Grain gates

One of my customers who I sharpen knives for as part of my other business runs amongst other ventures a mill just outside of Laurencekirk which produces organic oats.

They had been a victim of my 3D printing preaching and evidently this had sunk in.

Earlier this week they contacted me as they had some missing parts of a grain sorter. Nothing complicated or highly stressed but somewhat vital as they are small plastic gates which direct different sizes of grain off the shaking table.

The original builder of the table were in Austria and there was little chance of getting the parts in time for the next run.

After a short site visit I felt it was something that Barras 3D could do with ease

I took away a sample as well as one of the posts the gates clip onto.

After some work CAD I had a profile which I could print as a test piece. After this worked I moved onto producing a full height one. With this tested on the post i went ahead with printing ten of them over night

These where completed after a 16 hour print and where delivered within 24hours of the first site visit.

So cheaper and faster then getting the original parts.

This is the original part along with the post that it clips onto.

Nothing complicated or exiting but difficult and expensive to get

A very quick sketch based on the profile of the old gate and a 3D model was created.

This done then make a test print to ensure it fits and it is the right length

As the test fit was successful

Then onto a production print overnight.

Printed in PETG which is fine for the temperature and service. Ideally it would be in blue so if parts come off then i can be seen easily BUT i didn’t have any blue which made that requirement difficult to meet.

As the old one are black then we can be happy