3D Scanners

[cancel2 2022]

We make those in the school I'm learning CNC in with a 5 axis machine.

There is a lot more to the fabrication of those blades.

There are 18,000 components in the company’s latest engine – the Trent 1000. Each one is manufactured to withstand the extraordinary performance demands placed on them.

An example is the high pressure turbine blade. This blade is grown as a single crystal of a Rolls-Royce alloy in a vacuum furnace. As it grows, it incorporates a complex series of air passages to cool the blade. Then it needs external cooling holes created by incredibly accurate laser drilling. And on top of all that is a thermal barrier coating that surpasses that used to make the tiles on the space shuttle.
The blade lives in the high-pressure turbine, where the gas temperature is at least 400 degrees above the melting point of the blade’s alloy. It sits in a disc that rotates at more than 10,000 rpm. This means that the force on the blade root is the same as hanging a London double-decker bus from its tip. Every time the plane takes-off this single blade develops the same horsepower as a Formula 1 racing car, and yet it can travel 10 million miles before it needs replacing.
That sort of performance, achieved under such extremes of heat and pressure requires a precision of design and manufacture that is measured in microns – to the thickness of a human hair, and it has to be exactly right every time.
At the opposite end of the spectrum is the hollow titanium fan blade. The hollow titanium fan blade is crucial to the performance and efficiency of Rolls-Royce large aero engines and to an engineer; it’s a work of art. Moving a tonne of air per second, the fan produces over 85% of the engine’s thrust.

http://innovationnow.raeng.org.uk/innovations/default.aspx?item=15

 

[Mott the Hoople]

Yes, there is that too.

I would actualy be happy just to have a 3D scanner to tie into my CNC mill for making permanent molds.

Unfortunately they cost about a half mill and the photoset resin is like around $100/liter.

 

[Mott the Hoople]

Could it be used to make turbine blades? As this video shows, the manufacturing process using lost wax is incredibly intricate.

absolutely it can be used for investment casting. I have a sneaky hunch that they probably used stereolythography to create the wax castings in this video.

 

[Mott the Hoople]

Then you should recall that 3D Printing refers to a specific technology developed at MIT (e.g. Z-Corp), and not to the broad spectrum of Additive Fabrication technologies - SLA, SLS, FDM, LOM, LENS, SLM, EBM (Arcam).

Sorry, try again.

Dude, you're splitting hairs. The photoset resin printing technologyhas been called stereolythography since the mid 80's. 3-D printing is a generic term and a trademark for certain variants.

 

[Rune]

Unfortunately they cost about a half mill and the photoset resin is like around $100/liter.

That's why I said I would be happy just to have a 3-D scanner.

 

[Troglodyte27]

Dude, you're splitting hairs. The photoset resin printing technologyhas been called stereolythography since the mid 80's. 3-D printing is a generic term and a trademark for certain variants.

I have never once heard Chuck Hull refer to Stereolithography as 3D printing, at least not in any of the conversations I have had with him. So, you know better than the man who invented it... 3D printing in reference to SLA is a generic term used (incorrectly) by laymen and novices; which are you? Seriously, you can't even spell stereolithography correctly.