[TheForge] Re: Novel casting process could transform how complex metal parts are made

[Mike Spencer]

> Some new news in the metal casting industry:
>
> http://phys.org/news/2012-05-digital-complex-metal.html

They've had something like this for plain plastic/resin shapes for a
while now.  The clever bit there is incorporating the ceramic particles
and then managing to sinter the mould without distortion.  Cool.

> I wonder if they'll come up with a digital forging process...

I toured the robotics lab at MIT in 1985.  They had a robot that would
play paddle ball (you know, rubber ball on an elastic string attached
to a paddle) and one that could catch a tennis ball thrown from 20
feet away.

I suggested they should try a robot that would forge a point on a
square rod. The response was, "That's too hard."  But then, the ball
catcher was powered by two MicroVAX mini computers.  Today, if you
have a recent "smart phone", you have more power than that in your
pocket.  So who knows?

- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^