8 November, 2020OPINIONOne day in 1991, I found myself mesmerized while watching a VHS video in which short bursts of green lines mysteriously and briefly appeared on a dark liquid pool."This is like Star Wars!", I exclaimed!At the end of the videotape, a solid part emerged from this dark pool, resembling the birth of an island in the ocean."This is magic!", I declared, amazingly.Of course, I was viewing a sales video of this new-fangled process called SLA--Stereo-lithography Apparatus. At that time, after 13 years as a Mechanical Design Engineer, and a newly minted ProENGINEER 3D CAD user, I quickly embarked on research projects to discover how these fledgling technologies--initially known as Rapid Prototyping (RP), and then 3D Printing (3DP) and, now Additive Manufacturing (AM)--could be incorporated into New Product Development (NPD), and learn if they could Deliver on their Promises. These projects, conducted between 1991 and 1995, included:· Investment Cast Chassis using an SLA "Lost-Wax" Pattern: A large electronics chassis was fabricated without a drawing--an early example of what is now called Art-to-Part.· Rigid Waveguide Elements using SLA mechanical parts that were secondarily electroplated: I was honored to have Dick Aubin, at the United Technologies RP Consortium, make my waveguide models on his Beta SLA-500 machine in Hartford, CT. The secondary electroplating proved problematic in some parts of the critical geometry.By Albert McGovern, Director of Mechanical Engineering, Shure IncorporatedADDITIVE MANUFACTURING-- MAKING REAL PROGRESSON MATCHING DELIVERY TO PROMISES
< Page 7 | Page 9 >