3D Printing Sand Molds for Castings

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WJH
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Re: 3D Printing Sand Molds for Castings

Post by WJH »

LivingLegend wrote:
RB211 wrote:I'll get excited the day they remove "prototyping" and replace it with "production." ....Only way they can justify the prices is small quantities.
I was given access to the speadsheet used to calculate one company's printing costs. I will will not divulge actual cost figures, but I will say that you would be surprised at the mark up price charged vs. actual expenses to make the model/pattern. Not cheap.

The quote I received on a printer a few months ago was big bucks money. It wasn't for the largest size production printer, but one made by a leading manufacturers, with the latest state of the art technology and an extremely high resolution print out in a moderate size print area.... $84,000 less tax, shipping, or install/setup/training. The latter, in it's own right, is expensive. Purchasing an annual maintenance/service contract is $8k..... For this particular printer, media cost per 2.0Kg volume cartridge ranges $575 to almost double that. Support media in the same quantity is around $375.

With the printer I was looking at, the cost to buy it, set it up, train, and other printer related expenses (the unit to remove the support media, service contract, media, etc.) was in the neighborhood of $115,000. Just to get it ready to produce the first printed part.

Printer prices are coming down, but the highest resolution machines still ain't cheap. Especially if it has the largest build size.

LL
Sounds like an Objet printer...

At the maker faire in San Francisco this year, University of Berkeley had a demo station of their own open source Zcorp machine that brought the costs of the mediums down to a very acceptable rate. Should keep an eye on their progress. Never thought of actually printing the sand mold on a Zcorp machine but that would be pretty neat!
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LivingLegend
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Re: 3D Printing Sand Molds for Castings

Post by LivingLegend »

RB211 wrote:Sounds like an Objet printer...
Nope.... 3D Systems. (Who recently purchased ZCorp and Alibre.)

LL
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Harlock
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Re: 3D Printing Sand Molds for Castings

Post by Harlock »

I've been using Shapeways for both metal functional parts (valve handles) and plastic decorative parts that once painted look like metal.

The plastic is the "White strong flexible" material from Shapeways and is very tough / not brittle at all; it can be used as a living spring if desired. The stainless is pretty awesome but pricey. For making parts intended to look like castings it actually has a somewhat rough, pockmarked texture that gives it a cast look, an advantage in this case. Various parts of my boxcar build thread carry photos and info about these:
http://www.chaski.org/homemachinist/vie ... 2&p=237384 and
http://www.chaski.org/homemachinist/vie ... r&start=48

For functional handles, I used stainless with a matte bronze finish. You can see the whole thread here about those:
http://www.chaski.org/homemachinist/vie ... =8&t=93005

I have not had any problems with any of my printed hardware now in service and on the road.

There have been various discussions on the Shapeways forums about using shapeways parts as patterns for castings, but so far most people seem to need to make an intermediate from the plastic part; they do not yet have a material that burns out cleanly for a lost wax type process. I think it will happen eventually.

-Mike
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Product Development and E-Commerce, Allen Models of Nevada
WJH
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Re: 3D Printing Sand Molds for Castings

Post by WJH »

Harlock wrote:I've been using Shapeways for both metal functional parts (valve handles) and plastic decorative parts that once painted look like metal.

The plastic is the "White strong flexible" material from Shapeways and is very tough / not brittle at all; it can be used as a living spring if desired. The stainless is pretty awesome but pricey. For making parts intended to look like castings it actually has a somewhat rough, pockmarked texture that gives it a cast look, an advantage in this case. Various parts of my boxcar build thread carry photos and info about these:
http://www.chaski.org/homemachinist/vie ... 2&p=237384 and
http://www.chaski.org/homemachinist/vie ... r&start=48

For functional handles, I used stainless with a matte bronze finish. You can see the whole thread here about those:
http://www.chaski.org/homemachinist/vie ... =8&t=93005

I have not had any problems with any of my printed hardware now in service and on the road.

There have been various discussions on the Shapeways forums about using shapeways parts as patterns for castings, but so far most people seem to need to make an intermediate from the plastic part; they do not yet have a material that burns out cleanly for a lost wax type process. I think it will happen eventually.

-Mike
3d systems has a printer medium with a low melting point that could be used for the lost wax process.
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LivingLegend
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Re: 3D Printing Sand Molds for Castings

Post by LivingLegend »

RB211 wrote:....3d systems has a printer medium with a low melting point that could be used for the lost wax process.
That's the one I was looking at. That printer has three models.... "Plastic", wax, and dental. The "plastic" model has three variants (the wax version has four) and five types of media, three that can be used for investment casting burn-out, plus the fifth media that can only be used with the ultra high resolution version of that printer and can be specifically used is a burnout plastic.

LL
Do it right.... Or don't do it at all
I have no life. Therefore, I have a hobby
It's not that I'm apathetic, I just flat don't care
An Intellectual is nothing more than an Over-Educated IDIOT
Blogs: Where people with nothing to say..... Say it
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