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:
Printing Batteries
New inks and tools allow 3-D printing of lithium-ion technology.
http://www.technologyreview.com/demo/521956/printing-batteries/
By making the basic building blocks of batteries out of ink, Harvard materials scientist Jennifer Lewis is laying the groundwork for lithium-ion batteries and other high-performing electronics that can be produced with 3-D printers.
Although the technology is still at an early stage, the ability to print batteries and other electronics could make it possible to manufacture new kinds of devices. Think of self-powered biomedical sensors, affixed to the skin, that would continuously transmit vital signs to a smartphone. Or existing products could be made more simply and efficiently.
For example, the plastic shell of a hearing aid is already 3-D printed for a custom fit inside a wearer’s ear. But the electronics are manufactured separately, and the batteries are often the type that must be replaced frequently. If the electronics and a rechargeable battery were printed together, the final product could be made more rapidly and seamlessly.
Lewis has taken two important steps toward printing electronic devices. First, she has invented an arsenal of what she calls functional inks that can solidify into batteries and simple components, including electrodes, wires, and antennas. Second, she has developed nozzles and high-pressure extruders that squeeze out the batteries and other components from an industrial-grade 3-D printer.
The printing technology works at room temperature, not the high temperatures normally required to work with high-performing electronics. hat makes it possible to print the materials on plastic without causing damage.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printers ‘an Acorn’ for Ailing HP
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1320245&
Hewlett-Packard will launch a line of 3D printers next year to spark growth. Word of the plan came at the end of a call with financial analysts to discuss marginally upbeat results for the quarter and year.
The computer and printer company aims to release consumer and industrial-grade 3D printers in 2014, leveraging its massive paper printing business. But chief executive Meg Whitman, who first discussed the plan late last month, said on the call that the impact on the still-struggling corporation’s bottom line will be modest for some time.
“This is an acorn in 2014 and 2015 with very good long potential,” Whitman said. “There’s a lot of potential to print in ways most consumers and companies would find acceptable,” and 3D printers use “some of the same technologies” as HP’s paper printer group.
Printer and PC sales were dropped marginally, though HP claimed its results outperformed declines in the overall industry.
Jordon Arbertha says:
Wow, this is great. I first saw the article at blog.3dprintingmodel.com but apparently it is posted here too. Can’t wait for 3D printing to really take off! I’m still working on a bastardized 3D chocolate printer from an old CNC machine.
=D, it is a work in progress.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printing Lithium Ion Cells
http://hackaday.com/2013/12/01/3d-printing-lithium-ion-cells/
[Jennifer Lewis] is a Harvard Materials Scientist, and she’s recently come up with a type of Lithium Ion “Ink” that allows her to 3D print battery cells.
You might remember our recent 3D Printering article on Pastestruders, but this research certainly takes it up a few notches. The ink is made up of nano-particles of Lithium Titanium in a solution of de-ionized water and ethylene glycol. When producing the ink, small ceramic balls are added to the mixture to help break up microscopic clumps of said particles.
The resulting ink is a solid when unperturbed, but flows under extreme pressures!
This means a conventional 3D printer can be used, with only the addition of a high pressure dispenser unit. We guess we can’t call it a hot-end any more…
Tomi Engdahl says:
Printing Batteries
New inks and tools allow 3-D printing of lithium-ion technology.
http://www.technologyreview.com/demo/521956/printing-batteries/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Video: 3D Systems 3D scanner can copy anything
http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/video+taman+3dskannerin+avulla+voit+kopioida+mita+vain/a951202
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D scanner video
https://publisher.qbrick.com/Embed.aspx?mid=C6B8328C
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fancy Kim Kardashian’s … nose? 3D bio-printing boffin can help
New technology will give you a bone
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/12/02/fancy_a_new_nose_print_one/
Wrinkle up your nostrils and ask yourself if you like your nose… Well, in the not-too-distant future you might be able to 3D print yourself a new one.
Professor Kevin Shakesheff passed a 3D-printed nose, the bone part, around the audience at a Zurich Future History Now presentation in London on 28 November.
Shakesheff is professor of tissue engineering at the University of Nottingham and leads a group working on the 3D printing of human organs, with two specific projects: 3D-printed bones and 3D-printed liver tissue. He believes 3D-printed bones could be commonly available in UK hospitals possibly by 2018.
The 3D-printed nose he passed round was made using printed polymer and not actual bone tissue. How do you print actual tissue – the living cell stuff? He said that the ink used would be an emulsion or suspension of stem cells and nutrients. You would print these through a needle printing head along with a chemical to tell the stem cells what to grow into.
“Dare I say the heart is one of the easiest to bioprint? It’s just a pump with tubes you need to connect.”
Medical scientists became excited about 3D printing with the notion that polymer material could be printed in bone-like shapes and be used as implants to replace, for example, damaged bones and teeth. Then the engineering and science developed in another direction – with the idea of printing with the basic raw material of human tissue, cells. And in particular, stem cells, which can be harvested from bone marrow and can theoretically be grown into specific types of human tissue according to the instructions they are given.
Shakesheff talked about Organovo, a US human tissue bio-printing company, which prints tissue material into a 3D matrix.
The long-term prospects for life-extension are obvious, as are the implications for organ replacement with far less need for donors and organ harvesting or drug therapies to counter rejection.
Tomi Engdahl says:
(Slideshow) 10 different ways 3D imaging techniques are being used
http://www.vision-systems.com/articles/slideshow/2013/11/slideshow-10-different-ways-3d-imaging-techniques-are-being-used.html?cmpid=EnlVSDDecember22013
Tomi Engdahl says:
HP Hides Monster 3-D Printer in Its Basement
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/12/hp_printer/
HP is often derided as the king of computer printers that somehow missed the recent revolution known as 3-D printing. But if you venture into the basement of the company’s famous Palo Alto research labs, you’ll find a 3-D printer that looks like no other.
It’s a closely-guarded project. HP wouldn’t let us photograph the thing, but for about ten minutes this week, Martin Fink, the man who runs HP Labs, pulled aside the black curtain — literally — and let us at least look it.
The printer is a monster — a five-foot tall giant of a machine cobbled together from existing jumbo-scale metal printing parts and some new custom-built equipment that HP isn’t ready to talk about. It’s a prototype, built for development and testing that will print out 3-D objects — keychains, Christmas ornaments, doll-house furniture, whatever — using a special polymer that HP has cooked up in its materials lab.
The polymer is stored in a container about the size of a six-pack in front of the machine, and it’s as closely guarded as the other stuff. “We want to have smooth parts and we want to have resilient parts,” Fink says. “Part of the technology breakthrough is the material.”
To critics, that seems late. After all, HP’s (2-D) printing business has been a rare success story for a company that has made too many missteps over the past decade, and so many others have leapt ahead in the 3-D printing game. But if you ask Fink, it’s a mistake to think of 3-D printing as being a rerun of its paper printing play. “We don’t really think there is a viable consumer market where you’ll go to Best Buy and pick up your $99 inkjet printer today,” Fink says. “That does not translate to 3-D printing.”
Consumer 3-D printers are complex, low quality, and too slow to use, he says. Recently, he brought a $2,000 MakerBot 3-D printer to an all-day staff meeting. With Whitman in the room, he set up the thing in the back of the room and had it print out a lunch box. By the end of the day, it was about a quarter done, Fink says.
Fink believes that consumers will first use “print service providers” — companies similar to FedEx Office — where you send your 3-D print jobs for high-quality fulfillment. Need a replacement part for your car? You download the plans from the manufacturer’s website, modify them to get the color and texture right, and then send that off to a print service provider — who has presumably shelled out the big money for the behemoth that HP is currently tinkering with in its basement.
Today, an outfit called Shapeways offers a 3-D printing service that lets you make and sell small, gift-like items via the web
“That, we think, is actually a very, very viable market,” Fink says. “Now how big do we need to make this [3-D printer] for this type of market, that’s still to be determined.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
LearnCNC Game
http://hackaday.com/2013/12/05/learncnc-game/
Do you want to learn how a CNC machine works, but don’t have access to one (yet)? One of our tipsters just informed us of this great project that was created by a team of students from the University of British Columbia, and it’s an interactive 3D learning system that teaches everything about CNC machining.
We downloaded the “game” and it’s pretty cool — you get to walk around a virtual workshop and can click on various things to learn about their functions.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printing With Sugar
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1394&doc_id=264127&cid=nl.dn14
Kyle and Liz von Hasseln, a California-based couple with a background in architecture and geometry, and a suspected sweet tooth, have found a way to use a 3D printer and granulated sugar to make intricate, edible geometrical decorations.
The couple set out to use a 3D printer to make a gift for their friend’s birthday. After much trial and error, and long after their friend’s birthday had passed, the couple found a formula that worked. They were able to print their friend’s name in cursive and their friend loved the gift so much they thought other people would also love their sugar-based sculptures. This is how The Sugar Lab was born.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printer Exhaust
http://hackaday.com/2013/12/06/3d-printer-exhaust/
[Malcolm] finally got fed up with the fumes produced by his 3D printer, so he decided to setup this rather extensive fume exhausting system.
as you know, the fumes released while printing ABS are actually pretty bad for you. With this in mind he 3D printed adapter rings and fitted a fan salvaged from a space heater to the outside of his filing cabinet.
The major problem we see with doing something like this is removing too much heat from the build chamber which can always affect print quality.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Rostock Welding 3D Printer?
http://hackaday.com/2013/12/07/a-rostock-welding-3d-printer/
Tired of printing in boring old plastic? Why not try metal? Researchers at Michigan Tech have come up with an open source reprap style design of a 3D printer that can print metal for only $1200.
The paper was published in IEEE Access a few weeks ago that it outlines the design and testing of this printer, which is basically an upside down Rostock with a MIG welder used as the extruder. As you can imagine, the quality and resolution of the parts isn’t that amazing (hang around after the break to see an example), but this is an exciting step forward for 3D printing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Open-source metal 3-D printer
http://www.appropedia.org/Open-source_metal_3-D_printer#Printed_Parts
This page is part of an international project to use RepRap 3-D printing to make OSAT for sustainable development.
Technical progress in the open-source self replicating rapid prototyper (RepRap) community has enabled a distributed form of additive manufacturing to expand rapidly using polymer-based materials. However, the lack of an open-source metal alternative and the high capital costs and slow throughput of proprietary commercialized metal 3-D printers has severely restricted their deployment. The applications of commercialized metal 3-D printers are limited to only rapid prototyping and expensive finished products.
This paper reports on the development of a <$2000 open-source metal 3-D printer. The metal 3-D printer is controlled with an open-source micro-controller and is a combination of a low-cost commercial gas-metal arc welder and a derivative of the Rostock, a deltabot RepRap. The bill of materials, electrical and mechanical design schematics, and basic construction and operating procedures are provided.
The stage is controlled like a regular 3-D printer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Sub-$500 Deltaprintr
http://hackaday.com/2013/12/06/the-sub-500-deltaprintr/
We’ve seen them before, but only now has the Deltaprinter, a very simple and affordable delta printer finally hit Kickstarter.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Slideshow: Design & 3D Print Custom Metal Implants
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1392&doc_id=270238&cid=nl.dn14
A new service lets engineers and orthopedic surgeons design and 3D print highly accurate, patient-specific, orthopedic medical implants made of metal — without owning a 3D printer. Using free, downloadable software, users can import ASCII and binary .STL files, design the implant, and send an encrypted design file to a third-party manufacturer. The implant is then printed using EOS’s direct metal laser sintering 3D printing process, and shipped to the customer.
The Within Medical service combines EOS’s technology with London-based Within Technologies’ Within Medical software and the expertise of contract manufacturer C&A Tool, which acts as a service provider
The idea for the service starts with the fact that 3D printing is ideal for creating customized orthopedic implants with porous metallic structures, instead of the lengthy process required to create different surface textures with traditional medical manufacturing, and the limitation of standard sizes.
But generating those optimized lattice structures is not a simple operation. “One advantage of additive manufacturing [AM] is it allows you to create a porous coating and solid substrate in one piece,” Mahdavi told us. “The software can simplify this; it allows you to coat surfaces with porous coatings.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Engineering the Future With 3D Software
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1394&doc_id=270190&cid=nl.dn14&dfpPParams=ind_186,bid_26,aid_270190&dfpLayout=blog
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Really Big Extruder For Exotic Filaments
http://hackaday.com/2013/12/11/a-really-big-extruder-for-exotic-filaments/
Even with ABS, PLA, Nylon, HIPS, and a bunch of Taulman filaments, the world of 3D printers is missing out on a great supply of spools of plastic filament. Plastic welding rod is available from just about every plastics supplier, and in more variety than even the most well-stocked filament web shop.
This Kickstarter hopes to put all those exotic plastic welding rods to good use. Instead of being designed to only use 1.75 and 3mm filaments, this guy will extrude welding rods up to 4.76mm in diameter. This opens the door for 3D printed objects made out of PDPF, PVC, Polypropylene, Polyethylene and other high molecular weight plastics.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The 3D Printed Ukulele
http://hackaday.com/2013/12/11/the-3d-printed-ukulele/
The creator of everyone’s favorite slic3r – [Alessandro Ranellucci] – has been hard a work putting his 3D modeling skills to the test. He’s created a ukulele that’s nearly entirely 3D printed
Everything on the uke, short of the strings and tuning pegs came from a MendelMax 3D printer, all without any support material at all.
In the video, [Alessandro] and uke virtuoso [Jontom] show off how this instrument was put together and how good it can sound.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printering: Making A Thing With OpenSCAD
http://hackaday.com/2013/12/11/3d-printering-making-a-thing-with-openscad/
So you have a 3D printer, and you’re getting tired of printing out octopodes and weighted companion cubes. Good! With a 3D printer, you can make just about anything, but only if you have the modeling experience to turn your design into an .STL file. This 3D Printering column is going on a tangent for a few weeks with some tutorials on how to make a ‘thing’.
This week, we’re starting off with OpenSCAD, a 3D modelling program that’s more like programming than drawing. A lot of useful 3D printable objects – including the parts for a lot of RepRaps – are designed in OpenSCAD, so hopefully by the end of this you’ll be able to design your own parts.
Tomi Engdahl says:
[Ben Heck] Builds The Ultimate Glue Gun
http://hackaday.com/2013/12/11/ben-heck-builds-the-ultimate-glue-gun/
For how many can be found on the workbenches and in the toolboxes of makers and hackers the world over, finding a glue gun that does more than just heat up and drip glue everywhere can be a challenge. [Ben Heck] finally solved this problem with a hot glue gun that’s more like an extruder from a 3D printer than a piece of junk you can pick up at Walmart for fa few dollars.
Darrick Zisser says:
I’m so grateful for your articles. I enjoy reading them almost constantly. It has helped me alot in achieving a new job, a promotion, handling people and colleagues.
You know, i used to be a outsider in the company, and i was frequently oppressed and loaded with work by my managers. Now that i’m a manager myself, i feel that i won’t want to treat my team the way i was treated. And they are grateful to me. Thanks to you and your lessons.
Tomi says:
3D Printed, Solderless Circuits
http://hackaday.com/2013/12/13/3d-printed-solderless-circuits/
If you’re looking for yet another alternative to etching your own PCBs, then check out this new Instructable on 3D printing test circuits!
This 3D printed option probably won’t suit all your circuit-building needs, but it could provide an excellent shortcut for your next hack!
3D Printing: 3D Print A Solderless Circuit Board
http://www.instructables.com/id/3D-Printing-3D-Print-A-Solderless-Circuit-Board/
1- A circuit board is designed and printed on a PLA filament printer, in this case it was a MakerBot Replicator 2. The board consists of trace channels with standard .1″ spacing and holes for the components.
2- Components are inserted in the board and the leads bent over.
3- The trace channels are filled with a conductive material. In this case, I used a commercial conductive paint that is highly conductive, but you can also make your own conductive material.
The result is a working circuit board that is not as vibration resistant as a soldered circuit board, but can be quite useful for experimental circuits and prototypes.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3 ways 3-D printing could revolutionize healthcare
http://qz.com/139585/3-ways-3-d-printing-could-revolutionize-healthcare/
Originally used to cheaply and quickly make prototypes, 3-D printing has lately gained momentum as a (cheap, quick) manufacturing endpoint in and of itself.
The technology redefines the phrase “broadly applicable”: it’s been used for architecture, industrial design, automotive and aerospace engineering, the military, civil engineering, fashion, and food.
In medicine, it has had most success with prosthetics, dental work, and hearing aids, which can all be made from plastic or pliable materials and often need to be tailored to a specific patient. But scientists have also worked out, at least in theory, how to print blood vessels, skin, even embryonic stem cells.
“The biggest advantage is that everything is customizable,” said Markus Fromherz, Xerox’s chief innovation officer in healthcare.
There are three categories of healthcare where 3-D printing could be applied, or is already, Fromherz said: for body parts or prosthetics (sometimes called “scaffolding”), medical devices, and human tissues.
1. Scaffolding
Printing technology has already revolutionized joint replacements, Fromherz said. “Knee replacement is a very common procedure, there are six or so different types of knees that doctors use,” he said, adding, “with each one you need to cut the bone differently.”
But with 3-D printing, doctors aren’t limited to those six knees. They can design one specific to each patient.
2. Medical devices
Most hearing aids are already 3-D printed, since these have always been customized to the user, and scanning, modeling, and printing saves time over casting a handmade mold of the inner ear. What used to take a week now takes less than a day.
Similarly, making crowns and dental implants–once a two week process–can happen while the patient reads a magazine in the waiting room.
3. Human tissues
Scientists have printed artificial meat tissue suitable for eating, but making tissues and organs that maintain life has been much harder.
“Printing functional human tissue will be a game changer, but it’s far out,”
What the future holds
3-D printing isn’t foolproof, and there are regulatory and use-case questions yet to be answered, he said.
“With a regular printer, everyone can create a document,” he said. “Not everybody will be skilled or knowledgeable enough to create a knee.”
Tomi says:
You Can Now 3D Print a Fully Functional Speaker
http://gizmodo.com/you-can-now-3d-print-a-fully-functional-speaker-1484084187
There’s no doubt that 3D printing is going to play a huge part in the future of manufacturing, especially now that researchers at Cornell University have managed to print every component of a fully functional speaker—including the cone, the wiring, and even the magnet.
Because plastic is used for the speaker cone—which is heavier than the paper-like materials traditionally used—the speaker doesn’t exactly sound amazing, but as a proof of concept it’s an awesome accomplishment. A silver ink was used to create all of the speaker’s wiring and its coil, while an extrudable material that included strontium ferrite was used to 3D print the magnet.
Tomi says:
HTC launches 3D printed powerless acoustic speaker for your HTC One
http://www.3ders.org/articles/20131108-htc-launches-3d-printed-powerless-acoustic-speaker-for-your-htc-one.html
HTC has announced a 3D printed powerless acoustic speaker, the Gramohorn II, designed exclusively for the HTC One smartphone.
By channelling music naturally through its huge gramophone, Gramohorn II could increase volume by 50% without the need for power or wires. Acting as resonance chambers, lower frequencies and bass notes are also enhanced to produce deeper, fuller and ‘better’ music.
The speaker is made using a 3D printer in a plaster-based, composite material and finished by hand in any colour of the customer’s choice.
Tomi says:
3D Printed Speaker Enclosures (With Lights!)
http://www.instructables.com/id/3D-Printed-Speaker-Enclosures-With-Lights/
Tomi says:
3d Printed Speaker Project
http://www.instructables.com/id/3d-Printed-Speaker-Project/
This is just a cool project I did to design some speakers from scratch and design them so they match my custom Macbook!
I used the internals from some old Logtiech speakers lying around.
Tomi says:
A team of graduate students just 3D-printed a speaker and it works
http://qz.com/157542/a-team-of-graduate-students-just-3d-printed-a-speaker-and-it-works/
Researchers at Cornell University have managed to 3D print a loudspeaker, according to the University’s newspaper. Using two customizable 3D printers originally developed at Cornell, a team of graduate mechanical engineering students managed to almost seamlessly print the loudspeaker’s plastic, conductive and magnetic parts, producing an electronic device in two pieces that needed only to be put together to make a functional loudspeaker.
The newly printed mini-speaker was promptly shown off in a clever demo
This is by no means the first time a single object has been printed out of multiple materials—indeed, there are even commercially-available printers that can combine a variety of plastics. And the same lab in 2009 3D-printed a telegraph machine. But combining metallic, magnetic and plastic substances in a single object is particularly tricky because of their different properties and melting points. It marks another small step in the industry’s gradual shift from being able to print components of a system to being able to print whole systems at once. ”It’s a little bit like a color printer,” Lipson explained. “With multi-material 3D printing we’ll be able to combine lots of different materials to create new things, new functionalities, and new material properties we haven’t seen before.”
Tomi says:
cornell researchers 3D print a fully functional loudspeaker
http://www.designboom.com/technology/cornell-researchers-3d-print-a-fully-functional-loudspeaker-12-16-2013/
Tomi says:
Fully functional loudspeaker is 3-D printed
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2013/12/fully-functional-loudspeaker-3-d-printed
ornell researchers have 3-D printed a working loudspeaker, seamlessly integrating the plastic, conductive and magnetic parts, and ready for use almost as soon as it comes out of the printer.
It’s an achievement that 3-D printing evangelists feel will soon be the norm; rather than assembling consumer products from parts and components, complete functioning products could be fabricated at once, on demand.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Slideshow: 3D Printed ABS & Nylon 12 Get Stronger, Tougher
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1392&doc_id=270384&cid=nl.dn14
Stratasys has introduced two 3D printing materials stronger than their predecessors: the second generation of digital ABS for Objet Connex multimaterial 3D printers and FDM Nylon 12, which is designed for the company’s Fortus 3D Production Systems.
Digital ABS and ABS2 are composite materials for Stratasys 3D printers that use its PolyJet process; they are made by simultaneously jetting two different plastics during build. This lets design engineers combine the colors, textures, densities, and mechanical properties of the polymers in a single object.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Using Blender to Achieve the Golden Promise of 3D Printing
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1320406&
The concept of 3D printing has been receiving a lot of hype, and the technology is increasingly becoming accessible to everyday users. Despite promises that everybody can 3D print, without some basic skills in 3D modeling, the end user is limited to printing models designed by others, usually distributed over the Internet.
The golden promise of 3D printing relies in some part on the end user’s abilities and is not realized when the printer is used only for the blind creation of plastic tchotchkes.
There are many 3D capture packages available; some are free, but others cost a lot of money. In this column, we will consider Blender, a free, open-source software suite that supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline, from model creation to animation, and runs under the Linux, Windows, and Mac operating systems. Advanced users can employ Blender’s API for Python scripting to customize the application and write specialized tools. Blender can be easily utilized by new and experienced users to produce custom 3D printables, from machine parts to objets d’art.
What can I make?
A question often asked about 3D printing (or Blender) is “What sort of stuff can you make with it?” Using Blender — or a 3D printer, or clay, or pen and paper, or toy blocks — you can make whatever you believe you’re capable of making. Desktop 3D printers commonly print in nonconductive materials (like ABS or PLA). However, some clever folks have been able to create conductive thermoplastics. Others have modified their printers to deposit solder or to function as a pick-and-place machine.
Having said this, it is not reasonable to expect to print a fully functioning circuit board with a 3D printer out of the box. Things you can reasonably expect to make with a desktop 3D printer today include:
Most of the parts for said 3D printer, including upgrades that can improve print quality
Art objects
Dishware (using food-safe plastics)
Tools
Replacement parts, brackets, jigs, etc.
Robots
Jewelry
Electronic project enclosures
Unraveling Blender
Because Blender features robust and flexible scripting capabilities via Python, you could make it do pretty much anything you like. However, it’s important to have reasonable expectations out of the box. Blender is not a CAD program, and it does not do some CAD program things. It does not feature functionality for mechanical simulations (though you can do quite a bit with its rigging capabilities). It does have a number of plugins for procedural mesh generation, but you would need more than Blender in situations where you require the design to be parametric.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DIY “smart” watch idea:
Stylish OLED Watch Uses Accelerometer Instead of Buttons
http://hackaday.com/2013/12/17/stylish-oled-watch-uses-accelerometer-instead-of-buttons/
The watch is based on the low-power MSP430F microcontroller from Texas Instruments
[Andrew] chose an 0.96″ OLED display that only consumes up to 7mA. He also included an accelerometer that allows him to interact with the watch through its single and double tap detecting feature. He modeled his PCB using EagleCAD and the whole assembly using Sketchup. Most of the components were soldered in his reflow (toaster) oven.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Victoria’s Secret model’s 3D-printed wings
http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2013/12/09/t-victorias-secred-3d-printed-wings.cnnmoney/index.html?iid=B_Taboola
Lingerie meets tech at this year’s Victoria’s Secret fashion show.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Custom Rostock 3D Printer Makes Use of IKEA Components
http://hackaday.com/2013/12/18/custom-rostock-3d-printer-makes-use-of-ikea-components/
He chose the Rostock design not only because it can print big parts quickly, but also because of its mesmerizing operation.
The cool part of this build is [Turi's] choice of enclosure. He had an IKEA cabinet collecting dust in his basement, so he decided to make use of its drawers for the main structure of the Rostock.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printering: Making A Thing With AutoCAD
http://hackaday.com/2013/12/18/3d-printering-making-a-thing-with-autocad/
This week, we’re making something with AutoCAD. It’s an amazing piece of software that costs $4000 per seat. Hilariously expensive for any home tinkerer, but if you go to a university with an engineering program, there’s a computer lab with machines running AutoCAD somewhere on campus.
Last week we took a look at making something with OpenSCAD. AutoCAD is much, much different. Where OpenSCAD is sorta, kinda like programming, AutoCAD is just a digital version of t-squares, triangles, straight edges, and people getting uppity when you don’t call their drawing device a ‘lead holder’.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Someone Made a ’3-D Printer’ Inside Minecraft, and It’s Amazing
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/12/minecraft-3d-printer/
We’ve seen a lot of amazing things in the world of Minecraft, from unbelievably intricate recreations of Game of Thrones to working 16-bit computers. You could event 3-D print things you made in Minecraft.
But now it’s gone a step further: You can 3-D print things inside the game. (Sort of.)
Tomi Engdahl says:
Scientists ‘print’ new eye cells
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25405542
Scientists say they have been able to successfully print new eye cells that could be used to treat sight loss.
The proof-of-principle work in the journal Biofabrication was carried out using animal cells.
Tomi Engdahl says:
From CT Scans to 3D Prints
http://hackaday.com/2013/12/19/from-ct-scans-to-3d-prints/
[the_digital_dentist] had a CT Scan done back in 2007 for treatment using orthodontics. Some how, he managed to get a copy of the CT Scan data from the lab, and has been playing around with it lately.
Since he has a 3D printer, the obvious end goal was to print his face using some of the data extracted from the CT Scan. This required a lot of manipulation
Anyone want to print a copy of their own skull?
Tomi Engdahl says:
WKP (weird kind of printer)
http://theelectricsquid.com/blog/2013/12/16/wkp-weird-kind-of-printer
As I explained, it’s a printer but instead of an inkjet head, there is a needle driven by a solenoid.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Company That Made the First 3D Printed Metal Gun Is Selling Them For $11,900
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/12/20/0219247/company-that-made-the-first-3d-printed-metal-gun-is-selling-them-for-11900
“Solid Concepts, which last month revealed the first fully-functional, metal 3D gun, announced today that they’re putting 100 limited-edition models of the 1911 .45 caliber pistol on sale for $11,900 each. Solid Concept demonstrated the gun by initially firing 50 rounds through it. Since then, the company said it has fired nearly 2,000 rounds through the pistol without a single malfunction. Unlike the very first 3D printed gun — the single-shot, plastic Liberator — Solid Concepts says is not trying to promote the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cedar Springs preschooler gets a Robohand for Christmas from West Catholic’s robotics team
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2013/12/cedar_springs_preschooler_gets.html
The robotics team from West Catholic High School gave a 4-year-old Cedar Trails Elementary student the right hand she never had on Thursday, Dec. 19.
The students said it took their team approximately six weeks to build the hand, after receiving the instructions and parts made from a 3D printer, provided by Bill McCarthy, whose family has ties to the school.
“It is so great to be able do something that can change her life,” said Liu, who said they spent about two hours in the evenings once a week to complete the project.
“We usually are building robotics or playing games but when you can actually help people and use the things that we’ve learn from robotics in a real world situation, it just feels really great,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Robohand: How cheap 3D printers built a replacement hand for a five-year old boy
Creators make the design public domain to help people who can’t afford prostheses.
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/02/robohand-how-cheap-3d-printers-built-a-replacement-hand-for-a-five-year-old-boy/
Now, those two men—Ivan Owen in Bellingham, Washington and Richard Van As in South Africa—have published the design for Robohand, the mechanical hand prosthesis, on MakerBot’s Thingiverse site as a digital file that can be used to produce its parts in a 3D printer. They’ve intentionally made the design public domain in the hopes that others around the world who don’t have access to expensive commercial prosthetics (which can cost tens of thousands of dollars) can benefit from it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Complete set of mechanical anatomically driven fingers
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:44150
This set of functional mechanical fingers was developed by Robohand
Harrison says:
The results confirmed that Airwave base stations comply with health and safety guidelines: the measured
power levels were only a small fraction of the guidelines in areas accessible to the public.
In 1954 with the introduction of mass television, radio is to have a function and a placing more niche reserved for certain
situations like a car, this time the invention of the
car transported in local youth, see portable radios and much more that has allowed the unit to
withstand time through the change of form, but not the substance.
Then, a transmission may occur on another frequency, and the scanner locks onto that frequency, and so on.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Spherebot: Decorating Xmas Baubles
http://hackaday.com/2013/12/25/spherebot-decorating-xmas-baubles/
The Spherebot is an open source machine capable of printing designs onto spherical objects, such as Xmas baubles!
The design is based on the ever-popular Egg-Bot, which we have seen derived into many other useful printers such as the Mug Plotter, and the Ping Pong Printer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CartoLucci: A Candle-Powered Christmas Card
http://hackaday.com/2013/12/25/cartolucci-a-candle-powered-christmas-card/