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3D Printers
kkelly writes: "This weeks New Scientist has an interesting
article on 3-D Printers: 'THINK OF AN OBJECT and watch it appear before your eyes. All it takes is a click of a mouse, a flick of a switch and you can have almost anything, made to order. Researchers are on the point of creating a magic box that can bring the stuff of your imagination into the hard-edged material world.'"
... a Roland MDX-15 for $3000, which is capable of similar feats, although on a smaller (6" x 4") scale.
You know, I used to read glowing reports like this in Popular Science of new technologies and get really excited. Not anymore. Call me a tech cynic.
Every new technology may solve a few of today's problems, but inevitably brings with it a host of new problems. Now we can get cash at an ATM whenever we want (instead of waiting for weekdays like our parents did) but it costs $1.50 to access our own money. We can use cell phones to call our friends any time of the day, but it costs $30 per month and the phone could also be used to betray our location to someone else (or possibly give us brain tumors at the same time). Computers let us do many things--like write comments such as this one--but require maintenance that the average user doesn't have a clue about.
This 3D printer sounds great. But in conflict with the above comment, when the first consumer version is available I expect to pay $2,000 for the printer, $200 or more for a materials cartridge, $9.95 to Maytag for the "rights" to print an 85 cent part and two hours of my life to print it, not to mention software and hardware issues. So for a while, it just won't be worth it. When a new technology like this appears, count on a few things:
- It's always more expensive (new Pentium 4, anyone?)
- Hollywood always makes at least one worst-case scenario movie about it (The Net--thanks, Sandra)
- People always treat it differently from something which already exists but is the same concept (why is email privacy treated differently than snail mail privacy?)
- People assume that "this will change everything!" only to find that "everything" slowly incorporates the new into the old (e-commerce...is anyone actually making money or are they just burning through venture capital and announcing acquisitions through stock deals)
- New laws are drafted to deal with this new thing, when old laws could easily be expanded to incorporate it into them (was the DMCA actually necessary in the first place?--or could existing copyright laws have been reworked)
So call me jaded, but I've stopped living in the near future. Yes, the next kernel version is almost here. Yes, flat screen monitors are almost affordable. Yes, Bluetooth-enabled products are almost on the market.But almost doesn't count. It's not here yet. I'll live in today.
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I was watching the Discovery Channel one night, and they had a show about this stuff. Basically, you have a tank of clear polymer. Computer controlled lasers are used to fire beams at the polymer. When the laser beam hits the liquid, it solidifies. They construct items millimeter by millimeter. As one layer is solidified, the bottom of the vat drops down slightly, and the next layer is constructed.
I watched them build a little mini-model of the Space Shuttle using this. (They sped up the photography, and it was facinating to watch.)
Imagine having this hooked up to a computer. You can "print out" physical objects! Use their example, say, a spare part for your dishwasher. An 'L' pipe connector for instance. Your L connector break? Go to www.maytag.com, download the instructions for your 3D printer to construct a new part! Manufacturer's construction costs are eliminated!
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon? :P)
(If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't.
Hello all, I'm new to this site and I'm also President of ToyBuilders.com the website mentioned in the New Scientist article. First let me say that articles usually never get all of the fact exactly right and so it goes with this one. We were not aware of the article until last night when someone sent a email indicating it existed. We describe 5 technologies on our website that cover most of what is commercially available in the US there are several others in Japan, Israel and other countries. We talk about the 5 technologies that we have immediate access to and those technologies that meet our safety requirements regarding material safety. Onto the business of Star Trek like replicators.... These technologies have been around for roughly 11 years and I have been in the Rapid Prototyping business for nearly that long as well. The stereolithography process has been around the longest and it uses a UV curable liquid polymer as its build material. Others use nylon, metal, wax, paper, polycarbonate and sand. There are new materials being introduced every day and with the introduction of the more reasonably priced machines we decided it was time to introduce the general public to the limitless possibilities that these machines posses. While initially it seems that the material price is expensive ($380 per gallon) look at it on a part by part basis! The sample part on our website would cost the consumer about $20. Lets keep in mind that these machines will build literally anything you can imagine and yes you can build moving parts, complex shapes that can not be made using any other method. We have even take CT and MRI data and converted it a solid model that can be made on these machines. There are no limitations! We were concern if the general public would have any interest in this stuff and I must say in the 2 months the site has been up we have had well over 300,000 hits with no advertising and about a 0.5% purchase thru rate! Not bad! I'll leave it here and would love to here any comments you folks have. I was glad to hear about this site and glad to be a member. Karl R. Denton President ToyBuilders.com
they already have these. they are called "replicators". they are used to make "tea. early grey. hot."
all joking aside, this would actually be pretty much useless for the common joe. why? say you need a... light bulb. "polymer goop" is neither glass nor metal, two substances you need to make a light bulb. it can't be auto magically transformed into it either. so unless you're a mega rich guy or a corporation, and can have big vats of polymer gooped aluminum" i don't see where this will help anybody...
This setup is slightly different than the standard 3d pringing setup.
While basically the same, it adds the ability to color your print. The developers, if you read the article, had an epiphany-changing colors is not technologically different than changing materials, say soft plastics, hard plastics, ceramics, etc.
It's just a function of chemistry, reactions, computation, storage, etc.
And if, 5 years ago, people were paying 2k+ for computers, it stands to reason, due to inflation and all, that people would be willing to pay 3k+ or so for their PCs today. However, since PCs are actually cheaper, that leaves room for nifty Digicams, wide format color inkjet printers, etc.
The nick is a joke! Really!
GPL Deconstructed
At my college we have had a rapid prototyping center years, isn't anything new. Sure new advances are making it more and more useful, but the article still failed to mention two things.
One is the time required to make the object. Sure it is faster then regular manufacturing, but it isn't anything like a few minutes, more like a few hours. Second is the strength and durability of the objects. Most Rapid Prototyping machines either use plastic which is hardened by a laser, or a powder which is glued together. The objects however aren't that strong, accidently bump it, or rub it wrong and pieces will fall off.
Sure Rapid Prototyping makes manufacturing and design a whole heck of a lot simplier but it is still years away from being in the normal joe's office.
For many years people or companies with the desire and money (and we're not talking million$ either) could go and buy a rapid prototyping machine. You can get really expensive (thermoset polymers) all the way down to really cheap (layered wax deposition) and anywhere in between (glued layers of paper) and get what you want. Heck, someone I did a job for wanted me to model a new alarm fob case for him because his old one broke, and he was going to run it on the company machine.
Just to be sure, it's "No news is good news", not "Old news is good news", right? Hello?
Mr. Ska
While I'm not a mechanical engineer, my girlfriend is, and some of the things you can do with modern CnC equipment and injection molding gear is incredible. The costs of this equipment are coming down dramatically, especially if you just want to manufacture small items.
While the machine can't build other machines - yet - the capability to design things and assemble them later is most definately here, although the price is currently prohibitive. We're planning to get a small CnC machine when she graduates in hopes of recovering some of the cost for the equipment by doing custom work locally for people. CAD is amazing stuff if you're artistically gifted - I'm not - but I can write code to make the machine dance, heh heh.
Don't rule this technology out. It'll never be cheaper than good 'ol mass production techniques, but it can't be beat for custom items and prototyping. The university builds complex robots with simple parts made from equipment like this all the time.
..don't panic
...to simply download a file off the net and print a copy of the new metallica cd?!
-HobophobE
-HobophobE
Nothing laughs forever.
One 3D printer was the polymer style. These produce some rather resiliant models but take considerably longer to produce. The group I supported used these models for parts they were expecting to travel to other centers with (presentations, comparisons, etc) or if they thought this was pretty close to "done". One of the coolest demos I saw using this was a ship in a bottle - the bottle being latticework so you could see the inside ship's details.
A later printer I helped set up for the group was basically a wax-jet printer. A table was moved about as a jet squirted shots of a plastic-like wax; slowly building a model. Gaps in the model were filled with very thin support columns which were easily cleaned away once the model was finnished. One engineer used this to generate molds for resin heart pump test parts. This enabled him to make small changes, generate a physical part quickly, and then test the performance of the part. He was thrilled.
Like others have pointed out, this technology has been around for awhile. But its still interesting.
This takes piracy to a whole new level.
"HE PIRATED MY LIGHTSWITCH PLATE."
Or if a company used these things to make spare parts, and charged for the instructions....what's to stop you from giving those instructions to someone who needs it? We'll have a whole new DeCSS-like fiasco, but with hardware. Scary.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon? :P)
(If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't.
Or perhaps I should say "very few moving parts". Contrary to the implication of the article, even simple machines are mostly beyond the scope of this technology. It's main application is creating solid plastic, single piece objects. While there isn't, strictly speaking, a reason that this object could construct certain varieties of joints, etc. they would have to be reasonably loose (to avoid fusing them into one object) and unlubricated. More likely, componants of simple manchines could be fabricated for later assembly.
This technology has actually been around for some time, and, don't get me wrong, it's very cool, but this is a huge cry from arbitrary fabrication of objects.
So we aren't quite at Star Trek Replicator level yet.
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Behold the Power of Cheese!
After I read this, my first thought was "this is going to take photocopying your backside as a joke to a whole new level."
However, in all seriousness, even with some of the jokes her about 3D porn, there are going to be uses for this technology that we'll have to strain to imagine, and implications we're not forseeing. A few thoughts:
1) I use Bryce and Poser for 3D images, mainly for fun. I could now make dioramas, and it's not incocievable I could eventually make home made action figures and other elements as gifts.
2) What will this do to intellectual property and other property concepts? Couldn't I just scan in some copyrighted mechanical widget and then people could print it out? How many industries will be impacted by the ability to print out material at home?
3) We're making technology that produces technology. Could we create systems where you can actually "print" a new peripheral for your system and then install it? Ala the Infinite Improbability Drive, will I some day print out a new 3D Printer??
We used the 3D world to make computing, and now computing is making objects. The results will be interesting to watch.
"The Sage treasures Unity and measures all things by it" - Lao Tzu