3.0 Intake manifold actuator links

[Turbo510]

I had my broken actuator links modeled in 3D, using SolidWorks software, then printed on a Hewlett-Packard Fusion Jet printer (solid Nylon). I'll report if they work OK.

[ye1low]

LOVE IT!!! Is that resin UV cured? Leave it to HP to leverage their printer tech for 3D printing. When I saw those I initally thought FDM but that finish is outstanding.

[Turbo510]

Not resin (polyester) which would have a nicer finish, but be comparatively brittle. These are built in a tub full of fine Nylon powder instead of a liquid, and are far tougher than the original parts. The machine is an HP 580 color 3D printer, cost our company about $100K. We make medical device parts on it which would otherwise be nearly impossible to do by machining or injection molding. The ends of these links are not straight holes but spherical, because the two cranks of the intake actuator have spherical ends. The finish can be smoothed by an Acetone vapor process, which we don't have yet.

[ye1low]

Nice! At work we have a few Stratasys Objet printers and also have a SLS metal printer (had to be relocated to its own building due to its explosive pontential). I have only seen that metal printer work a handful of times. Its down the rest of the time.
I run a small print farm myself and just bought a Creality K2 Plus (still in the box). Going to get that up and running when I go on vacation from work tomorrow.

[Turbo510]

Keep us informed about that Creality printer.

[pablolizarraga]

Nice job!


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[ErvinB]

Can you share the model files?

[ye1low]

The machine is an HP 580 color 3D printer.

I was trying to look up the specs for that printer. All I come up with is that its a laser color paper printer. Curious about that machine that printed those parts. Can you share the correct model number?

[Kevin C]

Not resin (polyester) which would have a nicer finish, but be comparatively brittle. These are built in a tub full of fine Nylon powder instead of a liquid, and are far tougher than the original parts. The machine is an HP 580 color 3D printer, cost our company about $100K. We make medical device parts on it which would otherwise be nearly impossible to do by machining or injection molding. The ends of these links are not straight holes but spherical, because the two cranks of the intake actuator have spherical ends. The finish can be smoothed by an Acetone vapor process, which we don't have yet.

How cool to see parts off of a color MJF printer!!!!!!! It's amazing how tough the parts are. I have been getting the smoothed parts and they do look a lot nicer (for my current job, nothing to do with HP). I don't know if you know this, I was on the design team that developed that printer. It was a huge team, like 120 or so engineers, I was there close to four years, I felt pretty lucky to be a part of it. I left HP about 6 years ago to outfit angry seabass with lasers.

[Kevin C]

Keep us informed about that Creality printer.

I just bought a Bambu P1S, so far its been great. Also, Solidworks has a creator license that is super inexpensive for hobbyist. I have it on my home PC, that saves any possible conflict of using a CAD license from work on my hobby projects. For MJF printing I have been using Protolabs and Rapidmade.

[Turbo510]

I don't know if you know this, I was on the design team that developed that printer. It was a huge team, like 120 or so engineers, I was there close to four years, I felt pretty lucky to be a part of it. I left HP about 6 years ago to outfit angry seabass with lasers.

Then I have to offer congratulations to you for contributing to those things. Our engineers were extremely impressed by the design and high-quality construction. We make therapeutic air mattress systems, and keep two HPs pretty busy, the 580 color and a 540. Incidentally, my daughter works for HP in the Atlanta area, and for a time was doing marketing for the 3D division.

[Turbo510]

One more thing about the Fusion jets; we print parts with 4-40 threaded holes, which work perfectly. One manifold we designed has 1/4-28 threads that behave like a Nyloc thread locker- no Loctite or lock washers required. I'll put up a few pictures.

[ye1low]

I'm a native Solidworks user. Its what we use at work and regrettably what I do my personal modeling on (work laptop). When I was at NASA we used CREO (not a fan). I recently heard about the Solidworks hobbist version but I think it was more cloud based. That's the only turn-off for me but for $25/year that's one stellar deal. HP has a HUGE campus here in Houston. Its literally the size of a small city.

As for acetone honing; I bought one of those super cheap heated thermos cup type "headlight refinishers" off Aliexpress years ago. Its basicially a heater mug with a nozzle attached to it. You put an ounce of acetone in it and plug it in. It does a great job but I rarely use it. Paid like $15 for it.

[Turbo510]

Interesting about the hobbyist Solidworks availability. We have licenses for a number of "seats" at work but I'd like to have access at home for occasional use (I'm a novice at Solidworks). I used to do a lot with AutoCAD, but that's not used much now.

[Kevin C]

FYI, there are two ways to use the hobbyist version of Solidworks , one of course is cloud based. The other is a full version that runs on your local machine, just like at work. It saves to the native extensions, but supposedly the files are not compatible. Pretty much its just like running it at work. I have been really happy to have my own copy.

[Kevin C]

One more thing about the Fusion jets; we print parts with 4-40 threaded holes, which work perfectly. One manifold we designed has 1/4-28 threads that behave like a Nyloc thread locker- no Loctite or lock washers required. I'll put up a few pictures.

Nice.... I was at HP as a contractor when teams were being formed for that project. To me it was just the cool kids that got asked to join. My contract at HP ended and I ended up in a support role as an offsite designer. I knew the managers at HP and one day I one asked if I could help out one of the lead engineers for a few weeks, but it had to be onsite. I got dropped into the core design team and ended up co owning a large section of the machine. One month turned into three + years.

Right spot at the right time, it was a lot of fun.