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Why wait months for a hull


ditchcrawler

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However I am always sceptical about the strength of 3D printed items, compared to those conventionally built. Polymer on its own (without eg glass or carbon strands) is surely not that strong, and quite brittle. And certainly not in the same league as a steel narrowboat.

 

Very good for prototypes though. And for items where structural detail is more important than strength.

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37 minutes ago, Pie Eater said:

Would it stand a knock from Steve Heywood?

I expect there will be printer repair boats on waterways of the future.They will have a print cannon on deck with the ability to print a patch,bowthruster,or emergency fender.

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1 hour ago, rusty69 said:

I expect there will be printer repair boats on waterways of the future.They will have a print cannon on deck with the ability to print a patch,bowthruster,or emergency fender.

Will they be able to print an unoccupied mooring space?

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3 hours ago, nicknorman said:

However I am always sceptical about the strength of 3D printed items, compared to those conventionally built. Polymer on its own (without eg glass or carbon strands) is surely not that strong, and quite brittle. And certainly not in the same league as a steel narrowboat.

 

Very good for prototypes though. And for items where structural detail is more important than strength.

Fibre reinforced 3D printing is a thing. No idea what polymer they used to make this. The video is very short on detail and I can't be bothered to do any research! It looks to be basically a thin shell of material making up the hull, deck and bulkheads, with a support structure down to  the floor to be removed afterwards. No idea if this is meant to be a practical boat, or just a "look how big this thing is we made" demonstration. I suspect more the later than the former.

 

If you were to make a serious boat this way you'd want to use the things you can only easily do with 3D printing, so making thick stiff structures, with lots of air space inside for rigidity and built in insulation in complex shapes. Think more wooden boat design than steel, or GRP boat, but without the restrictions wood has with it coming from planks of limited size and shape, or flat sheets of ply. Think inner and outer skin and boat ribs built all at once, with trunking for services, bulkheads, openings for light fittings and so on all as part of the CAM file loaded in to the printer. Lots of opportunities for clever design. Also lots of opportunities to get it wrong and have it fail and sink from under you!

The machine to print boats on is going to be expensive, so you'll want it working 24 hours a day. That means only perhaps a few machines printing boats in the whole of the UK, or making other things, like motor homes, portacabins, whatever, when it isn't making boats. Then, the work is fitting them out, which isn't going to change so much.

 

Jen

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7 hours ago, nicknorman said:

However I am always sceptical about the strength of 3D printed items, compared to those conventionally built. Polymer on its own (without eg glass or carbon strands) is surely not that strong, and quite brittle. 

But you could 3D print the outer shell, and then apply further grp layers to the inside in the normal way.  That would enable you to prototype any design of boat without needing to build a mould first.

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23 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

I bet they didn't print that great outboard engine hanging off the back of it!!

 

 

You can't get 3D printed outboards yet, but there is nothing to stop you bolting a 3D printed rocket engine on instead.

Not for use on CaRT waters as it may exceed the 4mph limit.

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