Comments on: 3-D Printing http://blog.ellywilliams.co.uk/2004/10/29/3-d-printing/ Caught Between Industries Fri, 17 Oct 2008 10:39:39 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: IIsi 50MHz http://blog.ellywilliams.co.uk/2004/10/29/3-d-printing/comment-page-1/#comment-183744 IIsi 50MHz Tue, 25 Jul 2006 08:04:34 +0000 http://www.ellythompson.co.uk/blog/?p=81#comment-183744 Er, MIT's 3DP process has the parts "supported" by unfused powder during the job, which is free to fall away when completed, IIRC. Not like the laminate printings, which require physical access to the innards to remove and discard the unglued supporting materials. The process easily allows stairs, hollow objects with at least one hole for the substrate powder to exit, and complex stuctures to be formed. Looks like you can form completely separate parts, too; they just won't stay in their relative positions when the substrate is removed. (-; FWIW: http://www.mit.edu/~tdp/ One of their licensees has also added 24-bit colouring to the process, resulting in resonable facsimiles of completed products (Z Corp, I think). You can even print seamless interlocking moving parts such as linked rings with no need to saw, bend, or break open any of the parts to slip another through the loop. Now, as for printing openable models, it should be fairly simple like the way cutaway views are created from full 3D CAD files for brochures. Just choose the part to print--first floor, for example--and then print the next part to accompany it. Slide your parts together or stack them, just as you would a hand-built model with removable panels, sections, floors, or roofing. Perhaps I oversimplify, having not done much CAD or architecture in over 10 years? Er, MIT’s 3DP process has the parts “supported” by unfused powder during the job, which is free to fall away when completed, IIRC. Not like the laminate printings, which require physical access to the innards to remove and discard the unglued supporting materials. The process easily allows stairs, hollow objects with at least one hole for the substrate powder to exit, and complex stuctures to be formed. Looks like you can form completely separate parts, too; they just won’t stay in their relative positions when the substrate is removed. (-;

FWIW: http://www.mit.edu/~tdp/

One of their licensees has also added 24-bit colouring to the process, resulting in resonable facsimiles of completed products (Z Corp, I think).

You can even print seamless interlocking moving parts such as linked rings with no need to saw, bend, or break open any of the parts to slip another through the loop. Now, as for printing openable models, it should be fairly simple like the way cutaway views are created from full 3D CAD files for brochures. Just choose the part to print–first floor, for example–and then print the next part to accompany it. Slide your parts together or stack them, just as you would a hand-built model with removable panels, sections, floors, or roofing.

Perhaps I oversimplify, having not done much CAD or architecture in over 10 years?

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