Starting with the tri-moon pattern (as it would be the most troublesome) - here are the things, actually in reverse order that need to be overcome.
Assuming that chips could be produced we have to know that the spots would not just fall out, and the only way of testing that is pretty much to make a rack of them and drop them on the floor a few times
Back a stage from that we have the assembly. Most spots are inserted into the punched holes and then the chips are gently repressed to make sure they stay in place. The only exception is the pies which have to be assembled at the press by the operator seconds before the repressing. So while tri-moons could theoretically be made the same way it could be tough on the operator as the pieces would be much harder to handle than the pie pieces (tough when they are already at 100 degrees+ before they get put in the press etc.) so we would also need to know if it is feasible for an operator to do this.
Back a stage again is the punching out of the slugs and spots to make the parts in the first place. Each punch is a multi part tool which has to be set in a heavy duty press. From a single enquiry I made in the past these could run up to $5k each and that may not even include the hardened steel 'prongs'. Whether they actually have to be hardened steel I don't know.
So overall, I think $5k+ (plus whatever design costs/CAD drawings) is too much of a risk for something that might not work.
So here is an idea I came across.
I have a company near me that does 3D printing for industrial uses using a plastic filament supposedly 30 times tougher than regular plastic and they have made similar machine parts in the past. I'm aiming to go and see them to see firstly if they could make something (and at what cost) that at the very least would be sufficient to do the testing and see if the tri-moon would be feasible.
If it works it leaves us with a few possibilities.
1. The plastic model could simply be used as a prototype to have a proper steel one made from.
2. If it really is that hard wearing maybe the plastic one could actually be used.
3. If the plastic lasted for a reasonable amount of time and was cheap enough to reproduce, perhaps we could just treat them as 'disposable'
4. Taking the whole thing a stage further - given these only have to be made out of the standard one color filament, a printer of the same industrial type that they use, in the smallest size that would be suitable, appears to run around £1000 ($1300), and their heavy duty filament is £30 ($40) a kilo, which looks to be about the amount needed for a punch, I could get a new toy
Assuming that chips could be produced we have to know that the spots would not just fall out, and the only way of testing that is pretty much to make a rack of them and drop them on the floor a few times
Back a stage from that we have the assembly. Most spots are inserted into the punched holes and then the chips are gently repressed to make sure they stay in place. The only exception is the pies which have to be assembled at the press by the operator seconds before the repressing. So while tri-moons could theoretically be made the same way it could be tough on the operator as the pieces would be much harder to handle than the pie pieces (tough when they are already at 100 degrees+ before they get put in the press etc.) so we would also need to know if it is feasible for an operator to do this.
Back a stage again is the punching out of the slugs and spots to make the parts in the first place. Each punch is a multi part tool which has to be set in a heavy duty press. From a single enquiry I made in the past these could run up to $5k each and that may not even include the hardened steel 'prongs'. Whether they actually have to be hardened steel I don't know.
So overall, I think $5k+ (plus whatever design costs/CAD drawings) is too much of a risk for something that might not work.
So here is an idea I came across.
I have a company near me that does 3D printing for industrial uses using a plastic filament supposedly 30 times tougher than regular plastic and they have made similar machine parts in the past. I'm aiming to go and see them to see firstly if they could make something (and at what cost) that at the very least would be sufficient to do the testing and see if the tri-moon would be feasible.
If it works it leaves us with a few possibilities.
1. The plastic model could simply be used as a prototype to have a proper steel one made from.
2. If it really is that hard wearing maybe the plastic one could actually be used.
3. If the plastic lasted for a reasonable amount of time and was cheap enough to reproduce, perhaps we could just treat them as 'disposable'
4. Taking the whole thing a stage further - given these only have to be made out of the standard one color filament, a printer of the same industrial type that they use, in the smallest size that would be suitable, appears to run around £1000 ($1300), and their heavy duty filament is £30 ($40) a kilo, which looks to be about the amount needed for a punch, I could get a new toy
