Tour Rickie Fowler's 3D printed 60* wedge - 2024 The American Express

[Ben Berube]

4 hours ago, Glock917 said:

I am in manufacturing and know how metals are milled and lathed. We have a 3D printer just to mess around with, but it uses plastic and fills in whatever design you make using filaments.

 

How does that work with steel? Does it melt it internally then start building it drop by drop?

 

If it just uses a tool and just shaves a steel block into shape that is not 3D printing. That is just a 5 axis cnc mill.

Exactly, the 3d printer of this is stacking heated material into a form and then once hardened need to be milled.

Have seen many different plastic 3d printing as well as cement 3d printing a house. (Was cool)

But is the MIM irons are cast and then forged they may have just used that same process but then a 3d machine pressed it?

 

Either way just a gimmick. 

 

[Glock917]

2 hours ago, Ben Berube said:

is the MIM irons are cast and then forged they may have just used that same process but then a 3d machine pressed it?

With MIM it’s essentially making play-doh and pouring it into the mold then burning the binder creating the product.
It’s essentially an advanced metallurgy chemistry process to make complex shapes out of metal without the need of a pressing tools. Like a snail shaped turbocharger. 
3d printing can make the molds or prototypes with binders in place but doubt it can make a solid metal piece of that weight and size yet. 
Yeah I’ve seen those 3d printers making homes (not in person) and that’s totally viable cause the cement gets fed down to the printing head much like the table top ones use the filament to make its designs.  

[autronicdsm]

19 hours ago, Glock917 said:

 

Highly doubt it uses lasers and power to make a solid piece of steel.

 

The only thing that is 3D printed is the mold which in turn uses metal injected molding. I mentioned earlier since they already made irons using MIM this is most likely the way they made this one. 

 

Stainless steel is the primary metal used in MIM so makes sense it dont rust. Curious on how they feel.  

 

Direct metal laser sintering. Look it up...

[TiScape]

1 hour ago, autronicdsm said:

 

Direct metal laser sintering. Look it up...

 

[Glock917]

1 hour ago, autronicdsm said:

 

Direct metal laser sintering. Look it up...

Yeah that is another method of additive manufacturing. Great for complex structures with lattices and scaffoldings and such but that is not what they used. Imagine the process of making a solid piece of metal and having a wiper lay powder down and the laser blasting it melting it, essentially making a weld, cooling it and laying a powder again over and over again.

Its much faster in the moment to just put a billet in a CNC and mill it and should be done in 15 min. Which is exactly what they did. The only thing they "3D printed" was using a scanner to get that prototype in a CAD file to CNC whenever they needed it. 

 

https://www.pgatour.com/article/news/equipment-report/2024/01/16/rickie-fowler-debuts-3d-printed-rf-cobra-lob-wedge-prototype-at-the-2024-american-express

[autronicdsm]

1 hour ago, Glock917 said:

Yeah that is another method of additive manufacturing. Great for complex structures with lattices and scaffoldings and such but that is not what they used. Imagine the process of making a solid piece of metal and having a wiper lay powder down and the laser blasting it melting it, essentially making a weld, cooling it and laying a powder again over and over again.

Its much faster in the moment to just put a billet in a CNC and mill it and should be done in 15 min. Which is exactly what they did. The only thing they "3D printed" was using a scanner to get that prototype in a CAD file to CNC whenever they needed it. 

 

https://www.pgatour.com/article/news/equipment-report/2024/01/16/rickie-fowler-debuts-3d-printed-rf-cobra-lob-wedge-prototype-at-the-2024-american-express

 

I'm not really sure what you're talking about any more. You saying that this 3d printed wedge is actually milled on cnc from a billet? Might wanna re-read the link you posted...

[cseitzer]

On 1/16/2024 at 2:45 PM, Glock917 said:

This is another variant of metal injection molding or MIM which i believe they used for these since they previously made irons from MIM

This is correct.  I work in 3D Printing Sales.  Cobra uses a powder based system.  Not filament like Markforged.  Cobra was using the HP metal printer.  Starts with powder, black ink is laid down where the part is in the build envelope.  Light is used to bring powder above melting point.  Which makes layer to layer adhesion much better and relative to traditional manufacturing. 

 

Someone mentioned powder and laser.  That is the most widely used form of creating 3D metal parts.  If you've had hips, shoulders replaced - highly likely you have a 3D printed part in you using this method.   

 

However, for those hoping this will bring the price.....not a freaking chance.  

[von3jack]

I do not understand how a 3D printer works and I don't think I ever will. That said, this is a good looking wedge. 

[PedronNiall]

1 hour ago, von3jack said:

I do not understand how a 3D printer works and I don't think I ever will. That said, this is a good looking wedge. 

If you go back a page I posted a video showing how the powder medium process is done for batched items. If you check their channel they have longer videos where you can see more of that method. It allows for more intricate designs but is more expensive and requires a lot more safeguards. The same way solid metal can be heated to flow and then be forged, powder can be point heated by a laser very effectively, especially when the powder is just a few degrees below its melting point.

 

Here's a vid that explains it super well. 

 

 

Here's a good video of filament metal printing, which is closer to the process used for most plastics and such. 

 

 

[westy_westerroo]

Meh. Gimmick