Re: Desktop Rapid Prototype

Thanks Charlie... I also found the link to the MIT stuff I mentioned below
http://web.mit.edu/afs/athena/org/t/tdp/www/index.html
and one of it's licensees is doing the sintered metal stuff as well
http://www.prometal-rt.com/
But as I said I don't see these coming to the desktop soon... Most
"Solid Free-form Fabrication" as the this sort of thing is also known
Is multi megabuck stuff and that's what made the Sanders ModelMaster
of interest with it's under $5,000 pricing. I wonder what they get
for their new ModelMasterII?


But while messing about looking for it I found this interesting link
that might be another area for folks on this list to look at.. He has
some very interesting prints on his project.. and some interesting
links as well Hexapod based tools Seem to have a lot of pluses for
the HSM CAD/CAM hobbyist.
http://www.i-way.co.uk/~storrs/lme/LMEHexapodMachine.html

>From: Charles Gallo <Charlie@...>
>
>Randolph,
> There is also zcorp
>
>http://www.zcorp.com
>
>I have a sample from them - I saw them do a mini V-8 block at Eastec this year
>
>Charlie

What do they sell it for? The web site makes it look very expensive
Yup I found the Price... $59,000 for the basic unit...
Not quite in my range! (Makes those Rebuilt Sanders units look real
cheap at $2,000! Perhaps I should have jumped on one last winter...)
and the Consumables for the ZCorm machine are not cheap either...as
you can see from the excerpt from their FAQ
http://www.zcorp.com/build/build.html

>What ongoing costs are associated with the machine?
>The machine uses consumable materials to print parts. These include
>powder, binder solution, binder cartridges, vacuum bags and
>finishing materials. Each complete 8"x 10"x 8" build will cost
>approximately $200 in consumables, which means for this amount you
>can have as many parts as you can fit into that volume. Another way
>to think about this is that materials cost $25 per vertical inch. We
>can fit eight of our text chains into a build of less than 1 inch;
>we can print eight for $2.50 each in materials. You are not required
>to fill the entire build envelope each time; you can use only the
>vertical space that you need. We estimate our materials cost to be a
>fraction of that of the competition.
>How fast is the Z402 3D Printer?
>Our machine prints between one and two vertical inches an hour. A
>quick estimate of the least dimension of your part will give a sense
>of how long it would take to print. Our software includes a print
>time estimator that will give you a more accurate estimate.
>What are the materials made of?
>Our current powder, ZP11, is starch- and cellulose-based, which
>explains why it smells like cotton candy. Our binder is water-based.

Snip

> >There is also another 3D printer-like method out there, developed by
> >people From MIT (I *think*).
> >It uses essentially a bubble jet head to shoot binder into a polymer
> >powder (or some polymer-ceramic) mix. The binder creates a green form
> >in the powder bed which can then be baked and post-processed like any
> >normal powder part. but I can't recall the name or find a URL for
> >it...
> >

Randolph Lee boss@...
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Windshadow Engineering Nantucket Island, MA USA
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