Anyone else using a crossflow engine and a coil pack?

3d Design of bracket
Installed on xflow

Thought I'd share my creation

Files available for download on Thingiverse

Nice work! Could probably find a small market for those

Thanks I don't have time to make business out of it however u2u me if you want one

Nice!

What material are you printing with?

is it strong, did you use a solid or hollow core structure?

Are they rubber sleeves I see for the bolts to pass through to reduce vibration?

If not, that would be a little neat addition.

quote:

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Originally posted by bi22le
Are they rubber sleeves I see for the bolts to pass through to reduce vibration?

If not, that would be a little neat addition.

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Indeed they are aluminum bushes, as for the structure it is a honeycomb inside as a 3d printer would do it. Material is ABS plastic (same stuff some bumpers are made of).

Re Vibration the structure itself takes care of that since its not solid and honeycomb inside. Its strong enough to hold the weight of the coil pack, leads etc and as it gets warm it becomes more ductile. I've tested it on a few bumpy roads and there are no signs of cracking.
ABS can take under hood temps no problem.

[Edited on 29/10/14 by thepest]

Melting point of abs is around 105c and it softens way below that, what temps are you seeing on the block? Must be pretty cool. Nice to see a good use of the tech!

Not quite, 105/110 is the glass transition temp not the melting point (actually ABS doesn't really have a melting point due to its properties) however when being printed a temp of 250 is needed to turn the plastic to soluble liquid form.

Details below
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrylonitrile_butadiene_styrene

Thanks! block/head temps are around 90 (or so my IR gun says)

Yeah I wasn't going to go into the details on a car forum, but you're looking at losing significant mechanical properties right around the temperature of the block you're bolted to. Hence my curiosity as to the actual environment. It's not like it's the end of the world with this part, I'm just not generally a fan of thermoplastics in engineering contexts!

[Edited on 30/10/14 by coyoteboy]

could just have fibre washers between the plastic and the block, though in reality he's bolted it to a section of the engine which will not be getting very hot anyway and the temperatures of even just the head vary enormously on location and even some silver paint would help reduce the temps it see's.

It will be great once printers get large enough to do dashboards and seats etc imagine car interiors in material combinations, shapes and colours that are just not possible currently. Not quite sure why most printers are still so small when they have no real limits on size. I think were at the old dot matrix stage with them, can't wait for their equivalent of the high speed colour laser printer

Interesting points, so far its holding ok, just been for a drive this morning and re checked it after just in case. Same same so far

Large 3D printers do exist, in fact they also made a whole car, the top gear website have an article on it with a time lapse video of it being made (mental stuff!)