Re: controllers used in RP machines

From: don@partsnow.com
Date: Thu Dec 05 1996 - 18:40:47 EET


I will try, though my best answer is for you to look at our website,
www.PartsNow.com. We have some very descriptive explanations there.

In a nutshell, DSPC stands for Direct Shell Production Casting. We
licensed an MIT patent called 3-Dimensional Printing (which by the way is
a registered trademark, and certain marketing vermin from our competitors
should take note!!!!), and have commercialized the technology. We focus on
using our machine to make shells (molds to us non-foundrymen) which have
the same ceramic composition as the slurry used in traditional
dip-casting. Our machine builds up the mold layer by layer by printing a
raster pattern of colloidal silica on a powder bed of alumina sand. Our
materials, needless to say, are rather much cheaper than resin or wax.
Our actual printing resolution is not as good as any of the laser machines
for obvious reasons, but when you take into account the fact that in order
to make metal parts, 3D Q-C and DTM wax positives lose their accuracy
advantage. Since that is our market, we win almost any comparison on a
final-part accuracy in metal. We are also better in that we have fewer
failures by far than most others who attempt to cast parts.
        We are also extremely competitive price-wise since we save a
generation in that we never need to make a positive until we cast the
part. We are now making metal parts in aluminum, iron, steel and inconel
that are made up of multiple full-bin builds mortared together. Some of
our parts are several hundred pounds of steel and 18"x18"x24". We have the
ability to do this either by using DSPC to directly build the shell or to
use it to make aluminum tooling for production.
        In several industries, we are the only answer. We all ROFL'ed
when ALL THREE of the major players in a certain industry all came to us
with rush orders for nearly-identical prototypes and production in order to
meet a show intro deadline. We are also into Detroit in a big way, which
is incredible for a four-year-old company.
        We do not sell our machines, so people like Rapid News don't
often highlight our progress and we don't show up well in 'market share'
comparisons from an RP-centric standpoint. However, our revenue intake is
on a steep upward slant, and shows no sign of lightening even through
Christmas and January. We're already booked solid!

    oooOOO O O O o * * * * * *
   o ___
   V_=_=_DW ===--- Don Wilde [ don@PartsNow.com ]
  /oo0000oo-oo--oo-ooo---ooo-ooo---ooo-ooo---ooo



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