Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) showcased a saxophone manufactured by an ITRI 3D metal printer at the Laser Taiwan 2015 show on Oct. 14, 2015.
ITRI cooperated with Yifeng International, Inc., a professional instrument maker, to co-develop a 3D printed saxophone that not only sounds great, but can also be made without using molds to dramatically save production time and tooling costs.
The saxophone was made using ITRI's metal 3D printer and titanium alloy powder. The 3D metal printer melts the powder by laser, and it gradually shapes the saxophone body layer by layer in a stacking process.
ITRI's 3D metal printer is capable of manufacturing 10 cm3 and 25 cm3 work pieces at a precision rate of 50 µm (approximately the radius of a human hair) and a density rate of around 99 percent.
The final product has a tensile strength of over 950 Mpa, which is the standard for medical grade instruments and aerospace components.
Source / ITRI
Photo Credit: CTIMES
Grace TH Hsu (H860@taitra.org.tw)
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