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Pure hype. It's interesting how a technology that is in fact revolutionizing manufacturing (CNC milling) gets very little attention compared to one that will, b

by zeteo 14y ago

Pure hype. It's interesting how a technology that is in fact revolutionizing manufacturing (CNC milling) gets very little attention compared to one that will, by all reasonable accounts, only ever be useful for prototyping or very limited production runs of small objects. A CNC mill in every house would be much more disruptive than a 3D printer. It would give people the ability to make actually useful objects (door knobs, hinges, car engine parts etc.) out of materials (wood, metal etc.) that are far more abundant, strong and cheap than 3D printer substrates.

leoedin 14y ago
3D printing techniques are becoming more and more relevant to manufacturing. There's plenty of shapes that you simply cannot make with a CNC mill - RF wave guides, topology optimised brackets etc. Additionally, there's materials which are uneconomical to mill - principally titanium. The main issues with selective laser sintered titanium as a manufacturing process are speed and surface finish. Speed is increasing, and people are making progress with surface finish. CNC milling (which is an incredibly wasteful process) is just a small development from traditional manufacturing processes. 3D printing is the disruptive technology in the room. For very high scale components stamping and injection moulding will almost certainly remain the most cost effective manufacturing process. For lower scale stuff (especially weight concious things like aircraft parts) SLS 3D printing will almost certainly start to dominate the market in the next few decades.
- briguy 14y ago
  I have extensive experience with both CNC milling and 3D printing. I feel that 3D printing is disrupting Product Design/Development vs. actual Manufacturing. Anyone with an idea can now make functional prototypes and proofs of concepts with the click of a button. As you wrote, in perhaps 10 years time, we will be able to get the size and surface finish from 3d printing required to make limited production parts that have certain characteristics (weight, shape, containing reentrant angles, etc) not feasible from CNC milling/turning, etc.

by zeteo 14y ago

leoedin 14y ago

3D printing techniques are becoming more and more relevant to manufacturing. There's plenty of shapes that you simply cannot make with a CNC mill - RF wave guides, topology optimised brackets etc. Additionally, there's materials which are uneconomical to mill - principally titanium. The main issues with selective laser sintered titanium as a manufacturing process are speed and surface finish. Speed is increasing, and people are making progress with surface finish. CNC milling (which is an incredibly wasteful process) is just a small development from traditional manufacturing processes. 3D printing is the disruptive technology in the room. For very high scale components stamping and injection moulding will almost certainly remain the most cost effective manufacturing process. For lower scale stuff (especially weight concious things like aircraft parts) SLS 3D printing will almost certainly start to dominate the market in the next few decades.

briguy 14y ago
I have extensive experience with both CNC milling and 3D printing. I feel that 3D printing is disrupting Product Design/Development vs. actual Manufacturing. Anyone with an idea can now make functional prototypes and proofs of concepts with the click of a button. As you wrote, in perhaps 10 years time, we will be able to get the size and surface finish from 3d printing required to make limited production parts that have certain characteristics (weight, shape, containing reentrant angles, etc) not feasible from CNC milling/turning, etc.