Manufacturing

Technical skills:

CNC mill/lathe operator (no programming.)
Basic CAD skills (Solidworks, AutoCAD, SpaceClaim.)
Additive slicing software.
FDM/SLA printer operation (Bambu, AON, Raise3D, Modix, Prusa, Lulzbot, FormLabs.)
Supply Chain
Materials Handling
Inventory and Tooling
Shipping and Receiving
Office Manager, Operations

Shock Tower 3DP + Mill (Blog: Erin Taylor, September 2020)

Nothing is impossible you bring enough ideas and flexibility. Since I am unbounded by the programming of traditional tooling and engineering design schools, my brainstorming opened the doors to success on this project. Having grown up in my family machine and automation shop, reading my Dad decades of articles from "Modern Machine shop" in the car, and listening in on countless of machinist and engineering conversations while growing up, being married to an aerospace engineer, and having an innate curiosity - I consider myself as a "School of Hard Knocks" engineer.

Upon receiving the proposal to machine this "impossible," huge, delicate, and complex part for a prototype electric vehicle powertrain, the first reaction by Strata's engineers was "no way." However, my eclectic background in making and manufacturing saw possibilities. "Our printers are not big enough to make a fixture, but what about resin, wood, foam, or a multi-part printed fixture assembly?"

Pulling upon contacts made at the Rapid 3D Printing conference, I reached out to a large-scale 3D printer company to make the gray fixture to allow holding the part after the concave machining was completed. We were able to quickly transform a 900lb solid brick of aluminum to a 14lb showpiece in a matter of days. Each side of the 3 pairs of automotive shock took around 55 hours total to machine.

Figure 1. Removing over 880lbs of material takes a LOT of time. Normally, these parts would be cast, but tight timelines and foundry delays led project managers to seek other sources.

The interior cavity machining took around 30 hours to complete.

Figure 2. Our engineers used CAD data to create a nesting fixture that could be 3D printed while they programmed CNC machining and started work on the part exterior. Large (~23”L x 17”W x 13”H) fixtures were printed in 3 days using around 20 pounds of plastic per RH and LH side.

Figure 3. Fixture after post-processing to remove material due to engineering changes after the fixtures started printing. This also opened channels for vacuum stabilization of the part. You can see the hollow interior and support matrix showing through the top.

Figure 4. A view of the cavity which would nest with the 3D printed fixture.

After internal machining was completed, the ± 350lb block was nested with the fixture and finished. Exterior machining processes ran ~25 hours.

Figure 5. Positioning the part on the fixture.

After internal machining was completed, the ± 350lb block was nested with the fixture and finished. Exterior machining processes ran ~25 hours.

Figure 6. The finished part and fixture just after machining was completed.

Figure 7. Second finished view.

Figure 8. Another finished view.

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