Technology advances
Printed From: Yachts and Yachting Online
Category: Dinghy classes
Forum Name: Dinghy development
Forum Discription: The latest moves in the dinghy market
URL: http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=10862
Printed Date: 16 Jul 25 at 9:15pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 9.665y - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Technology advances
Posted By: iGRF
Subject: Technology advances
Date Posted: 07 May 13 at 11:45am
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In their new factory in the states, Slingshot the kitesurf company I represent over here, have just installed some pretty advanced technology, lots of CAD stuff for cutting and forming boards, a new laser cutter which can do some amazing detail, channels and rail profiling, but the bit of kit I'd not fully appreciated until now is their 3D printer.
Then in todays news by chance, there's an article about someone having 3D printed a bloody gun, honestly this really is science fiction becomes fact stuff, you can see the day arriving where you order the bit on line then print it yourself. Anyway they have re jigged some bits of next seasons kite control bar using 3D printing technology and were amazed themselves that the prototypes they 'printed' were tough enough to be used on the water. They showed us a fully working adjustable spanner and talked about balls being printed inside other balls and being able to produce some pretty impossible to manufacture stuff using this method. I just wondered what else anyone knows about this stuff, I know they have them in Universities and that the prices are coming down. They also talked about being able to 'print' in titanium and the technology is not that new and has been around in the space programme and other high end arms technology producing facilities but that the patents have just expired, hence the tech trickling to a wider audience, so how long will it be till we all have them I wonder and can just go and print ourselves new bits of whatever.. |
Replies:
Posted By: MattK
Date Posted: 07 May 13 at 11:56am
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Clive Everests new cherub, the white one at the dinghy show this year, has 3d printed parts he designed himself for the gnav end fittings and spacers and bearings in his t foil system and had made in Germany and posted i believe, There are a few places that you can send the files to and they send you back an object at a set price per volume Who's going to be the first to print a block with the ball bearings already inside?
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Posted By: didlydon
Date Posted: 07 May 13 at 12:12pm
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We've been using "Rapid prototyping" for years in our business... But as you say these "3D printers" are becoming more & more common... In fact we've just had a chat here at work about the gun you mention & the morals behind doing it etc..... We put it in the same category as going online & downloading data & info to produce a bomb... same thing really..... Nasty nasty..... The new materials used in RP can mimic the sorts of materials that you'd make the thing from in a production setting using injection moulding or casting processes....... It just comes down to cost. The machines to produce stereo lithography parts - in my opinion, the most accurate / finest finish RP process, are rather pricey.... we out source our RP at present..... 3D printers are the cheapest option & are often installed in colleges & schools to teach students about design & technology etc where the funds exist, but the finish of the items produced are somewhat grainy when you start looking closely & some materials not so stable being prone to warping etc.... But there's new materials & methods coming on stream all the time....... ------------- Vareo 365 |
Posted By: tick
Date Posted: 07 May 13 at 12:24pm
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On QI the other week (I don't usually watch it because it's so smug) they had a little wind driven machine that walked like a spider......made on a printer! Did anyone else see that? |
Posted By: Ian29937
Date Posted: 07 May 13 at 12:32pm
Scale model of a much larger Dutch beach walking machine. Was very impressive 
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Posted By: chrisg
Date Posted: 07 May 13 at 12:32pm
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Yep, it was a small version of the ones on this site: http://www.strandbeest.com/" rel="nofollow - http://www.strandbeest.com/ The small version is this one I think http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ognRzQqXEhs" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ognRzQqXEhs All very cool. ------------- |
Posted By: AlexM
Date Posted: 07 May 13 at 12:41pm
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make a whistle or a dolly of yourself
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsz9GUZv1IA" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsz9GUZv1IA ------------- |
Posted By: transient
Date Posted: 07 May 13 at 12:54pm
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Amazing possibilities with the new 3d printing tech.....Bit like a startrek replicator. Unfortunately there is a downside with most new tech: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22421185" rel="nofollow - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22421185 A substantial number of folk believe that making the world safer involves giving everyone a gun.
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Posted By: iGRF
Date Posted: 07 May 13 at 1:03pm
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I guess it's all down to the stuff they use to print, imagine that graphene stuff, one molecule thick being used to 'print' bits..
Why we might even get bits that work and you don't have to scrabble around looking for the cir clip you just dropped in the boat park. |
Posted By: ellistine
Date Posted: 07 May 13 at 1:08pm
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3D printers that can print other 3D printers is an interesting concept. ------------- |
Posted By: AlexM
Date Posted: 07 May 13 at 1:09pm
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Here's your backing GRF
http://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/news/display/?id=9961" rel="nofollow - http://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/news/display/?id=9961 ------------- |
Posted By: JimC
Date Posted: 07 May 13 at 1:18pm
| I must say I find the prospect of 3d printing fabrication very exciting. There's a bunch of stuff I could do with it given suitable materials, which of course will be the crunch part. |
Posted By: Chris Turner
Date Posted: 07 May 13 at 1:32pm
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I have seen the 3d printer at Allen brothers in action. We use CNC to cut our foam core and build new plugs...The 49er plugs was re cut in 2009 to do the new deck mould.
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Posted By: iGRF
Date Posted: 07 May 13 at 3:32pm
| You should get busy with those CNC cutters and cut the back off that Aura and make it a lovely single hander for small people.. |
Posted By: 2547
Date Posted: 07 May 13 at 4:33pm
They already make nice single handers for small people, see: http://www.ovingtonboats.com/" rel="nofollow - http://www.ovingtonboats.com/ 3 listed on the home page ...
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Posted By: iGRF
Date Posted: 07 May 13 at 4:38pm
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It's big step between nice and lovely..
On another note, my kite folk are doing some pretty amazing stuff with a laser cutter, just think of what you could do with foils, they could be made so they made no noise, imagine that.. |
Posted By: 2547
Date Posted: 07 May 13 at 4:42pm
Ok ... lovely, fantastic, engaging, challenging, manageable ... pick your superlative ...
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Posted By: pondmonkey
Date Posted: 07 May 13 at 4:48pm
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brainfart... any news on the LiteSkiff? http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3723" rel="nofollow - http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3723 ------------- |
Posted By: 2547
Date Posted: 07 May 13 at 5:48pm
Good video here: http://lightskiff.de/light-skiff-mainmenu-27.html" rel="nofollow - http://lightskiff.de/light-skiff-mainmenu-27.html Seems pretty nice ...
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Posted By: JP233
Date Posted: 07 May 13 at 5:54pm
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we have just got a 3D printer at college, and a mate at uni has 3D printed a complete jib car system, it all moves, even the ball bearings inside! ------------- Thanks Jamie |
Posted By: tick
Date Posted: 07 May 13 at 6:49pm
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That's what I keep telling him. Not that solution thingy though.....C2! The boy sailing technically my boat on a blustery Sunday against Supernovas and phantoms. 3 races 3wins. You know it makes sense!
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Posted By: craiggo
Date Posted: 07 May 13 at 9:28pm
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Couldn't post from work (not allowed to post on forums from work) but my group operates four additive layer manufacturing machines. I find it interesting that there is suddenly so much press around these devices as we have been using them for almost 15yrs. We operate three plastics SLA machines (stereolithography) which use a liquid resin. A laser fires into the resin and cures a 0.1mm layer and bit by bit the platform descends into the resin and the part is made. Current build volumes are 650x750x550mm but we are able to stick the stuff together with Plexus to produce bigger parts. There a loads of different materials out there which all have their pros and cons. These systems are not however cheap, costing around £350k!!!!!
We also have a DMLS (Direct Metal Laser Sintering) Machine which uses powdered metal although the rest of the process is largely the same. Build volumes are approx. 250x250x215mm so significantly smaller, but you can produce some fantastic shapes that just aren't achievable with conventional machining. Officially materials are totally homogenous but thats not strictly the case. Again loads of materials are available from hi-tech aluminium alloys and titanium alloys, and many standard steels are available. The biggest hurdle other than material properties is learning to support the parts correctly and for the metal parts how to manage the thermal stresses. Ultimately the technology will creep more and more into the mainstream but the only real benefit is being able to create shapes or features you cant conventionally machine, and this requires a revolution in design practices as you have to design from the inside out. There are loads of other ALM (additive layer manufacturing) techniques such as weld layer deposition which allow you to effectively create a near net shape billet of material which then only needs a final machining cut, thus saving you all the wastage you get from machining a conventional rectangular billet or bar. In terms of boat usage, I have used the tech to produce foil moulds for a foiling cat which we made in a couple of days and required minimal hand-finishing. I have made prototype models of an American Suicide class dinghy that I designed which would use the rig from a 29er (I posted the pics of this in SA about 5yrs ago), the publicity model for the C-class Invictus and I know that the Invictus C-class guys got a titanium mast foot grown for them. |
Posted By: alstorer
Date Posted: 07 May 13 at 10:18pm
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are there any ways yet of combining the likes of SLA and fibre placement? Making fibres (glass or carbon) by such methods is a long way off, but fibre reinforcement gives you properties you simply can't get from monolithic polymers- especially when those polymers have been optimised for the printing process. ------------- -_ Al |
Posted By: iGRF
Date Posted: 07 May 13 at 10:25pm
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Doh, don't you just wish this stuff had been around twenty years ago..
My mind boggles at the opportunities for invention this kind of technology affords. |
Posted By: craiggo
Date Posted: 07 May 13 at 10:27pm
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Al, we buy in SLS parts which are glass reinforced but the reinforcement is more akin to chop strand!!! There are SLA processes which incorporate carbon reinforcement, but the only way to align the strands is by changing the build orientation, so all the strands ultimately end up in one direction. I guess a movable build platform is what is needed and at the moment I haven't seen any.
The other possibility is to have a cloth laying head in the machine. Again I haven't seen one but may be they exist. If not a business opportunity? |
Posted By: SimonW
Date Posted: 08 May 13 at 3:14pm
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It was around nearly 20 years ago, if not so common. The first SLA parts for engines I remember were in about 1995, although these were only for mock-up and visualization then as mechanical properties were not so good. A few years later ('99?) I first made use of an SLA machine which printed sand moulds and cores to cast accurate, working, prototype cylinder heads. Also in 1999 we used a SLA plastic piece for the casing of a working hand-held computer which was subsequently cast in polycarbonate. Simon ------------- Simon Wilkins Once upon a time a Soling and Lark sailor |