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3-D Scanner and printer


handysnack

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I see these increasing in availability.  Outside of probably breaking a patent how many of you guys are going to be buying a scanner/printer set?

 

That broken chute door, that little part in the coin mech or any part for that matter.

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I run a 3d printer for my work and yes they are awesome for making parts except mine only make plastic parts. I used it to make a key that was broken. I drew the key on my computer made it on the printer and had a hardwear store make a metal copy.

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The availability of 3d computers will result in as many negative as positive changes in our lives because of the evil that some do.

But, that's true of all technology.

So, this just becomes the next item in a long list of advancements that provides our populace with a means to do many wonderful and terrible things.

 

I would love to have a 3d printer become a part of my vending business.

Yet, I do not look forward to the day when perfectly sized plastic quarters start showing up in our machines on a daily basis.

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The availability of 3d computers will result in as many negative as positive changes in our lives because of the evil that some do.

But, that's true of all technology.

So, this just becomes the next item in a long list of advancements that provides our populace with a means to do many wonderful and terrible things.

 

I would love to have a 3d printer become a part of my vending business.

Yet, I do not look forward to the day when perfectly sized plastic quarters start showing up in our machines on a daily basis.

I don't think it will be that bad, 100% of the guys on this forum have pulled various quarter shaped objects from their machines.  My record is pulling ~200 or $50 worth on a monthly run. 

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I don't think it will be that bad, 100% of the guys on this forum have pulled various quarter shaped objects from their machines.  My record is pulling ~200 or $50 worth on a monthly run. 

 

You are right.

It's not going to be a huge impact...most scumbags who use technology for bad things will not spend much time printing quarters.

So, it will be of little impact to us, but even a little negative impact hurts when margins are the way they are nowadays.

 

A lot of of the quarter-shaped foreign objects I pull from my coin boxes are the result of a drop through coin mech doing it's job.

A printed 3d quarter won't drop through -- so we will be losing product as well as having to sort through garbage in our coin boxes.

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3D printing is incredibly expensive compared to traditional manufacturing methods. If you need to replace a machine part, and the manufacturer would sell you a new chute door for $15, it would probably cost you $800 to 3D print a new one. That is unless you want to make one out of plastic. The 3D printers that use powdered metal are not economically feasible for anything except custom medical implants and other industries that can support very high prices for custom pieces.

 

I'm working on some patents for additive manufacturing technology (a.k.a. 3D printing) geared toward the manufacturing world and I can tell you that for small uncomplicated parts like you're talking about, 3D printing is not the way to go.

 

As for 3D printing toys, don't count on it. The cycle time for a 3D printer is several hours, and the work volume is pretty small. In an 8 hour cycle time, you might be able to make 25 toys. In that same amount of time, an injection molding machine could have made many thousands. The cost to 3D print bulk toys would be crazy compared to traditional injection molding.

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3D printing is incredibly expensive compared to traditional manufacturing methods. If you need to replace a machine part, and the manufacturer would sell you a new chute door for $15, it would probably cost you $800 to 3D print a new one. That is unless you want to make one out of plastic. The 3D printers that use powdered metal are not economically feasible for anything except custom medical implants and other industries that can support very high prices for custom pieces.

 

I'm working on some patents for additive manufacturing technology (a.k.a. 3D printing) geared toward the manufacturing world and I can tell you that for small uncomplicated parts like you're talking about, 3D printing is not the way to go.

 

As for 3D printing toys, don't count on it. The cycle time for a 3D printer is several hours, and the work volume is pretty small. In an 8 hour cycle time, you might be able to make 25 toys. In that same amount of time, an injection molding machine could have made many thousands. The cost to 3D print bulk toys would be crazy compared to traditional injection molding.

 

I build plastic injection molds for a living. I agree, we have them for proto-type parts but in most cases if you can buy the real part in would be much cheaper. I did see something on TV the other day that McDonalds is looking at doing them for their toys in the future. The price is dropping.

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The price is dropping, but I really feel that the industry's focus is backwards right now. Everyone's trying to apply this technology to small complicated parts. I think it would be better suited to large parts like heavy equipment, airframes, mining equipment, etc. The build volume of the machines would have to increase radically, but the technology wouldn't need to change much.

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