How long until we see 3D printed components in boat building?

Apparently China has 3D printers 105ft long and 33ft wide.
http://rt.com/news/155220-3d-printer-houses-china/

 

So is this unreinforced cement? No steel of any kind?
No good if the ground is not absolutely stable, or in an area where there are earthquakes.
I would not like to have a concrete roof drop down on me.

There might be something here if more details were available.

Bring back concrete boats (oops - still no mention of steel)

 

Size is no problem. Material strength is not a problem either. High strength concrete is stronger than iron. The problem is making it stick from layer to layer, hold a reasonable shape 'wet' and even support another wet layer, and not have adhesion problems if a distant layer is already cured. That is too much to ask from one material.

 

Great if we could buy 3D printed epoxy/carbon panels and simply epoxy them together to fast build a boat.
3D printed masts, booms, prodders, rudders, daggers, etc: The sky's the limit.

 

Not in tensile I bet

 

Exactly. Partial truths mixed with hopes and wishes result in muddying the facts with bs.

Give me 1.5"x1.5"x30" piece of non-reinforced "high strength concrete", support it from the ends and let me have a go at it with a heavy sledge hammer. I am no Hulk but I have doubts the bar could survive my attack. Make said piece from steel and my joints will become the victims instead of the test piece.

 

I understand it s a fast cure epoxy/carbon matrix.

 

Is that even "3D printing"?

It looked like a very sophisticated cake froster



being guided by a computer program.

It seems to me that's just a computer aided machine.

Is there a definition for 3D printing?

 

Lots of 3d printing is exactly that. A few different main methods - extrusion being one of them. All cheap machines - advertised here on this thread too - are melting plastic wire and extruding it essentially like a small scale cake extruder with computer numeric control.

Really the hype makes the expectations run away from reality. Its interesting tech and becoming more available but its being exaggarated in terms of the revolution.

 

Perhaps a printer could be used to build polyethylene dinghies etc.

 

Mmmmmm ... frosting.....

Er, I mean: yep. That sort of tool is used in concrete work. If there's a line to be drawn between CAM and 3D printing I would guess it may be on the question of if material is being added or subtracted to make the final object.

 

Sure, but could you afford it?

No is the answer right now

It might be valuable to make 3 or 4 for a marketing study, after that you would want to go rotomold.

 

Perhaps another possible role could be creating molds for composite hulls.

 

They would still need fairing which with female molds doesn't seem like it would be the easiest proposition. Now, I won't say anything against making the plug for the mold this way, or for that matter a male mold -- say for a cockpit. Get the cost and time to print down and that could be cool.

 

Idle speculation is not worth much.

How about trying to get a cost for such a mold.

There are lots of companies who would love for you to spend that much.

You might look at size constraints, finish capabilities, strength, will the material be acceptable for durability, and how long it takes to get the mold, before you worry about cost. Add copy information is not good enough.