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:
Chilling drinks with your friends’ faces
http://hackaday.com/2011/03/07/chilling-drinks-with-your-friends-faces/
3D printing of Kinect-mapped models seems to be all the rage lately.
His software allows you to aim the Kinect and capture a 3D scan of any object, after which you need to use MeshLab or similar software to turn the scan into a STL file for printing. He says that the process is a bit tedious at the moment, but he is working hard to condense it down into a single step.
Tomi says:
Repairing broken injection molded parts with a 3D printer
http://hackaday.com/2013/03/15/repairing-broken-injection-molded-parts-with-a-3d-printer/
The value of a 3D printer is obvious for people who hack hardware as a hobby. But this repair project should drive home their usefulness for the commoner. [James Bruton] used a 3D printer to recreate a hopelessly broken injection molded plastic part.
The replacement starts by measuring the broken part with precision calipers. [James] then grabbed a copy of 123D, which is free software. He starts by modeling
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D-Printed Weapons & the Consequences
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1394&doc_id=255741&cid=NL_Newsletters+-+DN+Daily
At-home 3D printing is on the rise, and what was once just a lofty promise is now a reality. More and more hobbyists are acquiring affordable printers, such as the Makerbot Replicator 2 and the RapMan Universal 3D (single/dual head) printer, to manufacture just about everything from toys to working clocks.
Some hobbyists have used these printers for fast-prototyping items that are controversial — or even deadly. It comes as no surprise that some would attempt to replicate weapons systems (or at least parts of them) in an effort to create a fully functional gun.
The problems with 3D-printed firearms aren’t limited to catastrophic failure. (It takes only one bullet to kill.) There is also the issue of legality. No federal laws address manufacturing weapons with 3D printers, so anyone owning a printer could make a weapon — even if they’re not allowed to own one. The ATF considers the rifle’s lower receiver as the firearm; anyone can purchase the upper receiver, barrel, etc.
The 1988 Undetectable Firearms Act prohibits the manufacturing or possession of guns that can’t be picked up by airport metal detectors. This creates a loophole for hobbyists. Firearms typically require metal parts (barrel, springs, bolt, etc.) to function, and those parts can be detected.
Like it or not, the seed of printing weapons has been planted, and the idea is sure to gain momentum through hobbyists in the near future — until federal laws are enacted to gain control over the issue. It’s only a matter of time before a printed weapon is used in a crime. Then all hell will break loose.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D-Printed Hybrid Car Drives Toward Mass Production
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=260399&cid=NL_Newsletters+-+DN+Daily
With major car manufacturers like Daimler and Ford already exploring the use of 3D printing for prototyping car parts, it seems inevitable that a road-worthy 3D-printed car is not too far on the horizon.
The future could arrive soon thanks to KOR EcoLogic, which has teamed with Stratasys’s RedEye On Demand 3D printing business unit to fabricate a lightweight electric car that could take to the streets in about two years.
Urbee, meant to be the first 3D-printed car, is a two-person, lightweight hybrid that ideally will be made of recyclable plastic and capable of reaching a speed of 70 mph on the freeway using a combination of electricity, and if Kor has his way, a biofuel like 100-percent ethanol.
The team is now tweaking the design and deciding on material choice for Urbee 2, which likely will be some form of recyclable plastic, he said.
The aim for Urbee 2 once it’s been fabricated is for someone to drive from San Francisco to New York on just 10 gallons of fuel, setting a new world record.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nanoscale 3D Printer Now Commercially Available
http://science.slashdot.org/story/13/03/17/1924216/nanoscale-3d-printer-now-commercially-available
” Nanoscribe’s machine can produce tiny 3D printed objects that are only the width of a single human hair.”
A 3D Printed Spaceship On The Scale Of A Human Hair? Hello Nanoscribe 3D Printer
http://singularityhub.com/2013/03/17/a-3d-printed-spaceship-on-the-scale-of-a-human-hair-hello-nanoscribe-3d-printer/
3D printing has become one of the most exciting and talked about technologies of 2013
Regardless of the application, the challenge in manufacturing at the submicron scale is fabricating structures in a precise, rapid, and consistent fashion. Even though 3D printing is just getting started, the race for the fastest, most capable printer is already on.
For their fabrications, both Nanoscribe and the Austrian researchers utilize a two-photon lithographic printing technique using a laser and rotating mirrors.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Drilling into 3D printing: Gimmick, revolution or spooks’ nightmare?
Top prof sorts the hype from the science for El Reg
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/03/19/woudhuysen_on_3d_printing/
Special report 3D printing, otherwise known as additive manufacturing, is a subject that pumps out enthusiasts faster than any real-life 3D printer can churn out products.
In conventional machining, computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CADCAM) combine to make products or parts of products by cutting away at, drilling and otherwise manhandling materials. With 3D printing, CADCAM works with product scanners, other bits of IT and special plastics and metals to build products up, whether through the squirts of an inkjet-like device or the sintering of metal powder by lasers or electron beams.
Rather in the same way, America’s somewhat self-conscious Maker Movement – several thousand DIY fans out to revive manufacturing through the web and from the privacy of their own garages – promotes 3D printing with layer upon layer of hype.
It’s true that 3D printing has its good points.
In principle, though not always in practice, 3D wastes less material than conventional techniques. And while jewellery, toys, footwear, the cases for mobile phones and other smallish items lend themselves to 3D, researchers at the European aerospace and defence giant EADS have for two years hoped that they will one day be able to print titanium components directly on to the structure of an entire wing of an Airbus.
Despite all this, those who blithely proclaim that 3D printing brings a revolution to manufacturing make a mistake. 3D printing does not represent a pervasive, durable and penetrating transformation of the dynamics and status of manufacturing.
Nor, as The Economist newspaper has proposed, is its emergence akin to the birth of the printing press (1450), the steam engine (1750) or the transistor (1950).
There is much to celebrate about 3D printing, and even its too-fervent advocates at least represent a reasonable desire to produce new kinds of things in new kinds of ways. Yet what characterises 3D printing is how, as with other powerful technologies today, it need only barely arrive on the world economic stage for zealots to overrate it, and for others to turn it into an object of fear.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D printing firm is licensed to make and sell firearms
Seeks additional licence to produce a wide range of guns
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2255484/3d-printing-firm-is-licensed-to-make-and-sell-firearms
3D PRINTABLE GUN PROJECT Defense Distributed has acquired a federal license to make and sell firearms in the US.
“Look who now has a license to manufacture firearms! The work begins!”
With US government approval, Wilson will be able to distribute guns, but as a firearms dealer the company must keep records of gun production and all transactions.
Defense Ditributed has been producing 3D printed gun prototypes for a while, including an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, which is allowed under US law without a licence.
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fleshlight…
Tomi Engdahl says:
The ATF Has Yet to Be Convinced That 3D-Printed Guns Compare to the Real Thing
http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/the-atf-is-unconvinced-3d-guns-compare-to-real-thing
“We are aware of all the 3D printing of firearms and have been tracking it for quite a while,” Earl Woodham, spokesperson for the ATF field office in Charlotte, told me. “Our firearms technology people have looked at it, and we have not yet seen a consistently reliable firearm made with 3D printing.”
And despite ongoing speculation in the media, 3D printing guns is legal. More importantly, considering the design files have already been disseminated throughout the web, banning 3D-printed gun parts wouldn’t do much to stop their manufacture.
Despite what the ATF says, these 3D-printed guns have gotten pretty good, too.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
A Substance Called Carbomorph Is The Key To 3-D Printing Entire Electronic Gadgets
http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2012-11/3-d-printing-consumer-electronics-just-grew-lot-closer-reality
For a long time now, the ability to print electronic circuitry and components on commercially available 3-D printers has been viewed as the development that will thrust 3-D printing out of its current nascent maker space and into the mainstream of both manufacturing and home fabrication. And while it’s already been demonstrated on specialized printers in the lab, researcher at the University of Warwick in the UK have developed a low-cost material they’ve named “carbomorph” that is conductive, piezoresistive, and printable in currently available, consumer-affordable 3-D printers.
Carbomorph is essentially a carbon filler within a matrix of biodegradable polyester
Tomi Engdahl says:
Optomec Aerosol Jet 3d printed electronics
http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.fi/2013/02/optomec-aerosol-jet-3d-printed.html
In video bellow Stratasys 3D Printer is used to created the wing structure for an Unmanned Air Vehcile (UAV). Then an Optomec Aerosol Jet System is used to print electronics onto the wing structure including an RF antennae, sensor, and circuitry to power a propeller and LED. All electronic are functional. The RF antennae broadcasts live video from a camera to remote display screen.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Gartner Says Early Adopters of 3D Printing Technology Could Gain an Innovation Advantage Over Rivals
http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2388415
By 2016, Enterprise-Class 3D Printers Will Be Available for Under $2,000
Tomi Engdahl says:
National Additive Manufacturing Institute Funds First Projects
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1392&doc_id=260918
The federally funded National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute (NAMII) has awarded funds to its first member projects in applied R&D. The seven projects include several different additive manufacturing (AM) processes and both metal and polymer materials.
Founded in August last year, NAMII is the first of 15 planned centers of excellence aimed at revitalizing US manufacturing in the defense, energy, space, and commercial sectors.
NAMII’s formation highlights the fact that 3D printing and AM are now seen as major contributors to US economic health, as does the fact that they were featured in President Obama’s state of the union address last month.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Researchers Build 3D Printer That Makes Tissue-Like Material
http://science.slashdot.org/story/13/04/05/0232217/researchers-build-3d-printer-that-makes-tissue-like-material
“3-D printers don’t build only solid objects anymore. They also build liquid objects, thanks to a research team at the University of Oxford. The group custom crafted a 3-D printer to squirt tiny liquid droplets from its nozzles.”
Liquid Scaffolds From A 3-D Printer
Materials Science: Patterned droplet structures might one day help grow artificial tissue
http://cen.acs.org/articles/91/i14/Liquid-Scaffolds-3-D-Printer.html
REPORT
A Tissue-Like Printed Material
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/340/6128/48
Tomi Engdahl says:
Resin-Based 3-D Printer Adds $290K With Second Kickstarter Campaign
http://www.wired.com/design/2013/04/b9-creator-v1-1/
Inventor Michael Joyce has developed a 3-D printer that uses an off-the-shelf data projector to create amazingly complex and detailed models instead of displaying tedious PowerPoint slides. Now he’s brought his product, the B9 Creator, back to Kickstarter for a second successful campaign with over $290,000 in pledges following a $514,422 haul from June 2012.
The B9 Creator uses light cast from the projector to harden liquid resin into high-resolution plastic parts. Generally, it’s a similar process to what Formlabs‘ Form 1 machine does, the main difference is the Form 1 traces the outline of a part with a laser while the B9 Creator projects a rasterized image onto a vat of resin. This technique allows the B9 Creator to build up to 20mm per hour in height, independent of the X/Y dimensions of the model.
It’s also pricier than other systems, both in hardware cost and the printable material — a 2.2 pound container of resin costs $84.00 while an equivalent amount of plastic for the MakerBot only costs $48.00.
The second generation B9 Creator is mostly the same as the original
Still, despite his confidence that the B9 Creator doesn’t infringe on any patents he admits “We’re small enough that we’re probably not worth the effort.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Working 3D printed stepper motor
http://hackaday.com/2013/04/13/working-3d-printed-stepper-motor/
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D-Printed Gun May Be Unveiled Soon
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/04/26/0026259/3d-printed-gun-may-be-unveiled-soon
“A 3D-printed gun capable of firing multiple rounds may be unveiled soon. Cody Wilson, the 25-year-old founder and director of nonprofit organization Defense Distributed, recently told Mashable”
” the prototype would be a handgun consisting of 12 parts made out of ABS+ thermoplastic”
“The firing pin would be the only steel component of the 3D-printed gun, which will be able to withstand a few shots before melting or breaking.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
A new brick in the Great Wall
Additive manufacturing is growing apace in China
http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21576626-additive-manufacturing-growing-apace-china-new-brick-great-wall
Though it is not yet ready for use in mass production (building things up is slower than trimming them down), 3D printing is excellent for making prototypes, customised jobs and short production runs, for there is no need to retool each time the specification changes. All that need be done is to alter the software that controls the print heads.
Western countries led the development of 3D printing, and the technique has been praised by Barack Obama as a way to revive America’s manufacturing industries. It may yet do so. But the extent to which that revival will be brought about by the return to America of production which has migrated to countries like China is harder to predict—for China has plans of its own.
Keep your powder dry
At the moment AFS is in the prototyping business. Its customers are mainly aerospace firms and vehicle-makers that need experimental designs turned into metal quickly. The powders in its machines’ hoppers are plastics, waxes and foundry sand. The results are sent off to foundries, where they are used to make moulds for the sand-casting of metal objects.
3D printing is still a long way from replacing mass manufacturing. But in China, as in America and Europe, the technology is changing the way products are developed and made. And by lowering the cost of entry, 3D printing could herald yet another new generation of Chinese manufacturing entrepreneurs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D print your next headphones
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/20-20khz/4412735/3D-print-your-next-headphones
In an interesting technology demonstration, someone has created a set of headphones using no manufactured parts – just a 3D printer and a few raw materials. While the result isn’t going to cause the likes of a Sennheiser or AKG Acoustics to lose any sleep anytime soon, it does hint at the amazing potential that affordable 3D printing promises to bring to end consumers.
In this case, the “Low Fi Hi Tech” headphones were created using only wire, tape, solder, magnets and of course 3D printed parts. The headphone drivers themselves were 3D printed – as thin printed parts with spiral slots in which copper wire thread was inserted – as was the headphone driver casing and headband. The latter was made using a flexible spring structured material.
jack – is 3D printed
Tomi says:
MakerBot Founder: 3D Printing and the “Next Industrial Revolution”
http://gizmodo.com/makerbot-founder-3d-printing-is-the-next-industrial-5995219
You can 3D print just about anything, from dresses to snowboards to a human face. A big part of the reason 3D printing is closing in on the mainstream is thanks to MakerBot, which is equipping anyone with an imagination—and $2,200 for a MakerBot Replicator—to print the physical manifestations of their dreams.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Slideshow: The Best Things to Come Out of a 3D Printer
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=262309
It seems as if everything these days is being 3D printed. We have seen many different items — bathing suits, shoes, and even guns and cars — 3D printed and it is truly transforming how we are making things.
With the price of 3D printers coming down, more people will be able to bring them into their home and really start experimenting. The amount of things that we can create with 3D printers looks to be limitless.
Some of our favorite 3D printed items we have discovered over the years are KOR EcoLogic and Stratasys’ energy-efficient Urbee car, LayerWise’s jaw that was used in a transplant, and Stratasys’ dress that was featured on the Paris runway.
Tomi Engdahl says:
iPhone case with working gears to pass the time on old-school toys instead of apps.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:40190
Tomi says:
Despite Skepticism, Cody Wilson Successfully 3D-Printed an Entire Gun
http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/despite-skepticism-cody-wilson-successfully-3d-printed-entire-gun
A month ago when Motherboard released Click, Print, Gun, a documentary about Cody Wilson and his quest to build a 3D-printed gun, plenty of people doubted this 25-year-old law student’s ambition.
Look who’s laughing now. On Friday morning, Forbes’s Andy Greenberg published photos of the world’s first* completely 3D-printed gun. It has a 3D-printed handle, a 3D-printed trigger, a 3D-printed body and a 3D-printed barrel, all made of polymer. It’s not completely plastic, though. So as not to violate the Undetectable Firearms Act and guarantee it would get spotted by a metal detector, Wilson and friends embedded a six-ounce hunk of steel inside the gun. They’re calling it “The Liberator.”
“Security checkpoints, background checks, and gun regulations will do little good if criminals can print plastic firearms at home and bring those firearms through metal detectors with no one the wiser,” said the congressman in a press release issued after the Forbes story broke the news. “When I started talking about the issue of plastic firearms months ago, I was told the idea of a plastic gun is science-fiction. Now that this technology is proven, we need to act now to extend the ban [on] plastic firearms.”
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Tomi Engdahl says:
The first 3d printed gun has been fired, and I don’t care.
http://hackaday.com/2013/05/06/the-first-3d-printed-gun-has-been-fired-and-i-dont-care/
Several people have sent us this story. I’ve seen it everywhere. A lot of people are upset, on several sides. A gun has been 3d printed that can actually fire a round.
First, we have people scared that this will bring undetectable guns to people who wouldn’t have had access before. Then we have the gun fans that are reacting to the others with shouts of freedom and liberty and stuff. The 3d printing community has had mixed reactions, but many are concerned that this will harm 3d printing in general.
I simply don’t care.
I just think that this specific event makes no difference at all. It is intriguing in the aspect that it is yet another “First!” for the 3d printer community, but beyond that I don’t care, keep the “firsts” coming.
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Tomi says:
State Department Demands Takedown Of 3D-Printable Gun Files For Possible Export Control Violations
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/05/09/state-department-demands-takedown-of-3d-printable-gun-for-possible-export-control-violation/
The battle for control of dangerous digital shapes may have just begun.
On Thursday, Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson received a letter from the State Department Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance demanding that he take down the online blueprints for the 3D-printable “Liberator” handgun that his group released Monday, along with nine other 3D-printable firearms components hosted on the group’s website Defcad.org.
“Until the Department provides Defense Distributed with final [commodity jurisdiction] determinations, Defense Distributed should treat the above technical data as ITAR-controlled,”
While Defense Distributed says it will take down the gun’s printable file from Defcad.org
It’s not clear whether the file will be taken off Mega’s servers, where it may remain available for download.
Tomi says:
White House looks to 3D printing with $200 million plan for military, energy manufacturing
http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/9/4315720/white-house-looks-to-3d-printing-with-200-million-plan-for-military
The White House is looking to 3D printing as a model to revitalize the American manufacturing industry. Oh, and to help design new weapons and equipement for the military. That’s the basis of a new $200 million public-private initiative announced by the White House this morning, which will create three new advanced manufacturing centers around the country. The White House is opening a competitive bidding process to universities and companies to host these centers, but all three will be modeled after a 3D printing institute launched in Ohio late last year, also funded by the government.
Tomi says:
Downloads for 3D-printed Liberator gun reach 100,000
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22464360
The blueprint used to produce a 3D-printed plastic gun has been downloaded about 100,000 times since going online earlier this week, according to Forbes.
Californian senator Leland Yee said he wanted a law passed to stop the manufacture of 3D-printed guns.
“I plan to introduce legislation that will ensure public safety and stop the manufacturing of guns that are invisible to metal detectors and that can be easily made without a background check,” he said in a statement.
According to Defense Distributed, most of the 100,000 downloads have been in the US, followed by Spain, Brazil, Germany and the UK.
The blueprint has also been uploaded to file-sharing site the Pirate Bay, where it has become the most popular file in the site’s 3D-printing category.
Tomi says:
The first ever hand-firing of the world’s first fully 3D-printed gun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_wfF9pZZlo
Tomi says:
Meet The ‘Liberator’: Test-Firing The World’s First Fully 3D-Printed Gun
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/05/05/meet-the-liberator-test-firing-the-worlds-first-fully-3d-printed-gun/
A tall, sandy blond engineer named John has just pulled a twenty-foot length of yellow string tied to a trigger, which has successfully fired the world’s first entirely 3D-printed gun for the very first time, rocketing a .380 caliber bullet into a berm of dirt and prairie brush.
John may have pulled the trigger, but the gun is Wilson’s brainchild.
Unlike the original, steel Liberator, though, Wilson’s weapon is almost entirely plastic: Fifteen of its 16 pieces have been created inside an $8,000 second-hand Stratasys Dimension SST 3D printer, a machine that lays down threads of melted polymer that add up to precisely-shaped solid objects just as easily as a traditional printer lays ink on a page. The only non-printed piece is a common hardware store nail used as its firing pin.
On May 1st, Wilson assembled the 3D-printed pieces of his Liberator for the first time,
The verdict: it worked. The Liberator fired a standard .380 handgun round without visible damage, though it also misfired on another occasion
The printed gun seems limited, for now, to certain calibers of ammunition.
Wilson switched out the Liberator’s barrel for a higher-charge 5.7×28 rifle cartridge.
This time the gun exploded, sending shards of white ABS plastic flying into the weeds
Defense Distributed
In March it received a federal license to manufacture firearms
And it’s complied with the Undetectable Firearms Act by inserting a six ounce cube of non-functional steel into the body of the Liberator, which makes it detectable with a metal detector
The group’s initial success in testing the Liberator may now silence some of its technical naysayers, too.
added step of treating the gun’s barrel in a jar of acetone vaporized with a pan of water and a camp stove, a process that chemically melts its surface slightly and smooths the bore
Defense Distributed’s goal is to eventually adapt its method to work on cheaper printers, too, like the $2,200 Replicator sold by Makerbot or the even cheaper, open-source RepRap.
Wilson hasn’t shied from the growing controversy around his project.
He’s received more than a dozen death threats, along with many wishes that someone would use his own 3D printed weapons to kill him. Wired included Wilson in its list of the 15 most dangerous people in the world.
Wilson denies advocating any sort of violent revolt in America. Instead, he argues that his goal is to demonstrate how technology can circumvent laws until governments simply become irrelevant.
“I recognize that this tool might be used to harm people. That’s what it is: It’s a gun,”
Tomi says:
How A Geek Dad And His 3D Printer Aim To Liberate Legos
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/04/05/how-a-geek-dad-and-his-3d-printer-aim-to-liberate-legos/
Last year Golan Levin’s son decided to build a car. Aside from the minor inconvenience of being 4 years old, the younger Levin faced an engineering challenge. His Tinkertoys, which he wanted to use for the vehicle’s frame, wouldn’t attach to his K’Nex, the pieces he wanted to use for the wheels.
In March Levin and his former student Shawn Sims released a set of digital blueprints that a 3-D printer can use to create more than 45 plastic objects, each of which provides the missing interface between pieces from toy construction sets. They call it the Free Universal Construction Kit. The tens of thousands of consumers who now own devices such as MakerBot’s $1,100 Thing-O-Matic can download those files and immediately print a plastic piece that connects their Lego bricks to their Fischertechnik girders, their Krinkles to their Duplos, or half a dozen other formerly incompatible sets of modular plastic blocks, sticks and gears.
One blog called it the “ultimate nerd dad triumph.”
But as the project’s unprintable acronym implies, Levin and Sims are out to raise hackles—particularly those of intellectual property lawyers. “This isn’t a product. It’s a provocation,” says Levin. “We should be free to invent without having to worry about infringement, royalties, going to jail or being sued and bullied by large industries. We don’t want to see what happened in music and film play out in the area of shapes.”
Levin and Sims didn’t just make near replicas of the commercial toys, they used a measurement tool called an optical comparator to copy the toys’ dimensions to within 3 microns. And then they published those models on the Web. “Our lawyers were a bit concerned,”
Levin and Sims have been more careful. The patents on all the toys integrated in their kit expired years ago. But a copyright lasts many decades longer than a patent, and that’s the cudgel lawyers are using against downloadable objects.
A Lego spokesperson says the company has no problem with Levin and Sims’ work but is keeping an eye out for printed objects that infringe on its brand.
As long as Levin and Sims stick with functional objects rather than aesthetic ones, they should be able to steer clear of copyright and trademark law
“The real lesson is the vast majority of physical things aren’t protected by intellectual property law.”
Levin calls his project a “shot across the bow” of any company that wants to limit and control how their physical designs are copied, remixed or improved in the future.
Tomi says:
Free Universal Construction Kit- 03.19.12
http://www.notcot.com/archives/2012/03/free-universal-construction-ki.php
Toys (specifically Lego, Lincoln Logs, Duplo, Fischertechnik, K’nex, Krinkles, Tinkerytoy, Zome, Zoob, Gears Gears Gears, etc) + 3D printer + Free Universal Construction Kit = MORE ways to play with your toys!
While the monster of a Universal Adapter Brick was quietly launched at Golan Levin’s Eyecode solo show at UCI’s Beall Center for Art + Technology a few months ago, it’s exciting to see the rest of the kit finally available!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Timelapse of the 3d printed gun being printed
http://hackaday.com/2013/05/16/timelapse-of-the-3d-printed-gun-being-printed/
Once the DoD requested the 3d printed gun files be removed from the internet, a couple things happened.
The Streisand Effect went into full force. The file was shared all over and can still be found easily.
I suddenly realized that I was going to be printing a 3d printed gun and doing another article on it even though I had just written an opinion piece about how I don’t care.
It initially seemed like it was going to be quick and easy. However, I quickly found that just printing this thing was going to be a time consuming and frustrating task.
1. the scale on the individual files was way off.
2. Almost every single item had errors.
Do I care now?
Nope. I climbed to the top of the fridge and got my cookies. I’m a happy child. The reality is that a zip gun is still cheaper, easier, safer, and more reliable.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tinkercad has found a new home at Autodesk
http://blog.tinkercad.com/2013/05/18/autodesk_tinkercad/
I am happy to announce that we have just signed a deal where Autodesk will purchase the Tinkercad site and core technologies. This is a great day for all Tinkercad users, Autodesk is a very enthusiastic and capable steward. There are two main impacts of this deal: the site is fully operational and Autodesk has some very exciting plans for Tinkercad.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Autodesk Purchases, Revives 3-D Design App Tinkercad
http://www.wired.com/design/2013/05/autodesk-purchases-tinkercad/
Great lamenting and gnashing of teeth ensued in March when Tinkercad announced it would be discontinuing its web-based 3-D modeling tool to focus its energies on Airstone, an interactive simulation environment. But on Saturday at Maker Faire, CAD software powerhouse Autodesk announced it is purchasing Tinkercad and reinstating the service. The move comes in time to prevent shutdown of any accounts or services, and users can start creating new accounts immediately.
Not all details are final yet, and Autodesk hasn’t disclosed the expected sum, but the move should bring some of the Tinkercad users into the Autodesk family.
“We have, in the consumer group here at Autodesk, really been focused on making 3D design accessible to everyone,” says Mary Hope McQuinston, director of marketing and partnerships at Autodesk. “So it is a fabulous and natural extension to our efforts in that category, particularly for our 123D product line.”
Tinkercad positioned itself as a low-cost, DIY alternative to CAD programs that historically held high barriers to entry, in terms of both price and skill.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3-D Printable Food Gets Funding From NASA
http://science.slashdot.org/story/13/05/21/1958237/3-d-printable-food-gets-funding-from-nasa
“According to Quartz, ‘[Anjan Contractor's] Systems & Materials Research Corporation just got a six month, $125,000 grant from NASA to create a prototype of his universal food synthesizer.”
“He sees a day when every kitchen has a 3-D printer”
“Contractor’s vision would mean the end of food waste, because the powder his system will use is shelf-stable for up to 30 years”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The audacious plan to end hunger with 3-D printed food
http://qz.com/86685/the-audacious-plan-to-end-hunger-with-3-d-printed-food/
Anjan Contractor’s 3D food printer might evoke visions of the “replicator” popularized in Star Trek, from which Captain Picard was constantly interrupting himself to order tea. And indeed Contractor’s company, Systems & Materials Research Corporation, just got a six month, $125,000 grant from NASA to create a prototype of his universal food synthesizer.
But Contractor, a mechanical engineer with a background in 3D printing, envisions a much more mundane—and ultimately more important—use for the technology. He sees a day when every kitchen has a 3D printer, and the earth’s 12 billion people feed themselves customized, nutritionally-appropriate meals synthesized one layer at a time, from cartridges of powder and oils they buy at the corner grocery store. Contractor’s vision would mean the end of food waste, because the powder his system will use is shelf-stable for up to 30 years, so that each cartridge, whether it contains sugars, complex carbohydrates, protein or some other basic building block, would be fully exhausted before being returned to the store.
If Contractor’s utopian-dystopian vision of the future of food ever comes to pass, it will be an argument for why space research isn’t a complete waste of money. His initial grant from NASA, under its Small Business Innovation Research program, is for a system that can print food for astronauts on very long space missions. For example, all the way to Mars.
In TNO’s vision of a future of 3D printed meals, “alternative ingredients” for food include:
algae
duckweed
grass
lupine seeds
beet leafs
insects
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printers For Peace Contest
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/05/22/2234212/3d-printers-for-peace-contest
“3D printing is being condemned in the media because of the potential for printing guns. Engineers at Michigan Tech believe there is far more potential for 3D printers to make our lives better rather than killing one another. To encourage thinking about constructive uses of 3D printing technology Michigan Tech Open Sustainability Technology (MOST) Lab and Type A Machines sponsor the first 3-D Printers for Peace Contest.”
3D Printers for Peace
http://www.mtu.edu/materials/printersforpeace/
3D printing is changing the world. Unfortunately, the only thing many people know about 3D printing is that it can be used to make guns. We want to celebrate designs that will make lives better, not snuff them out.
What is the Printers for Peace Contest?
We are challenging the 3D printing community to design things that advance the cause of peace. This is an open-ended contest, but if you’d like some ideas, ask yourself what Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King, or Ghandi would make if they’d had access to 3D printing.
low-cost medical devices
tools to help pull people out of poverty
designs that can reduce racial conflict
objects to improve energy efficiency or renewable energy sources to reduce wars over oil
tools that would reduce military conflict and spending while making us all safer and more secure
things that boost sustainable economic development (e.g. designs for appropriate technology in the developing world to reduce scarcity)
Tomi Engdahl says:
Homeland Security Reportedly Warns 3D-Printed Guns Are “Impossible” To Contain
http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/23/homeland-security-reportedly-warns-3d-printed-guns-are-impossible-to-contain/
A new bulletin from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warns that lethal, undetectable 3D-printed firearms may be “impossible” to contain
“Significant advances in three-dimensional (3D) printing capabilities, availability of free digital 3D printer files for firearms components, and difficulty regulating file sharing may present public safety risks from unqualified gun seekers who obtain or manufacture 3D printed guns,” reads a May 21 bulletin from the Joint Regional Intelligence Center obtained by Fox News. “Limiting access may be impossible.”
“Even if the practice is prohibited by new legislation, online distribution of these digital files will be as difficult to control as any other illegally traded music, movie or software files.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Inexpensive 3-D printer kit creates plastic components
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/dev-monkey-blog/4415031/Inexpensive-3-D-printer-kit-creates-plastic-components
Anyone with an idea for a new mechanical device can create it on their computer with 3-D solid-model software and email it to a company that will “print” it and quickly return a prototype. Three-dimensional printers cost a lot of money, so the hacker and maker “communities” have embarked on their own projects to create low-cost 3-D printers.
Recently I learned about a 3-D printer kit from Cooking Hacks, available for about $850.
Most of the kit parts, such as gears, shafts, bearings, and hardware look like standard components. Custom plastic parts connect the kit pieces and a aluminum frame provides a sturdy and stable frame for the completed printer.
Some of the custom pieces look as though they came from a 3-D printer, but perhaps the company used them to create a prototype and will supply injection-molded components in all kits.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What’s for dinner on the next Mars mission? Just some 3D-printed pizza!
http://www.electronicproducts.com/Electromechanical_Components/Motors_and_Controllers/What_s_for_dinner_on_the_next_Mars_mission_Just_some_3D-printed_pizza.aspx
We 3D-print so many unheard of things: ears, brains, airplanes, even lunar bases, but what about 3D-printing food that you can actually eat?
NASA has funded a $125,000 grant to mechanical engineer Anjan Contractor at the Systems and Materials Research Corporation in Texas to develop a machine that can “print” tasty and nutritious food, starting with pizza.
In just 5 years, NASA plans to send a manned spacecraft on a 501-day mission to Mars and back. The astronauts that will be en route to Mars need to eat. They can’t just keep indulging in thermostabalized fish and fruits — canned foods and flexible pouches filled with meat that just needs to be warmed up.
Not only does this research have the potential to impact the variety of food for space travelers, but it can also impact nutrition by catering to different genders, ages, and health types by programming the printer with the exact nutrition needed in a meal.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Disney to offer Star Wars fans limited time chance to 3D print themselves as stormtroopers
http://www.electronicproducts.com/Sensors_and_Transducers/Image_Sensors_and_Optical_Detectors/Disney_to_offer_Star_Wars_fans_limited_time_chance_to_3D_print_themselves_as_stormtroopers.aspx
Opportunity incorporates high-end facial scanning and 3D printing technologies
3D printing has seen an incredible rate of adoption in recent months, and this promotional event marks one of the technology’s first major introductions to the general public.
The commitment on part of the Star Wars fan is about 10 minutes, during which they have their likeness scanned by one of the world’s highest-resolution, single-shot 3D face scanners.
Worth noting is that the scanner was not something bought by Disney; rather, it was created by the company’s Imagineering scientists.
The captured image is then sent to a high-resolution 3D printer, whereupon the figurine is created.
The entire process costs $99.95 and the specially designed Storm Trooper arrives in the mail in about 7 to 8 weeks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Doctors Save Ohio Boy By ‘Printing’ An Airway Tube
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/doctors-save-ohio-boy-by-printing-an-airway-tube.php?ref=fpb
In a medical first, doctors used plastic particles and a 3-D laser printer to create an airway splint to save the life of a baby boy who used to stop breathing nearly every day.
It’s the latest advance from the booming field of regenerative medicine, making body parts in the lab.
In a single day, they “printed out” 100 tiny tubes, using computer-guided lasers to stack and fuse thin layers of plastic instead of paper and ink to form various shapes and sizes. The next day, with special permission from the Food and Drug Administration, they implanted one of these tubes in Kaiba, the first time this has been done.
Suddenly, a baby that doctors had said would probably not leave the hospital alive could breathe normally for the first time.
“He’s a pretty healthy kid right now,”
Independent experts praised the work and the potential for 3-D printing to create more body parts to solve unmet medical needs.
“It’s the wave of the future,” said Dr. Robert Weatherly, a pediatric specialist at the University of Missouri in Kansas City. “I’m impressed by what they were able to accomplish.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printer Communities Download, Print Free Sex Toys
http://www.buzzfeed.com/kevintang/welcome-to-the-dongiverse-the-future-of-3d-printed-sex-toys
Download these fists, dildos, and Justin Biebers and print them at your local 3D printshop.
When President Barack Obama hailed 3D printing as the future of manufacturing, he probably did not have The Dongiverse in mind.
Dongiverse began as a parody site of thingiverse,
A mini cottage industry is already springing up around the concept, with the New York Toy Collective scanning people’s appendages and printing them into custom gifts, and MakerLove offering free models for anyone with access to the right printers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Thinker Thing Unveils First 3D Printed Object Created Using Brain Waves
by Lori Zimmer, 05/30/13
http://inhabitat.com/thinker-thing-unveils-first-3d-printed-object-created-using-brain-waves/
Chilean company Thinker Thing just created the world’s first 3d printed object modeled using brain waves. The company’s Emotiv EPOC brain-computer headset allowed CTO George Lakowsky to 3D print an object just by thinking about it. The government-funded project uses virtual “evolutionary mutations” from the user’s mind to print 3D objects.
Although the first printed object is simple, it opens up the fantastical possibility of 3D printing without the need for a design program in the future – users may eventually be able to “dream” objects into reality. The program is still in its infancy, but its initial success marks a huge step forward for the technology.
To take the project even further, Thinker Thing wants to extend its mind-controlled design program to kids.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Open-Source House Building
http://thefutureofthings.com/news/11598/open-source-house-building.html
Think of a world where you could simply download the blueprints of your future home for free just like you download any open source software today. A team of British architects developed just that and they are hoping their project called WikiHouse will radically change the way we think about building homes.
How can this miracle be achieved you ask? the answer has to do with several new technologies that are making great progress in recent years including 3D printing and low cost C&C machines which can create extremely accurate parts on a large scale directly from a computer model.
By creating WikiHouse as a place where users can find open source blueprints for building homes out of simple materials that can be printed in low cost C&C machines out of plywood they have turned the way we normally think of construction upside down. Now you can print the building blocks of your future house in a few hours from low cost plywood, bring them to the construction site and assemble them with two or three friends in a matter of one day.
womens watches says:
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Five applications we never thought of for 3D scanning technology
http://www.vision-systems.com/articles/slideshow/five-applications-of-3d-imaging.html?cmpid=EnlVSDJune32013
As 3D scanning technology progresses and becomes less expensive, the spectrum of its use casts a wider net across many different industries, with some extraordinary results. Here are five unique applications of 3D scanning technology that caught our eye.
Using 3D imaging technology, the “Carbon-Freeze Me” experience captures multiple angles of your face and uses the images to create an eight-inch figurine of “you” frozen in carbon.