4 ms·

Turbine blades, impellers, valves are good candidate for printing. Machining creates chips and I think you need to have variety of metal stock to spin on lathe

Turbine blades, impellers, valves are good candidate for printing. Machining creates chips and I think you need to have variety of metal stock to spin on lathe, with different dimensions. So if you've simply a bucket of metal to form any shape you want, it might be favourable to avoid uncessary wastage, cleaning, or stocking. For example, in 3d printing plastic you just need a roll of plastic or pellets.

abakker 6y ago
Actually, I’d be surprised if any of those were good candidates. Turbine blades in jet engines aren’t even machined now - they are grown out of inconel. Valves are highly dependent on surface finish and frequently multi-material setups - e.g. o rings. Not to make light of matching costs, but in the scheme of getting a part made, even of tool steel, the overall contribution of the materials is usually not super high. Machine time, tool bits, and design work are all MUCH more costly.
- c22 6y ago
  Huh, from the hangout and hack stuff all day at the maker space perspective this is flipped completely on its head. I have plenty of time to design things and operate machines, and even the cost of the machines (bits included) is shared to the point that it's almost free as an individual. It's waiting on those gosh darn materials budgets to appear that holds up all my projects.
  - abakker 6y ago
    I should clarify, in production projects, materials may end up being a much greater overall part of the process, especially if the production is heavily automated. However, 3D printing of tool steels seems like it is aimed at lower volume parts where the automation will be lower, so paying a machinist to load/unload, finish, debur etc might be a relatively larger portion of the time. For us hobbyists, the CAD time is free, so it tends to cost less :)
manfredo 6y ago
Modern turbine blades are mostly made out of nickel, not steel. They're cast in such a way that they form a single crystal structure [1]. This makes 3d printing a no-go. Also, turbine blades are moving to ceramic matrix composite construction [2]. 1. https://www.americanscientist.org/article/each-blade-a-single-crystal https://www.americanscientist.org/article/each-blade-a-singl... 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceramic_matrix_composite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceramic_matrix_composite
- deleted 6y ago
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abakker 6y ago

Actually, I’d be surprised if any of those were good candidates. Turbine blades in jet engines aren’t even machined now - they are grown out of inconel. Valves are highly dependent on surface finish and frequently multi-material setups - e.g. o rings. Not to make light of matching costs, but in the scheme of getting a part made, even of tool steel, the overall contribution of the materials is usually not super high. Machine time, tool bits, and design work are all MUCH more costly.

c22 6y ago
Huh, from the hangout and hack stuff all day at the maker space perspective this is flipped completely on its head. I have plenty of time to design things and operate machines, and even the cost of the machines (bits included) is shared to the point that it's almost free as an individual. It's waiting on those gosh darn materials budgets to appear that holds up all my projects.
- abakker 6y ago
  I should clarify, in production projects, materials may end up being a much greater overall part of the process, especially if the production is heavily automated. However, 3D printing of tool steels seems like it is aimed at lower volume parts where the automation will be lower, so paying a machinist to load/unload, finish, debur etc might be a relatively larger portion of the time. For us hobbyists, the CAD time is free, so it tends to cost less :)

manfredo 6y ago

Modern turbine blades are mostly made out of nickel, not steel. They're cast in such a way that they form a single crystal structure [1]. This makes 3d printing a no-go. Also, turbine blades are moving to ceramic matrix composite construction [2]. 1. https://www.americanscientist.org/article/each-blade-a-single-crystal https://www.americanscientist.org/article/each-blade-a-singl... 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceramic_matrix_composite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceramic_matrix_composite

deleted 6y ago
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