shapeways durability?

[twisted]

i was wondering if you guys could give me an idea about the durability of shapeways plastic in the usa. been thinking of geting some of niki's parts but my car will be raced. durability will play a big roll in if i buy any.

Thanks Geo

[durb69]

Also wondering the same. I've seen a lot of complaints, just wondering if the US shapeways has recently gotten better?

[yellowdatsun]

Also curious here.

I run an RC10T converted to buggy, with the truck arms that exceed ROAR widths. If I was ever going to race it, I was thinking of using the printed arms.

If they aren't tough enough, then I'll just keep the RC10T buggy for fun, and the B4 for the serious stuff.

[Spoon]

I haven't personally used anything from shapeways that actually touched the ground, but have read a ton of threads and post about parts breaking all the time. I just recently ordered a bunch of RC10 parts from them and there's a specific warning on the site saying "3D printed products are intended for decorative purposes". From a moddlers stand point their stuff is amazing but I wouldn't put to much expectations on anything past that.

[Mark Westerfield]

Depends on your skill level and a bit on the skill level of the other racers at your track.

If you hit stuff a lot, or other racers at your track hit you a lot, then Shapeways parts could be expensive for you.

(I raced my Nix91 all weekend at the Vintage Off-road nationals finishing in third without breaking a single part all weekend. My driving skill is good, and the racers in my area seem to particularly make an effort to drive clean racing with me.)

[Niki]

Shapeways customer service admitted they have a strenght quality problem at New York plant. Big crew trying to figure out why Netherland plant parts are stronger than US plant parts. Everything should match, still parts are different. This was the case two months ago. Just today I got update for this. Huge progress has been made. Still issue not 100% solved.

I asked earlier if there is a way for US customers to order Netherlands made parts but that seems to be impossible. That's why I started using i.materialise.com.

What comes to SLS part strenght in race use, it's obvious SLS can never match injection molded part. It's a prototype part in most cases. Well made parts can be used for design verification and used in actual environment. In a runner/racer some parts take more hits than others. What part usually breaks in a box stock car - arms and arm mounts. Sometimes maybe shock towers in modern cars but that's not a problem with RC10 platform. Too bad some designs require SLS arms and arm mounts. For example Quadra-RC10 design is all about arms and arm mounts. On the other hand NIX10M has nothing to do with arms/mounts and still uses SLS parts. I think SLS can be used in a race car but you have to be aware if you clear race track jump section with 75% chance... you will have broken part soon. If you do it 98% there will probably be no problems. Just recently I drove my Quadra car indoors on a new track first time. While testing how to drive off corner double jump I ended up breaking one front arm. After that I've done hundreds of laps without any problems.

I've been trying to figure out what could be done to improve SLS part strenght. Parts can be milled from solid nylon but all free-forming benefits are then gone. And it's not rapid prototyping anymore then. Making SLS part more bulky and optimising material thickness and form will take you long way towards really good and strong part. Rapid prototyping methods are also developing in huge steps, who knows how good parts can be printed next year.

One thing that came into my mind is dipping part into epoxy resin. That would probably work quite nicely. SLS part surface is spongy type and would soak resin into outer layer. If you think of it from construction viewpoint, resin would be just in the right place to make the part significantly stronger. I'm going to try this out but would like to see someone else testing it also.

By the way free shipping this weekend from Shapeways all over the world

-Niki-

[RC10th]

With multi material printing I can see huge strength benefits as you could tie in or reinforce high load areas with printed metal integrated into the arm.

[jwscab]

yeah i was thinking that some type of very watery adhesive that dried flexible would be optimum to soak those parts in. CA and epoxies are generally brittle (not flexible) or very thick. I know that there are some very watery glues for lexan, which by nature has a bit of flex, although I don't know how it would affect the plastics used in the SLS process.

[Phin]

Maybe a UV glue?

[jwscab]

did a little searching, it seems your best bet would be a water thin, flexible CA glue, haven't investigated a UV glue but it was also recommended for nylon.

[Phin]

UV resin is used in SLA type 3D printing. I'm thinking a Shapeways part soaked in the adhesive then dried with a UV light might help fill the "pores" to add the extra strength.

[yellowdatsun]

What about sintered metal printing??

[Niki]

Can be done but for example one set of NIX91 Race arms would cost around $200

[JasonB]

I raced last year on the fredswain front arms from shapeways USA. Fairly expensive, Quality was up and down, tolerances varied from order to order. I tend to be a cleaner driver then some, but I broke 4 of them over the course of 10 weeks of racing. The weirdest thing was when I separated the arms. I bent the webbing between the arms back and forth, and one set would bend 5-6 times before snapping while the next would snap on the first bend.

I purchased the quadra arms sets from I.materialize and the quality was notably better, plus they are cheaper even with overses shipping.

I also believe the shapeways quality, and the quality of printed parts in general will get better over time.

[hugger19]

any coupon codes that work for this month of nov??? need to order some parts