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Category Archives: Spare parts and replacement parts
Our client, CFL (National Association of Luxembourg Railways) wanted to replace the broken cabinet locks of their locomotives.
These locks were not in production anymore. We redesigned the lock and with the advantages of 3D printing technology and more specific SLM (selective laser melting) of aluminium powder, we managed to redesign and produce a small series of the cabinet lock.
Without the advantages of 3D printing, CFL would have been forced to replace the entire cabinet, which means they would have spent more time and money to get the same result.
Nylon PA12 (MJF)
with its excellent mechanical properties and detailed surface resolution, is exceptionally
versatile and the ideal material for a wide range of applications.
The
material has a high impact resistance, due to different geometries it can
either be flexible or rigid. The printing technology gives you extensive
freedom of design.
By using HP
Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) technology, your parts have a higher density, lower
porosity and are watertight compared to parts produced with Selective Laser
Sintering (SLS). Furthermore the part have homogeneous (isotropic) mechanical
properties.
The 3D print process begins by laying down a thin layer (0,08 mm) of nylon powder on a build platform. Next a print head passes the surface while jetting a fusing agent, where the powder should fuse. Also a detailing agent is applied at the boundaries of the parts to produce sharp and smooth edges. In order to fuse the selected areas, fusing lamps pass the surface. The build platform moves down and the next thin layer is being applied.
[Technical white paper | HP Multi Jet Fusion technology: Schematic of HP Multi Jet Fusion printing process, cross-sectional views]
Our client had an issue with his electric sunroof on his car, the metal slider on one side was broken due to material wear.
Since he could not find any replacement parts on the market we managed to reproduce the broken part, our engineering team optimized the part by adding material on certain sections of the part. The material we used was stainless steel, which got polished to work properly.
That shiny piece is chromalised plastic and it was to feeble for its function in a shower. On top of that spare parts are impossible to get.
So for our client we made a spare part and it is a lot tougher than the original part because it has been created in 3D-printed aluminium. The file necessary for printing was created with 3D-Scanning technology and CAD-design.
Voici un exemple qui en illustre tant d’autres. Une petite pièce casse sur un appareil qui n’est plus produit depuis longtemps. Des pièces de rechange sont impossibles à obtenir. Faut-il alors conduire cet appareil à la décharge bien que son remplacement coute peut-être des centaines, voire des milliers.
L’impression 3D permet désormais la production de pièces de rechange. La pièce cassée est mesurée ou scanné pour reconstruire un fichier tridimensionnel. Ce fichier permet alors l’impression d’une (ou plusieurs) nouvelles pièces et ceci dans un grand choix de matériaux, des plastiques aux métaux en passant par les poudres composites multicouleurs.
Dans ce cas précis c’était le bouton du parlophone de la société JNL qui était cassé. Un remplacement aurait couté des milliers d’euros. L’impression était 10 fois moins chère, plus rapide, plus propre, moins bruyante et plus écologique!
Original avec deux pièces de réchange en nylon noir
First of all some smaller detachable components wore scanned in order to produce samples. The samples were printed in different materials in order to analyses precision and paintability.
The samples satisfying all requirements, 3DPrint.lu could move on with the statues. Each 3D file of such a statue is combination of 20 to 30 laserscans and is composed of millions of triangles.
The two smaller statues were printed in Nylon.
As in Nylon the height of printing was limited to 65 cm, the third and highest statue was printed in stereolitographic resin.
The project ran to the highest satisfaction of the MNHA. The statues are now being coloured by hand and we hope to present you soon the images of the completed copies.
Wer bei einem Schrank, der schon mehr als hundert Jahre auf dem Buckel hat, einen Haken ersetzen möchte wir nur in den seltensten Fällen den Hersteller finden und ein Ersatzteil bestellen können.
Viel schneller ist ein solches Teil gedruckt, in diesem Fall in rostfreiem Stahl mit Bronzebeimischung.
Dimensions: 29x15x9 mm (with 1,5 mm holes)
