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TechNews - USA - Ford Saving Big on New Technology
USA - The Car Connection, by Paul A. Eisenstein -10 Nov 2005: -- Ford officials hope to shave hundreds of thousands of dollars off the cost of tooling up for future products using the latest in rapid prototype technology... Most automakers already rely on systems such as stereo lithography to create low-cost models of parts and components.... The technology blasts a laser in a vat of epoxy, forming highly detailed solid shapes. Newer, advanced systems can also produce prototype parts out of materials such as rubber, nylon, sand and even powdered metals... These can be used for in-vehicle testing under real-world conditions, noted Ford's Tom Kloeb. "As fast as you can change the (computer) data, we can change the part, allowing engineers to rapidly test a variety of different components". The newest Ford prototyping system, developed in cooperation with MIT and the University of Texas, creates sand molds, "much the same way your ink jet printer at home works with ink," said Kloeb. As a result, "we're now looking at producing tools for hundreds of dollars, rather than hundreds of thousands"...
posted by Unknown @ 9:40 AM
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