Another alternative for roof seals

[Rich10000]

Hi All,

I read the posts from DROMONG and it certainly sounds like there is a solution out there but it looks like it will be difficult to make a large number of them as it seems to be a very labour intensive process.

What about 3D printing? once a seal has been made it can be copied again and again. found the following link which says that rubber parts can be made....just an idea, don't know if anyone has experience of this technique.

http://i.materialise.com/materials/rubber-like

Cheers

Rich

[HJ2]

I have seen Shaft dust covers that have been 3D printed.
One could make an open cell webbing inside a 1 mm rubber film in one print. This would be an ideal solution yes.
Problem is size... You'll need a gigantic printer and that's where things are starting to get expensive. However, if you make optimum use of the space (print as much rubbers in one go that will fit the boundry box... Who knows!

[superbad]

Rubber being flexible, in principle you could fold it up in 3D space to cram it into a small build volume, print, then unfold it after it's done. The problem is there is no true rubber material that is capable of being 3D printed- the best you can get is "rubber-like", and I doubt it would work well as a seal, especially with prolonged exposure to UV and temperature extremes. The surface finish would be pretty manky too. That SLS material in your link will be pretty granular, and the similar stuff that can be used in an FDM machine will have trace lines. Neither of those are what you want on a seal.

[HJ2]

Rubber being flexible, in principle you could fold it up in 3D space to cram it into a small build volume, print, then unfold it after it's done. The problem is there is no true rubber material that is capable of being 3D printed- the best you can get is "rubber-like", and I doubt it would work well as a seal, especially with prolonged exposure to UV and temperature extremes. The surface finish would be pretty manky too. That SLS material in your link will be pretty granular, and the similar stuff that can be used in an FDM machine will have trace lines. Neither of those are what you want on a seal.

But they do print it! For automotive!
I'd bet that in 2 years there is an alternative for our Elans.

Overstretching for cheaper printing is not the way foreward IMHO

[superbad]

But they do print it! For automotive!

In what application?

[HJ2]

It was a CV boot

[superbad]

Huh, CV boot? I wonder what material that was, I can't imagine any of the options I've seen lasting very long in that environment.

From the Shapeways page on their flexible material: "the material is not airtight (it's porous)"
And on the Materialise page: "the material is not as strong as real rubber. The material is flexible, but of course the elasticity is limited and since the black dye is a post treatment you can’t squeeze it a few thousand times"

Neither one sounds very promising as a seal option for us yet, but there is a ton of development going on in this area, and that could change soon.

[superbad]

There is a soft polyurethane filament option too- I can run this in my machine. I can test a small part at least, but I don't think the surface finish on an FDM part is ever going to be acceptable for such a visible part.

http://talpadk.wordpress.com/2013/10/10 ... -filament/

[HJ2]

Hopefully other printing principles become more available / affordable when the patents expire. That would boost development of what we want
I believe that this year Selective sintering epires. I expect the same price drop as the filament printers + one order better in resolution.