NCSIMUL Machine at the Haas Technical Education Center. 9th Annual CNC Educators Conference: innovating Manufacturing Education Through "Learn by Doing"
If you want to get high quality prints you can use a printer enclosure to stabilize the temperature making it a protective isolating chamber. Stable and higher temperature can prevent warping and other heat related damage to your 3d printed object.
Here you can see how to make a simple DIY enclosure from two IKEA "Lack" tables and some acrylic panels. It makes internal temperature stable at around 40 degrees centigrade compared to 20 degrees centigrade of room temperature. It also features extractor fan for fast cooling.
Detailed build guide can be found at developed by Instructables user phatima:
If you want to print in polycarbonate and ensure that it sticks to the print surface, Airwolf has a product for you. It will prevent warpage and bad prints.
E3D is well known for their hot ends but now they have this great looking machine on Kickstarter. It comes at a good price, several versions and it is fully open sourced and hackable.
Enrich your CAM process with NCSIMUL CAM, the CNC programming breakthrough within the NCSIMUL SOLUTIONS platform
From Prototyping (single machining process on a 4X machine) To Series (all machining processes on a Tombstone 4X machine)
SPRING Technologies, vendor of software that optimizes the use of NC Machines, announces the Canadian launch of NCSIMUL CAM at CMTS – the Canadian Manufacturing Technology Show – September 28 – October 1 in Mississauga, Ontario.SPRING is demonstrating its suite of software products in booth 1630. The company’s new product delivers agile and native CNC programming to streamline the current serial and iterative CAM process and provides unparalleled flexibility on the shop floor.
Fully integrated in the new unified NCSIMUL SOLUTIONS V10 platform (including NCSIMUL MACHINE, NCSIMUL Tool, and NCSIMUL DNC), it embodies SPRING Technologies’ response to today’s issues in CNC machine programming: rethinking the traditional serial method of tool path creation, part/machine simulation, post-processing, , G-code verification and simulation that can generate errors. Today, the tedious investigative work as to where the errors occurred is placed in the hands of the NC programmer. By streamlining the conventional CNC programming process, and offering native CNC code (G-code) programming capability, NCSIMUL CAM not only eliminates errors while reducing programming time but enables CNC programmers to generate CNC programs made for the part as opposed to the traditional method of programming the part for the machine.
Thanks to “hybrid programming” unique capability, NCSIMUL CAM allows to work on existing G-Code based programs as well as CAM data inputs and enables CNC programmers to redesign a new manufacturing process in few clicks. Coupled with “on-the-fly” native CNC code generationcapability, self-verifying and self-optimizing, NCSIMUL CAM allows to reprogram a new target CNC machine in one click, whatever the CNC machine complexity is.
One-click programming of a Fanuc 4X machine table and a 5X tilting head machine
According to the company, the primary benefits will be significant cost savings and optimal use of CNC machines because of the post-processing free and flexible programming capabilities. “With NCSIMUL CAM, manufacturing companies are now in position to build their own CAM 4.0 process, making their way to Industrie 4.0 level, slashing programming time and costs while boosting assets utilization like never before.,” said Philippe Solignac, corporate marketing director for SPRING Technologies. The product had its worldwide introduction at the Paris Air Show in June.
Raytheon, one of the major defense companies, announced that it has technology to 3d print most of the rocket. Another victory for humanity. No, it's not but it will make some profit for them probably.
Here is the summary from their press release:
Researchers at Raytheon Missile Systems say they have already created nearly every component of a guided weapon using additive manufacturing, more commonly known as 3-D printing. The components include rocket engines, fins, parts for the guidance and control systems, and more.
“You could potentially have these in the field,” said Jeremy Danforth, a Raytheon engineer who has printed working rocket motors. “Machines making machines. The user could [print on demand]. That’s the vision.”
The progress is part of a companywide push into additive manufacturing and 3-D printing, including projects meant to supplement traditional manufacturing processes. Engineers are exploring the use of 3-D printing to lay down conductive materials for electrical circuits, create housings for the company's revolutionary gallium nitride transmitters, and fabricate fins for guided artillery shells.
The process may reduce costs associated with traditional manufacturing, such as machining of parts. It allows for quick design and rapid changes because engineers only need change the digital model representing the part. As long as they stay within set parameters, they can have new parts in hours instead of weeks.
“You can design internal features that might be impossible to machine,” said Raytheon engineer Travis Mayberry, who is researching future uses of additive manufacturing and 3-D printing. “We’re trying new designs for thermal improvements and lightweight structures, things we couldn’t achieve with any other manufacturing method.”
Here is the photo of the missile model:
Source: Raytheon
Detailed Raytheon post about their new missile technology:
Bre Pettis is not only known for his work on Makerbot. In his early days he published a "Cult of Done Manifesto". It was very much considered the Maker movement philosophy praised by some important movement figures, community sites and regular hobbyists as their motivational motto. I even liked it very much.
But, while you can use it to develop a great DIY project can one use it as guiding philosophy for a large cooperation? Probably not. Obviously not.
There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
There is no editing stage.
Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you're doing even if you don't and do it.
Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
Once you're done you can throw it away.
Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps you from being done.
People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
Destruction is a variant of done.
If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
Done is the engine of more.
How big of a role has this philosophy played in creating problems for MakerBot? We will never know, but there is some strong suspicion.
MapleMaker Mini v2 is a 3d printer that has fully 3d printable frame and main components. It is an advanced open sourced DIY RepRap that can self-replicate to much higher percentage. Very interesting! I wonder how sturdy and rigid it is?
Project description:
The mapleMaker Mini introduces you to the world of additive manufacturing and 3D printing. With your own 3D printer, your concepts and design ideas can be translated from computer drawings to physical objects in short period of time.
The aim of this kit was to reduce costs and create an accessible, hackable, upgradeable, and ultimately, user customizable 3D Printer. We believe that a 3D printer should evolve with it’s users needs and knowledge, and become a platform for any number of future upgrades and additions without the need for costly re-works or additional components.
MapleMaker Mini V2 tech specs:
large 8" x 6" x 6" build volume
All metal hot end (e3d Lite6)
Completely 3D Printed frame and all major components
Simplified frame construction
Simplified printed parts components, all printable in 36 hours or less
Slic3r 1.2.9 is now out, it is first new stable release in some 10 months with many new features and upgrades:
Customized Bed Shapes – Users are now able to implement custom bed shapes as well as rectangular and circular shapes using a very simple bed shape customization tool.
Incremental Real-time Slicing – No longer will slicing restart from the beginning every time you change a setting. In this latest version the new settings are only calculated for the remainder of the part, once implemented. When moving an object in plater, recalculations are also no longer necessary.
OctoPrint Integration – Easily configure, slice and upload data to the popular host software for 3D printers, OctoPrint.
Varied 3D Honeycomb Infill – Infill patterns are now able to be varied across the Z axis, rather than simply repeating the same pattern throughout every layer.
3D Preview Updates – New OpenGL views have been added and the new 3D toolpath preview shows a very accurate depiction of the object to be printed.
X/Y Size Compensation – Dimensional errors can now quickly and easily be fixed within the Slic3r software (additional details on this feature can be found here)
Autospeed Experimental Feature – Keeps nozzle pressure and volumetric speed at a constant throughout a particular print project.
Rotate, Scale, Flip and Mirror – These options allow models to be manipulated prior to the slicing process within the Slic3r interface, making the software a graphical tool in itself.
Several bug fixes have also been included in this update including:
Parsing issues related to fixed regression
Issues regarding file names which use non-ASCII characters
Well well well ... here it goes ... Makerbot and Stratasys are under class action lawsuit for fraudulent scheme for knowingly shipping printed with faulty extruders.
After mass worker layoffs what will this mean for MakerBot? They had it coming ...
Pyra is 3d printed smart oven. It can cook food but it can be used for any process that needs heat chamber. And yes, it is smart, Internet-of-Things device.It is open sourced also! Kudos!
Key features hardware:
Built on Fortus 900MC 3D Printer
Printed in ULTEM 1010
FDA-Approved up to 375˚ F
Raspberry Pi + Arduino
WiFi Compatibility
12-Bit Digital Temperature Sensor
IoT capability:
Thermal Chamber Software
Smartphone Compatibility
HTML5 Web App
Cloud-Enabled
Built on Meteor
(Framework for Real-Time)
Other features:
Designed for Additive
Self-Supporting Structure
(No Support Material)
80-hour Build Time
3D Printed Heat Exchangers
Open Source
How it works:
A 3D printed fan in the base circulates air over heating elements and throughout specialized convective heating systems. The design eschews all the conventional wisdom of traditional manufacturing and embraces the capabilities of 3D printing.
This is evident through the design, from the profile of the complex heating channels to the shape of the smallest part in the heat exchangers 3D printed into the chamber walls. Even the overall shape of the Pyra was dictated by the constraints of FDM—sloping sides of 45 degrees are self-supporting and removing support material from the inside of the labyrinthine ductwork of the Pyra’s interior would be impossible.
Cosine AM 1 is powerful new 3d printer that is at home in industrial and professional production setting. It has large format, speed and ability to 3d print with many advanced materials including carbon fiber and metal powders.
Here are the technical specifications of their AM1 machine:
Build Volume: 1100mm * 850mm * 900mm
Accuracy: .07mm per 200mm
Layer Resolution: .1mm-1mm
Max Extruder Temperature: 450°C
Max Bed Temperature: 250°C
Max Chamber Temperature: 85°C
Nozzle Sizes: .5mm, 1mm, 1.5mm
Max Flow Rate: 3.5 kg / 24hrs
Machine Weight: 700kg
Machine Size: 1650mm * 1400mm * 1600mm
Voltage: 100v-220v 50hz/60hz 3KVA
It can print with wide spectrum of materials:
Normal
Advanced
Additives
PLA
Polycarbonate
Carbon Fiber, chopped
ABS
Nylon
Carbon Fiber, continuous
HIPS
PBT
Carbon Black, ESD
PVA
Acetal
Glass Fiber
PETG
Stainless Steel Powder
Bronze Powder
Mica
Glass spheres
Here you can see AM1 printing:
And here is AM1 printing in carbon fiber and polycarbonate:
Could this be considered as 3d printing? Probably not as no material is added. Still, it is interesting digital fabrication method. I wonder is it using factory software or some sort of custom hacked KUKA robotic arm code.
Team: Association for Robots in Architecture (robotsinarchitecture.org) and IP RWTH Aachen University (ip.rwth-aachen.de) Location: Shanghai, China Event: DADA 2015 Conference, in cooperation with Tongji University and FabUnion Participants: Adlet Kylyshbekov, Yi Zhang, Addin Cui, Lim Zhang, Dongyuan Liu, Xingrui Zhou, Xiaoyin Ou, Yu Lei, Jin Xin, Qian Ren, Tian Lou, Wang Daimei, and Pan Libo
More about incremental sheet forming on wikipedia:
Harvard scientist have developed 3d printed flexible robot that can move by jumping powered by explosion of butane and oxygen in central section. Team was lead by Robert Wood.
I made use of the Roland 4-axis router at the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design to make a walnut version of a portrait sculpture I created in ZBrush.
Here's the ZBrush sculpt (more details on its creation are available here). It has been decimated down to about 400,000 polygons to make is manageable for RhinoCAM (the software used to drive the router).
Mounted in the bed of the router is the block of walnut. It is about 3" x 4.5" x 8". It is clamped by the 4th axis at one end and by the tail-stock at the other end.
Roughing begins using a 3/8" diameter 2 flute end mill. This is pretty rough yet only 0.05" was left for the finishing pass.
The 4th axis of the router is rotated to the other side and roughing continues.
The first finish pass is done using a 1/8" ball end mill. It is cutting from the face to the back of the head.
Here's the final finish pass using a 1/16" diameter ball end bit. Only in the smallest crevices was any material removed.
Here's the part after the router has finished:
Here's are a few clips of the routing process. This is shown at the actual speed of the router:
After routing there's still a need for hand work. Some sections of tear out need to be sanded/scraped out (above the left eye, at the base of the neck). The back of the ears had some very strange tool marks that needed to be filled (I used a mix of sawdust and polyurethane). And the area where the block was attached needed to be carved away and finished to match the curvature of the head and texture of the hair.
With some finish and a base:
Newer Work
A more recent small portrait sculpture, done on my own router, is discussed here.
Reddit user 5ilver posted his no cost 3d printer project. He made it from parts and scrap from his workshop. It uses hot glue pistol sticks. It looks rough and it prints rough but the cost is zero :-)
CNC Wood Router Bring Your Imagination of Interior Decoration to Life
Recently at a friend’s house, I couldn’t help but notice a smart lounge chair that looked like it was made of intricately designed strips and intricate shavings of wood. Upon asking my friend, I felt a tad out of place when she nonchalantly mentioned that it was a rib chair, designed by CNC wood router. Well if my jaw was hanging partially open at the sight of the chair, it now threatened to drop completely to the ground at the mention of the new term she used.
Seeing the perplexed look on my face, her husband came to my rescue, pointing out that the chair was crafted with wood that was cut using CNC or computer numerical control that is similar to a milling machine. Instead of relying on hand held routing that didn’t allow a great degree of precision, craftsmen are now using the CNC to produce some of the best furniture designs. While companies and wood workers once frowned upon this technology, claiming it to be an ignominious short cut to the more dignified hand carving, they are embracing this technology as it offers a great more possibilities.
CNC wood router is a huge improvement on traditional tools as they offer greater precision while fitting assemblies. Intricate and elaborate woodwork like arches, rabbets and 3D relief carvings are produced more quickly and efficiently using the CNC wood router. Possessing a sturdy chair like the one below isn’t exclusive to those that can hire high-end designers. Moderately sized homes can now afford stylish chairs within their walls because the CNC router has made it possible for everyone to buy these objects d’art at moderate prices.
Using a CNC wood router creates super intricate designs that were once tedious and time-consuming are now created in a short span of time. The CNC uses digitally generated designs that are first previewed by the creator and customer on a computer screen before launching the final design. The reason why CNC is becoming a sought-after concept in interior designing is its ease of use and the designer’s ability to modify designs, according to the taste of the customer.
With proper materials, CNC wood router can elegantly change furniture parts into more futuristic designs by assigning them to a digital format. Since the digital design can be modified to improve upon the existing design, it is evident how one piece of furniture can get you several diverse combinations. Speaking of digital designs, anyone with an artistic bent of mind can come up with designs that are later churned to high-quality cornices, mirror frames or ceilings at practical prices. Even the most mundane house today are getting a face-lift by using carefully chosen CNC woodwork accents that are silently elegant and speak volumes about the home owners’ taste and aesthetics.
The above obvious part we usually call it modillion. A modillion is an ornate bracket, a corbel, underneath a cornice and supporting it, moreelaborate than dentils. This part could be engraved by cnc wood router also. See modillion engraving video below.
While most of us can afford chandeliers, not all of us have space or the means to attach it to a beautifully carved wooden ceiling that’ll only serve to enhance the presence of the chandelier. A large chunk of people will sadly nod their heads, dismissing the idea. But the smarter ones, with a little bit of research and a sharpness to market trends will seek out a talented furniture specialist who will be happy to add a 3D relief applique to your ceiling and your visitors will be none the wiser. Many modern day homes sport am n archaic ceiling like the one below because their designers chose to use a CNC wood router to produce the old world charm.
Interior Decoration
With the help of the CNC wood router many craftspeople are now able to produce of impeccable quality; products so unique that not just customers but even their competitors in the furniture market will wonder at the degree of precision and clarity that’s the signature of their designs. So does it mean that CNC designs won’t ever grace budget homes? No, that’s never going to be the case because CNC designs can produce high quality, modernistic, utilitarian furniture that will help a budget home look like it stepped right out of an issue of Home Decor. Providing high-quality furniture frames, and saving time in the process is just another key feature of the CNC wood router. Using it to advantage not just gives designers some more time not just to think up futuristic designs but also to oversee the creation of cost-effective products.
Striding confidently ahead in custom woodworking, CNC router realised designs help to invest less in physical labour which means that not just the designer, but also the customer can spare labour expenses, which can be utilised in contributing to other decorative work. The CNC wood router is so versatile that many people are now being inspired into creating DIY models that are easy to use and can be stored even in a small tool shed. While that’s a great idea, it is imperative to understand that using a CNC wood router effectively will be easy only for those who have an inherent understanding of digital designs. Without it, one is likely to feel disoriented as this is not a manual designing tool.
No facet of manufacturing today is complete without some touch of CNC modelling. From small shops to big corporate, everyone bears witness to the quality of work being churned out by the CNC wood router. Anybody associated with furniture or interior designing should be aware of CNC’s dimensioning techniques to be able to provide design fixtures that are uniform and don’t look like they were bought mindlessly.
For those looking at using a CNC tool to beautify their non-commercial projects, it is important to get the right mix of hardware and software, so you don’t produce botched up designs. It is difficult to pin point the exact machine that will be right for interior designing as there are many varieties to designs. So it’s best to get a basic CNC wood router with a high-performance OMNI and a 4hp spindle. To get a better production oriented model, designers should always consider an effective vacuum pump that makes cutting fast and efficient. The picture below will show how it is possible to get a perfect finish, even for small interior design concepts and home accents.
The software is the backbone of a CNC wood router, so it’s important for designers to know exactly what gives to churn out best designs. Every new OMNI CNC wood router is a great way to start working with CNC. The software handles most CNC designs that are realized by woodworkers and form a part of interior designs. For projects like the efficient material layout, the ArtCAM Insignia includes a wide range of editing features, giving designers the scope of changing designs tirelessly before they reach the outcome. Designers interested in 3D work can copy existing designs and improve them extensively by using cutwork and patters created by the same 3D software. Affordably priced, these packages offer full functionality to all CNC wood router that are used for shaping and sculpting furniture and home interiors.
A large number of local and international designers these days are working with various digital techniques to embellish designs for jewellery, furniture and visual arts. By working with CAD and designs modelled from CNC routing and laser-cutting, these designers can churn out both formal and informal designs both for interior and exterior designing. Intricate milling produced with CNC wood router is so authentic and multifaceted that it looks like the designs have been gnawed away by hand or mice-like teeth, other than being carved by a machine.
Since they are known to produce products with consistent high quality, these designs are devoid of waste and errors. Also, it is possible to produce the exact same design without worrying too much about identical properties of the design. With the CNC wood router it is indeed possible to bring out unique designs on both wood and metal. CNC routers are inexpensive ways of creating the most innovative designs at low cost as the machine is not that expensive. The most successful designs have come out when materials have been chosen prudently. People wishing to use CNC as an interior decoration plan should be selecting materials carefully as this will affect the cost and time taken to finish the product.
Speaking of costs, the CNC wood router is one of the best inventions in the field of design that reduces human errors to a negligible percentage. Also since the price of human labour is next to nothing, even the fanciest CNC interior decoration items are moderately priced. For those interested in getting a little deeper, the price of CNC items depend on factors like the time taken for the raw materials to run through the machines, the time it takes to program the parts, tooling cost, packaging and any extra or specific material that may be needed to complete the product. Though it sounds a bit complicated to beginners, those using CNC wood router for sometime know its cost effectiveness and practicality, which is why most modern furniture and accent makers swear by CNC designs.
With CNC, one has the freedom of achieving complex cuttings and designs where curved or zigzag patterns can be used instead of boring, straight lines of the past. Complete with a vast number of features, CNC wood router and designs carved from it are soon becoming a rage amongst interior designers and buyers eager to give a newer, more contemporary look to their abode.
Jeff Kerr who developed Lobo now has this cool Delta-T which has some crazy mechanical movements :-)
I'm not sure what are the advantages or specifications but I like the inverse looks of it :-) Print results also look solid. It should be very cheap since it uses fishing line, rubber bands and other low cost materials.
Nice work Jeff!
Delta-T in action:
Delta description:
This new 3D printer is a delta-type design but with a flying carriage suspended by 6 strings that wind up directly onto the motor shafts. No rails, bearings, belts, pulleys or lead screws.
This new version uses a Bowden-type extruder and a single spring-loaded tension post to keep the strings in tension. Still more work to do, but it's coming along.
You can follow the development and get much more information at:
Hydrographic printing could soon become mainstream way of coloring and texturing 3d printed objects. It could be as easy as printing a matrix on your standard inkjet printer and using it with water container and some additional chemicals. There are many DIY dip kits and hydrographics kits but non specially made for 3d printing. Software will have to be developed to connect various process parts.
Here are two projects and demonstrations in this area that look very mature and ready for implementation:
Texture Mapping Real-World Objects with Hydrographics by Interactive Geometry Lab
Project summary:
In the digital world, assigning arbitrary colors to an object is a simple operation thanks to texture mapping. However, in the real world, the same basic function of applying colors onto an object is far from trivial. One can specify colors during the fabrication process using a color 3D printer, but this does not apply to already existing objects. Paint and decals can be used during post-fabrication, but they are challenging to apply on complex shapes.
In this paper, we develop a method to enable texture mapping of physical objects, that is, we allow one to map an arbitrary color image onto a three-dimensional object. Our approach builds upon hydrographics, a technique to transfer pigments printed on a sheet of polymer onto curved surfaces.
We first describe a setup that makes the traditional water transfer printing process more accurate and consistent across prints. We then simulate the transfer process using a specialized parameterization to estimate the mapping between the planar color map and the object surface. We demonstrate that our approach enables the application of detailed color maps onto complex shapes such as 3D models of faces and anatomical casts.
Detailed article and extensive paper in PDF format:
3D cat model colored and textured with hydrographics
Computational Hydrographic Printing from SIGGRAPH 2015
Project summary:
Hydrographic printing is a well-known technique in industry for transferring color inks on a thin film to the surface of a manufactured 3D object. It enables high-quality coloring of object surfaces and works with a wide range of materials, but suffers from the inability to accurately register color texture to complex surface geometries. Thus, it is hardly usable by ordinary users with customized shapes and textures.
We present computational hydrographic printing, a new method that inherits the versatility of traditional hydrographic printing, while also enabling precise alignment of surface textures to possibly complex 3D surfaces. In particular, we propose the first computational model for simulating hydrographic printing pro- cess. This simulation enables us to compute a color image to feed into our hydrographic system for precise texture registration. We then build a physical hydrographic system upon off-the-shelf hardware, integrating virtual simulation, object calibration and controlled immersion. To overcome the difficulty of handling complex surfaces, we further extend our method to enable multiple immersions, each with a different object orientation, so the combined colors of individual immersions form a desired texture on the object surface. We validate the accuracy of our computational model through physical experiments, and demonstrate the efficacy and robustness of our system using a variety of objects with complex surface textures.
Project is developed by by Yizhong Zhang, Chunji Yin, Changxi Zheng and Kun ZhouTechnical
