What the article fails to mention is that the models have been “slightly modified while remaining visually very close to the actual product”, meaning these are meant for CAD design and rendering, not for performance testing or 3D printing. Their announcement says as much and that’s most likely the reason behind the winky face in the tweet.
Whoever wrote the article couldn’t’ve been bothered to read two extra paragraphs and skipped straight to the word “disclaimer”, I guess
Okay, so we need to upscale this and attach it to an A/C unit…
Get me one I can replace my ceiling fan with
I wonder how many RPM a 3d printed part can handle before fragging your mobo.
I’ve snapped a bunch of fins off noctua fans and honestly a 3d printed fan with fiber reinforced filament would probably be fine.
I have zero experience with 3d printing, but I’m dubious that a printed fan would be as smooth and balanced as you’d need for an efficient quiet fan without some serious/laborious post printing refinement.
Ready to be educated.
Edit: I realize that doing it because you can is entirely valid, I’m more interested in what the process would be.
I think it’s possible in theory but getting the setup needed to print with the proper materials and fidelity would be expensive enough to not be feasible unless you were doing it in bulk.
Which is why they don’t mind releasing the models.
Heh fair catch. Damn speech to text. Lol always gotta double check.
I don’t think so
This made my night!
With resin printing, you can definitely get a nice clean fan blade easily.
I love this.
Sure we don’t necessarily have the machinery that’s capable producing these with the fault tolerance that we’d want… yet? But it helps preserve a lot of engineering and research work that’s already been put into it so far.
Somebody will definitely find some creative applications for these down the road and I’m all for it.
Nawk-tuah™ Fan on that thang
Nice. I was just wondering if I could get a replacement fan for my 13-year-old cooler if one failed. This would be a fun alternative to explore.
