Если маленькие 3D принтеры уже можно купить за смешные деньги и поставить дома на стол, то большие 3D-принтеры пока могут позволить себе не многие.
А ведь они открывают большие перспективы. Airbus, например, к 2020 году планирует научиться печатать крылья самолетов.
«Airbus is targeting sometime beyond 2020 to be able to fabricate an airplane wing using additive manufacturing.
EADS (Airbus) has large-scale structures grown from ALM-enabled (additive layer manufacturing) manufacturing systems on our technology road maps. The prospect is growing a full-sized airliner wing, which we have earmarked for some time beyond 2020. This is not a far-fetched notion. Go to [Airbus wing-making facility] Broughton in North Wales and you’ll see 35 meter-long gantry machining center with CNC (computer numerical controlled machine tools) heads for bespoke machining of whole wing skins. Change the machining head to a laser-deposition head and you can start to see the possibilities straight away.»
А в перспективе планируется печатать все основные детали самолёта.
http://nextbigfuture.com/2010/10/large-format-3d-printers-making-large.html
http://nextbigfuture.com/2010/10/utopium-project-to-use-carbon-nanotube.html
Уже умеют печатать турбины. Примечательны экономические результаты, которых позволит добиться новая технология.
«97% Cost Reduction; 83% Time Reduction
All 188 components were produced in 4 weeks and assembled in 2.5 weeks for a total production time of 6.5 weeks. Using conventional fabrication processes, such as machining and casting (with in-house and outside resources) a manufacturer would expect to spend 9 months or more producing a model like this. Using the FDM process in-house, a manufacturer could expect costs of roughly $25,000, versus an estimated $800,000 to $1 million for conventional processes. These numbers represent about a 97% reduction in production costs and 83% reduction in production time.»
Афигительный improvement! Вместо 6,5 недель времени – 2,5 недели. А вместо миллиона долларов затрат – всего 25 тысяч.
Тем временем по другую сторону океана другие ребята пытаются печатать автомобили. 3-колёсный гибрид.
http://nextbigfuture.com/2010/11/additive-manufacturing-company.html
«The plan is complete the prototype of the three-wheel, two-door Urbee by spring (of 2011), then work on hand-building ten “pilot cars.” The hope is those cars will be mass produced in Manitoba, Kor said, adding, it’s not so outlandish an idea.
Urbee is the first prototype car ever to have its entire body 3D printed with an additive process. All exterior components – including the glass panel prototypes – were created using Dimension 3D Printers and Fortus 3D Production Systems at Stratasys’ digital manufacturing service – RedEye on Demand.»
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