I shouldn't really share this on an open forum... I am watching the technology to see at which point it integrates into our manufacturing processes... I go out for prices when I think there might be something suitable. I had a particularly challenging stainless steel reactor. It wasn't cheap, oh no, but the 3d printed price came back competitive to conventional fabrication and machining, so of course, I jumped at getting them printed. Within days they came back - the whole company was very excited about it, and all wanted to see what they would look like, and how they would perform in this new manufacturing method. I opened the surprisingly small box, and found them perfectly formed, but 1/10th of the size they should be! Doh! having spent rather a lot of money, on a job which was required urgently, I was in deep, deep, er deep! And it isn't something you can hide (well, actually, you could - they should have been the size of a large coffee cup, they were the size of a thimble!). Time to hold your hand up, let everyone have a jolly good laugh at your expense, and then solve the problem. Which, the jolly good laugh thing is what I am doing here really.
Suffice to say that miniature test components were manufactured by others in my organisation who found it a good wheeze, and they would have worked brilliantly, had we wanted them that small... and hence I do still get all sorts of interesting 3d printing facts sent through to me whilst I wait for the next time it might be right to start using this technology - the DB5 being one of them - they never tell you the interesting stories though do they? What bits went wrong!
How far off topic can we drag this?!
]).....
