Re: [rp-ml] Slow growth

From: Stewart Dickson <mathart_at_emsh.calarts.edu>
Date: Tue Apr 22 2008 - 17:30:32 EEST

The cost of R-P machines is dropping constantly, but I think that the
cost of operating them is not dropping as quickly.
Consider that Z-Corp's -- essentially plaster-of-Paris and Super-Glue --
is still on the order of $100 a liter.
Granted that's 1/4 the cost of Stereolithography resin, but it seems
that for the benefit of developing countries
(and academic institutions) there could be some "Open Source" materials
made available.

I think that the 3D Systems Thermojet might be the cheapest to own and
operate.

Are the Michaels Tsenter and Feygin -- Helisys -- still in business?
(Paper is possibly not a plentiful resource in Africa, for example.)

Cheers,

-Stewart http://us.imdb.com/Name?Stewart+Dickson
Visualization Research Programmer, Integrated Systems Laboratory
http://www.isl.uiuc.edu/~sdickson
4355 Beckman Institute, 405 N Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
+1(217)333-3923
http://emsh.calarts.edu/~mathart/MathArt_siteMap.html

Todd Pederzani wrote:
> ahmad ayyaz wrote:
>> Despite of all the fantastic features and benefits of Rapid
>> Prototyping , the idea could not get acceleration especialy at small
>> to medium enterprises level largely in developing countries? What you
>> people think the root cause of this? and what you will suggest to do
>> in this regard?
> I'm no expert, but two factors I'd consider are price and locality.
> None of the RP machines are particularly affordable (IMO), and service
> may not be available (or at high cost) in their area (or on a
> reasonable time frame.)
>
> Do you have quantitative measurements of the lack of adoption of RP in
> the countries? You may get a lot of answers, but I'm not sure how
> provable any of them may be (mine definitely included).
>
> --
> Todd Pederzani tpederzani@protocam.com
> ProtoCAM Information Technology
> 3848 Cherryville Road Phone: (610) 261-9010
> Northampton, PA 18067 Fax: (610) 261-9350
Received on Tue Apr 22 15:38:46 2008

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : Tue Jan 06 2009 - 15:48:27 EET