obviously suboptimal, I don't see why 3D printing should be dismissed entirely in situations like the current one. The point is that we have thousands of these 3d printing machines distributed around the world, with a good amount of source material. At this point, we can afford to brute-force our way to producing hundreds of thousands of items, don't we? This is not going to solve all our manufacturing needs, not even by a long shot, but it seems it could fill very specific critical and unexpected needs.
      - systemvoltage 7y ago
        It's an opportunity cost. If we allocate resources that can otherwise be put to a better use, why not? Efficiency is king in mass production. By all means, use 3D printing at hospital level to get things made that's needed. A parts of the face shield (such as the head band) can be locally manufacturered using 3d printers. But it is boggling to me that the media keeps wanting to get 3D printing buzzword clicks than actually asking manufacturing engineers.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - ccsnags 7y ago
      3D printing becomes more viable as people use it. Right now it is pretty niche, but many groups are doing it on an industrial scale. If every household or building had one, the parts could be crowdsourced from every machine that could make them. The difference between where 3D printing and injection molding technology is right now is that 3D printers have scaled down in size and cost to the point of consumers being regular folks. As for right now, 3D printing can help but it won’t be the savior of mankind. Yet

I don't know anything about your factory. But if you mean, can they do it from the perspective of IP/proprietary data etc., then that's the bottleneck to solve. The DPA could easily cut through that bottleneck if existing factories could quickly be retooled to manufacture existing, proven & approved designs. The alternative is to retool to produce novel, unproven, unapproved designs. If you have a factory, great! You'll need to retool it though. Which design would you rather target? A simple, proven, approved design tailor made for this sort of situation? Or the simple, tailor made, but unproven new ones that are being thrown together in a few weeks?

_curious_ 7y ago
"Which design would you rather target? A simple, proven, approved design tailor made for this sort of situation? Or the simple, tailor made, but unproven new ones that are being thrown together in a few weeks?" Perhaps both paths will prove necessary and valued?

adammunich 7y ago

What capabilities does it have?

jbay808 7y ago
What capabilities does it need? GP's point was why do we need new designs when company X already has a proven design. Well I can't access that design; it isn't published. My factory has cleanrooms, CNC tools, presses, waterjet cutters, testing equipment, and more, and a lot of flexibility and is presently running well below capacity. But I can't even assess whether that tooling is sufficient to make that design. The open source designs do at least solve this problem.
- systemvoltage 7y ago
  Injection molding - The TOP thing we need to get mass manufacturing going. I just watched NYTimes front page video of Georgia Tech students trying to 3D print their way - it is unbelievably naive to use 3D printing in a situation that needs thousands and hundreds of thousands of parts. It defies common sense and elevates 3D printing to a new buzzwordy things by the media. Do you have injection molding tools and mold making expertise?
  - kilburn 7y ago
    While it is very obviously suboptimal, I don't see why 3D printing should be dismissed entirely in situations like the current one. The point is that we have thousands of these 3d printing machines distributed around the world, with a good amount of source material. At this point, we can afford to brute-force our way to producing hundreds of thousands of items, don't we? This is not going to solve all our manufacturing needs, not even by a long shot, but it seems it could fill very specific critical and unexpected needs.
    - systemvoltage 7y ago
      It's an opportunity cost. If we allocate resources that can otherwise be put to a better use, why not? Efficiency is king in mass production. By all means, use 3D printing at hospital level to get things made that's needed. A parts of the face shield (such as the head band) can be locally manufacturered using 3d printers. But it is boggling to me that the media keeps wanting to get 3D printing buzzword clicks than actually asking manufacturing engineers.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - ccsnags 7y ago
    3D printing becomes more viable as people use it. Right now it is pretty niche, but many groups are doing it on an industrial scale. If every household or building had one, the parts could be crowdsourced from every machine that could make them. The difference between where 3D printing and injection molding technology is right now is that 3D printers have scaled down in size and cost to the point of consumers being regular folks. As for right now, 3D printing can help but it won’t be the savior of mankind. Yet