3-D Printer Shapes Swine Equipment
One of the newest tools utilized by the Hog Slat engineering group is a 3-D printer. 0 About the size of a small refrigerator, the 3-D printer generates plastic prototype parts from computer generated 3-D models.
25 October 2016
3 minute read
By: A member of Hog Slat’s engineering group, Andrew Mitchell took a few minutes to show us how it worked.
“Here’s a feed line drop adapter we designed for the Grow-Disk™ system,” explained Andrew as he pulled up a 3-D model on his computer screen. “We needed to develop a model that would work on both metal and plastic tubes. Since these tubes have slightly different diameters, we wanted to test the fit before proceeding with molding.”
The cube in the screen represents the printer’s chamber, and the white image is a digital model. The program divides the object into digital cross-sections and the printer builds the object in layers. The printer makes multiple passes spraying very thin layers of plastic until the final shape is complete.
“You can almost compare the printer to a giant glue gun that accurately places liquid plastic down in precise layers,” Andrew said. “The process can take from several hours up to several days depending on the size of the item. The maximum size part we can print is 10” x 10” x 12” tall.”
“We were able to take the prototype drop adapter and test it on both the metal and plastic feed tubes. We made a few small dimensional adjustments and proceeded with complete confidence that the final part would fit as we intended.”
Click here to watch a short video of the 3-D printer in action.
