Metal printing repairs

Andy J

Andy J

Hero member
Location
Isle of Man
Earlier today I visited a Norwegian company that does very clever stuff with a laser metal printer. The operatives claim they can just about do anything, so making and/or repairing hard or impossible to find engine parts may soon be a distinct possibility.
As a trial, parts of a Zane 750 crank, that had been damaged by baring failure, are going to be repaired, along with a damaged con rod. In fact they said a snapped con rod could have the ‘missing’ bit reprinted - stronger than the original!
I will report on the repair and rebuild of the crank.
 
Repairing a broken rod to be better than new, thats some black magic. Brave new world. I guess seeing is believing.
 
Andy J said:
Earlier today I visited a Norwegian company that does very clever stuff with a laser metal printer. The operatives claim they can just about do anything, so making and/or repairing hard or impossible to find engine parts may soon be a distinct possibility.
As a trial, parts of a Zane 750 crank, that had been damaged by baring failure, are going to be repaired, along with a damaged con rod. In fact they said a snapped con rod could have the ‘missing’ bit reprinted - stronger than the original!
I will report on the repair and rebuild of the crank.
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Old hat... ;)

But I'd suspect a rod printed from scratch would be a better option.

Undercarriage components for aeroplanes have been printed for quite some time now, impossibly complicated stuff in titanium. Too complex to manufacture viably through conventional methods. Here's another example, 3D printed Bugatti Chiron 8-piston, one-piece brake caliper. The design is "organic", this saves as much weight as possible without sacrificing strength. No way to achieve this with conventional casting and machining methods.

Looks like it'd be a nightmare to keep clean, though!:LOL:

piet

a6f483bad1fd9fec.jpg
 
sfcpiet said:
Old hat... ;)

But I'd suspect a rod printed from scratch would be a better option.

Undercarriage components for aeroplanes have been printed for quite some time now, impossibly complicated stuff in titanium. Too complex to manufacture viably through conventional methods. Here's another example, 3D printed Bugatti Chiron 8-piston, one-piece brake caliper. The design is "organic", this saves as much weight as possible without sacrificing strength. No way to achieve this with conventional casting and machining methods.

Looks like it'd be a nightmare to keep clean, though!:LOL:

piet

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Click to expand...
What a load of rubbish. They can't even spell Ducati.

Paul
 
Andy J said:
Yes, Tor Henning owns part of the company.
Click to expand...
I suspected it was Tor Henning. He said he had moved on from his moulding and form business recently to something even higher tech, now I know. Have lost contact with the guys since I stopped racing at the Covid divide and was in Spain away from the recent CRC general meeting. Say hi for me. Have been meaning for ages to visit Rune at his workshop/business.
 
sfcpiet said:
Old hat... ;)

But I'd suspect a rod printed from scratch would be a better option.

Undercarriage components for aeroplanes have been printed for quite some time now, impossibly complicated stuff in titanium. Too complex to manufacture viably through conventional methods. Here's another example, 3D printed Bugatti Chiron 8-piston, one-piece brake caliper. The design is "organic", this saves as much weight as possible without sacrificing strength. No way to achieve this with conventional casting and machining methods.

Looks like it'd be a nightmare to keep clean, though!:LOL:

piet

View attachment 70605
Click to expand...
Jesus, that’s a beautiful piece of metal, I wonder what it looks like in raw form just out of the printer and before polishing. This is still the dawn of this technology, I can only imagine what the future will bring!
 
sfcpiet said:
Old hat... ;)

But I'd suspect a rod printed from scratch would be a better option.

Undercarriage components for aeroplanes have been printed for quite some time now, impossibly complicated stuff in titanium. Too complex to manufacture viably through conventional methods. Here's another example, 3D printed Bugatti Chiron 8-piston, one-piece brake caliper. The design is "organic", this saves as much weight as possible without sacrificing strength. No way to achieve this with conventional casting and machining methods.

Looks like it'd be a nightmare to keep clean, though!:LOL:

piet

View attachment 70605
Click to expand...
GEEEZZZZ!!! That looks like something from the Terminator!! LOL!
 
SFCRex said:
GEEEZZZZ!!! That looks like something from the Terminator!! LOL
Click to expand...

the calliper designs are AI; check the video out below and head to 6 minutes 14, that's where it shows you from Human to AI design , you really scratch your head and ask if you could trust it when you see how skinny the support gets
 
I was unable to post photos when I first started the thread, now corrected.
you can easily see the damage to the crank pins.
the machine in the second picture can combine things like aluminium and titanium powder to make fancy alloys of various strengths.
 

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