World’s largest 3D printer selected by Airbus

[qwerrty]

China developed the world’s largest selective Laser Sintering equipment

Huazhong University of Science and Technology research team in China has successfully developed a selective Laser Sintering machine with build volume of 1200mm x 1200mm. Currently the big players in the laser sintering machine market are EOS from Germany and 3D systems from US. EOSINT P730 Plastic laser-sintering system has an effective build volume of 730 x 380 x 580 mm (27.6 x 15 x 22.9 in.) and 3D Systems' sPro™ has the build volume of 550 x 550 x 750 mm (22 x 22 x 30 in.). Therefore this is at the moment the largest laser sintering system available on the market.

The selective Laser Sintering technology can shorten the development cycle from months to weeks. It can be used in manufacturing power equipment, aerospace, automotive and other high-end products, such as hollow turbine blades, turbine disks, engine exhaust, engine block and cylinder head etc.

In 2010 the team was selected by Airbus to support producing large-scale titanium alloy structural parts for aerospace. It is reported that they have already got 200 orders for this system.

Here are some photo examples showing the products from the technology.

photo 1. PS Wax mold of Aluminum gearbox for tank engines

photo 2. A large thin-walled mold with size 847.92 x 185.46 x 229.90mm, building time is 29.3 hours. The accuracy is 200+-0.2mm, minimal wall thickness is 3.3mm.

Below are another three products they have made for customers:

1. Aluminum door frame wax mold for planes: size: 1020.27 x 109.98 x 113.26mm. Building time: 10.5 hours

2. A large titanium thin-walled mold for satellite: size: 660mm x 660mm x 760mm, accuracy 0.1%, building time: 72 hours

3. A titanium frame wax mold for satellite: size: 750mm x 750mm x 764mm, accuracy 0.1%, building time: 54 hours

*ttp://www.3ders.org/articles/20111208-china-developed-the-worlds-largest-selective-laser-sintering-equipment.html

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[doidoi2]

3D Printing is over-hyped. It's really only useful for mold and temporary parts at this stage in development. Structural weakness and single-material limitations severely limit the effectiveness of the technology.

China would be better off creating labs and corporations to explore more material science and nano-fab technologies. This is a good sign that China is moving up the technology tree though.

 

[qwerrty]

company i work at used to make architectural models using 3d printers for clients and we charged them a lot. lol
now, we just do computer 3d modelling and render animations for them and they love it more than the plastic model. we have more clients than before.:
it used to take us a very long time to render stuff. now, with online cloud render farm we can do photo-realistic raytracing large project from inside out in only few hours..

 

[no_name]

Imagine if you want to show someone an engineering development model. Now along with sending him drawings you can send him the files for printing a small 3D version of it so he can get a better idea.

Also it will be much easier for people to make movies like chicken run.