3D Printing Flies High now. Articles on three-dimensional printers are popping up everywhere these days. And nowadays there are many 3D printer products. Some are small enough to fit in a briefcase and others are large enough to print houses.
Everything you ever wanted to know about 3D printing article tells that 3D printing is having its “Macintosh moment,” declares Wired editor -in-chief Chris Anderson in cover story on the subject. 3D printers are now where the PC was 30 years ago. They are just becoming affordable and accessible to non-geeks, will be maybe able to democratize manufacturing the same way that PCs democratized publishing.
Gartner’s 2012 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies Identifies “Tipping Point” Technologies That Will Unlock Long-Awaited Technology Scenarios lists 3D Print It at Home as important topic. In this scenario, 3D printing allows consumers to print physical objects, such as toys or housewares, at home, just as they print digital photos today. Combined with 3D scanning, it may be possible to scan certain objects with a smartphone and print a near-duplicate. Analysts predict that 3D printing will take more than five years to mature beyond the niche market. Eventually, 3D printing will enable individuals to print just about anything from the comfort of their own homes.Slideshow: 3D Printers Make Prototypes Pop article tells that advances in performance, and the durability and range of materials used in additive manufacturing and stereolithography offerings, are enabling companies to produce highly durable prototypes and parts, while also cost-effectively churning out manufactured products in limited production runs.
3D printing can have implications to manufacturers of some expensive products. The Pirate Bay declares 3D printed “physibles” as the next frontier of piracy. Pirate Bay Launches 3D-Printed ‘Physibles’ Downloads. The idea is to have freely available designs for different products that you can print at home with your 3D printer. Here a video demonstrating 3D home printing in operation.
Shapeways is a marketplace and community that encourages the making and sharing of 3D-printed designs. 3D Printing Shapes Factory of the Future article tells that recently New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg cut the Shapeways‘ Factory (filled with industrial-sized 3D printers) ribbon using a pair of 3D-printed scissors.
The Next Battle for Internet Freedom Could Be Over 3D Printing article tells up to date, 3D printing has primarily been used for rapid commercial prototyping largely because of its associated high costs. Now, companies such as MakerBot are selling 3D printers for under $2,000. Slideshow: 3D Printers Make Prototypes Pop article gives view a wide range of 3D printers, from half-million-dollar rapid prototyping systems to $1,000 home units. Cheapest 3D printers (with quite limited performance) now start from 500-1000 US dollars. It is rather expensive or inexpensive is how you view that.
RepRap Project is a cheap 3D printer that started huge 3D printing buzz. RepRap Project is an initiative to develop an open design 3D printer that can print most of its own components. RepRap (short for replicating rapid prototyper) uses a variant of fused deposition modeling, an additive manufacturing technique (The project calls it Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) to avoid trademark issues around the “fused deposition modeling” term). It is almost like a small hot glue gun that melts special plastic is moved around to make the printout. I saw RepRap (Mendel) and Cupcake CNC 3D printers in operation at at Assembly Summer 2010.
There has been some time been trials to make 3D-Printed Circuit Boards. 3D Printers Will Build Circuit Boards ‘In Two Years’ article tells that printing actual electronics circuit boards is very close. Most of the assembly tools are already completely automated anyway.
3D printing can be used to prototype things like entire cars or planes. The makers of James Bond’s latest outing, Skyfall, cut a couple corners in production and used modern 3D printing techniques to fake the decimation of a classic 1960s Aston Martin DB5 (made1:3 scale replicas of the car for use in explosive scenes). The world’s first 3D printed racing car can pace at 140 km/h article tells that a group of 16 engineers named “Group T” has unveiled a racing car “Areion” that is competing in Formula Student 2012 challenge. It is described as the world’s first 3D printed race car. The Areion is not fully 3D printed but most of it is.
Student Engineers Design, Build, Fly ‘Printed’ Airplane article tells that when University of Virginia engineering students posted a YouTube video last spring of a plastic turbofan engine they had designed and built using 3-D printing technology, they didn’t expect it to lead to anything except some page views. But it lead to something bigger. 3-D Printing Enables UVA Student-Built Unmanned Plane article tells that in an effort that took four months and $2000, instead of the quarter million dollars and two years they estimate it would have using conventional design methods, a group of University of Virginia engineering students has built and flown an airplane of parts created on a 3-D printer. The plane is 6.5 feet in wingspan, and cruises at 45 mph.
3D printers can also print guns and synthetic chemical compounds (aka drugs). The potential policy implications are obvious. US Army Deploys 3D Printing Labs to Battlefield to print different things army needs. ‘Wiki Weapon Project’ Aims To Create A Gun Anyone Can 3D-Print At Home. If high-quality weapons can be printed by anyone with a 3D printer, and 3D printers are widely available, then law enforcement agencies will be forced to monitor what you’re printing in order to maintain current gun control laws.
Software Advances Do Their Part to Spur 3D Print Revolution article tells that much of the recent hype around 3D printing has been focused on the bevy of new, lower-cost printer models. Yet, significant improvements to content creation software on both the low and high end of the spectrum are also helping to advance the cause, making the technology more accessible and appealing to a broader audience. Slideshow: Content Creation Tools Push 3D Printing Mainstream article tells that there is still a sizeable bottleneck standing in the way of mainstream adoption of 3D printing: the easy to use software used to create the 3D content. Enter a new genre of low-cost (many even free like Tikercad) and easy-to-use 3D content creation tools. By putting the tools in reach, anyone with a compelling idea will be able to easily translate that concept into a physical working prototype without the baggage of full-blown CAD and without having to make the huge capital investments required for traditional manufacturing.
Finally when you have reached the end of the article there is time for some fun. Check out this 3D printing on Dilbert strip so see a creative use of 3D printing.
2,052 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
3d Printed Instruments
Exploring the possibilities of 3d printing for innovative musical instruments
http://3dprintedinstruments.wikidot.com/printed-instruments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dispensing Solder Paste With A 3D Printer
http://hackaday.com/2014/04/02/dispensing-solder-paste-with-a-3d-printer/
There’s a strange middle ground in PCB production when it comes to making a few boards. Dispensing solder paste onto one board is easy enough with a syringe or toothpick, but when pasting up even a handful of boards, this method gets tiresome. Solder paste stencils speed up the process when you’re doing dozens or hundreds of boards, but making a stencil for just a few boards is a waste. The solution for this strange middle ground is, of course, to retrofit a 3D printer to dispense solder paste.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printed Splint Saves Baby’s Life
http://hackaday.com/2014/04/02/3d-printed-split-saves-babys-life/
Here’s another heartwarming story about how 3D printers are continuing to make a real difference in the medical world.
The material in question is a biopolymer called polycaprolactone, which they were actually granted emergency clearance from the FDA to use for [Garrett]. They used an EOS SLS based 3D printer.
The surgery was successful
Tomi Engdahl says:
University Attempts to Break 3D Printing World Record
http://hackaday.com/2014/04/05/university-attempts-to-break-3d-printing-world-record/
LeTourneau University attempted to set a 3D printing Guinness World Record yesterday. They had 50 3D printers print the same thing at the same time. Impressive? Kind of, but not really.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D-printed UAV can go from not existing to flying within 24 hours
http://www.gizmag.com/3d-printed-uav-airframe/31473/
Because 3D printing allows one-off items to be created quickly and cheaply, it should come as no surprise that the technology has already been used to produce unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printed Camera Arm Saves $143
http://hackaday.com/2014/04/07/3d-printed-camera-arm-saves-143/
Professional camera equipment is notoriously expensive, so when [Raster's] LCD camera arm for his RED ONE Digital Cinema Camera broke, he was dismayed to find out a new one would run him back $150! He decide to take matters into his own hands and make this one instead.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Helsinki High School Classrooms to Welcome 3D Printers
http://www.finnbay.com/helsinki-high-school-classrooms-to-welcome-3d-printers/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cheap 3D printer raises $1 million on Kickstarter in just one day
http://bgr.com/2014/04/08/micro-3d-printer-kickstarter-funding/
Micro, an unusually sleek 3D printer, is about to hit $1 million in funding on Kickstarter just a day after it started raising funds. The project hits the sweet spot for anyone interested in 3D printing as it might be the first commercially viable $300 3D printer the world has ever seen.
Micro and Foodini aren’t the only popular 3D printers on Kickstarter, of course. A more industrial-looking printer called RoBo 3D reached its $49,000 goal back in early February and is now cruising toward $650,000. The price of a fully assembled RoBo 3D is more than $500
The success of Micro and RoBo 3D seems to indicate that the market for such devices will only truly take off once their price drops to between $300 and $400
Tomi Engdahl says:
Resetting DRM On 3D Printer Filament
http://hackaday.com/2014/04/10/resetting-drm-on-3d-printer-filament/
The Da Vinci 3D printer is, without a doubt, the future of printing plastic objects at home. It’s small, looks good on a desk, is fairly cheap, and most importantly for printer manufacturers, uses chipped filament cartridges that can’t be refilled.
the cartridge filament is about twice as expensive as what we would normally buy
Tomi Engdahl says:
Low cost 3D Micro printer pulls in $2m on Kickstarter in three days
72 hour cash downpour
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2338931/low-cost-3d-micro-printer-smashes-kickstarter-target
THE MICRO 3D home printer continues to pull in Kickstarter cash and has now raised over $2m.
In a Kickstarter update it cooled concerns about excess demand, saying that more cash means a bigger, better outfit.
You could, if you were quicker, have obtained a Micro printer, which looks neat enough, for $199.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Staples begins offering in-store 3D printing services in US, starting in LA and NY:
Staples Wants to Bring 3D Printing to the Masses
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-04-10/staples-wants-to-bring-3-d-printing-to-the-masses
Staples has been selling 3D printers for about a year. Now it wants to begin selling access to them.
The office supply retailer began offering 3D printing services in two stores on Thursday, one in New York and another in Los Angeles.
Staples (SPLS) says it will expand 3D printing services to more stores.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Printing In Three Dimensions, For Real This Time
http://hackaday.com/2014/04/13/printing-in-three-dimensions-for-real-this-time/
3D printers don’t continuously print in three dimensions – they print one layer, then another, then another. This is true for every single 3D printing technology, but now Topolabs has a very interesting technique that changes that. They’re printing in three dimensions by moving in the Z axis while also printing in the X and Y axes.
The basic idea behind Topolabs’ software is to print a support block, then print an object right on top of the support.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Carpenter who cut off his fingers makes ‘Robohand’ with 3-D printer
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/14/tech/innovation/carpenter-fingers-robohand-3-d/
After days of scouring the Internet he couldn’t find anywhere to buy a functional prosthetic finger and he was astonished at the cost of prosthetic hands and limbs which began in the tens of thousands of dollars. But his online surfing paid off as it brought him to an amateur video posted by a mechanical effects artist in Washington State, by the name of Ivan Owen.
Together, the pair developed a mechanical finger for van As, but their partnership has also gone on to benefit countless hand and arm amputees around the globe, through the birth of the company “Robohand.”
“Within five minutes of getting it fitted, people can actually use it,” explains Leonard Nel, the communications manager in the team. “It’s anatomically driven by the wrist, elbow, or shoulder once fitted,” he adds — meaning its movements are controlled by the user.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday.com 3D printing articles
http://hackaday.com/?s=3d+printering
Tomi Engdahl says:
Filament Extruder Pumps Out 1kg/hour!
http://hackaday.com/2014/04/20/filament-extruder-pumps-out-1kghour/
ABS, a typical printing material, will run you about $30 USD per kilogram.
but did you know ABS pellets (technically processed MORE than filament) can be as cheap as $3-4/kg?
What if you could buy the pellets, and make your own filament with them?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Consumers Not Impressed With 3D Printing
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/04/24/1838228/consumers-not-impressed-with-3d-printing
“Putting a 3D printer beside the coffee maker in every home, as some manufacturers hope will happen someday, is a long ways from reality as consumers today still don’t understand how the technology will benefit them, according to a new study.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Consumers are meh about 3D printers
HPs entry into the 3D printer market isn’t likely to change things
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9247857/Consumers_are_meh_about_3D_printers
3D printing technology has yet to capture the consumer’s imagination, according to a report by Juniper Research.
At the same time, killer applications with the appropriate eco-system of software, apps and materials have yet to be identified and communicated to potential users.
Juniper notes that these are still very early days for the consumer offering.
3D printing, also called additive manufacturing, takes on many forms
But 3D printing has captured the imagination of entrepreneurs
Today, consumers have purchased about 44,000 3D printers for home use. That number is expected to exceed 1 million unit sales globally by 2018, according to Juniper.
Established 2D printing vendors such as HP have yet to “show their cards,” but niche and novelty applications are on the increase, Juniper said. For instance, companies such as Hasbro and Hershey’s are working with 3D printing vendors to develop unique applications for consumer use.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Full Metal Printing: Who’s Who in Industrial 3-D Printing [SLIDESHOW]
http://www.industryweek.com/technology/full-metal-printing-whos-who-industrial-3-d-printing-slideshow
The road to 3-D printing has been paved in plastics. But it is about to take a turn.
With projects like GE Aviation’s 3-D-printed fuel injector ramping up for production and what seems like the entire aerospace industry following suit, over the next couple of years the industry will begin to transition from its roots in polymer prototypes to its future in industrial-strength heavy metals.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printing Homes in Less Than 24 Hours Using Recycled Materials
http://hackaday.com/2014/04/26/3d-printing-homes-in-less-than-24-hours-using-recycled-materials/
While many 3D printer companies are racing towards smaller and smaller accurate printers, a company in China called the Shanghai WinSun Decoration Design Engineering Company is experimenting with a monstrous 3D printer the size of half of an Olympic sized swimming pool.
The mammoth of a printer measures 32m by 10m by 6.6m and can print 200sqf detached single story homes. The printer uses FDM technology and deposits a mixture of cement and construction waste to build the walls.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IBM’s 3D Printer to Revolutionize Chip Prototyping
Translates brightness to force at third of cost
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1322091&
IBM Research in Zurich today unveiled a microscopic 3D printer capable of writing nanometer resolution patterns into a soft polymer, which can subsequently be transferred to silicon, III-V (gallium arsenide — GaAs), or graphene substrates. Unlike electron-beam (e-beam) lithography, the patterns can be both written and read for verification in real-time while the engineer watches under a microscope.
“The big difference when compared to e-beam is that you can easily write 3D patterns, which is extremely challenging for e-beams,”
The microscopic 3D printer is being licensed to Zurich startup SwissLitho AG, which calls it the NanoFrazor
“The NanoFrazor is great for rapid prototyping of all sorts of applications,” Rawlings told EE Times. “It runs open loop in order to achieve scan speeds of millimeters per second and uses a specialized heated tip, mounted on a bendable cantilever, that is 700 nanometers long, but just 10 nanometers in radius at its tip.”
Line width accuracy is 10 nm, but 3D depth accuracy is one nm, while reading back the measured depth of patterns has sub-nanometer accuracy.
“We deposit a polymer layer then a silicon or III-V layer then another polymer layer that we write into,”
IBM is also experimenting with using its 3D printing techniques in quantum computing applications
SwissLitho also has interest from photonics companies to make microscopic lenses and waveguides and from bioscience users
Tomi Engdahl says:
Replicator 1 Receives a PID Controlled Heated Chamber
http://hackaday.com/2014/04/28/replicator-1-receives-a-pid-controlled-heated-chamber/
Improving 3D print quality is a bit of a black magic — there are tons of little tweaks you can do to your printer to help it, but in the end you’re just going to have to try everything. Adding a heated build enclosure however is one of those things almost guaranteed to improve the print quality of ABS parts!
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D printers print ten houses in 24 hours
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SObzNdyRTBs
A private company in Shanghai used 3D printers to print 10 full-sized houses in just one day.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Behold! World’s smallest 3D-printer pen Lix artists into shape – literally
London upstart raises enough cash to fill stockings this Xmas
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/05/01/meet_the_worlds_smallest_3d_pen/
A London-based startup has unveiled the world’s smallest 3D-printing pen – smaller than a posh fountain pen.
A year ago we reported on 3Doodler, another British 3D pen that is now available in Maplin for £99.99. The newcomer unveiled yesterday, Lix, is actually pen-sized, weighs just 40g, and raised £100,000 on Kickstarter in 24 hours.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Straw based 3D printer filament will cost half the price of PLA
http://www.3ders.org/articles/20140428-straw-based-3d-printer-filament-will-cost-half-the-price-of-pla.html
PLA (polylactic acid) is kinder to the environment than other plastics as it is derived from corn stalks and not fossil fuels. Now a Chinese company has invented another eco-friendly material – straw based plastic – made from rice and wheat stalks and can be used in 3D printing, without sacrificing price or performance.
The straw based plastic is made from dried crops straw, such as wheat straw, rice straw, corn stalk etc, mixed with plastic and plastic additives, using company’s patent pending technology.
Every year large amount of straw are generated from the production of crop plants such as wheat, rice, and cotton. In the past most of this biomass was burned
The plastic granules can be heated up to 160˜180° C for injection moulding. Using special filament extruders the company has turned these plastic granules into filament for 3D printers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Straw Based Filament?
http://hackaday.com/2014/05/01/straw-based-filament/
PLA (polyactic acid) is often toted as one of the most environmentally friendly and safe filaments for consumer printing, since it is derived from corn products — not fossil fuels. But there’s a new contender on the market, and that is a type of straw-based plastic filament — which also promises to cost around half as much!
Designed by a Chinese company called Jinghe, the material is made by grinding up various dried crops like wheat, rice, and cotton,
The filament and resulting prints are a woody color with an interesting fiber-like surface finish, with decent part strength.
If production ramps up, it could well become one of the cheapest filaments available!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ask Hackaday: Can The Lix 3D Printing Pen Actually Work?
http://hackaday.com/2014/05/03/ask-hackaday-can-the-lix-3d-printing-pen-actually-work/
Introducing Lix, the world’s smallest 3D printing pen that allows you to draw plastic structures in 3D. It’s only been on Kickstarter for a few days now, and already it has garnered close to a million dollars in pledges. An astonishing achievement, especially considering we can prove – with math and physics – that it doesn’t work as advertised. However, we’re wondering if it could work at all, so we’re asking the Hackaday community.
This has a USB port capable of delivering 900 mA at 5 Volts, or 4.5 Watts. Another 3D printing pen, the 3Doodler, uses a 2A, 12V power adapter, equal to 24 Watts.
An estimated 0.038 grams of filament extruded per second, a change in temperature of 210°C (20°C room temperature, 230°C extrusion temperature), and a specific heat of ABS of 1.3 J/g°C (source) means 10 Joules are required to extrude one second’s worth of filament from the Lix pen. Since 1 Watt = 1 Joule for 1 second, about 10 Watts are sucked down whenever the Lix is extruding filament. Once again, the Lix can only draw 4.5 Watts
The only way we can figure the Lix actually works is if the extrusion rate is really, really slow. Halving the extrusion rate of PLA to 1.3mm/s gets us into the ballpark of what the Lix power supply can do
Comments:
That said, Lix says (in the FAQ) a single rod of plastic 1.75mm dia x 30 cm long lasts “for about 5 minutes.” That’s 0.75 grams in 300 seconds, or 0.0025 g/s, 15 times slower than your 0.038 g/s estimate. Mighty slow, but that rate would only need around 0.5W for heating the plastic. I’m sure other thermal losses and the motor eat some power too, but it sounds well within the capability of USB3, even USB2.
Anyway, having seen the 3Doodler in action, when running full tilt it often shuts down for a few minutes to get the heat back up. my suspicion is there is some preheating down the tube.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printed Stick Shift Handle
http://hackaday.com/2014/05/03/3d-printed-stick-shift-handle/
[Haqnmaq] has outlined an excellent Instructable on how to take 3D scans, manipulate them, and make them 3D printer ready. He’s chosen to use a Microsoft Kinect (one of the cheapest 3D scanners around) combined with some low-cost 3D software. He’s used both Skanect and Reconstructme with great success, which both have free (albeit slightly limited) versions.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Restoring a Violin with 3D Printed Parts
http://hackaday.com/2014/05/04/restoring-a-violin-with-3d-printed-parts/
[Mike's] violin had been brought over to America when his family emigrated from France. The primary reason it has been saved is because it bears the name Stradivarius. Stradivarius copies and tributes are plentiful in the wild.
While it wasn’t a real Stradivarius, the violin was still an important part of [Mike's] family history, and deserved to be played again.
Rather than re-create the missing parts to perfectly match the originals, [Mike] decided to use the resources of the Milwaukee Makerspace to create 3D printed parts.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hands-on With the FlexyDualie 3D Printer Extruder
http://hackaday.com/2014/05/06/hands-on-with-the-flexydualie-3d-printer-extruder/
Ever heard of the FlexyDualie extruder? It’s a new opensource dual extruder from Aleph Objects (makers of the Lulzbot and TAZ), specifically designed for printing in a hard material — and a flexible one!
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘World’s fastest’ full colour 3D printer ships in UK for £3,249
Prints 12x faster than standard printers
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2343262/worlds-fastest-full-colour-3d-printer-ships-in-uk-for-gbp3-249
A 3D PRINTER claiming to be the world’s fastest has started shipping in the UK, promising up to 12 times the speed of average 3D printers.
The Prodesk3D is a full colour 3D printer launched by a company called Botobjects and is touted to “revolutionise the 3D desktop printing market” due to its ability to increase its speed so that large 3D prints can now be done in minutes.
“We believe that the Prodesk3D will revolutionise the 3D desktop printing market, like Apple did for the PC.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Harvard Woman Figured Out How To 3D Print Makeup From Any Home Computer, And The Demo Is Mindblowing
http://www.businessinsider.com/mink-3d-prints-makeup-2014-5#!KlU0m
Grace Choi was at Harvard Business School when she decided to disrupt the beauty industry. She did a little research and realized that beauty brands create and then majorly mark up their products by mixing lots of colors.
“The makeup industry makes a whole lot of money on a whole lot of bulls—,” Choi said at TechCrunch Disrupt this week. “They charge a huge premium on something that tech provides for free. That one thing is color.”
By that, she means color printers are available to everyone, and the ink they have is the same as the ink that makeup companies use in their products. She says the ink is FDA-approved.
Choi created her own mini home 3D printer, Mink, that will retail for $300 and allow anyone to print makeup by ripping the color code off color photos on the internet. It hooks up to a computer, just like a normal printer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mink Is A 3D Printer For Makeup
http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/05/mink-is-a-3d-printer-for-makeup/
The little printer lets users choose any color on the web, or in the real world, and using simple already-existing software, print that color into a blush, eye shadow, lip gloss or any other type of makeup.
See, most makeup comes from the same basic substrates, from high-end labels like Chanel all the way down to the cheap stuff available at drug stores. Founder Grace Choi sources the same substrate for the Mink so that users can turn any image into any kind of makeup.
The idea here is that consumers are increasingly focused on instant gratification and DIY solutions. Choi also noticed that makeup consumers aren’t always loyal to certain brands, but rather focused on convenience.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Mink 3D Makeup Printer Will Print Colorful Lipstick, Eye Shadow, and More
http://3dprint.com/3214/mink-3d-makeup-printer/
3D Printing has taken the world by storm, with new innovations and applications within the space coming about almost on a daily basis.
Choi’s creation is a 3D makeup printer. That’s right, her 3D printer, called The Mink, will print out all sorts of custom makeup from lipsticks, to eye shadows, powders, creams, foundations, and more.
Choi is looking at targeting a younger age group of girls and young women between 13 and 21 years of age. By keeping the printer itself affordable at around $300, and the ink, as well as makeup substrate at commodity prices, she hopes to launch with a bang. What this could mean for the makeup industry is almost unfathomable.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here is one interesting looking idea for coloring 3D prints:
Coloring 3D Prints With Sharpies
http://hackaday.com/2014/05/08/coloring-3d-prints-with-sharpies/
Printing objects in full color easily is one of the paramount goals of the ‘squirting plastic’ 3D printer scene, and so far all experiments have relied on multiple colors of filament, and sometimes multiple extruders.
[Mathew Beebe] has a different idea: why not dye a natural colored filament just before it’s fed into a printer? Following his intuition, [Mathew] is doing some experiments with the common Sharpie marker, and the resulting prints look much better than you would expect.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Flying 3D printer could seal off nuclear waste
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22229683.900-flying-3d-printer-could-seal-off-nuclear-waste.html#.U2yeN1dM0im
“BEWARE: WILD ROBOTS AHEAD” reads the sign on the cage. Inside, a hexacopter – a drone with six rotors – hovers menacingly. A quadcopter – with four – rests on the ground.
They aren’t really wild robots, of course, and the test arena isn’t much of an ecosystem, but the quadcopter in particular has a rather special skill: it can build its own nest out of foam. In effect, it’s the world’s first flying 3D printer. One day such drones might work together to help remove waste from nuclear sites or help patch up damaged buildings.
Inspired by the swiflets that build nests using their own saliva, Mirko Kovac of Imperial College London and his team wanted an aerial robot that could make structures. The quadcopter carries two chemicals which create polyurethane foam when mixed, and a printing module to extrude the foam.
The hexacopter can carry 2.5 kilograms, but scaled-up versions could carry up to 40 kg
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mink Is A 3D Printer For Makeup
http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/05/mink-is-a-3d-printer-for-makeup/
3D printing is all the rage these days, but for now, it’s mostly centered around little plastic doo-dads. The Mink, launching today on the Disrupt NY stage, is a bit different.
The little printer lets users choose any color on the web, or in the real world, and using simple already-existing software, print that color into a blush, eye shadow, lip gloss or any other type of makeup.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Unbricking The Da Vinci And Installing Custom Firmware
http://hackaday.com/2014/05/11/unbricking-the-da-vinci-and-installing-custom-firmware/
We’ve seen a lot of projects based around the Da Vinci 3D printer, all deserved, because the Da Vinci is honestly a terrible 3D printer; it has chipped and DRM filament cartridges, a terrible software interface, and completely closed firmware. The first two shortcomings have already been taken care of, and now the door is open for open source firmware on the Da Vinci printer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Blobless Printing With Velocity Extrusion
http://hackaday.com/2014/05/10/blobless-printing-with-velocity-extrusion/
The current crop of 3D printers are technically four-axis machines, with three axes of movement and a fourth for the position of the filament. [Bas] had an entirely different idea – why not link the speed of the extruder to the speed of the nozzle? It turns out this technique gives you more ‘plasticy-looking’ prints and a vast reduction in blobbiness.
What [Baz] ended up with is a config that calculated the speed of the extruder based on the speed the nozzle is moving over the print surface. This gave him the ability to add live nozzle pressure adjustment, and as a result, a near complete disappearance of the little blobs that appear at the start of each layer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Koenigsegg 3D-Printing for Production Vehicles
http://hackaday.com/2014/05/10/koenigsegg-3d-printing-for-production-vehicles/
We’re not surprised to see a car manufacturer using 3D-printing technology, but we think this may be the first time we’ve heard of 3D-prints going into production vehicles. You’ve likely heard of Christian von Koenigsegg’s cars if you’re a fan of BBC’s Top Gear, where the hypercar screams its way into the leading lap times.
Now it seems the Swedish car manufacturer has integrated 3D printing and scanning into the design process.
Interestingly, they’ve been printing some bits and pieces for production cars out of ABS for a few years. Considering the low volume they are working with, it makes sense.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Injection Molding With Hot Glue
http://hackaday.com/2014/05/12/injection-molding-with-hot-glue/
Injection molding is simply forcing a melted thermoplastic into a mold of some sort, letting it cool, and then prying the mold apart to get to the finished piece. Hot glue guns are basically handheld thermoplastic extruders, so when [scorch] dug up some old injection molds he had sitting around, it didn’t take long to put two and two together.
Tomi Engdahl says:
$300 3D Printer Coming Early 2015
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/micro-3d-printer-kickstarter,news-18740.html
Would you buy a $300 3D printer? Apparently lots of people would, judging by the phenomenal success of the Micro 3D Printer on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. With hours still to go in its campaign, the Micro has raised more than 3.3 million dollars, leaving its $50,000 goal in the 3D-printed dust.
it’s also less than a foot in dimension, and claims to be one of the quietest 3D printers on the market.
The Micro is far from the best 3D printer on the market in terms of quality. Its advertised print resolution is between 50 and 350 microns per layer, which is quite a wide range. Compare that to the upcoming Cube 3 3D printer by 3DSystems, a slightly larger printer that costs less than $1,000 and claims a print resolution of 75 microns (200 microns at high speeds).
But the Micro does come with all the basics required of a functional at-home 3D printer: it supports standard filament rolls (the spools of plastic used to make the printed objects) so it’s easy to resupply. It can print objects up to 4.6 inches tall and 4.2 inches by 4.4 inches in width
Tomi Engdahl says:
Autodesk Moves to Make Its Own 3-D Printer
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/05/14/autodesk-moves-to-make-its-own-3-d-printer/
Autodesk is known for programs that help people make things. Now the San Francisco company plans to make something itself–a 3-D printer and software to go with it, hoping to spur a hot market to move even faster.
Carl Bass, chief executive of the 32-year-old company, is announcing the move Wednesday at an event in Silicon Valley for the do-it-yourself set known as makers.
“This will be our first foray into hardware,” Bass said in an interview. “We are trying to usher in a new age where there is more experimentation.”
People are experimenting already. They often use Autodesk software to design various kinds of real-world objects that are fabricated with 3-D printers, which build physical objects by layering melted plastic or other materials.
But there are sticking points, Bass said. Many makers of 3-D printers each distribute their own proprietary computer software, which can be a complication for users. In some cases, customers also have to buy materials like plastic from the company that sold them the printer, he said.
Autodesk, by contrast, plans to allow its desktop printer to work with materials from a variety of suppliers. The company also will publish the complete design for the printer so essentially anyone can make compatible clone devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Autodesk Unveils 3d Printer As It Aims To Become Industry’s Android
http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/05/15/012231/autodesk-unveils-3d-printer-as-it-aims-to-become-industrys-android
“BBC reports that Autodesk — the leading 3D modelling software-maker — is going into hardware with its own 3D printer and in addition to selling the machine, Autodesk will also allow other manufacturers to make their own versions of the printer or power their own models off its software at no cost. ‘The printer is a bona fide attempt to prove the interoperability and open source nature of Autodesk’s platform,’ says Pete Basiliere. ‘And by sharing its design we could see a second wave of small start-ups creating stereolithography machines just as the makers did when the early material extrusion patents expired.”
“Carl Bass likened the new printer to Google’s first Nexus smartphone, a product meant to inspire other manufacturers to install Android on their handsets rather than become a bestseller itself.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printed Vehicles Meet US Grand Challenge
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1322372&
Three-dimensional printing has matured almost overnight from a novelty market for making knicknacks into a fledgling industry workhorse for making prototypes that could eventually displace the venerable manufacturing capabilities of injection molding or computer numerical control (CNC) subtractive machining, and the global tool-and-die supply chain supporting them.
Today companies like Stratasys Ltd. and 3D Systems Inc. are providing the necessary industrial-grade 3D printers, but they have yet to prove the mettle of additive manufacturing to the mainstream industry. That is one reason they recently lent their expertise to the Spring 2014 Additive Manufacturing Grand Challenge
The first Additive Manufacturing Grand Challenge is open only to Virginia Tech students, but, if successfull, the hope is to duplicate it with competitions in which every major university will be able to participate.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Yes, there are several 3-D printers specializing in circuit boards nearing release–from the $300,000 “GreenJet” from Camtek for professionals to the $3500 EX from a Kickstarter project for hobbyists.
http://www.camtek.co.il/
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cartesianco/the-ex1-rapid-3d-printing-of-circuit-boards
Source: Comment at http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1322372&
Tomi Engdahl says:
Braille phone goes on sale in ‘world first’
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27437770
London-based firm OwnFone has released what it says is the world’s first Braille phone.
The front and back of the phone is constructed using 3D printing techniques and can be customised.
Other companies have designed Braille phones in the past, but OwnFone says its device is the first of its kind to go on sale.
For those who can’t read Braille, the company can print raised text on the keypad.
The phone, currently only available in the UK, retails for £60 and according to its inventor Tom Sunderland, 3D printing the front and back of the device helped to keep the costs down.
“3D printing… provides a fast and cost-effective way to create personalised Braille buttons,” he says.
“The phone can be personalised with two or four Braille buttons which are pre-programmed to call friends, family, carers or the emergency services,” Mr Sunderland told the BBC.
“This is the first phone to have a 3D printed keypad and for people that can’t read Braille, we can print texture and raised text on the phone. Our 3D phone printing process is patent pending.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
How 3-D Printed Guns Evolved Into Serious Weapons in Just One Year
http://www.wired.com/2014/05/3d-printed-guns/
A burgeoning subculture of 3-D printed gun enthusiasts dreams of the day when a lethal firearm can be downloaded or copied by anyone, anywhere, as easily as a pirated episode of Game of Thrones. But the 27-year-old Japanese man arrested last week for allegedly owning illegal 3-D printed firearms did more than simply download and print other enthusiasts’ designs. He appears to have created some of his own.
Among the half-dozen plastic guns seized from Yoshitomo Imura’s home in Kawasaki was a revolver designed to fire six .38-caliber bullets–five more than the Liberator printed pistol that inspired Imura’s experiments.
The result of all this tinkering may be the first advancements that significantly move 3-D printed firearms from the realm of science fiction to practical weapons.
Even as the DIY community has refined and remixed 3-D printed guns, it’s left legislators and regulators in the dust.
“Before the Liberator, if you would have asked someone if plastic guns were possible, they would have laughed at you,” he says. “They aren’t practical, but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t be. Hence the desire to improve.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
3-D Printed Car Is as Strong as Steel, Half the Weight, and Nearing Production
http://www.wired.com/2013/02/3d-printed-car/
a warehouse of plastic-spraying printers producing light, cheap and highly efficient automobiles.
If Jim Kor’s dream is realized, that’s exactly how the next generation of urban runabouts will be produced. His creation is called the Urbee 2 and it could revolutionize parts manufacturing while creating a cottage industry of small-batch automakers intent on challenging the status quo.
Urbee’s approach to maximum miles per gallon starts with lightweight construction – something that 3-D printing is particularly well suited for. The designers were able to focus more on the optimal automobile physics, rather than working to install a hyper efficient motor in a heavy steel-body automobile. As the Urbee shows, making a car with this technology has a slew of beneficial side effects.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Autodesk CEO: ’3D printing has been way overhyped’
It has its place – but it’s not for the average Joe or Jane
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/05/22/autodesk_ceo_3d_printing_has_been_way_overhyped/
Solid 3D printing may be all the rage these days, but the headman at one of the world’s leading 3D design, engineering, and entertainment software and services companies thinks its promise has been overblown.
“Much of what’s been said of the benefits of 3D printing has been way overhyped,” Autodesk president and CEO Carl Bass said at the O’Reilly Solid conference in San Francisco on Thursday.
At first blush, this seems a strange statement coming from a man whose company just announced its Spark open 3D printing platform and their own Autodesk 3D Printer last week, with plans to make both available later this year.
But Bass isn’t dissing all usages of 3D printing; he’s merely arguing that the technology won’t make its mark with home “makers” – or, for that matter, homemakers – who want to print their own gadgets, toys, and gizmos. Its true calling is instead in manufacturing and other industrial uses that have been “way underappreciated up until now,” as he put it.
“I think in the long run,” Bass said, “if we look, the value that will be there is in the industrial use of 3D printing. That’s where it is really going to make a difference.”
“Making 3D prints larger grows at the third power,” he said. “It’s a cube function.”
“If something takes an hour to print, and you want it four times bigger, it now takes nearly three days,” he said. Not good.
“I think what we’re going to see as 3D printing advances is a very different trajectory than the one we’re used to with computers and software,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D printer to scan , print and fax – Zeus is the first of its kind
Many of today is all- in-one printer that seems to do the job than the job.
Zeus , however, is different than the normal one. It is the first of its kind all- in-one 3D printer, the possibilities are almost endless.
In one place modeled 3d model can be faxed to the world on the other side at an office without having to be between the print itself. The only requirement is that both the transmitted and the receiving site can be found in the Zeus printer .
$ 2500 price
The unit sold so far in USA only.
Source: http://www.mbnet.fi/artikkeli/muuta/3d_tulostin_skannaa_tulostaa_ja_faksaa_zeus_on_lajinsa_ensimmainen