Gilly who worked for us, had asked us for a long while about having a 3D 10mm ratchet spanner printed for rigging her sculling boats. Seems like Christmas has come early for her!
Phil designed the first prototype (gold coloured one). It is printed in stainless steel 15-5ph and was heat treated to 46 HRC, giving it a bronze glow. We liked the colour so much we didn’t bead blast it as that would remove the colour. It weighs 35 grams.
This ratchet spanner uses a ramp and roller style set up and is printed with the mechanism in place. It was printed in one piece and no assembly was required.
We have used our Materialise Magics software to create the honeycomb feature in the web and this is a feature we can use on other parts if required.
The spanner works perfectly but like all prototypes, it needed some improvement and enhancements. The second spanner has had some mass reduced in it and Phil added another ball bearing to make the mechanism smoother. He also added our logo and 10mm to it (so we know what size it is) and also added a grip to the open end. We haven’t heat treated it yet and its weight is 25 grams.