Analysis of fabber manufacturing

From: Marshall Burns (Marshall@Ennex.com)
Date: Mon Feb 21 2000 - 00:13:05 EET


Hi folks,

    Last night I posted a link to a new page at Ennex.com that presents two
threads from last year's debate about using fabbers for direct
manufacturing. I've just done an analysis on those threads and here is a
list of the examples that were given of actual products manufactured
directly on a fabber:
            -- Fine art
            -- Medical models
            -- Human busts made by Swift Technologies (England) on its LOM
            -- Various aerospace parts made by Boeing Rocketdyne
(California) on its Sinterstations
            -- Cryogenic blasting nozzle made by PERA Technology (England)
on its SLA
            -- Hundreds of end-use parts, such as an animal guard for
utility poles, made by Harvest Technologies (Texas) on it Sinterstation
            -- Medical devices made by Molecular Geodesics’ (Massachusetts)
application of 3DP

In addition, the following examples were given of production tooling or
masters for production tooling made on fabbers:
            -- Castings for Grand Prix motorcycle engine barrels made by
Soligen (California) on its DSPCs
            -- Molds for production wiring harnesses and hand grips made by
Lockheed Martin (Florida) on its SLAs and Actua
            -- Tooling and masters for tooling made by Swift Technologies
(England) on its Sanders Model Maker
            -- Fabbed masters used for castings shipped in quantities of 25
to 75 by American Industrial Castings (Rhode Island)

    You will now find this list of applications in the introductory section
of the page, where each application is linked directly to the message that
describes it.

    Of course, the threads on the RP-ML include dissenting views as well,
but it is getting clearer all the time that fabbers ("RP") are not just for
prototypes.

    The page with all this stuff on it is
http://www.ennex.com/fabbers/RP-ML/mfg.sht. Enjoy!

    As I said last night, if anyone wants to add new examples or other
arguments for or against direct manufacturing by fabbers, I'll add the new
material to that page.

Best regards,
Marshall Burns
President, Ennex Corporation

Marshall@Ennex.com
Los Angeles, USA, (310) 397-1314
http://www.Ennex.com

For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/



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