3D printed bike

We have been observing this over the last few days at work.
They have restricted themselves by using an SLS machine with a small build chamber, meaning the frame has to be made in sections which are the glued together. It will clearly fail at the joins in about 5 minutes.

for some reason people have started to try and make SLS printed products, which is just retarded. 3D printing is a way of producing a prototype quickly (rapid prototyping)...... using it to produce a final product is just plain stupid, and rediculously expensive. You could buy a top end carbon road bike with SRAM Red for less than it would have cost to produce that peice of crap.

And the presenter on the BBC news peice crashed it as soon as he went off camera.

"restricted themselves"??? You can't go much bigger than 700mm at the moment with SLS and if its 'welded' correctly it will be quite strong. But to get the strength its going to weigh a ton.

You would be surprised at the amount of companies that use SLS for some of their products and it is defiantly not retarded. Do you know how much injection moulding tools cost!!!?? Obviously not, using SLS companies can go straight to manufacture without the middle man in china. Which for small companies making small batches that are constantly changing its perfect.

Mostly design and very expensive but these guys make cool stuff using sls..

http://www.freedomofcreation.com/

I think most people have a very basic understanding of what 3D printing can achieve. I work in the aerospace industry, an industry that has used rapid prototyping for years. Now however, the system has gone from rapid prototyping to rapid manufacture.

For example, the link below shows some of the more advanced manufacturing techniques going….

YouTube - DMLS in action by Morris Technologies

There are a range of methods of 3D printing, and new ones allow you to print a number of materials at the same time. So you can have one side of an object to be Titanium and the other side to be Magnesium, without a weld.

Also, if you don’t have welds or joints you don’t have stress conentrations which are almost always the point of failure. So once the tech gets a lot better, you may well be able to print a whole frame without any joints. Also given the fact that it could be made from a number of materials (maybe even a mixture of metals and plastics) you could tailor the frame to have properties you want. Such as, stiff front end and a more compliant rear. The options are enormous.

The technology is still in its infancy.

Also, think of it this way…. huge companies such as Rolls Royce are investing very heavily in this technology. And they have spent a lot of time and money on seeing if its going to be worth their while.

So saying “for some reason people have started to try and make SLS printed products, which is just retarded” just shows how little you know about the manufacturing technique and what it can deliver.

Also, the cost is actually not that high. As there is no waste you only use what you need. You get almost 100% use from your material.

A while ago I saw a titanium femur joint being manufactured. It was solid Ti at the ball of the joint and the rest of it got more and more porous which means the bone would grow into it. So after a while it would be a perfect joint. Amazing stuff.

+1

The joint that you saw might have been something to do with within lots of medical companies are getting excited about it.