Riccardo wrote:
>I write to you because I'm interested about bone's modelling using the RP
>tecnologies.
> Unfortunately I know little about this matter.
> My goal is to reproduce bones in their real size using ceramic material.
> My idea is to apply technics used in the ceramic founderies;
> therefore what I need is a die (mould) for ceramic casting.
> In order to obtain such a mould, I'm trying to create a resin prototype
>by a 3-D System machine.
> Now my first aim is to create STL files from TAC image datas.
>Riccardo Scavone
>Biolab. Universita' di Genova
Since there is rarely any traffic on the mailing list concerning ceramic
materials, I thought it might be interesting to let others read my response
(if not - I apoligize now!!!).
It is completely possible to prototype "bones" in ceramic. Lone Peak
specializes in both production volume and prototype quantity ceramic parts.
We use different approaches to get to ceramic prototypes and/or components
using RP systems.
The first, and most direct, is with the Laminated Object Manufacturing
system. We use a flexible ceramic tape that we produce as the build
material instead of the paper that is normally run on the machine. This
tape can be as thin as 5 mils and we don't normally run anything thicker
than 10 mils. We produce a green (unsintered) component directly from the
.STL file. After decubing, we fire the part according to typical ceramic
firing techniques to create the dense ceramic component. We have built a
variety of human "bones" in alumina using this approach. In fact, we
currently have scheduled a full-size human hand to be built in alumina.
The second approach that we use is called Rapid Slip, which is a rapid
tooling approach that we have developed for ceramic slip casting. We
prototype a master using our Fused Deposition Modeling system. From there
we use traditional slip casting techniques to produce our ceramic
"prototypes", which really aren't prototypes but fully-dense ceramic
components.
There were two good talks given at the Solid Freeform Fabrication meeting
in Austin this past August that covered ceramic and metal slip casting
approaches using rapidly prototyped patterns.
Sincerely,
Alair Griffin / Engineer
Lone Peak Engineering, Inc.
alair@lonepeak.com
Lone Peak Engineering, Inc.
12660 S. Fort St.
Draper, UT 84020
801-553-1732 TEL
801-553-1734 FAX
lpe@lonepeak.com
http://www.aros.net/~lonepeak/lpe
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