Just fantastic. My cousin recently used this technology to cast an iron cylinder block for an old 1904 Renault. The cad file was created by scanning the old cylinder block. It came out a treat, to the point of actually including old casting marks and flash. The engine worked fine and the car went to the London rally last year. Without this tech the engine would have been a no go scrapper.
Im currently going to school for metallurgical engineering. We do this kind of thing in my courses. One difference is instead of 3d printing the molds, we use styrofoam sculptures. We pack the styrofoam sculptures in sand and pour in the molten metal. The metal vaporizes the styrofoam and the ash rises to the top. Its a little more crude, but proves the concept to us. We also make permanent molds to melt the styrofoam into the proper shape we want so we can have a short turnaround time.
brilliant. I was looking for complete rebuild of an engine block and here these guys made it so simple. Now I know what I need to look for. Big thank you.
I am very happy to see the vidoe after you give this This video explains the full process of rapid prototyping and casting technology offered by Prometal RCT.
I am so amazed by this. Wow lol 10 years ago and I'm just come across it. Such a clean and clever process. Good for them God bless hope you turn into a monster company.
The expense is relative to the complexity of the casting. Castings of lesser complexity are not necessarily best suited, but perhaps timing is key. Also with no tooling costs, subsequent design changes are more palatable because they can stay within a targeted budget.
in the printing the edges of each layer can have a second bonding chemical printed to create an impenetrable ceramic surface to the mold. It would be a little thicker than an eggshell so it would be easy to break away after casting. The ceramic printed surface would allow for the entire mold to be flushed out with water.
someone is bound to give credit to god... but solutions are made by man. Only problems are given by nature. Her purpose is to consume life. And we, as living beings, keep looking for solutions that help us survive. And we got so good at the survival game, that we now are optimizing towards comfort and style :D
I noticed fire coming out of the fill holes when the molten metal was being poured into on of the fill holes.. Is that from some part of the binding material of the sand blocks being burned off, or??
@sabriath ok was talking from memory I was alittle wrong, the titanic was within 3 inches of spec . but not over 1000, like the newest big ship , from carnival cruise lies. though was not aware machining threw things off that mutch . thanks for the heads up. maybe machining with coolant allows for nill amounts of warping , never heard of that before though I"m open to learn more things. god bless.
@J.C. Kohle uh. Yeah, I am showing my education. which is exactly zero in music. Education is a funny thing. It's almost as if you can be a master in one area and not another.
Aluminum is actually very prone to corrosion (aluminum oxide). However, this corrosion actually protects the aluminum from further oxidation. Aluminum oxide corrosion also looks a lot more like aluminum (dull gray to powdery white in color), so it isn't as easy to notice as rusted iron, which turns into the familiar red oxidation.
Quite impressive casting method, however is the sand used for the mold reusable? In the movie itself after the casting, its shown that the mold was broken down.
yes but in practical terms it is much more corrosion resistant because of the passivisation layer that forms. Except in salty water or when there is an electrolytic cell setup by contact with another metal (eg. iron) in an electrolyte (eg. dirty water).
It is older than you are giving credit for. In the last 10 years the cost for printing sand molds has come down drastically, as would any technology which has a solid mechanism.
@michaelovitch : no, what they are saying is that 90% of the total product is within 1.5mm tolerance...a machined product can end up outside this range easily (estimating probably around 1cm or more). The 3D printing makes the molds for casting, it doesn't make the end-product directly.
yup, there's a guy on soliforum that's printing a 1:1 scale DB7 one little square at a time and gluing it up to make a mold for a fiberglass body shell. downloaded classic sports car FTW!
But to directly answer your question, yes. There are 3D printing machines that can be built as a kit. The medium they generate in is a resin material. I am unsure on the resolution, other than it is within reason for the hobbyist.
Imagine being able to recreate some of the greatest engines of all time. An 18 Cylinder engine from a stratofortress or a Bugatti race car or a cast iron engine from a 70 dodge challanger or a 12 or 10 cylinder PT boat engine from Packard........ Isnt humanity greater than that?!!!
Anybody knows what is used to bind the sand so hard here? Liquid glass? Bolts can even be used to tightly hold pieces together - I have seen other video - water or oil to be used in small quantity in the green sand but here the stuff they used is amazing,
There’s a chemical hardening agent that’s added to the sand that only takes about 5 minutes to properly set. At least in my foundry that’s what we use.
swtnlnly you know that there is no way that you can actually print your own 3d printer right? Its 80% electronics and the another 20% its high spec components or the machine wouldn't print even a pen...
I dont know about that last sentence, look at the speed in which technology is proceeding. A little while back people would say that invitro, kidney transplants, touchscreens. Heck, we even have some kind of working hologram projectors. At this speed id say that 3D printers will be common technology in manufacturing processes and casting plastic or whatever they do will be substituted by 3D printers
