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:
Break Your Frames? Print Some New Ones!
http://hackaday.com/2014/07/08/break-your-frames-print-some-new-ones/
When [Aaron Porterfield] accidentally broke his glasses frame, he saw it as an opportunity, rather than an unfortunate event. He decided he was going to design and print new ones to fit his prescription lenses!
The trickiest part of taking on a project like this is designing the glasses around the pre-existing lenses, because typically, lenses are cut to fit the frame
[Aaron] is using Rhino to do the design work
There is a small caveat to this entire project — The frames were printed on a nice Stratasys polyjet 3D printer
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printing straight onto glass with PLA
http://reprage.com/post/26661739705/3d-printing-straight-onto-glass-with-pla/
A couple of weeks ago I cracked a pretty big personal milestone with 3D printing; extruding PLA straight onto glass. Without blue painters, or kapton tape. This had been a pretty tricky problem to solve – as getting the first layer of plastic to bond to your print platform is one of the hardest nuts to crack when you first embark on the 3D printing journey. I had all manner of issues with plastic curling, knotting and perfectly good prints getting knocked out of place mid print. But no more!
The heated middle part of my platform is pretty standard these days, and in my opinion another mandatory component of any fused deposition modelling printer (aka RepRap). Heating the build platform has a bunch of advantages, it reduces or eliminates any curling during printing, it also makes it much easier to consistently print that first layer of plastic.
Tomi Engdahl says:
One Small Step For Magnification, One Giant Leap For Home Lens Manufacturing
http://hackaday.com/2014/07/12/one-small-step-for-magnification-one-giant-leap-for-home-lens-manufacturing/
[Peter] felt it was time to give home lens manufacturing a shot and sent in a tip about his experience.
The typical lens manufacturing process starts off by taking a piece of glass and manipulating it into a rough lens shape, either by removing material or heating the glass and forming it in a mold. These lens blanks are then lapped using progressively finer grits of abrasives until the final lens shape and surface finish are achieved.
Instead of using very specific tools to make his lens [Peter] wanted to use standard equipment
The desired lens parameters are manually entered as variables in one location of the g-code file after which the machine control software, LinuxCNC, takes the g-code and drives a 3-axis CNC Machine to mill out a rough shape of a lens.
Tomi Engdahl says:
MakerBot 3D printers now available in a dozen Home Depot stores
http://www.engadget.com/2014/07/14/makerbot-3d-printers-at-home-depot/
MakerBot Replicator 3D printer in a Home Depot
The Home Depot’s core business revolves around helping you craft things, so it stands to reason that you’d eventually find 3D printers there, doesn’t it? Sure enough, that’s what’s happening today. You can now buy MakerBot’s Replicator line at both the retailer’s online store as well as a dozen brick-and-mortar locations spread across California, the greater Chicago area and New York City.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Print Tasty Treats With MIT’s Ice Cream Printer
http://hackaday.com/2014/07/17/print-tasty-treats-with-mits-ice-cream-printer/
Three MIT students decided that 3D printers just aren’t interesting enough on their own any more. They wanted to design a new type of printer that would really get young kids engaged. What’s more engaging to children than sugary treats? The team got together to develop a new 3d printer that prints ice cream.
The machine is built around a Solidoodle. The Solidoodle is a manufacturer of “accessible” 3d printers. The printer is enclosed inside of a small freezer to keep things cold during the printing process.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Metamason: Revolutionizing CPAP Masks With 3D Scanning and 3D Printing
http://build.slashdot.org/story/14/07/24/2216255/metamason-revolutionizing-cpap-masks-with-3d-scanning-and-3d-printing
As millions of Americans with Obstructive Sleep Apnea struggle to get a good night’s sleep, one company has harnessed 3D technology to revolutionize CPAP therapy. As 3ders.org reported today, “Metamason is working on custom CPAP masks for sleep apnea patients via 3D scanning, smart geometry, and 3D printing.”
CPAP therapy is the perfect example—it’s a very effective treatment with a 50% quit rate, because mass-produced masks are uncomfortable and don’t fit properly
Tomi Engdahl says:
15-Year-Old Developing a 3D Printer 10x Faster Than Anything On the Market
http://build.slashdot.org/story/14/07/06/1640230/15-year-old-developing-a-3d-printer-10x-faster-than-anything-on-the-market
Comments:
Great claims. Nothing to back them up.
Another future CEO. Just great.
Tomi Engdahl says:
15-Year-Old is Creating a 3D Printer ’10X Faster, Most Reliable & Advanced Ever’
http://3dprint.com/8232/15-year-old-fastest-printer-ever/
Just yesterday, CarrotCorp announced that they are working on creating a 3D printer that is “the most advanced, the most reliable, and the fastest 3D printer ever created”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Akemake Creates the World’s First 3D Printed Speaker From Wood – Design is free to download
http://3dprint.com/5188/akemake-first-3d-printed-wood-speaker/
When most people think about FDM 3D printers, they picture these machines printing in PLA or ABS plastic. Recently, more and more people have begun using other materials like nylon. However, a company called Akemake, with the help of a new 3D printing material from Fillamentum, is trying to change this.
Akemake has recently used a 100% natural wood filament called Timberfill to print out a working desktop speaker.
“This 3D printed model is the first speaker in the world printed from Timberfill material made by Fillamentum,” Machal Kandler of Akemake tells 3DPrint.com. “Yes, it is 100% wood!”
The speaker, called the Spirulida, was designed by Ondra Chotovinsky, and is based on a deep sea squid-like species – the Spirulida. Akemake is offering this design completely free for those who wish to print it out at home.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D printing industry to boom, will be worth £4.5bn by 2018
Research firm says there’s ‘massive revenue potential’
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2357244/3d-printing-industry-to-boom-will-be-worth-gbp45bn-by-2018
THE GLOBAL 3D PRINTING INDUSTRY will be worth $7.5bn (£4.42bn) in just four years, research firm Futuresource Consulting has predicted, as additive manufacturing moves beyond the world of rapid prototyping and towards consumer adoption.
As 3D printing becomes a more widely-recognised technology by the day and gains a more prominent position in industry, people are beginning to realise the technology is capable of much more than resolving first-world problems, such as fancy custom kitchen utensils or lamp shades.
“3D printing has the potential to disrupt so many aspects of the current imaging and output ecosystem,”
There are also concerns that 3D printing could complicate the rules involved with copyright infringement, as it opens the ability for anyone to print a product by downloading the CAD design templates.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bukobot & Bukito 3D Printer Wiki
http://bukobot.com/
The Reprap Bukobot 3D printer was designed by Diego Porqueras of Deezmaker and can be purchased at the Deezmaker Store.
Based on the RepRap tradition of self-replication and open source software, Bukobot can print most of the parts necessary to build a second printer and the software is free to use and modify by all.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Clay 3D Printer Keeps It Simple
http://hackaday.com/2014/07/28/clay-3d-printer-keeps-it-simple/
Artist [Jonathan] has built a 3D printer specifically for printing in clay. The part count is kept to a minimum and the printer was designed to be made with basic tools and beginner skills.
Getting the clay to dispense was a tricky task. Parts scavenged from a pneumatic dispensing gun was used. If you are unfamiliar with this type of tool, think: Power Caulk Gun. Clay is fed into the re-fillable syringes and an air compressor provides the 30 psi required to force the clay out of the nozzle.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A 3D Printed Brushless Motor
http://hackaday.com/2014/07/30/a-3d-printed-brushless-motor/
Building electronics with 3D printers is something we see hitting the tip line from time to time, but usually these are printed circuits, not electromechanical parts like motors, solenoids, and relays. [pitrack] thought he could do better than printing out a few blinking LED circuits and designed and built a brushless motor, the same kind you would find on electric model planes and quadcopters.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A 3D(ollar) Scanner
http://hackaday.com/2014/07/31/a-3dollar-scanner/
Once you have a 3D printer, making copies of objects like a futuristic Xerox machine is the name of the game. There are, of course, 3D scanners available for hundreds of dollars, but [Joshua] wanted something a bit cheaper. He built his own 3D scanner for exactly $2.73 in parts, salvaging the rest from the parts bin at his local hackerspace.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Makerbot expands 3D printing services into Europe
To pave the way for 3D printing beyond the US
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2358453/makerbot-expands-3d-printing-services-into-europe
3D PRINTER MAKER Makerbot has launched a European arm to pave the way for 3D printing beyond the US.
Makerbot, which is a subsidiary of Stratasys, is taking over assets of one of its German resellers, Hafner’s Buro, a company that already has connections across Europe, in order to lead the desktop 3D printing industry “in practically every major European country”.
In January, maker of the Makerbot line Stratasys launched what it claimed was the first multi-material full colour 3D printer in the UK, the Objet500 Connex3.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mota $99 3D Printer: Too Good To Be True
http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/29/mota-99-3d-printer-too-good-to-be-true/?ncid=rss&cps=gravity
An affordable yet high quality consumer 3D printer has turned out too good to be true, surprising no one.
The 3D printer market is generally sitting in a quasi-limbo state that’s progressed beyond proving itself on early adopters willing to shell out serious dollar to live the dream, yet still has a very long way to go — and specifically a lot of squeezing of price-tags and smoothing of processes — before it can arrive at the joyous nirvana of mass adoption.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Restarting 3D Prints
http://hackaday.com/2014/08/02/restarting-3d-prints/
If a 3D printer is interrupted during a print, it will usually result in a junk part. Resuming the print can be very difficult. A group of researchers at MIT have built an add-on for 3D printers that uses a laser scanner to evaluate the state of the print, and allows the printer to restart.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Printoptical Technology delivers economical 3D-printed arrays of optical elements
http://www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/print/volume-50/issue-08/newsbreaks/printoptical-technology-delivers-economical-3d-printed-arrays-of-optical-elements.html
LUXeXcel (Goes, The Netherlands) Printoptical Technology uses modified wide-format industrial inkjet printers to economically and digitally fabricate optical structures (transparent prisms, lenses, and full-color graphics and textures) from CAD files via 3D printing methods without the need for expensive molding and tooling equipment. A piezoelectrically controllable print head jets an ultraviolet (UV)-curable photopolymer resin that is cured by UV lamps at the precise moment required to create optically smooth surfaces—no postprocessing required.
Printoptical-compatible polymers include polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and custom acrylate formulations; optical components in arrays with dimensions up to 60 cm × 100 cm are possible.
Tomi Engdahl says:
George Crowdsourcington: A 3D Printed, Community Built Statue
http://hackaday.com/2014/08/07/george-crowdsourcington-a-3d-printed-community-built-statue/
Macro 3D printing is some cool stuff — but it’s extremely time consuming and can be very expensive. Introducing We The Builders, a 3D printing crowd source site which creates large scale projects the whole country can enjoy.
Tomi Engdahl says:
GE Considers 3D Printing Turbine Blades for Next Generation Boeing 777X’s GE9X Engines
http://3dprint.com/11266/3d-printed-lpt-ge9x-777x/
If one company should be considered the leader within the metal additive manufacturing space, that company should be General Electric. GE has been utilizing laser sintering to 3D print components for their jet engines for quite a while now.
“We are on the verge of the next industrial revolution,” said Christine Furstoss, Technical Director of Manufacturing and Materials at GE Global Research “The physical and digital worlds are converging — technology enabling disruption (and) all of us have a role to play.”
General Electric has already made significant headlines when they 3D printed metal fuel nozzles for their Leap jet engines. In doing so, they turned nozzles which consisted of 20 different parts put together, into ones which were 3d printed, layer by layer as a single piece.
GE is a main supplier of jet engines for Boeing
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printing Domain Name Sales: The past, the present, the future
http://3dprint.com/4373/3d-printing-domain-names/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tinkerine U Offers Educational 3D Printing Programs for Schools
http://3dprint.com/8106/tinkerine-u-3d-printing/
As part of their company’s educational outreach, they have announced an initiative designed to bring 3D printing curriculum to every school. They are calling their program: Tinkerine U.
As such, the U will offer online courses in 3D printing, lesson plans developed by educators, an extensive library of educational models, and extra-curricular 3D content. They are inviting schools to become educational partners and as incentive are offering an ‘Educational Package’ that includes a choice of 3D printer, as well as free access to course content and the education library.
As have so many other 3D printing companies, Tinkerine has recognized the benefits of creating a class of 3D literate graduates. These are the future consumers of their technologies, and the group that will drive continued demand and new innovation within the field.
Tomi Engdahl says:
LittleRP, The Latest Of The Resin Printers
http://hackaday.com/2014/08/11/littlerp-the-latest-of-the-resin-printers/
Over the last few years, a few resin / stereolithography printers have been made a few headlines due to print quality that cannot be matched by the usual RepRap style filament printers. These used to be extremely expensive machines, but lately there have been a few newcomers to the field. The latest is the LittleRP, an affordable DLP projector-based resin printer that can be put together for under a kilobuck.
These resins are cured with a DLP projector, providing a print area of 60x40x100mm with the recommended 1024×768 projector, or 72x40x100mm with the alternative 1080p projector.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Japanese artist cuffed for disseminating 3D ladyparts files
Printable genitalia fall foul of ‘obscene material’ laws
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07/15/megumi_igarashi_cuffed/
A Japanese artist has been arrested for disseminating “3D printable design files” of her own genitalia, 3DPrint.com reports.
Megumi Igarashi, 42, was cuffed by Tokyo Metropolitan Police for allegedly supplying virtual ladyparts via email to a “30-year-old man in Kagawa Prefecture” and “many others” back in March.
“I cannot understand why the police recognize the 3D data as obscene material.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Circuit Printer Doubles as a Pick and Place
http://hackaday.com/2014/08/14/circuit-printer-doubles-as-a-pick-and-place/
Prototyping circuits is still a pain. The typical process is to order your PCBs, await their arrival, hand assemble a board, and start testing. It’s time consuming, and typically takes at least a week to go from design to prototype.
The folks at BotFactory are working on fixing that with the Squink (Kickstarter warning). This device not only prints PCBs, but also functions as a pick and place. Rather than using solder, the device uses conductive glue to affix components to the substrate.
This process also allows for a wide range of substrates. Traditional FR4 works, but glass and flexible substrates can work too. They’re also working on using an insulating ink for multilayer boards.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Boston Mebotics company 3D printer is able to print, as well as a variety of materials and milling.
http://www.tivi.fi/kaikki_uutiset/video+erikoinen+3dtulostin+heratti+ihmetysta/a1004350
Tomi Engdahl says:
Update: lost PLA metal casting — The Movie
http://hackaday.com/2013/05/10/update-lost-pla-metal-casting-the-movie/
Turning 3D printed plastic parts into metal objects is not a new concept. But we don’t see a lot of it and enjoyed watching the documentary version of [3DTOPO's] lost PLA metal casting process so much we figured you’d want to see it too.
To start, the piece is modeled and printed in plastic to check the fit. Once it’s just right he scales it to 103% and prints it again to account for the shrinking of the metal as it cools.
This is packed into a plaster and sand mold which dries before being cooked in a furnace to vaporize the foam and PLA. This leaves a perfect mold for the metal pour.
Tomi Engdahl says:
World’s First 3D Printed Estate Coming To New York
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/08/20/1546256/worlds-first-3d-printed-estate-coming-to-new-york
A well known New York architect & contractor has begun construction on what is possibly the largest 3D printing related project ever undertaken. He is 3D printing an entire estate, which includes an in-ground swimming pool, a pool house, and a huge 2400 square foot home.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Disabled Chiahuahua Gets New Outlook on Life with 3D Printed Cart
http://hackaday.com/2014/08/22/disabled-chiahuahua-gets-new-outlook-on-life-with-3d-printed-cart/
[Turbo] is a disabled Chiahuahua who has brought in quite a bit of media interest after [Mark Deadrick] designed and 3D printed some new wheels for the pup.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Plan B: An Open Source Powder Based 3D Printer
http://hackaday.com/2014/08/22/plan-b-an-open-source-powder-based-3d-printer/
[Yvo de Haas] dropped us a line on his open-source powder based 3D printer!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here Comes the 3-D Portrait Studio
http://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/consumer-electronics/audiovideo/here-comes-the-3d-portrait-studio
Now, in an era of cameras in every gadget, like most families, we moved from portraits to selfies, from framed photos to Facebook posts, and left the portrait studio behind.
the portrait studio may be about to come back, thanks to sophisticated scanning technology that’s coming down in price, and 3-D printers that are getting better and better at creating realistic full color objects.
3-D portraiture is “where photography was at the end of the 19th century,
The trend of what is coming to be called the 3-D selfie—even though there is no way most people can create one themselves—is kicking off in Asia and moving into Europe, Zevelyov reported. The typical entrepreneur in this nascent market has cobbled together some kind of scanning system (often just racks of cameras), bought a 3-D printer, and opened up a 3-D photo studio.
Again, as with the early days of photography, the image doesn’t pop right out of the camera. But according to Zevelyov, people are fine with coming back to pick up their 3-D portrait later. The scan costs $149 for a monochrome bust and $199 for a full-color, full-body scan; the resulting figurines go for $39 and up, depending on size. That’s priced less like the old photo studio in the mall and more like the high-end commercial photographer, but, as Zevelyov says, it’s early days.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Finally, a practical use for 3D printing: Helping surgeons rehearse
Measure twice, cut once: Have a poke before going into theatre
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/08/27/measure_twice_cut_once/
A mix of 3D printing, medical imaging and software which joins the two together is helping reduce the length of time taken to complete certain complex operations.
Today, 12 National Health Service (NHS) hospitals are supported in the validation of patient surgery prior to an operation with models made by Stratasys 3D printers produced by UK medical 3D printing specialist Replica 3DM.
By printing a 3D model of the parts of the patient the surgery team is about to operate on, the doctor or doctors can practise the procedure ahead of the operation and ensure that anything which has to be fitted marries up neatly. With an accurate 3D model, the surgeon can have a better idea of what is going in inside the patient than can be gained by simply looking at a screen.
Originally established as a 3D modelling department of Salisbury District Hospital, Replica 3DM has since extended its medical 3D printing capabilities to NHS hospitals across the UK
The doctor sends a standard DICOM file, which is produced by MRI or CT scanning of the patient, to Replica3DM – where it is converted to a file format which can be used for 3D modelling, such as STL using one of a number of programs, typically the Brazilian PD software InVesalius
When Replica3DM has a good virtual model, the company quotes a printing cost to the doctor.
The physical 3D printed models that are used as surgical guides to test implants for size and fit pre-surgery.
“To us, 3D printing and the medical profession go hand-in-hand, particularly in the planning of complicated procedures,
Tomi Engdahl says:
THP Semifinalst: Laser Solder Paste
http://hackaday.com/2014/08/27/thp-semifinalst-laser-solder-paste/
RIght now it looks extremely cool while being an immense time sink for [AltMarcxs], but the potential is there for being much more than that, ranging from a pick and place machine that also dispenses solder paste, to the closest thing you’ll ever get to a carbon fiber printer.
AltMarcxs]‘s build consists of two 3W laser diodes focused just beyond the tip of the syringe. The syringe dispenses solder paste, and rotating the diodes around, [Alt] is able to put a melted solder blob anywhere on a piece of perfboard.
Putting a board in a machine, pressing a button, and waiting a bit for a completely populated and soldered board is a dream of the electronic hobbyist rivaled only by a cheap and easy way to make PCBs at home.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printing a Beautiful Prosthetic Hand for a Stranger
http://hackaday.com/2014/08/27/3d-printing-a-beautiful-prosthetic-hand-for-a-stranger/
[Evan Kuester] is currently studying his Masters in Architecture with a specialty in digital fabrication. His program has access to some nice 3D printers, and he was itching for a good project to use them for. Why not a 3D printed prosthetic hand?
He got the idea after noticing a fellow student on campus who was missing her left hand, and did not have any kind of prosthetic.
Using Rhino, [Evan] began modeling the prosthetic hand using a plugin called Grashopper
Tomi Engdahl says:
THP Semifinalist: Theta Printer
http://hackaday.com/2014/08/28/thp-semifinalist-theta-printer/
The early 3D printers of the 80s and 90s started off as cartesian bots, and this is what the RepRap project took a cue from for the earliest open source 3D printer designs. A bit later, the delta bot came on the scene, but this was merely a different way to move a toolhead around build plate. We haven’t really seen a true polar coordinate 3D printer, except for [Tyler Anderson]‘s incredible Theta printer.
Tyler]‘s theta printer is designed to print in as many different materials as possible, without the reduction in build volume that comes with multiple toolheads on more traditional printers.
The theta printer is based on a polar coordinate system, meaning instead of moving a hot end around in the X and Y axes, the build plate rotates in a circle, and the extruders move along the radius of the circle.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printed Bump Keys
http://hackaday.com/2014/08/29/3d-printed-bump-keys/
Getting past a locked door is easy if you have the right tools. It’s just a matter of knowing how to adjust the pins inside to an even level while turning the mechanism at the same time when everything is perfectly in place. That’s the beauty of a bump key. You never have to see the actual key or what it looks like. And with a simple hit to the back of the key, and bumping it just enough, the lock can magically be opened.
Lock picking items like this can be ordered online for a couple of dollars, or as [Jos Weyers] and [Christian Holler] showed in a recent Wired article, alternatively you can print your own at home.
The video of these 3D printed keys attempts to prove that a person can unlock a door with plastic
As the article states, “Weyers and Holler aren’t trying to teach thieves and spies a new trick for breaking into high-security facilities; instead, they want to warn lockmakers about the possibility of 3-D printable bump keys so they might defend against it.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Servo Stock, The Future Of 3D Printers
http://hackaday.com/2014/05/26/servo-stock-the-future-of-3d-printers/
If you think about it, the RepRaps and other commercial 3D printers we have today are nothing like the printers that will be found in the workshops of the future. They’re more expensive than they need to be, and despite the RepRap project being around for a few years now, no one has cracked the nut of closed loop control yet. [mad hephaestus], [Alex], and [Will] over on the Hackaday Projects site are working on the future of 3D printing with the Servo Stock, a delta printer using servos and closed loop control to build a printer for about a quarter of the price as a traditional 3D printer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printering: You Want UV Resin?
http://hackaday.com/2013/10/09/3d-printering-you-want-uv-resin/
Tomi Engdahl says:
THP Semifinalist: Retro Populator, A Pick And Place Retrofit For A 3D Printer
http://hackaday.com/2014/08/30/thp-semifinalist-retro-populator-a-pick-and-place-retrofit-for-a-3d-printer/
It’s a machine that places electronic components on a PCB with the help of a 3D printer
The Retro Populator consists of two major parts: the toolhead consists of a needle and vacuum pump for picking up those tiny surface mount parts. This is attaches to a quick mount bolted right to the extruder of a 3D printer. The fixture board attaches to the bed of a 3D printer and includes tape rails, cam locks, and locking arms for holding parts and boards down firmly.
Tomi Engdahl says:
If you think 3D printing is just firing blanks, just you wait
Feeling sticky, punk?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/08/31/if_you_think_3d_printing_is_just_firing_blanks_just_you_wait/
Anyway, having at my mercy a table of gun nuts owners who happen to work in engineering was too good an opportunity to miss. These are people who understand hardware, precision tooling, material strength and structural resistance. It therefore allowed me to raise my favourite topic of the moment: how 3D printing is an over-hyped, steaming pile of crap.
Even with the right kind of DMLS printer and the claimed ability to produce “near full density” alloys, the size and expense of small-run production-scale devices is too daft to treat seriously. So what we’re left with is a rapidly expanding variety of shitty little whizz-whir desktop 3D printers that produce a range of useless, multi-coloured, thermo-plastic turds.
The popular press, in the meantime, embarrasses itself repeatedly by reporting on non-stories about the capabilities of 3D printing. The price of 3D-printed prosthetic limbs with moving parts is one such. While the very idea of producing affordable artificial body parts customised exactly to the individual body in question is thrilling, the reality is less so. The principal reason that a 3D-printed prosthetic is so much cheaper than existing types is that the charitable person doing the 3D printing is doing it for free.
Wow, only $400 for a new hand? Actually, that’s $400 just for the plastic. The CAD modelling, setup, the 3D printer itself, electricity, workspace rent and labour – these jobs can take hours or even days to complete – were offered at no cost by a charitable fellow in the hope of going to heaven.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Update: 3D Printed Concrete Castle Completed
http://hackaday.com/2014/09/01/update-3d-printed-concrete-castle-completed/
After two years of dreaming, designing, and doing, [Andrey Rudenko] has finally finished 3D printing his concrete castle.
t’s been only three months since he was testing the thing out in his garage, and now there’s a beautiful, freestanding structure in his yard, custom-printed.
After much experimentation, he settled on a layer height of 10mm with a 30mm width for best results. He also discovered that he could print much more than his original estimation of 50cm of vertical height a day (fearing the lower layers would buckle).
His next project, a full-scale livable structure, will attempt to print 24/7 (weather permitting) rather than the stop-start routine used for the castle, which turned out to be the culprit behind imperfections in the print.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Desktop Pick-&-Place Machine: An EETimes Community Project
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1322807&
With all the excitement associated with of 3D printers, there seems to be a giant gap in the rapid prototyping tool set — a desktop pick-and-place (P&P) machine that can be had at a reasonable price. If you were to survey the landscape, you would find that most of the smaller pick-and-place machines that are out there are either just not quite ready for primetime, or will cost more than a few thousand dollars. This is where the EETimes community has an opportunity to change the picture.
The more we talked about this, the more excited we got. The thought of having a machine that can assemble your boards — and possibly even reflow them — while fitting in a space smaller than an 11″ x 17″ footprint just brought great big grins to our faces.
This idea — with the excitement it brings — is more than just designing a machine. There is a teaching opportunity as well.
Let’s start with out top-level design goals, which are as follows:
$400 to $600 target sales price
11″ x 17″ or smaller footprint
A modular system allowing for addition of features at a future date
Good mechanical design
With these as the basic design goals, here are some thoughts on other details to get your creative juices flowing. Because of the fact that we are shooting for a low price point, there will need to be some tradeoffs. For example, this is not intended to be the fastest pick-and-place machine out there, so we can look at compromising on speed.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Additive Manufacturing Trends in Aerospace
http://www.techbriefsmediagroup.com/blasts/2014/stratasys/stratasys_08_ezine.php?r=N1344661
Aerospace is the industry that other industries look to for a glimpse at what’s on the horizon. Aerospace has a long history of being an early adopter, innovator, and investigator.
examples that show that trends in aerospace are predictors of future trends in manufacturing across all industries.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NASA clears zero-G 3D printer for mission to SPAAAAACE
Houston, we have a bit of plastic
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/09/03/nasa_clears_3d_printer_for_space_station_deployment/
A special 3D printer designed to work in zero-gravity conditions has received flight certification from NASA and will shortly be sent up to the International Space Station for astronauts to try out.
The snappily named 3-D Printing In Zero-G Technology Demonstration is a microwave oven–sized 3D printing unit that was commissioned by NASA last year. The device is designed to print plastic parts and can either be controlled from within the ISS or have parts uploaded by NASA’s ground-based engineers.
“This means that we could go from having a part designed on the ground to printed in orbit within an hour to two from start to finish,” said Niki Werkheiser, NASA’s 3D print project manager. “The on-demand capability can revolutionize the constrained supply chain model we are limited to today and will be critical for exploration missions.”
“That’s where a 3-D printer in space can pay off. While the first experiment is designed to test the 3-D printing process in microgravity, it is the first step in sustaining longer missions beyond low-Earth orbit.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The First 3D Printed House Is Coming, And The Construction Industry Will Never Be The Same
http://www.businessinsider.com/3d-printed-houses-are-here-2014-9
Architects around the globe are racing to build the world’s first 3D printed houses — a breakthrough with profound implications for housing affordability and customization.
In China, a company named Winsun this year said it built 10 3D printed houses in just one day. The reported cost for each: just $5,000.
In Amsterdam, a team of architects has started construction of the 3D Print Canal House, using bio-based, renewable materials.
at USC in California, Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis is pushing the fabrication process one step further
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D scanning made easy: Reg man ponders terrifying Xmas pressie
£750 scanner could help produce the WORLD’S CREEPIEST CHESS SET
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/09/08/easy_3d_scanning/
Something I determined some time ago is that the key to 3D printing is the modelling. The new scanner from Fuel3D makes this significantly less painful.
While there is an increasing number of desktop scanners what makes the Fuel 3D special is that it’s a handheld device at a fraction of the price of existing products.
It’s still far from cheap at £750 but a bulging order-book for the Hampshire company demonstrates that there is pent-up demand.
The unit contains two 3.6 megapixel cameras and three flashes, meaning the combination of shadows and views from different angles allows a 3D model to be built. Taking the pictures from effectively six angles takes around a second.
The device contains an FPGA but all the heavy lift processing is done in a PC. A 20MB file is piped from the scanner down a USB lead, so the scanner needs to be attached to a computer while scanning. In the computer a fine mesh is assembled and images are stitched.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Your 3D-printed car will be ready to drive in 44 hours
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/189512-your-3d-printed-car-will-be-ready-to-drive-in-44-hours
You knew the printed car was going to happen, but as soon as this weekend? That’s when the first printed car arrives. It will be built up from carbon-reinforced plastics, then driven out of Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center and onto the streets of the Windy City. The vehicle will be printed over 44 hours. Technicians will add in the unprintable — electric motor, battery, wiring, window glass — and the car, called Strati, should be out the door Saturday.
Rather the print dozens of smaller sub-assemblies and screwing, gluing or bolting them together, the concept car has a main body structure built up as a single module using something called the BAAM Machine. BAAM stands for big area additive manufacturing, with a deposition rate of 40 pounds per hour.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Local Motors’ 3D Printed ‘Strati’ Car Has Just Taken Its First Test Drive
http://3dprint.com/15139/local-motors-3d-printed-strati/
When it comes to 3D printing, new breakthroughs and new achievements are being realized almost on a daily basis. From 3D printable human tissue, to a 3D printed life-size castle, and now a 3D printed automobile, the technology never seizes to amaze.
This week, at the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) in Chicago, Arizona-based automobile manufacturer Local Motors stole the show. Over the six day span of the IMTS, the company managed to 3D print, and assemble an entire automobile, called the ‘Strati’, live in front of spectators.
Although the Strati is not the first ever car to be 3D printed, the advancements made by Local Motor with help from Cincinnati Inc, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, have produced a vehicle in days rather than months.
This breakthrough was made possible by a machine produced by Cincinnati Inc., in cooperation with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) machine is capable of printing at speeds unheard of on traditional 3D printers. It is unbelievably able to lay down up to 40 pounds of carbon infused ABS plastic per hour, with precise accuracy.
This is certainly a big step for all companies involved, as well as the 3D printing industry in general.
Tomi Engdahl says:
US Army Wants to 3D Print Uniforms
http://www.3d-print.today/?categoryId=29888&itemId=50067&utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=referral
It really seems like the US Army is discovering 3D printing in all its forms. Recently they made the news with plans for 3D printed food, skin as well as warheads. Their newest plan is to 3D print uniforms for soldiers. Those uniforms are currently being made using 2D CAD software, but the US Army thinks in the future 3D printing will play a major role in the production of those clothes.