Re: Is it possible to use RP systems to product production parts relatively cost-effectively???

Dear Mike,

I think you should contact Dr Le Razer from the Pôle Européen de Plasturgie
in Oyonnax (France):
"Bruno Le Razer" <blerazer@poleplasturgie.com>

Best Regards,

Prof. A. BERNARD

At 12:36 06/01/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>Hello,
> Over the past few months our organization have been looking into
>purchasing RP equipment for the use of product development. After some
>research we have found that it would not be cost effective for us to
>purchase a RP systems for prototyping alone. Our next step is to determine
>if we can also use the system to produce production part. This would mean
>ideally running the system up to 20 hours a day producing mostly standard
>production part and then occasionally setting up the system to create
>prototype. Therefore the majority of the work will be production, and the
>key factor will be the cost of the parts created.
>
>Our production parts are produced in both cast iron and bronze and range in
>size from medium to large. The RP materials would have to be the same or
>very close to those material properties. I believe that there are really
>only two types of system options would be Direct metal or some type of sand
>casting process, however I'm open to any other suggestions on other possible
>processes.
>
> So this brings us to the final question, can these (or any RP process) be
>turned into cost effective production method? Will a large number of parts
>and RP systems running time substantially reduce cost (larger material
>purchases, long machine run times, ect..)? Should we consider further
>investigation into this? Your comments are greatly appreciated!!!
>
>Thanks
>
>Mike
>
_________________________________________________________________________

Alain BERNARD
Professeur des Universités
Responsable du projet Ingénierie Virtuelle pour le Génie Industriel à l'IRCCyN
UMR CNRS 6597
(Institut de Recherche en Communications et Cybernétique de Nantes)
Directeur du Département Ingénierie des Produits et Systèmes Industriels de
l'Ecole Centrale de Nantes
1, rue de la Noë BP 92101 F - 44321 - NANTES Cedex 03 (France)
tel IRCCyN : + 33 (0)2 40 37 69 53 (secr.) ou 69 66 (direct) fax : + 33 (0)2
40 37 69 30
tel IPSI : + 33 (0)2 40 37 25 11 (secr.) ou 69 53 (direct) fax : + 33
(0)2 40 37 25 36
_________________________________________________________________________
Received on Wed Jan 07 12:31:25 2004