Cost of rapid prototyping vs machined diecast boxes

[Nemo]

My employer makes very small production runs of instruments (typically 5
in a batch). We use off the shelf diecast metal boxes for the
electronics, these are drilled / milled / painted / silk screened and
typically cost about £100. I was wondering if anyone here had tried
metal boxes made by any of the rapid prototyping techniques (I gather
laser sintering is the one used for e.g. steel powder) and if the costs
have dropped enough now to be worth considering for small runs? I can
see various advantages such as:

- no larger than they need to be
- steel may be more suitable than diecast aluminium for our applications
- PCB / hardware mounting features integrated
- no human error when someone drills a hole in the wrong place or
forgets to countersink a hole

Of course they will still need painting (unless the finish is pleasing
to the eye) and silk screening (unless we mould lettering into them).
But it could be a sexy way to package our products and save time in
production.

Apart from cost information I'd be interested in other views of their
pros and cons. We don't need vast strength or really complex shapes. I
used plastic rapid prototyping about 6 years ago, it was quite expensive
then.

TIA

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

My employer makes very small production runs of instruments (typically 5
in a batch). We use off the shelf diecast metal boxes for the
electronics, these are drilled / milled / painted / silk screened and
typically cost about £100. I was wondering if anyone here had tried
metal boxes made by any of the rapid prototyping techniques (I gather
laser sintering is the one used for e.g. steel powder) and if the costs
have dropped enough now to be worth considering for small runs? I can
see various advantages such as:

How does GBP 7 per cubic cm for sintered stainless sound? Dubious
surface finish.

- no larger than they need to be
- steel may be more suitable than diecast aluminium for our applications
- PCB / hardware mounting features integrated
- no human error when someone drills a hole in the wrong place or
forgets to countersink a hole

Of course they will still need painting (unless the finish is pleasing
to the eye) and silk screening (unless we mould lettering into them).
But it could be a sexy way to package our products and save time in
production.

Could be. If your market will pay for sexy appearance or it helps
differentiate your product.

Apart from cost information I'd be interested in other views of their
pros and cons. We don't need vast strength or really complex shapes. I
used plastic rapid prototyping about 6 years ago, it was quite expensive
then.

TIA

I could certainly see it being useful, but I doubt it will save much
money or result in a very much stronger product. But then die cast pot
metal isn't all that strong either.

Complexity of shape probably doesn't matter much, but material volume
does.

 

[Rich Grise]

any of the rapid prototyping techniques...

http://www.xkcd.com/924/

Cheers!
Rich

 

[Winston]

My employer makes very small production runs of instruments (typically 5
in a batch). We use off the shelf diecast metal boxes for the
electronics, these are drilled / milled / painted / silk screened and
typically cost about £100. I was wondering if anyone here had tried
metal boxes made by any of the rapid prototyping techniques (I gather
laser sintering is the one used for e.g. steel powder) and if the costs
have dropped enough now to be worth considering for small runs?

http://www.shapeways.com/
http://www.shapeways.com/materials/
http://www.shapeways.com/gallery

I haven't had anything made by these folks yet,
but they sure have a compelling story.
The gallery shows ~ 35,900 designs that
have been made by Shapeways
customer / vendors.

--Winston

 

[Jure Newsgroups]

http://www.shapeways.com/
http://www.shapeways.com/materials/
http://www.shapeways.com/gallery

I haven't had anything made by these folks yet,
but they sure have a compelling story.
The gallery shows ~ 35,900 designs that
have been made by Shapeways
customer / vendors.

--Winston

a similarly interesting thing is shown here:

Thanks, Jure Z.

 

[legg]

My employer makes very small production runs of instruments (typically 5
in a batch). We use off the shelf diecast metal boxes for the
electronics, these are drilled / milled / painted / silk screened and
typically cost about £100. I was wondering if anyone here had tried
metal boxes made by any of the rapid prototyping techniques (I gather
laser sintering is the one used for e.g. steel powder) and if the costs
have dropped enough now to be worth considering for small runs? I can
see various advantages such as:

- no larger than they need to be
- steel may be more suitable than diecast aluminium for our applications
- PCB / hardware mounting features integrated
- no human error when someone drills a hole in the wrong place or
forgets to countersink a hole

Rapid prototyping is intended to prove concept, not to replace fab
techniques....so far. Pricing should be less than disposable tooling,
to make sense.

Have you priced 4-axis milling as in optical housing? There was a lot
of over-capacity after the telecom implosion. Those machines just
didn't go away.......

RL

 

[Okkim Atnarivik]

: typically cost about £100. I was wondering if anyone here had tried
: metal boxes made by any of the rapid prototyping techniques (I gather
: laser sintering is the one used for e.g. steel powder) and if the costs
: have dropped enough now to be worth considering for small runs? I can

Out of curiosity, I made one item www.shapeways.com/model/179468 .
I have a nice electric water kettle made of porcelain, but I dropped
its lid which broke. With spare parts unobtainable, I had a new
lid printed. The procedure through Shapeways was smooth, but actually
the printed items still cost quite a lot.

My colleaque got interested about Shapeways before I learned
about it, and he had some electronic custom enclosures 3D-printed. His
boxes did not use much sintering material (the cost is calculated
on the basis of the amount of material used) and ended up at about
the same price as non-customized standard boxes from Farnell. I think
that for complicated-shaped boxes needing small amount of material and
without too delicated details (uch as threaded holes), the process is
competitive. Probably not for much else.

Regards,
Mikko