It’s Just Cool: CNC Terminator
By Vince Bloom
Ok, so it’s not really a Terminator, but someone involved with this project had to be a Terminator fan. Officially, Seco Tools machined a miniature skeleton from a 6”x12” aluminum billet to demonstrate the capabilities of their tooling. They made a 3D scan of a full-size skeleton, translated that to a solid model, then converted the solid model into the tool path for their CNC machine.
The hands-off operation can create models accurate to one thousandth of an inch — someday the technology may allow Toolmongers to machine human body parts to fit the individual recipient. Seco raffled off this piece to one lucky visitor at the 2008 International Manufacturing Technology Show. Maybe it’ll show up on eBay.
Article About Medical Machining [American Machinist]
October 23rd, 2008 at 6:23 am
CNC machines have come a long way. i was just talking to a guy who makes machines that “scan” your mouth to create dental moldings, instead of the old “plaster caster” method of putting a cup of go in your mouth and holding it there……
SCAN TO PRODUCTION……….
October 23rd, 2008 at 6:36 am
now that is truly amazing how far they have come. I used to work on an old cnc drilling machine. I can not wait to see this get into use in medicine, I have a square plate in my left arm and would have loved a custom fit one.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
[...] It took about seven hours for the project to be completed from start to finish, but the intricate final product is accurate to within a thousandth of an inch. The promise of this technology is that we can machine super-accurate, custom parts to repair bone damage. As for “Bones” here, he was raffled off to one of the show attendees. With any luck, he will show up on eBay sometime soon. [American Machinist and SecoTools via Toolmonger] [...]