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:
3DMonstr Printer: 8 Cubic Feet Of Build Volume
http://hackaday.com/2013/12/24/3dmonstr-printer-8-cubic-feet-of-build-volume/
So you’re looking at 3D printers, but the build volumes for the current offerings just aren’t where you’d like them to be. [Ben Reylblat] had the same problem and came up with the 3DMonstr, an enormous printer that has (in its biggest configuration) a two foot cubed build volume, four extruders, and the mechanical design to make everything work.
Most of the ginormous 3D printers we’ve seen are basically upgraded versions of the common table-top sided models. This huge Ultimaker copy uses the same rods as its smaller cousin, and LeBigRap also uses woefully undersized parts.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Software Advice for Anyone Thinking About a CNC Router
http://hackaday.com/2013/12/23/software-advice-for-anyone-thinking-about-a-cnc-router/
Excellent results can come from a small CNC router, but don’t forget the software!
CNC tools, whatever their flavor, can greatly enhance your “making” or DIY ability.
Although any number of CNC router models look great in videos and pictures, rest assured that even the best machines require some patience to get one running satisfactorily.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jello Shot Printer
http://hackaday.com/2013/12/26/jello-shot-printer/
What if you could print designs inside the jello shots? He quickly grabbed a syringe and proceeded to inject food dye into one of the jello shots — it worked.
To achieve this printer, [Sprite_tm] has taken a handful of old CD-ROM drives to create a three axis moving platform. He’s using a forth drive’s ejector assembly to depress a syringe which pushes a concoction of banana liquor, green food colouring and cornstarch through medical tubing to the ink-head.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jello 3d printer
http://spritesmods.com/?f=ri&art=jello3dprinter
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Scanner Using a Sharp Infrared Sensor
http://hackaday.com/2013/12/21/3d-scanner-using-a-sharp-infrared-sensor/
It’s an interesting take on a 3D scanner. He used a stepper motor to rotate the object being scanned, and an Arduino for control, but the real novelty is the way he used the sensor. [Fernando] mounted a Sharp GP2D120X on vertical surface, and used a second stepper motor to raise the sensor during the scan.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D-Printed Weapons & the Consequences
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1394&doc_id=255741&cid=nl.dn14
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.
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.
It’s not exactly clear who was the first to fabricate a firearm using a 3D printer, but one example that has garnered global attention is “Have Blue,” who designed an AR-15 lower receiver (converted to fire .22 ammunition), using a CAD file in the SolidWorks file format that is openly available from CNC Gunsmithing.
A group of hobbyists (most of them college students) have banded together to form a company known as Defense Distributed to expand on the 3D-printed weapons systems and provide open-source software to anyone who wants it. Defense Distributed began its quest with the Wiki Weapon Project, which aims to provide all the necessary CAD software for manufacturing plastic firearms using any 3D printer.
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.
The 1988 Undetectable Firearms Act prohibits the manufacturing or possession of guns that can’t be picked up by airport metal detectors.
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:
Roving Hexapod Poops Out 3D Prints
http://hackaday.com/2013/12/30/geoweaver-rise-of-the-monster-3d-printing-hexapods/
[Jia Wu, Mary Sek, and Jeff Maeshiro], students at the California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco, took on the task of developing a walking 3D printer. The result is Geoweaver, a hexapod robot with a glue gun extruder system.
Walking is hard enough on its own, but Geoweaver also uses a glue gun based extruder to make 3D prints. The extruder head uses two servos to swing in a hemispherical arc. The arc is mapped in software to a flat plain plane, allowing the robot to drop a dollop of glue exactly where it is programmed to.
Geoweaver’s prints may not be much to look at yet, however the important thing to remember is that one of the future visions for this robot is to print on a planetary scale. Geoweaver currently uses reacTIVision to provide computer control via an “eye in the sky”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Slideshow: 3D Printing Shifts to End-Production Manufacturing
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1392&doc_id=270436&cid=nl.dn14&dfpPParams=ind_183,industry_auto,industry_aero,industry_consumer,industry_gov,industry_machinery,industry_medical,bid_27,aid_270436&dfpLayout=blog
EOS is taking steps to establish additive manufacturing (AM) as an efficient process in industrial production and its company as a leader in that effort. The Germany-based company is definitely not abandoning rapid prototyping as a focus. But the shift comes at a time when interest is growing in several vertical industries to integrate AM technologies and processes into existing manufacturing flows.
“We’re not forgetting where the roots of our technology come from,” EOS of North America’s director Andrew Snow told Design News. “More than 50 percent of our sales still come from rapid prototyping. Now the uses of our technology are being directed more and more toward manufacturing applications, so we’re adding this as a focus.”
Large industrial companies in medical, aerospace, automotive, tooling, and other major vertical application areas are making a transition to using 3D printing, primarily as a cost-savings tool, Snow told us. In many cases several components can be combined into one, eliminating manufacturing steps. What those companies need are processes and procedures that help integrate AM techniques into traditional, existing subtractive production environments. At the same time, AM machines and processes need to be developed with features aimed more at making end-production parts faster and more consistently, not rapid prototyping models.
In end-product manufacturing, as in rapid prototyping, users want parts with strength and dimensional accuracy. But benefits like fast turnaround aren’t as important. OEM manufacturers’ components coming off the line must also be uniform in size, shape, materials, and mechanical characteristics.
EOS is addressing the demand for systems that are more productive and can produce parts for a lower per-piece cost, said Snow.
Although major aerospace systems contain plastic components, plastics for production are limited to semi-crystalline polymers. “So there’s a tremendous amount of R&D going on to qualify materials such as PEEK and PEKK for aerospace, as well as for medical implants,”
EOS believes AM using metals is poised to take off rapidly, even more so than what’s happened with plastic AM.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printering: Making A Thing In Blender, Part I
http://hackaday.com/2014/01/03/3d-printering-making-a-thing-in-blender-part-i/
Blender is designed as a 3D animation suite. You know the old mid-90s Pixar short films? You can make those with Blender easily. Using Blender to design a small object to send to a 3D printer is like using a bulldozer to build a sand castle. You can do it, but it’s overkill.
Ideally, Blender should be used for objects that aren’t mechanical in nature. If you’re designing a gearbox for an RC car, don’t use Blender. If you’re making a replica of the Antikythera mechanism, don’t use Blender. If, however, you’re designing something more sculptural – a Pietà, for instance – Blender is a great tool.
Tomi Engdahl says:
RAF jets fly with 3D printed parts
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25613828
RAF Tornado fighter jets have flown with parts made using 3D printing technology for the first time, defence company BAE Systems has said.
The metal components were used in test flights from the firm’s airfield at Warton, Lancashire, late last month.
The parts include protective covers for cockpit radios and guards for power take-off shafts.
It is hoped the technology could cut the RAF’s maintenance and service bill by over £1.2m over the next four years.
“You are suddenly not fixed in terms of where you have to manufacture these things. You can manufacture the products at whatever base you want, providing you can get a machine there, which means you can also start to support other platforms such as ships and aircraft carriers.”
“And if it’s feasible to get machines out on the front line, it also gives improved capability where we wouldn’t traditionally have any manufacturing support.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The $100 3D-Printed Artificial Limb
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/01/07/2119238/the-100-3d-printed-artificial-limb
Tomi Engdahl says:
How a TIME Article Led to the Invention of a $100 3D-Printed Artificial Limb
This prosthetic arm can be produced in around six hours.
Read more: How a TIME Article Led to the Invention of a $100 3D-Printed Artificial Limb | TIME.com http://techland.time.com/2014/01/07/how-a-time-article-led-to-the-invention-of-a-100-3d-printed-artificial-limb/#ixzz2pnB8NCik
Tomi Engdahl says:
Delta Laser Engraver Uses Inkscape for G-Code
http://hackaday.com/2014/01/07/delta-laser-engraver-uses-inkscape-for-g-code/
[Z LeHericy] has a SeeMe CNC Rostock Max 3D printer, and a 2W WickedLasers Spyder Artic blue laser. Naturally, he had to try strapping them together.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mustachioed Rover Simultaneously Manly, Adorable
http://hackaday.com/2014/01/05/mustachioed-rover-simultaneously-manly-adorable/
[Rick], an Adafruit learning system contributor, is excited by the implications of STEM’s reach into K-12 education. He was inspired to design Red Rover, a low-cost robot that can be easily replicated by anyone with access to a 3-D printer.
This adorable autonomous rover is based on the adafruit Trinket microcontroller, but will also rove under the power of an Arduino micro.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Slideshow: 3D Printing Metals in Space
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1392&doc_id=270456&cid=nl.dn14&dfpPParams=ind_183,industry_auto,industry_aero,industry_gov,bid_27,aid_270456&dfpLayout=blog
We’ve told you about NASA’s efforts working on 3D printing in space: building a printer that will work in near-zero-gravity, making rocket engine parts, and 3D printing parts of rovers destined for planetary and lunar exploration. Not to be left in the dust, the European Space Agency (ESA) has begun a program for designing a large-scale 3D printer that will work in space making metal components.
Called AMAZE (Additive Manufacturing Aiming Towards Zero Waste & Efficient Production of High-Tech Metal Products), the program aims to put the first 3D metal printer on the International Space Station. Astronauts there could use it to make tools, and build entire satellites for missions to Mars and the moon. This would save both time and the costs of rocket fuel to ship items to the ISS.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CES: 3D food printer will produce more exciting Quality Streets
Get ready for some crazy chocolate designs
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2321651/ces-3d-food-printer-will-produce-more-exciting-quality-streets
CHOCOLATES AND SWEETS might never look the same again thanks to a manufacturer that has launched a 3D printer capable of producing confectionary, as opposed to the typical inedible plastic objects like cat toys or replicas of someone’s head.
The food printing machine was unveiled at CES in Las Vegas, of course, by a US company called 3D Systems that will launch two devices. The smaller basic Chefjet will go for $5,000 (about £3,500) and the larger Chefjet Pro will retail for around double that price.
3D Systems said, “We invite leading pastry chefs, restaurateurs and event planners to join us in bringing 3D printing into the kitchen.”
However, this is not the first time the idea of 3D printing food has come to our attention.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printering: Making A Thing With Blender, Part II
http://hackaday.com/2014/01/08/3d-printering-making-a-thing-with-blender-part-ii/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Slideshow: 3D Systems Changes What Engineers Can Do With 3D Printing
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1392&doc_id=270865&cid=nl.dn14&dfpPParams=ind_183,industry_auto,industry_aero,industry_consumer,industry_machinery,industry_medical,bid_27,aid_270865&dfpLayout=blog
3D Systems has introduced printers, services, and software that will change what engineers can do with 3D printing. These include a bigger and faster SLA (stereolithography) build volume, another printer that does multiple colors in plastic, one that prints plastic multi-material objects bigger and faster, ceramic 3D printing via the cloud, and a universal print driver. All debuted at the Euromold 2013 conference in Frankfurt, Germany.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CES 2014: 3-D Scanners are a Logical Next Step After 3-D Printers
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/01/14/1852211/ces-2014-3-d-scanners-are-a-logical-next-step-after-3-d-printers
A number of companies are either selling or preparing to sell 3-D scanners.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Creating PCBs with 3D Resin Printers
http://hackaday.com/2014/01/14/creating-pcbs-with-3d-resin-printers/
The folks over at Full Spectrum Laser are Kickstarting their own 3D printer – a stereolithography machine like the Form 1 and B9 Creator printers. During their testing, they discovered a new application for these SLA printers that should prove to be very useful for the makers and builders using machines – manufacturing PCBs with UV-sensitized copper clad boards.
Full Spectrum Laser’s printer – the Pegasus Touch – uses a near UV laser and a galvo system to build objects in UV-curing resin layer by layer. In retrospect it seems pretty obvious a UV laser would expose UV sensitive boards, but this discovery simply reeks of cleverness and is a nice ‘value added’ feature for the Pegasus printer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Scientific Cocktail Toppers Move from the 3D Printer to the Bar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lojml0NBNts
http://cen.acs.org/articles/92/i2/Scientific-Cocktail-Toppers-Chemical-Free.html
http://science.slashdot.org/story/14/01/13/1717239/chefs-preview-surface-tension-based-cocktail-garnishes
Tomi Engdahl says:
How 3D printers are changing kids’ lives in war-torn Sudan
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57617166-76/how-3d-printers-are-changing-kids-lives-in-war-torn-sudan/
There are some 50,000 amputees in South Sudan. A few good men have set up camp with a 3D printer to lend a helping hand.
Now, Not Impossible Labs has its own little lab at a local hospital and is able to print prosthetic arms for $100 a pop in fewer than six hours.
It’s even made the design open source in the hopes that others around the world will be able to replicate the project, setting up similar labs to provide low-cost prosthetics to those in need.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Researchers aim to revolutionize 3D printing, global manufacturing
Lawrence Livermore National Lab scientists look to turn an art into more of a science
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/9245496/Researchers_aim_to_revolutionize_3D_printing_global_manufacturing?taxonomyName=Emerging+Technologies&taxonomyId=128
One day a 3D printer, using a mix of materials, will be able to create body armor for U.S. soldiers that is more lightweight and stronger than anything could be made with traditional manufacturing and materials today.
That’s the word from researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, who are working to revolutionize 3D printing, as well as the way that companies build products ranging from jet engines and satellites to football helmets.
Pete Basiliere, a research director at Gartner Inc., said many universities and labs are working on 3D printing, but Lawrence Livermore has the resources to push the technology ahead.
“The key is that this opens the door for designers to create items that were not possible before,” Basiliere said. “Engineers and designers would have another set of tools that enable them to be more creative in coming up with a product.”
Duoss said Lawrence Livermore researchers are looking at the fundamental science and engineering of the materials, such as powdered metals and polymers, that are used to manufacture products. The idea is that by changing the pattern or shape of a material’s cell structure, it will change its properties.
By using multiple materials, a product could be made with a sensor built inside of it.
For instance, by using different metals or a combination of metals and polymers, a 3D printer could make body armor for soldiers or police officers
Using different metals and polymers, also would make it possible for a company to print the custom-fit foam and padding for the inside of a football helmet that would be laced with sensors.
Tomi Engdahl says:
First 3D-Printed Metal Part Flies on UK Military Jet
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1392&doc_id=271012&cid=nl.dn14
A 3D-printed metal aircraft end-production component has been successfully flown on a test flight conducted by BAE Systems for Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF). BAE Systems designed and printed the part, a camera bracket, and also developed the process that printed the part.
The metal camera bracket flew on a Tornado fighter jet late last month from the company’s airfield in Warton, Lancashire. It’s the first metal 3D-printed part that BAE Systems has qualified and fitted to an RAF fast jet aircraft, Mike Murray, head of airframe integration at Warton, told Design News
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pregnant? Celebrate your proudest moment … by 3D-printing a copy of the foetus
Don’t fancy your own sprog? Order Kim Kardashian’s instead
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/21/3d_print_your_unborn_foetus/
Proud parents-to-be with a few bucks to spare might want to consider splashing out on a “3D Baby” – an “adorable baby figurine” of their pre-natal sprog squirted into shape by a 3D printer.
According to California-based 3D Babies, these foetal representations are created using 3D/4D ultrasound images and “the latest computer graphics and 3D printing technology”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fetuses and other things that should never be 3D-printed
It’s all fun and games until someone starts making creepy keepsakes.
http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/01/fetuses-and-other-things-that-should-never-be-3d-printed/
A company named 3D Babies is now offering to turn 4D ultrasounds into 3D-printed sculptures of unborn babies for parents, relatives, or anyone who can’t wait to hold the real thing in their hands. The life-size printouts appear to arrive nestled in a coffin-like satin-lined box, at a cost of $600.
3D Babies is not the first company to offer to give you a plastic copy of your offspring. Back in March, Cracked highlighted a Japanese company that would entomb a 3D-printed resin copy of your baby in a clear block of plastic
Recent research shows the uncanny valley is about as real as the Bermuda Triangle, but these babies make a strong case for its existence. While we’re here, some more ideas about things that should never be 3D-printed: recently deceased animals, tumors, cysts… really, anything to do with a photorealistic rendering of the human body will be a tough sell.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Print Metals For Under $2,000
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1392&doc_id=271093&cid=nl.dn14&dfpPParams=ind_183,industry_auto,industry_aero,industry_machinery,bid_27,aid_271093&dfpLayout=blog
A low-cost open-source 3D printer that makes metal parts has been designed by Joshua M. Pearce and his team at Michigan Technological University (MTU). Sigma Labs, known for its in-process control technology for 3D metal printing, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the university to support commercial development of the printer.
The printer designed by Pearce and his team in MTU’s department of materials science and engineering combines gas-metal arc welding and a version of the RepRap open source 3D printer.
An open-access paper describes the MTU 3D metals printer in more detail.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CES 2014: Formlabs 3-D Printing Redux, With New Software (Video)
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/01/22/199249/ces-2014-formlabs-3-d-printing-redux-with-new-software-video
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printering: Making A Thing In Autodesk 123D
http://hackaday.com/2014/01/22/3d-printering-making-a-thing-in-autodesk-123d/
In the continuing battle against 3D printers used exclusively for fabricating plastic octopodes and useless trinkets, here’s yet another installment of a Making A Thing tutorial. If you’ve ever wanted to make one single object in multiple 3D design softwares, this is for you.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Touring Deezmaker, The First *Good* 3D Printer Store In The World
http://hackaday.com/2014/01/23/touring-deezmaker-the-first-good-3d-printer-store-in-the-world/
Deezmaker, a 3D printer store in beautiful Pasadena that is home base for the Bukobot and Bukito printers, an awful lot of awesome printed plastic things
Inside Deezmaker is a treasure trove of printed baubles and a fishbowl full of a herringbone planetary gear systems free for the taking. They have printers running all the time, a very nice lab for [whosawhatsis], and enough work space to host a few workshops every week.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The 3D printer that can build a house in 24 hours
http://www.news.com.au/technology/the-3d-printer-that-can-build-a-house-in-24-hours/story-e6frfrnr-1226798960267
THERE are robot vacuum cleaners and robot mops to help us around the house, so why not a robot to build our homes? Wait no longer.
Now there is a nifty tub of electronics to do just that, build a house from scratch, and fast.
Forget weeks to find a builder and months for house construction, a machine developed in the United States can build a 232sq m home layer by layer in a single day.
University of Southern California’s Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis has designed the giant robot that replaces construction workers with a nozzle on a gantry, this squirts out concrete and can quickly build a home according to a computer pattern.
It is “basically scaling up 3D printing to the scale of building,” Prof Khoshnevis told msnUK.
The technology, known as Contour Crafting, could revolutionise the construction industry, he says.
The Contour Crafting system is a robot that automates age-old tools normally used by hand. These are wielded by a robotic gantry that builds a three-dimensional object.
Strong walls are built up layer by layer using concrete with automatic reinforcement, while plumbing and electrics are also added by the system during the building process.
“Contour Crafting technology has the potential to build safe, reliable, and affordable lunar and Martian structures, habitats, laboratories, and other facilities before the arrival of human beings,’ his website reads.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The 3D printer that can build a house in 24 hours
A revolutionary 3D concrete printer can build a 2,500-square-foot home layer by layer in a single day
http://innovation.uk.msn.com/design/the-3d-printer-that-can-build-a-house-in-24-hours
The University of Southern California is testing a giant 3D printer that could be used to build a whole house in under 24 hours.
Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis has designed the giant robot that replaces construction workers with a nozzle on a gantry, this squirts out concrete and can quickly build a home according to a computer pattern. It is “basically scaling up 3D printing to the scale of building,” says Khoshnevis. The technology, known as Contour Crafting, could revolutionise the construction industry.
New giant 3D printer can build a house in 24 hours
http://gadgets.ndtv.com/laptops/news/new-giant-3d-printer-can-build-a-house-in-24-hours-470564
The 3D printer, developed by Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis from the University of Southern California, could be used to build a whole house, layer by layer, in a single day.
The giant robot replaces construction workers with a nozzle on a gantry, which squirts out concrete and can quickly build a home based on a computer pattern, MSN News reported.
It is “basically scaling up 3D printing to the scale of building,” said Khoshnevis.
Researchers Are Making A 3D Printer That Can Build A House In 24 Hours
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/3d-printer-builds-house-in-24-hours-2014-1#ixzz2rJdVorHy
Tomi Engdahl says:
Copying objects in 3D
http://hackaday.com/2014/01/26/copying-objects-in-3d/
[Pulse 9] sent in a very interesting project he just finished up at an internship. It’s a 3D photocopier that scans an object and then mills said object into floral foam.
The copier is made out of material [Pulse] found sitting around – PVC, drawer slides for the X and Y axes, acrylic for the structure, and broken printer parts for the Z axis.
To scan an object, [Pulse] puts an object down on the bed and scans it with a laser and webcam. The images recorded on the camera are fed into MATLAB. The output from MATLAB is sent over serial to a custom board containing a PIC18F4620 that controls the axis motors.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printed Guitar
http://hackaday.com/2014/01/25/3d-printed-guitar/
Professor of Mechtronics [Olaf Diegel's] 3D printer must go to 12, because he’s printed these incredible electric guitar bodies. You probably won’t be making your own on your filament printer, however, because [Diegel] uses SLS (Selective Laser Sintering) to create the body out of nylon, then he dyes the resulting piece in a two-step process.
Tomi Engdahl says:
By this time next year, you could be 3D printing custom comfortable inserts for your shoes
http://gigaom.com/2014/01/26/by-this-time-next-year-you-could-be-3d-printing-custom-comfortable-inserts-for-your-shoes/
Sols closed a $1.75 million seed financing round this week that will help the startup roll out 3D scanning and printing as tools to create shoe inserts.
For nearly a year and a half, Kegan Schouwenburg ran the enormous Shapeways factory in Queens, New York. Her colleagues joked about her running a factory in heels, which got her thinking: Surrounded by all of these high tech 3D printers, how was it that her shoes were still so low tech that her feet hurt all the time?
“That whole idea seemed really real broken to me,” Schouwenburg said. “I looked around and said, ’3D printing is the technology that can solve this.’”
Enter Sols, a custom orthotics company Schouwenburg co-founded last year to pair 3D scanning and printing with the masses’ feet. The startup closed a $1.75 million seed financing round last week, led by Lux Capital.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D-Printed Crime Scenes Are Coming to a Courtroom Near You
http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/3-d-printed-crime-scenes-are-coming-to-a-courtroom-near-you
As 3Ders points out, a police station in Roswell, New Mexico, recently acquired a Faro 3D scanner, which will allow investigators (and potentially courts) to access a 3D rendering of crime scenes&mdasha digitized, panoramic view of any area where something dastardly or unfortunate has gone down.
According to a news report, the technology will be used by placing several touchpoints around a specified area where the 3D scanner will send laser signals, recording, and downloading the visual data to a computer in the process.
If the cops can go through crime scenes like a digital bird, then how will this be flipped into something critical, exploratory, or just visually captivating?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hopefuls rattle tin for customisable snap together 3D printer
It’s not quite capable of printing itself, but it’s darned close
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/13/3d_snap_tin_rattling/
DIY 3D printing is very much flavour of the month, and whether it’s the third industrial revolution or a load of old cobblers remains to be seen, but there’s a veritable extrusion of makers vying to get their print nozzles in the trough.
Kickstarter is the street corner of choice for these pioneers to rattle their tins, and California outfit TJIKO Labs reckons it has got something a bit different to offer in the shape of the Snap 3D.
The machine is described as a modular, stand-alone unit which simply clicks together without the need for “any technical background knowledge”.
The modular aspect, say its producers, means punters “will be able to customize their printer”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
$499 3-D Printer Drew Plenty of Attention at CES (Video)
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/01/27/130232/499-3-d-printer-drew-plenty-of-attention-at-ces-video
3-D printing is far from new, but a $499 3-D printer is new enough to get a bunch of people to write about it, including someone whose headline read, CES 2014: Could 3D printing change the world? XYZPrinting, the company behind the da Vinci 1.0 printer
Tomi Engdahl says:
CES 2014: Could 3D printing change the world?
http://dailynewsen.com/2014/01/13/ces-2014-could-3d-printing-change-the-world.html
Even though 3D printing is all the rage at the Consumer Electronics Show, many people outside the industry are still puzzled by all the fuss.
“Explain 3D printers to me. Why are they useful?” one non-techie friend of mine tweeted me this week, after I posted a picture of a 3D printer at the show.
By the way, there are 28 3D printing exhibitors at the show, up from just eight in 2013, according to Gary Shapiro, the president and chief executive of the Consumer Electronics Assn., which organizes the show.
”It puts the power to make an object or manufacture an object in anyone’s hands. You no longer need to go to a factory,” said Daniel Cowen, co-founder of 3Doodler, a 3D printing pen.
“With 3D printing, you just get a design from the Internet, press the button and print at home,” he said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D printing, now in living color!
By combining three colors, the Stratasys printer offers a palette consisting of hundreds of shades
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9245785/3D_printing_now_in_living_color_
Industrial 3D printer manufacturer Stratasys today announced what it called the world’s first multi-color, multi-material printer capable of making objects of hard, soft and flexible polymers.
Stratasys’ Objet500 Connex3 Color Multi-material 3D Printer features a triple-jet technology that combines droplets of three base materials to produce parts with virtually unlimited combinations of rigid, flexible and transparent color materials in a single print run.
“This ability to achieve the characteristics of an assembled part without assembly or painting is a significant time-saver,” Stratasys said in a statement.
“A single machine will do everything. You can literally get hundreds of colors and hundreds of material formulas out of this one machine. They can mix together,” Hiemenz said. “You can build a part that’s solid plastic and rubber and transparent and various colors all on the same build. This is like no other machine before.”
Trek Bicycle in Waterloo, Wisc. is currently beta testing the Objet500 Connex3 printer for creating accessories such as bike chain stay guards and handlebar grips prior to actual production.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dell Partners With MakerBot To Resell 3D Printers and Scanners
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/01/27/239200/dell-partners-with-makerbot-to-resell-3d-printers-and-scanners
Tomi Engdahl says:
New 3D Printer by MarkForged Can Print With Carbon Fiber
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/news/new-3d-printer-by-markforged-can-print-with-carbon-fiber-16428727
Looking for a better way to make racecar parts, Gregory Mark invents a 3D printer that can print in tough, lightweight carbon fiber, the first of its kind.
The problem is that making custom racecar parts out of carbon fiber is daunting.
So Mark devised his own solution: the MarkForged Mark One, the world’s first carbon fiber 3D printer.
The main advantage of the Mark One: It can print parts 20 times stiffer and five times stronger than ABS, according to the company.
The racecar wing, for example, is printed with a nylon outershell and honeycomb structure, with a carbon fiber reinforced core.
The Mark One isn’t limited to commercial use. With a price $5000, Mark wants to make sure printing in carbon fiber is available to consumers as well.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Slideshow: 3D Printing Metals in Space
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1392&doc_id=270456&cid=nl.dn14
We’ve told you about NASA’s efforts working on 3D printing in space: building a printer that will work in near-zero-gravity, making rocket engine parts, and 3D printing parts of rovers destined for planetary and lunar exploration. Not to be left in the dust, the European Space Agency (ESA) has begun a program for designing a large-scale 3D printer that will work in space making metal components.
Called AMAZE (Additive Manufacturing Aiming Towards Zero Waste & Efficient Production of High-Tech Metal Products), the program aims to put the first 3D metal printer on the International Space Station.
The ESA, in partnership with the European Commission, is evaluating five different, unnamed metal additive manufacturing processes, including those that use lasers, electron beams, and plasma to melt metal powders or wires. The goal is to make metal components and systems that are high enough quality for the rigors of space.
Tomi Engdahl says:
faBrickation: Combining Lego and 3D Printing
http://hackaday.com/2014/01/28/fabrickation-combining-lego-and-3d-printing/
While 3D printing gives you the ability to fabricate completely custom parts, it does have some drawbacks. One issue is the time and cost of printing large volumes. Often these structures are simple, and do not require completely custom design.
This is where the faBrickation system comes in. It allows you to combine 3D printed parts with off the shelf LEGO bricks. The CAD tool that lets you ‘Legofy’ a design. It creates directions on how to assemble the LEGO parts, and exports STL files for the parts to be 3D printed. These custom bricks snap into the LEGO structure.
faBrickation
- Fast 3D Printing Using Bricks -
http://www.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/baudisch/projects/faBrickation.html
faBrickation is a new approach to rapid prototyping of functional objects, such as the body of a head-mounted display. The key idea is to save 3D printing time by automatically substituting sub-volumes with standard building blocks — in our case Lego bricks. When making the body for a head-mounted display, for example, getting the optical path right is paramount. Users thus mark the lens mounts as “high-resolution” to indicate that these should later be 3D printed. faBrickator then 3D prints these parts. It also generates instructions that show users how to create everything else from Lego bricks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is a LEGO 3D printer by definition self-replicating?
http://hackaday.com/2013/07/18/is-a-lego-3d-printer-by-definition-self-replicating/
LEGO parts are plastic. 3D printers make parts out of plastic. So the transitive property tells us that a LEGO 3D printer should be able to recreate itself. This one’s not quite there yet, mostly because it doesn’t use plastic filament as a printing medium.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printing of Human Tissue To Spark Ethics Debate
http://science.slashdot.org/story/14/01/29/218223/3d-printing-of-human-tissue-to-spark-ethics-debate
“In a report released today, Gartner predicts that the time is drawing near when 3D-bioprinted human organs will be readily available, an advance almost certain to spark a complex debate involving a variety of political, moral and financial interests. For example, some researchers are using cells from human and non-human organs to create stronger tissue”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bio-printing human parts will spark ethical, regulatory debate
3D printing also threatens intellectual property rights
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9245834/Bio_printing_human_parts_will_spark_ethical_regulatory_debate?taxonomyId=128&pageNumber=1
The rapid development of 3D bio-printers will spark calls to ban the technology for human and non-human tissue within two years, according to research firm Gartner Inc.
Gartner also noted that 3D printing will change retail models and threaten intellectual property (IP), resulting in massive losses for companies that hold those licenses. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2018, 3D printing will result in the loss of at least $100 billion a year in IP.
“Already, it’s possible to 3D print many items, including toys, machine and automotive parts, and even weapons.”
The technology of 3D “bio-printing”, which uses extruder needles or inkjet-like printer heads to lay down successive rows of living cells, is advancing at breakneck speed, Gartner said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ask Hackaday: What’s Up With This Carbon Fiber Printer?
http://hackaday.com/2014/01/29/ask-hackaday-whats-up-with-this-carbon-fiber-printer/
The Hackaday Tip Line has been ringing with submissions about the Mark Forg3D printer, purportedly the, “world’s first 3D printer that can print carbon fiber.”
Right off the bat, we’re going to call that claim a baldfaced lie. Here’s a Kickstarter from a few months ago that put carbon fiber in PLA filament, making every desktop 3D printer one that can print in carbon fiber.
There’s no mention of how carbon fiber get into the printed objects. Is it embedded in a plastic filament, like the previously mentioned filament, or something far more exotic? If the former, the idea of printing with carbon fiber doesn’t make sense except in a very few niche cases.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The FilaWinder
http://hackaday.com/2014/01/30/the-filawinder/
The latest addition to the line of 3D printer accessories is the FilaWinder, a tool for winding your filament neatly onto a spool. If you’ve abandoned buying your filament by the reel in favor of making your own from cheaper pellets—such as the Lyman Extruder, the Filabot Wee, or other alternatives, including the winder’s companion product, the FilaStruder
The FilaWinder spools for you while the filament extrudes
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.