
Digitally cloning a 1914 Delage Type S engine block - King-Aaron
https://www.csiro.au/en/Research/MF/Areas/Metals/Lab22/Delage
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Animats
Why is CSIRO, a well-regarded Australian Government research organization,
doing this? For some rich collector?

Making duplicates of broken or worn out parts is a standard industrial
operation. Here's a laser scanning service that measures out parts.[1] Here's
a mechanical coordinate measuring machine measuring out an engine block.[2]

Here's a Kuka industrial robot machining a sand mold for a one-off job.[3]
That's somewhat unusual, because you only get one part per sand mold.

If you're making more than one, you first make a pattern, usually from wood,
that's then packed with sand. Then you remove the pattern and pour in hot
metal. The pattern has to be adjusted in size a bit to compensate for
shrinkage as the metal cools. Standard foundry practice, centuries old. After
casting, you do some finish machining on the surfaces that matter, and leave
the rest as cast.

There's commercial software for all this. Autodesk Moldflow, for example. This
is not an R&D project. It's the sort of thing someone would do in a good
manufacturing technology 2-year degree program. I've seen people do this kind
of thing at TechShop, although in a smaller scale than an engine block.

[1]
[http://www.dirdim.com/serv_replication.htm](http://www.dirdim.com/serv_replication.htm)
[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oiDK864Agk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oiDK864Agk)
[3]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjMNKYAYdFE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjMNKYAYdFE)

~~~
King-Aaron
This is one of many projects that Lab22 is working on to further develop 3d
scanning and manufacturing processes. Amongst other things, there's:

\- 3D printed medical implants:
[https://www.csiro.au/en/Research/MF/Areas/Metals/Lab22/Titan...](https://www.csiro.au/en/Research/MF/Areas/Metals/Lab22/Titanium-
Heel)

\- 3D printed jet turbines:
[https://www.csiro.au/en/Research/MF/Areas/Metals/Lab22/3D-pr...](https://www.csiro.au/en/Research/MF/Areas/Metals/Lab22/3D-printed-
jet-engine)

\- Oventus's new sleep apnea device:
[https://www.csiro.au/en/Research/MF/Areas/Metals/Lab22/Mouth...](https://www.csiro.au/en/Research/MF/Areas/Metals/Lab22/Mouthguard)

And lots of other stuff. I'm working on a branding project for one of Lab22's
projects, and thought I'd share this because it was semi-interesting.

~~~
Baeocystin
Do you have anything that you can share that goes beyond the surface-level
detail of the links, and gets a bit more in to the meat of things?

~~~
King-Aaron
Not on the Delage, sorry. I'm just doing some web work for other stuff.

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Baeocystin
This isn't an article. It's barely a company fluff piece. It has no more
detail on what sounds like an interesting project than the title of the link.

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ilamont
Jay Leno (serious car buff) has been doing this for years. I think he and many
other car collectors realized the potential of 3D printing of obsolete parts
when the cost came down enough to be affordable.

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anentropic
cool story, but

> using traditional manufacturing methods was not an option.

...why?

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metaphor
The article indirectly suggests that the sand mould isn't one-time use. Is
this indeed the case?

~~~
ZiiS
I think they will have been re-printing new sand molds for each casting.

