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.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
3D printer to less than 300 euros
XYZprinting has launched the latest 3D printers. Da Vinci Mini is designed for all types and levels of users, and it is the company’s current product range of expensive 3D printer within the recommended 299 € sales price.
equipped with a Wi-Fi connection da Vinci Mini w does not need assembly or adjustments
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4915:3d-tulostin-alle-300-eurolla&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Review: Monoprice Maker Ultimate 3D Printer
http://hackaday.com/2016/08/30/review-monoprice-maker-ultimate-3d-printer/
A few months ago, a very inexpensive 3D printer appeared on Monoprice. My curiosity for this printer was worth more than $200, so I picked one of these machines up. The Monoprice MP Select Mini is an awesome 3D printer. It’s the perfect printer to buy for a 13-year-old who might be going through a ‘3D printing phase’. It’s a great printer to print a better printer on. This printer is a sign the 3D printing industry is not collapsing, despite Makerbot, and foreshadows the coming age of consumer 3D printers.
The MP Select Mini isn’t Monoprice’s only 3D printer; the printer I bought was merely the ‘good’ printer in the good-better-best lineup.
After a week of burn-in, I can safely say you’re not wasting your money on this $700 3D printer. It’s not a starter printer — it’s one that will last you a long time. 2016 is the beginning of the age of consumer 3D printers, and the Monoprice Maker Ultimate is more than proof of this.
Yes, It’s A Rebadge
The Monoprice Maker Ultimate is a rebadge of the Wanhao Duplicator 6, and should be regarded as the same exact printer. The Monoprice sells for $700, whereas the Wanhao sells for $800, but the Monoprice does not come with acrylic panels for the sides and top of the printer.
Just to test things, I tried printing at 300 mm/sec. At this speed, and at a 0.1mm layer height, the nozzle is squirting plastic out at a rate of 12mm³/sec. This volume of plastic per second would be too much for a 12V heater, but the 24V hotend performed admirably — until the extruder started stripping filament, of course. You simply can’t push plastic out of a nozzle that fast, no matter what a spec sheet says. It may have worked at a lower layer height, but that brings us to another problem of high print and travel speeds: acceleration.
I don’t know why this machine shipped with a default acceleration of 800mm/sec². The default acceleration for the Marlin Firmware is 3000mm/sec², and every RepRap I’ve seen seems to do alright with that. The default acceleration can be changed through the on-screen menu, though, and after changing it, the printer performed very well.
I’d recommend setting the acceleration at 2000-3000mm/sec² (configurable through the OLED menu), and setting the slicer to around 100mm/sec. That’s a good ballpark for this printer.
The OLED display/interface is, as far as I can tell, exactly the same as a Ultimaker.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D-Printed Aircraft Tool Sets Guinness World Record
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/16/08/31/2225253/3d-printed-aircraft-tool-sets-guinness-world-record
A 17.5 foot long, 5.5 foot wide and 1.5 foot tall the 3D printed aircraft design tool has earned the title of largest solid 3D printed item by Guinness World Records.
1,650lb 3D printed aircraft tool sets Guinness World Record
http://www.networkworld.com/article/3114569/hardware/1-650lb-3d-printed-aircraft-tool-sets-guinness-world-record.html
A 17.5 foot long, 5.5 foot wide and 1.5 foot tall the 3D printed aircraft design tool has earned the title of largest solid 3D printed item by Guinness World Records.
The 1,650 lb. apparatus known as a trim-and-drill tool is comparable in length to a large sport utility vehicle and will ultimately be tested for use in building the Boeing 777X passenger jet. Basically the tool will be used to secure the jet’s composite wing skin for drilling and machining before assembly according to researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ONRL) who developed the tool.
ONRL said it printed the tool in only 30 hours using carbon fiber and ABS thermoplastic composite materials.
“The existing, more expensive metallic tooling option we currently use comes from a supplier and typically takes three months to manufacture using conventional techniques,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
RigTig’s Big 3D Printer
The rb3dp:
+ is a build-it-yourself 3D printer
+ is inexpensive (less than US$100 for parts)
+ can print from 1 to 100 cubic metres
https://hackaday.io/project/13420-rigtigs-big-3d-printer
Description
The rb3dp is a machine for placing material in 3 dimensions. The effector (printing head) hangs from three strings. The length of each string is adjusted by a small stepper motor, so the effector moves in 3D space.
The cost of material increases with the cube of the linear dimension, so a really inexpensive material is desirable for such large volumes. Free would be an excellent starting point!
If dirt is put into the printing space in layers, then an effector can add a binder to hold together the dirt selectively within that layer. The rb3dp then becomes a ‘powder’-type of printer. An obvious application is the construction of a dirt ‘hut’, say for emergency human protection from wind and rain. If the binder solidifies quickly enough then the construction could be less than one day. A dirt hut is better than a tent (in many circumstances), and can be demolished with minimal environmental impact).
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D-Printed Prosthetic Puts the Power in the Hands of Those Who Need It
http://hackaday.com/2016/09/05/3d-printed-prosthetic-puts-the-power-in-the-hands-of-those-who-need-it/
In recent years, prosthetics have seen a dramatic increase in innovation due to the rise of 3D printing. [Nicholas Huchet] — missing a hand due to a workplace accident in 2002 — spent his residency at Fab Lab Berlin designing, building, testing and sharing the files and tutorials for a prosthetic hand that costs around 700 Euros.
Myoelectric Exiii hand
http://myhumankit.org/en/tutoriels/myoelectric-exiii-hand/
Build a $700 open source bionic prosthesis with new tutorial by Nicolas Huchet of Bionico
http://www.3ders.org/articles/20160729-build-a-open-source-bionic-prosthesis-with-new-tutorial-by-nicolas-huchet-of-bionico.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: A One Hand Bottle Opener
http://hackaday.com/2016/09/05/hackaday-prize-entry-a-one-hand-bottle-opener/
The OHBO – the One Hand Bottle Opener – is just a simple 3D printed ring that fits over a water bottle. There’s a small arm attached with a few bolts that lock this ring onto the bottle. With this bottle opener attached, it only requires a simple twist of the wrist to open a screw-top bottle.
pablopeza/OHBO-One-Hand-Bottle-Opener
https://github.com/pablopeza/OHBO-One-Hand-Bottle-Opener
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printering: XT-CF20 Carbon Fiber Filament Review
http://hackaday.com/2016/09/07/3d-printering-xt-cf20-carbon-fiber-filament-review/
ColorFabb’s XT-CF20 is one of the more exotic filaments for adventurous 3D printerers to get their hands on. This PETG based material features a 20% carbon fiber content, aspiring to be the material of choice for tough parts of high stiffness. It’s a fascinating material that’s certainly worth a closer look. Let’s check it out!
The high amount of carbon fibers makes this material extremely abrasive, so I obtained a hardened steel nozzle for my E3Dv6 hotend to print it without harming my brass nozzles.
XT-CF20 features an Eastman Amphora PETG base resin, which itself is already a tough material and lies about half way between PLA and ABS in terms of temperature resistance.
The XT-CF20 combines this resin with 20% carbon fibers. These fibers come as a finely milled filler rather than in the shape of long, reinforcing strands, so they surely don’t bestow super powers on printed parts. However, the XT-CF20 features a significantly increased shape fidelity, stiffness, and temperature resistance compared to the unfilled members of the XT family.
Probably by accident, the material safety data sheet describes this material as conductive, but nope, it’s not. Despite the high carbon fiber content, the XT-CF20 features a surface resistivity of 109 Ω/sq
The XT-CF20’s specified processing temperature ranges from 240 to 260 °C. I tested it at temperatures from 230 °C to 310 °C, and well, 240 to 260 °C is really the sweet spot.
ColorFabb recommends a print speed (40 – 70 mm/s) for the XT-CF20, although, within printing temperatures of 240 to 260 °C, the maximum printing speed I could achieve without strongly affecting layer bonding was 25 mm/s for perimeters and infill and 10 mm/s for small features.
http://colorfabb.com/xt-cf20
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printing School of Knocks
http://hackaday.com/2016/09/10/3d-printing-school-of-knocks/
James Lewis] (sometimes known as the [Bald Engineer]) has spent a couple of years with a 3D printer. He says that as of March this year, he had used the machine for about 75 hours. Since then his usage went up to 300 hours because he’s finally learned his lessons about how to get good prints.
3D Printer Tips I wish I knew 3 years ago
Here’s how I stopped getting annoyed
https://www.baldengineer.com/3d-printer-tips.html
While I bought my 3D printer a couple of years ago, in March of this year, it only had 75 hours of use. Since March, my counter is over 300 hours. Why? After spending some time doing the right tweaks my printer is printing crazy good. Here are some of my 3D printer tips.
1. Level the Bed
Every tutorial you read starts with this suggestion. “Get a level bed.”
2. Get a new bed material
For years I printed on Kapton tape and blue painter’s masking tape. The particular Kapton film I used had a weak adhesive. So after 1 or 2 hours of printing, it would start to peel up.
The masking tape was a cost-effective alternative, which was easy to reapply.
From what I can tell there have been some advances in 3D printer bed technologies. Glass seems to be popular for older machines like mine.
Recently I came across a product called PRINTinZ.
One trade-off to the PRINTinZ Skin is that it gets damaged pretty easily. It’s critical you do not crash your head into it.
3. Try a new slicer
My printer shared the same firmware as early Makerbot printers. So I could use the Makerbot or the ReplicatorG slicer. While straightforward, both lack many important advanced features.
Free Slicer Option: Cura
Paid, but worth it: Simplify3D
4. Buy high-quality filament
You’d think buying the right filament would be apparent. However, early in the life of my printer, I got some super cheap crap for mine. And nearly every print has been utter trash.
5. Get a camera
If you’re going to leave your 3D printer unattended, GET A CAMERA.
Ideally, use a tool that lets you remotely kill the print job too!
Tomi Engdahl says:
A 3D Printed Camera (Including The Lens)
http://hackaday.com/2016/09/10/a-3d-printed-camera-including-the-lens/
Barring the RepRap project, we usually see 3D printers make either replacement parts or small assemblies, not an entire finished product. [Amos] is the exception to this rule with his entirely 3D-printed camera. Everything in this camera is 3D printed, from the shutter to the lightproof box to the lens itself. It’s an amazing piece of engineering, and a testament to how far 3D printing has come in just a few short years.
35mm film is the most common film by far, and the only one that’s still easy to get and have developed at a reasonable price. This 3D-printed camera is based on that standard, making most of the guts extremely similar to the millions of film cameras that have been produced over the years.
The fun starts with the lens. We’ve seen 3D printers used for lens making before, starting with a 3D print used to create a silicone mold where a lens is cast in clear acrylic, 3D printed tools used to grind glass, and an experiment from FormLabs to 3D print a lens.
SLO: 3D Printed Camera
http://amosdudley.com/weblog/SLO-Camera
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printed Door Latch has One Moving Part – Itself!
http://hackaday.com/2016/09/14/3d-printed-door-latch-has-one-moving-part-itself/
A group at the Hasso-Plattner Institute in Germany explored a curious idea: using 3D printed material not just as a material – but as a machine in itself. What does this mean? The clearest example is the one-piece door handle and latch, 3D printed on an Ultimaker 2 with pink Ninjaflex. It is fully functional but has no moving parts (besides itself) and has no assemblies. In other words, the material itself is also the mechanism.
Metamaterial Mechanisms
http://hpi.de/baudisch/projects/metamaterial-mechanisms.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wanhao Duplicator i3 Should Put an End to “Cheapest Printer” Kickstarters
http://hackaday.com/2016/09/14/wanhao-duplicator-i3-should-put-an-end-to-cheapest-printer-kickstarters/
Is the Wanhao Duplicator the best printer on the market? Not at all. Is it a contender for best low-price printer?Definitely. If you consider it a low priced kit printer instead of a finished product then it’s possible that, in its price class, it is hands down the best out there.
For somewhere between 300 and 500 dollars, the Duplicator is a hell of a printer. Also selling under the name Cocoon and Maker Select, the printer is a thin folded sheet steel frame clone of the Prusa i3.
What I got was up and printing in under an hour. What I got was something designed by someone who cares, but with an obvious cost goal.
extruder has performed admirably for me with mid quality Chinese PLA filament.
I am not certain whether anything but PLA is advisable out of this nozzle, but it’s been printing successfully between 200 and 220C.
There were definitely some design compromises for purely price reasons as far as the wiring went too.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printering: Aramid and Carbon Fiber Infused ABS
http://hackaday.com/2016/09/15/3d-printering-aramid-carbon-fiber-infused-abs-filaments-by-nanovia-review/
Last week, we had a look at a carbon-infused PETG filament. This week, I’d like to show you two composites based on a more common thermoplastic in 3D printing: ABS. Among a whole lot of other engineering plastics, the french company Nanovia manufactures Kevlar-like aramid-fiber-infused and carbon-fiber-infused ABS 3D printing filaments. These materials promise tougher parts with less warping while being just as easy to print as regular ABS. Let’s check them out!
Aramid Fiber ABS
The exact fiber content of this material seems to be a proprietary trade secret, but I was told it’s above 5%. According to the data sheet, one gram of the filament contains 5 million tiny aramid fibers with a diameter of about 10 µm and a mean length of 215 µm – so basically it’s dust. Taking the composite’s density of 1.08 g/cm3 into account, a bit of math and educated guessing lead me to believe that the volume-specific fiber content must be in the range of 9 % (13 % by mass).
Plain ABS is already valued for its toughness, but — in 3D printing — also known for its tendency to warp. Its high thermal expansion coefficient of about 70 µm/(m K) is to blame. Aramids have a slightly negative thermal expansion coefficient in the range of -2.5 µm/(m K), which helps to prevent warping issues when printing aramid fiber compounds. In contrast to carbon fibers, aramid fibers act as a thermal insulator. They also are not harmfully abrasive, making this material a great alternative for printers that cannot be equipped with a hardened steel nozzle.
Carbon Fiber ABS
From the notes in the data sheet I conclude a volume-specific fiber content of 5 % (10 % by mass) for this filament. Just like the aramid fibers, carbon fibers lower the thermal expansion coefficient of the composite, making this a low-warp material. Carbon fibers are very abrasive, so a hardened steel nozzle is recommended when printing carbon fiber composites.
While both the aramid and carbon fiber filaments produce noticeably stiffer parts than plain ABS, they are also noticeably more flexible than parts from the PETG based XT-CF20
Tomi Engdahl says:
Possible Fire Hazard: Wanhao “Recalls” Duplicator i3 3D Printer
http://hackaday.com/2016/09/17/possible-fire-hazard-wanhao-recalls-duplicator-i3-3d-printer/
Wanhao was reaching out to its customers and resellers, warning them of a design flaw in their Duplicator i3 that may cause fires a while ago. The printers suffered from an issue that caused crimp connections of the nozzle heater cartridge’s supply line to fail due to the mechanical stress in the cable drag chain. In their “Recall” titled note, Wanhao provides instructions on how to fix the issue.
The issue is hard to spot at first glance and may affect the Duplicator i3 and the i3 Plus. A lot has to go wrong before an all-metal 3D printer catches flames and all mentioned issues incorporate non-lethal voltages. Nevertheless, be safe. If you own one of these, now is the time to check your machine for potential failure points.
RECALL WANHAO DUPLICATOR I3
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/wanhao-printer-3d/ZXzxdP9SUlU
DESIGN DEFECT: All the WANHAO i3 shipped before 27th Aug 2015 has the crimp(connection point between stainless steel cable and brass cable） inside the drag Chain. The drag Chain keeps moving can cause the crimp fatigue and break(check pic below). Then it can cause heating failture or circuit short.
SOLUTION: To drag the Heating tube crimp out side the drag chain. So no matter how much moment the drag chain move. The crimp shall never wear and break.
Tomi Engdahl says:
MakerBot Releases Their 6th Generation Of 3D Printers
http://hackaday.com/2016/09/20/makerbot-releases-their-6th-generation-of-3d-printers/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Putting Sand, Water, and Metal into A 3D Print
http://hackaday.com/2016/09/27/putting-sand-water-and-metal-into-a-3d-print/
The first experiment was a mixture of salt and water used to make a can chiller for soda or beer.
They used what they learned to build on their next experiment, which was filling the print with sand to give it more heft. This is actually a common manufacturing process — for instance, hollow-handled cutlery often has clay, sand, or cement for heft.
The final experiment was a variation on the popular ball bearing prints. Rather than printing plastic balls they designed the print to be paused midway and then placed warmed copper BBs in the print.
3D Printing with Liquid, Sand, and Metal
http://makefastworkshop.com/hacks/?p=20160920
3D printers can make a lot of things, but they are also greatly limited by the materials they use. Of course, clever makers are finding ways of combining other materials and off-the-shelf parts to offer the best of both worlds: rapid production of complex printed parts and greater strength, consistency, and/or cost savings by using things you can get at the local hardware store.
In general, hybrid 3D printed objects neatly separate the part into discrete components.
But the componentized way of combining materials is just one way to create hybrid parts. What about parts that want to be fully encapsulated so they can’t come apart? How about adding materials that aren’t rigid, like sand or water? Or perhaps parts that are constrained by each other, but not firmly connected?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Air-Powered Top Only Possible on a 3D Printer
http://hackaday.com/2016/09/25/air-powered-top-only-possible-on-a-3d-printer/
One of the major reasons anyone would turn to a 3D printer, even if they have access to a machine shop, is that there are some shapes that are not possible to make with conventional “subtractive manufacturing” techniques. There are a few more obvious reasons a lot of us use 3D printers over conventional machining such as size and cost, but there’s another major reason that 3D printers are becoming more and more ubiquitous. [Crumbnumber1] at Make Anything’s 3D Printing Channel shows us how powerful 3D printers are at iterative design with his air-powered tops. They incorporate fan blades that allow you to spin the top up to very high speeds by blowing air down onto it.
GALACTOPS // Air Powered Spinning Tops
https://imgur.com/gallery/F6605
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printed PCB mill
https://hackaday.io/project/12090-3d-printed-pcb-mill
3D Printed components and other hardware to make a PCB routing machine, which inherently can do other things.
PCB routing machine, with a software suite to create designs and control the steppers to make that design a real life thing. Current cost of materials if I made it from scratch now is about $230, not including the cost of the 3d printer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printed Acoustic Holograms: Totally Cool, Not Totally Useless
http://hackaday.com/2016/09/27/3d-printed-acoustic-holograms-totally-cool-not-totally-useless/
If you wave your hand under the water’s surface, you get a pattern of ripples on the surface shortly thereafter. Now imagine working that backwards: you want to produce particular ripples on the surface, so how do you wiggle around the water molecules underneath?
That’s the project that a crew from the University of Navarre in Spain undertook. Working backwards from the desired surface waves to the excitation underwater is “just” a matter of math and physics. The question is then how to produce the right, incredibly irregular, wavefront. The researchers’ answer was 3D printing.
3D-Printed Plastic Blocks Generate Complex Acoustic Holograms
http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/computing/hardware/3d-printed-plastic-blocks-generate-complex-acoustic-holograms
Tomi Engdahl says:
Songbird, A Mostly 3D Printed Pistol That Appears To Actually Work
http://hackaday.com/2016/09/28/songbird-a-mostly-3d-printed-pistol-that-appears-to-actually-work/
[Guy in a garage] has made a 3D printed gun that not only appears to fire in the direction pointed, it can also do it multiple times. Which, by the standard of 3D printed guns, is an astounding feat.
This gun prints on a standard FDM printer. Other 3D printable guns such as the infamous Liberator or the 3D printed metal gun need more exotic or precise 3D printing to work effectively. The secret to this gun’s ability is the barrel, which can be printed in nylon for .22 cartridges, or in ABS plus a barrel liner for .22 and .357 caliber.
The metal liner surrounded by plastic offers enough mechanical strength for repeat firings without anyone losing a hand or an eye; though we’re not sure if we recommend firing any 3D printed gun as it’s still risky business.
3D Printed “Songbird” 22LR Single Shot Pistol With Nylon Barrel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0iN1Yx2nME&list=PLGcp4c7AJUbvhqbi2E9zD_waTvM2Lo_X4
An overview of the design, operation, and printing of this 3d printed single shot pistol. Barrel is printed using Taulman Bridge Nylon.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printing A Stop Motion Animation
http://hackaday.com/2016/09/29/3d-printing-a-stop-motion-animation/
How much access do you have to a 3D printer? What would you do if you had weeks of time on your hands and a couple spools of filament lying around? Perhaps you would make a two second stop-motion animation called Bears on Stairs.
An in-house development by London’s DBLG — a creative design studio — shows a smooth animation of a bear — well — climbing stairs, which at first glance appears animated. In reality, 50 printed sculptures each show an instance of the bear’s looping ascent. The entire process took four weeks of printing, sculpture trimming, and the special diligence that comes with making a stop-motion film.
Bears on Stairs: A Stop Motion-Animation Created from 3D-Printed Frames
http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/04/bears-on-stairs-dblg/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Prusa Releases 4-Extruder Upgrade
http://hackaday.com/2016/09/28/prusa-releases-4-extruder-upgrade/
Let’s talk multi-material printing on desktop 3D printers. There are a lot of problems when printing in more than one color. The easiest way to do this is simply to add another extruder and hotend to a printer, but this reduces the build volume, adds more mass to the part of the printer that doesn’t need any more mass, and making sure each nozzle is at the correct Z-height is difficult. The best solution for multi-material printing is some sort of mixing hotend that only squirts plastic from one nozzle, fed by a Bowden system.
[Prusa], the man, not the printer, has just released a multi-material upgrade for the Prusa i3 mk2. This upgrade allows the i3 mk2 to print in four colors using only one hotend, and does it in a way that allows anyone to turn their printer into a multi-material powerhouse.
Original Prusa i3 MK2 Multi Material Upgrade Release – Dual/Quad extrusion
http://prusaprinters.org/original-prusa-i3-mk2-multi-material-upgrade-release/
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printering: Trinamic TMC2130 Stepper Motor Drivers
http://hackaday.com/2016/09/30/3d-printering-trinamic-tmc2130-stepper-motor-drivers-shifting-the-gears/
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Print Your Garden
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/02/3d-print-your-garden/
How would you go about sculpting a garden in the 21st century? One answer, perhaps predictably, is with a 3D printer. Gone are the days of the Chia pet. Thanks to a team of students out of University of Maribor in Slovenia, today we can 3D print living sculptures of our own design.
The goal of the project was to meld art, technology, and nature. Hard to argue with the results.
Green 3D Printer Prints Living Designs From Organic “Ink”
http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2015/07/living-designs-from-3d-printers/
Project PrintGREEN is turning 3D printers into on-demand gardeners after designing a “green” 3D printer in 2013. The printer produces living prints, printing customized objects in a variety of sizes and forms.
The “ink” in the machine is a combination of soil, seeds, and water which can be designed to print in any shape or letter. After drying, the muddy mixture holds its form and begins to sprout grass from the organic material. PrintGREEN’s slogan is a twist on the old conservationist motto, “think before you print,” telling their audience to “print, because it is green.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Tiny 3D Printers Of Maker Faire
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/02/the-tiny-3d-printers-of-maker-faire/
Building a big 3D printer has its own challenges. The strength of materials does not scale linearly, of course, and long axes have a tendency to wobble. That said, building a bigbot isn’t hard – stepper motors and aluminum extrusion are made for industry, and you can always get a larger beam or a more powerful motor. [James] is going in the opposite direction. He’s building tiny, half-scale printers. They’re small, they’re adorable, and they have design challenges all their own.
http://minirap.com/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Maker Faire Multicolor and Multi Material 3D Printing
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/03/maker-faire-multicolor-and-multi-material-3d-printing/
The next frontier of desktop 3D printing is multi-material and multi-color prints. Right now, you can buy a dual toolhead for a Lulzbot, and dual toolheads from other companies exist, although they are a bit rare. In the next few years, we’re going to see a lot of printers able to print dissolvable supports and full-color 3D printers.
Printing in more than one color is almost here, but that doesn’t mean we’re on the cusp of a complete revolution. Multi-material printing is lagging a little bit behind; you’ll be able to print two colors of PLA next year, but printing an object in PLA and ABS is going to be a bit tricky. Printing something in PLA and nylon will be very hard. Color mixing, likewise, will be tricky. We can do it, the tools are getting there, but think of this year as a preview of what we’ll be doing in five years.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DIY Nozzle Socks For Your 3D Printer
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/03/diy-nozzle-socks-for-your-3d-printer/
If you have a 3D printer, your nozzle and heater block are invariably covered in a weird goo consisting of decomposed and burnt plastic. There’s only one way around this – a nozzle sock, or a silicone boot that wraps around the heater block and stops all that goo from accumulating.
The mold itself is taken from the mechanical drawings of the E3D Volcano hotend,
The mold is sprayed with release, filled with silicone goo, and slowly brought together. After a few hours, the silicone has cured, can be removed from the mold, and the flash can be cut away from the finished part.
DIY E3D Volcano Silicone Sleeve
http://imgur.com/gallery/vHDmL
Tomi Engdahl says:
Basement 3D Printer Builds Are Too Easy. Try Building One on Mars.
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/05/basement-3d-printer-builds-are-too-easy-try-building-one-on-mars/
Elon Musk] envisions us sending one million people to Mars in your lifetime. Put aside the huge number or challenges in that goal — we’re going to need a lot of places to live. That’s a much harder problem than colonization where mature trees were already standing, begging to become planks in your one-room hut. Nope, we need to build with what’s already up there, and preferably in a way that prepares structures before their inhabitants arrive. NASA is on it, and by on it, we mean they need you to figure it out as part of their 3D Printed Hab Challenge.
NASA’s Centennial Challenges: 3-D Printed Habitat Challenge
http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/centennial_challenges/3DPHab/index.html
NASA and its partners are seeking ways to advance the additive construction technology needed to create sustainable housing for deep space exploration, including the agency’s journey to Mars.
Tomi Engdahl says:
LED Bulb-shade Cityscapes
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/05/led-bulb-shade-cityscapes/
Cost-effective LED lighting for your home has opened up many doors for more efficient living, but also some more creative illumination for your living space. If you want to bring the dazzle of city lights right into your home, [David Grass] has two projects to sate this desire in perhaps the most literal way possible: Huddle and Stalaclights.
These clever, 3D printed bulbshades are possible since LEDs emit very little heat, and can be printed in a variety of designs
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tiny Smoothies At Maker Faire
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/05/tiny-smoothies-at-maker-faire/
For almost the last decade, desktop 3D printing has, at its heart, been centered around 8-bit microcontrollers. The ATmegas and other Atmel chips are good enough to move a few steppers and squirt some plastic. With faster processors, you get smoother acceleration, leading to better prints. Modern ARM devices have a lot of peripherals, allowing for onboard WiFi and Ethernet connectivity. The future is 32-bit print controllers.
Right now there are a few 32-bit controllers, from the very weird, out-of-nowhere controller for the Monoprice Mini 3D printer to the more traditional SmoothieBoard. Only one of these boards has the open hardware cred for a proper 3D printer controller, and a this year’s Maker Faire, Cohesion3D introduced a few machine control boards built on top of Smoothie that add a few interesting features and techniques.
In looking at these boards designed for the Smoothie firmware, it’s hard not to draw parallels between the two or three most commonly used 3D printer firmwares, and the vast ecosystem of ATmega-based 3D printer controller boards. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of printer controller boards, all designed for a different task. The RAMPS is almost a standard in itself, but if you need a 24V board, you might want to give the RUMBA a look. If, for some odd reason, you need six motor drivers, there’s a board for that too.
The ecosystem of 3D printer controller boards has filled every ecological niche, but only on the island of 8-bit microcontrollers. Over in the land of 32-bit microcontrollers, there aren’t really that many options. If anything, the offerings from Cohesion3D is the first generation of boards after the introduction of the Smoothieboard.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printing Real People Is Scary
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/09/3d-printing-real-people-is-scary/
There are only two ways of creating two perfect copies of a person: 3D printing and twins. 3D printing magician [Simon] the Sorcerer 3D-printerer uses his secret knowledge to create the perfect illusion: A 3D-printing-real-people prank.
3D print your girlfriend – Prank
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMeODpNg_k8
Tomi Engdahl says:
Half the plastic in HP’s new 3D printer is 3D printed | Technology | The Guardian
http://www.epanorama.net/newepa/2016/10/09/half-the-plastic-in-hps-new-3d-printer-is-3d-printed-technology-the-guardian/
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/04/hp-3d-printer
Tomi Engdahl says:
ORNL, Boeing Win World Record For Biggest 3D-Printed Piece
http://www.designnews.com/document.asp?doc_id=281784&itc=dn_analysis_element&&cid=nl.x.dn14.edt.aud.dn.20161012.tst004c
The number of techniques for making large-scale parts with 3D printing and additive manufacturing (AM) is growing along with part size. We’ve reported on several, including Sciaky’s, the Stratasys Infinite Build demonstrator, and the Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) machine developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), used to 3D print the composite Strati car at IMTS 2014.
The biggest of all, according to Guinness World Records, is a 3D-printed trim and drill tool that measures 17.5 ft x 5.5 ft x 1.5 ft. It now holds the world record for the largest solid 3D-printed item. Researchers at ORNL built the tool to be evaluated by Boeing for use in constructing the aircraft leader’s 777X passenger jet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printed Electric Longboard Courtesy Of Stratasys
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/11/3d-printed-electric-longboard-courtesy-of-stratasys/
[Tallaustin] worked at Stratasys as an intern this past summer. They let him know that he was welcome to use their fancy industrial printers as much as he’d like. Not to waste such an opportunity he promptly got to work and designed an electric longboard, printable for a mere $8,000.
https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/56jucy/check_out_my_custom_3d_printed_longboard_printed/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Blooming Flower Lamp Will Test Your 3D Printer
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/11/blooming-flower-lamp-will-test-your-3d-printer/
[ossum] has a baby on the way. He admits that he got a bit carried away, brimming with parental excitement. What resulted is a fully articulated LED WiFi lamp that blooms and glows dramatically in the friendly confines of the oncoming baby’s room.
Blooming Marvelous Flower Lamp
http://www.instructables.com/id/Blooming-Marvelous-Flower-Lamp/
I decided to make a 3D printed night-light for my soon-to-be-born baby girl’s room and, as is the norm with my projects, I got a bit carried away, so I present to you the fully-articulated, wifi-enabled, 3d-printed night-light (patent not pending).
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D printers sold this year, almost 456 thousand pieces. This is more than double compared to last year. Growth will be exactly 108 percent.
Gartner estimates that in 2020 sold more than 6.7 million 3D-printer.
Currently, 3D printers are used in the manufacture of prototypes, production assistance and to some extent also for the manufacture of end products.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5218:3d-tulostimien-myynti-kasvaa-kaksinkertaiseksi&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: 3D Prints For The Visually Impaired
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/19/hackaday-prize-entry-3d-prints-for-the-visually-impaired/
Students with visual impairments can have difficulty with visual and spatial relationships. 3D printers can print almost everything, and with a lot of CAD work, this project in the Hackaday Prize provides these students with physical objects to learn any subject.
3D Prints for Teachers of the Visually Impaired
https://hackaday.io/project/11312-3d-prints-for-teachers-of-the-visually-impaired
Visually impaired students can make great use of 3D prints to learn just about any subject, but their teachers need help making good models.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Print Your Own Sith Lightsaber for Halloween
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1392&doc_id=281861&cid=nl.x.dn14.edt.aud.dn.20161021.tst004c
A new design for a DIY Star Wars Sith Lightsaber hilt is heftier and better-looking than most others out there, according to its maker, Sean Charlesworth. You can 3D print it from free source files, and there’s even a hardware kit available — not free — so you can build one just in time for Halloween.
Charlesworth used the Form 2 desktop SLA (stereolithography) 3D printer and some new, updated resins from Formlabs
You can download the files here free from Pinshape.com. Charlesworth is also selling a limited number of hardware kits for the cutaway lightsaber on Etsy.
Custom Cutaway Saber Hilt
https://pinshape.com/items/24930-3d-printed-custom-cutaway-saber-hilt
Tomi Engdahl says:
Researchers sabotage 3D printer files to destroy a drone
https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/21/researchers-sabotage-3d-printer-files-to-destroy-a-drone/?ncid=rss
Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), the University of South Alabama, and Singapore University of Technology and Design have successfully injected malicious code into a computer which, in turn, added invisible commands to a file containing a 3D model of a drone propeller. When they printed the model and attached it to the drone, the propeller broke upon take-off. This killed the drone.
In short, the exploit, codenamed Dr0wned, was able to modify a digital file that, in turn, destroyed a physical device.
“Imagine that an adversary can sabotage functional parts employed in an airplane’s jet engines. Such an attack could cost lives, cause economic loss, disrupt industry, and threaten a country’s national security,” said researcher Yuval Elovici, a professor at BGU. “With the growth of additive manufacturing worldwide, we believe the ability to conduct malicious sabotage of these systems will attract the attention of many adversaries, ranging from criminal gangs to state actors, who will aim either for profit or for geopolitical power.”
The attack works by hiding instructions inside a model file like an STL. These instructions make the printer appear to print a normal, solid part, but with a fatal flaw.
The exploit requires control over the victim’s computer. It begins with a phishing email that encourages the user to read a PDF which is actually a piece of remote access malware. The attacker then looks for all STL files and injects code in them that weakens the parts.
While not many people are printing mission critical objects on their home 3D printers we could imagine a future in which airplane parts are transmitted to a third party for heavy-duty printing. An exploit in that chain could prove more than fatal. Luckily this is still a proof of concept and the only thing hurt is an innocent but expensive drone.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Harvard Researchers Print World’s First Heart-on-a-Chip
http://gizmodo.com/harvard-researchers-print-world-s-first-heart-on-a-chip-1788156733?rev=1477336961532&utm_campaign=socialflow_gizmodo_twitter&utm_source=gizmodo_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow
Scientists may soon be able to conduct experiments on hearts without needing once-living tissue and muscle from animals. In a new study published today in Nature Materials, Harvard University researchers announced they’ve created the first 3D-printed heart-on-a-chip capable of collecting data about how reliably a heart is beating.
The printed organ is made of synthetic material designed to mimic the structure and function of native tissue. It is not designed to replace failing human organs, but it can be used for scientific studies, something that is expected to rapidly increase research on new medicine. The medical breakthrough may also allow scientists to rapidly design organs-on-chips to match specific disease properties or even a patient’s cells.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: A Big, Inexpensive 3D Printer
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/24/hackaday-prize-entry-a-big-inexpensive-3d-printer/
RigTig’s Big 3D Printer
A DIY 3D printer (big volume, inexpensive, lightweight and portable).
https://hackaday.io/project/13420-rigtigs-big-3d-printer
RigTig’s Big 3D Printer (RB3DP) is a machine for placing material in 3 dimensions. The effector (printing head) hangs from three strings. The length of each string is adjusted by a small stepper motor, so the effector moves in 3D space.
The weight of the effector is counter-balanced by weights on pulleys on each string, so the small stepper does not need to provide much torque to actually position each string.
Many types of effectors are possible. Several have been tried with limited success. This project is about getting useful effectors in the scale of metres rather than millimetres as well as refining the 3D positioning of a string-based 3D printer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D-Printed ‘Heart-on-a-Chip’ Offers Hope for End of Animal Testing
First ever entirely 3D-printed organ-on-a-chip collects data on how strongly the heart is beating.
http://europe.newsweek.com/3d-printed-heart-chip-offers-hope-end-animal-testing-513368?rm=eu
The first ever fully 3D-printed ‘heart-on-a-chip’ has been developed by researchers, offering a synthetic alternative for the living tissue that is currently used in animal testing.
Harvard scientists created the breakthrough device using printable inks that contain sensors designed to measure how the tissue responds to drugs and toxins.
“This new programmable approach to building organs-on-chips not only allows us to easily change and customize the design of the system by integrating sensing but also drastically simplifies data acquisition,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
8 New 3D Printing Materials Are Just in Time for Halloween
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1392&doc_id=281757&cid=nl.x.dn14.edt.aud.dn.20161031.tst004c
Our latest crop of 3D printing materials is mostly a collection of tough, strong, often heat-resistant filaments made for professional engineers and industrial products.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NAVAIR Flies First 3D-Printed Safety-Critical Part
http://www.designnews.com/document.asp?doc_id=281630
The first 3D-printed flight-critical part to fly on a Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) plane was a success. The recent flight demonstration tested a titanium 3D-printed link and fitting assembly for the engine nacelle of an MV-22B Osprey military aircraft, which will stay on the plane for continued evaluation in future
The test flight at Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland was the first time a US Navy aircraft has flown with a part made with additive manufacturing (AM) that’s considered essential to maintaining a safe flight. This metal link and fitting assembly is one of four that attach the V-22′s engine nacelle to the primary wing structure.
“The flight went great. I never would have known that we had anything different onboard.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Variable Thickness Slicing For 3D Printers
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/03/variable-thickness-slicing-for-3d-printers/
With proper tuning, any 3D printer can create exceptionally detailed physical replicas of digital files. The time it takes for a printer to print an object at very high detail is another matter entirely. The lower the layer height, the more layers must be printed, and the longer a print takes to print.
Thanks to [Steve Kranz] at Autodesk’s Integrated Additive Manufacturing Team, there’s now a solution to the problem of very long, very high-quality prints. It’s called VariSlice, and it slices 3D in a way that’s only high quality where it needs to be.
The basic idea behind VariSlice is to print vertical walls at a maximum layer height, while very shallow angles – the top of a sphere, for example – are printed at a very low layer height.
Nevertheless, the VariSlice algorithm is now one of Autodesk’s open source efforts, just like the Ember resin printer used in the example
VariSlice™ — Variable Layer Slicing for 3D Printing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAmneiL5-jQ
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printer Tragedy Claims a Life
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/03/3d-printer-tragedy-claims-a-life/
proximate cause was a 3D printer makes it all the worse and important for us to discuss.
The BBC report tells of a recently concluded coroner’s inquest into the December death of a young man in a fire at his family’s magic shop in Lincolnshire. The building was gutted by the fire, and the victim died of smoke inhalation. The inquest found that he had been working with a 3D printer in the shop and using hairspray to prepare the bed, a tip he apparently picked up from forums and blogs.
Hair spray and 3D printer led to Lincoln magic shop death blast
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-37859495
Tom Taylor died when a spark ignited a cloud of propane created by the spray at his family’s magic shop on De Wint Avenue, Lincoln, on 21 December.
Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue’s Ian Woods told the hearing the teenager had been using hairspray to stick items to a 3D printer, something he had seen online.
He said propane had built up in the small office
A spark either from the printer or from an electric supply ignited the propane causing a flash of superheated gases
Tomi Engdahl says:
NASA Puts its 3D Models Up on GitHub
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/08/nasa-puts-its-3d-models-up-on-github/
NASA has a bunch of its 3D models up on GitHub, and if you didn’t know about it before, you do now. It’s a ridiculously large download, at over one and a half jiggabytes, but it’s full of textures and high-resolution models of spacecraft, landing sites, and other random NASA ephemera.
there are STL files galore in the “3D Printing” folder. These include a printable Curiosity rover, the famous 3D-printed ratchet wrench, and more.
NASA-3D-Resources
https://github.com/nasa/NASA-3D-Resources
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fail of the Week: Upcycling Failed 3D Prints
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/08/fail-of-the-week-upcycling-failed-3d-prints/
Is it possible to upcycle failed 3D prints? As it turns out, it is — as long as your definition of “recycle” is somewhat flexible. After all, the world only needs so many coasters.
Can You Recycle Failed 3D Prints?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-HWrDMr0ks
In this episode I document the beginning of my journey to recycle my 3D printing scraps into something useful…ish
Tomi Engdahl says:
PCB 3D-printing is soon working
Electronica – An Israeli Nano Dimension is the first company that is gaining market circuit card capable of 3D printing hardware. CEO Simon Fried, the first commercial installations delivered next year in the third quarter. – This is just the beginning, Fried enthuses.
Until now, the Nano Dimension has provided customers with two beta hardware: one Israeli defense technology company which develops and another 3D-printing competence center in San Francisco. None of the cheap jars is not the case.
- We have not yet put their future prices of the lock devices, but talk about a few hundred thousand dollars.
In general, 3D printing is considered as a slow quick modeling
- If you commission a prototype circuit board somewhere, it will take several days. We need the same to the printer takes only a few hours or overnight.
Gerber output file to the 3D printer can understand. And, of course, ink that can not only print the conductor, the insulation surrounding it.
- If the printed substrate from the thin, must be flexible to flex card. Rigid-type of solution will be when printed on a thicker base
3D Printing is obviously not suitable for rapid mass production and print just the densest high-end cards. If you talk about the prototype card, which led to and are spaced about 100 microns in width, the FireFly is ideal for the production of fine.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5376:piirikorttien-3d-tulostaminen-on-pian-arkipaivaa&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printing Permanent Magnets
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/12/3d-printing-permanent-magnets/
Researchers at TU Wien wanted to create magnets with exactly the right magnetic field for a particular application. Their solution? 3D printing of magnets. Previously, it has been difficult to produce permanent magnets with a specific shape of the magnetic field. The resulting magnets will be a boon to magnetic sensor construction.
Previously, after designing a magnet with a specific shape and magnetic field, a researcher would have to create tooling for injection molding.
The new technique uses filament that contains magnetic microgranules. The filament is about 10% plastic and 90% magnetic material. While it is in the filament (and in the printer), the material is not magnetized. At the end of the print, a strong magnetic field magnetizes the finished product.
3D-Printed Magnets
https://www.tuwien.ac.at/en/news/news_detail/article/124429/
How can you produce a magnet with exactly the right magnetic field? TU Wien has a solution: for the first time, magnets can be made with a 3D printer.
Tiny magnetic particles in the polymer matrix
Now, there is a much simpler method: the first-ever 3D printer which can be used to produce magnetic materials, created at TU Wien. 3D printers which generate plastic structures have existed for some time, and the magnet printer functions in much the same way. The difference is that the magnet printer uses specially produced filaments of magnetic micro granulate, which is held together by a polymer binding material. The printer heats the material and applies it point by point in the desired locations using a nozzle. The result is a three-dimensional object composed of roughly 90% magnetic material and 10% plastic.
The end product is not yet magnetic, however, because the granulate is deployed in an unmagnetised state. At the very end of the process, the finished article is exposed to a strong external magnetic field, converting it into a permanent magnet.
“This method allows us to process various magnetic materials, such as the exceptionally strong neodymium iron boron magnets,”
Not only is this new process fast and cost-effective, it also opens up new possibilities which would be inconceivable with other techniques: you can use different materials within a single magnet to create a smooth transition between strong and weak magnetism, for instance.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Direct To Object 3D Printing
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/16/direct-to-object-3d-printing/
As the patents for fused-filament 3D printers began to expire back in 2013, hackers and makers across the globe started making 3D objects in their garages, workshops and hackerspaces. Entire industries and businesses have sprung up from the desktop 3D printing revolution, and ushered in a new era for the do-it-yourself community. Over the past couple of years, hackers have been pushing the limits of the technology by working with ever more exotic filament materials and exploring novel and innovative ways to make multi-colored 3D prints. One of the areas lagging behind the revolution, however, is finishing the 3D print into a final product.
Meet Xerox’s $145,000 Answer
As you might have guessed, someone has already provided a solution to this problem, but it’s not what you’d expect. Less than 90 days ago, Xerox introduced its Direct-to-Object printer that can print on objects as small as a Nuka Cola cap and as large as a football helmet. They’re custom made for your product, and cost about as much as a house. With a maximum resolution of 1,200 DPI and an output of 30 objects an hour, it’s an impressive machine.
https://www.news.xerox.com/news/Xerox-Direct-to-Object-Inkjet-Printer