Plastic Printing - A R&D Short-Cut

[DK Custom Products]

We've been using a plastic printer for a couple of years now...



...it takes a bit of time to build something...



...but it is faster and less expensive for prototyping for fitment than making it out of metal the first time.



The roll on the right hand side of the photo below is the plastic that gets turned into the part.



Some parts we worked on last week...



...the detail can be quite intricate.



Kevin

[FuzzyWuzHe]

Plastic printer ... like 3d? That's pretty kewl

[peteg59]

Who knows what future technology holds for parts manufacturers but this tech is great for figuring out if something will fit or work well with other parts, right now.

I'm going out on a limb here, but I'll bet someday there'll be printers that can pop out finished products in about any material known to man quickly. And once the initial equipment costs are covered, fairly inexpensively too.

[DK Custom Products]

Plastic printer ... like 3d? That's pretty kewl

Yes, a 3-D plastic printer...should have put that in the title. It's a LULZBOT TAZ.

Who knows what future technology holds for parts manufacturers but this tech is great for figuring out if something will fit or work well with other parts, right now.

I'm going out on a limb here, but I'll bet someday there'll be printers that can pop out finished products in about any material known to man quickly. And once the initial equipment costs are covered, fairly inexpensively too.

You're right. There already are 3-D printers making production parts in many different sectors.

We considered making some of our LED push-button trim pieces with our 3-D printer. They looked really nice. (the above photo's are showing things printed in "Draft" mode. In "High Quality" mode they come out looking very smooth.

In the end we decided to make the trim pieces from billet.

In the photo below there is a button, surrounded by a black piece that we make for the button to sit in. The the rough lip around it is the actual factory metal that is a bit beat up.

In this photo, the round piece that the push-button is sitting in is actually plastic, printed by our 3-D printer in "High Quality" mode.



It is a prototype that we made and put on Dwayne's bike.

When we went into production we cut them from billet aluminum, like pictured below.





Kevin