I think even if you have a metal 3d printer, it would still not be suitable for anything where strength of the piece is critical. Iirc, metal 3d printing basically just joins metal filings together using some kind of medium, making is no much weaker than a forged or machined piece.
F1 teams 3D print (laser metal sintering more specifically) their pistons these days, so I’d say at the bleeding edge of the tech you can create pretty strong parts.
But indeed, anything which a consumer is likely going to be able to afford won’t be nearly as strong.
The reasonable way would be to do the prototype with a 3D printer, create a mold and cast the metal. This wouldn’t work here either, but if you already have the CAD/CAM file you could just get it milled by a professional CNC outfit. If you’re not too cheap with the steel, it might not even kill you and still cost less than $1600. OTOH, if you can afford a helicopter that shouldn’t be an argument for you. Half an hour in the air will cost you more than that.
IIRC: It was a 3D printed intake using those carbon fiber filaments that aren’t really carbon fiber. However the main failure was the assumption that the intake wouldn’t get hot, but it did.
I think there was a time a dude did this for real on a Cessna and crashed it as the part almost immediatly failed.
Unless you have a metal 3D print, or can print in exotic ultra strength materials, you just can’t do this.
I think even if you have a metal 3d printer, it would still not be suitable for anything where strength of the piece is critical. Iirc, metal 3d printing basically just joins metal filings together using some kind of medium, making is no much weaker than a forged or machined piece.
F1 teams 3D print (laser metal sintering more specifically) their pistons these days, so I’d say at the bleeding edge of the tech you can create pretty strong parts. But indeed, anything which a consumer is likely going to be able to afford won’t be nearly as strong.
They also are likely to rebuild and throw away with every race
The reasonable way would be to do the prototype with a 3D printer, create a mold and cast the metal. This wouldn’t work here either, but if you already have the CAD/CAM file you could just get it milled by a professional CNC outfit. If you’re not too cheap with the steel, it might not even kill you and still cost less than $1600. OTOH, if you can afford a helicopter that shouldn’t be an argument for you. Half an hour in the air will cost you more than that.
IIRC: It was a 3D printed intake using those carbon fiber filaments that aren’t really carbon fiber. However the main failure was the assumption that the intake wouldn’t get hot, but it did.