Powdered metal printing is becoming more popular. Porsche and some other auto manufacturers have made pistons from powdered printing. As the cost of entry starts to drop we are going to see interesting times ahead.
3D metal printed pistons are ~10% lighter because they can have more sophisticated shape at the same strength. Reportedly this allows Porsche to increase RPM and get about 5% extra horsepower. It is still an experimental technology, not used in any road car. This is how they look like: https://images.hgmsites.net/hug/porsche-3d-prints-piston-for...
I think that there are fewer parts in a common home firearm (an AR-15, even bolt bolt action firearms) that this applies to, since the most complicated parts are in the bolt carrier group, where mass and density are generally desirable as far as I'm aware. I don't think that there are small arms parts that really benefit significantly from sintering vs machining in terms of weight savings.
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Powdered metal printing is becoming more popular. Porsche and some other auto manufacturers have made pistons from powdered printing. As the cost of entry starts to drop we are going to see interesting times ahead.
Why such high tech? CNCs have been around for ages and can do the job just as well.
3D metal printed pistons are ~10% lighter because they can have more sophisticated shape at the same strength. Reportedly this allows Porsche to increase RPM and get about 5% extra horsepower. It is still an experimental technology, not used in any road car. This is how they look like: https://images.hgmsites.net/hug/porsche-3d-prints-piston-for...
I think that there are fewer parts in a common home firearm (an AR-15, even bolt bolt action firearms) that this applies to, since the most complicated parts are in the bolt carrier group, where mass and density are generally desirable as far as I'm aware. I don't think that there are small arms parts that really benefit significantly from sintering vs machining in terms of weight savings.
So CNCs are great, but there is some benefits to the powdered printing. Better oil galleries that you can not accomplish with CNC machines.