Slashdot Mirror
A Solar-Powered 3D Printer Prints Glass From Sand
Tx-0 writes in with a story in Colossal Art & Design. From the article: "Industrial designer and tinkerer Markus Kayser spent the better part of a year building and experimenting with two fantastic devices that harness the sun's power in some of the world's harshest climates. The first he calls a Sun Cutter, a low-tech light cutter that uses a large ball lens to focus the sun's rays onto a surface that's moved by a cam-guided system. ... Next, Kayser began to examine the process of 3D printing. Merging two of the deserts most abundant resources, nearly unlimited quantities of sand and sun, he created the Solar Sinter, a device that melts sand to create 3D objects out of glass."
But can it do sans serif?
So, cam-guided, as in cam-guided or CAM-guided? PLEASE, editors, do your jobs.
Set a bunch of these loose in the Sahara printing out solar panels.
But, can you use it to incinerate ants?
Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
I wonder how "portable" this sort of concept would be towards outpost construction on the Moon, Mars, etc.? It seems like it has the potential for saving mightily on transporting the "cement" used in other such printable hab concepts.
Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once
But it still works much better than the one that you built.
Got Code?
I am not impressed, It is just a machine that burns oil.
I am not impressed, It is just a big wheel that turns in the river.
I am not impressed, It is just a circuit that performs calculations.
I bet you typed that on 'just a bunch of tiny little switches'. What use could those possibly be?
Cool usage of the sun. I wonder if he can build houses with that printer?
I've got a passing interest in glasswork, and one of the things I learned is that it's more complicated than "melt into mold, let it cool". Glass has to go through a carefully controlled cool-down period so that the molecular structure will set up properly. Otherwise, the resulting object is far more brittle than it should be. If not done properly you can have cracks form during the cooling phase, ruining the object.
Does the incremental deposition solve the annealing problem? Being able to make glass objects without having to carefully control the cool-down would be very nice.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Been doing this in Dwarf Fortress for a few years.
wow! that is awesome. I wonder if we can eradicate the desert by letting a swarm of those things loose
Yeah, but you can use it to burn ants! Isn't that cool?!?
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
One must wonder if you really even RTFA, or are just that dense. The 3-d printer using sand and the sun uses widely available resources, in a relatively short time span, to create complex objects, with little/no waste or pollution of any kind. (Exempting the manufacturing of the printer and solar panels themselves). I have not heard of any such similar achievements. The process itself is easy to oversee, (unskilled labor) and seems like it could be scaled up for larger production easily. This process could possibly be used to help start manufacturing on other words, with Mars being mostly sand. What about this achievement is unimpressive, other than your reading comprehension?
If our elected representatives no longer represent us, do we still live in a Democracy?
Chip fab from sand?
Yours In Science,
Kilgore Trout
This process could possibly be used to help start manufacturing on other words, with Mars being mostly sand
This was my thought when I firs saw it. I've always wondered if something like this was possible to do on mars, or the moon. Looks like it might be.
A unique way to learn a language: http://languageloom.com
I gotta get me one of those.
It's sintering, and it looks like you end up with lots of little pits and stuff in the finished work. It's also probably a glass-sand aggregate of sorts. They didn't show close-ups of the objects, or any attempt to "finish" them. They might be strong when finished, but not clear.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
I just LOLed...
I couldn't watch the video (slashdotted?) but the picture of the object he made looks like a proof-of-concept for solar sintering, not a finely-manufactured object that meets any kind of standard for quality.
Don't get me wrong, this is a really cool machine, but it's more "wow" value right now than something you'd want to buy.
Bob the Super Hamste's great great grandfather once said to the Wright Brothers: "It's not that impressive. It's just a motorized bike that doesn't need to be on the ground."
While I agree that it's an impressive result, I'm not sure that it's entirely as practical as you make it out to be. Remember, the end result is glass, and not even high-quality glass at that. It's brittle, porous, and there is very little room for quality-control. The things that this machine produces are basically fit to be display-objects only.
You are expending too much effort. There are people here who weren't impressed with the memristor either.
Agree with your sentiments, though.
I, for one, welcome our new self replicating, desert dwelling overlords.
I8-D
Because then I can finally download a car.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Just need one block of coal, one block of sand and a furnace.
Congratulations. You earned it!
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
It's a prototype that is using common desert sand, it's not meant to be practical at this point.
I wonder what he'll be able to put out using higher quality sand with the current design.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
Bob the Super Hamste's great grandfather also once told CmdrTaco "255 character usernames? Nobody needs more than 20."
Um, pretty sure this is not intended for any type of commercial use. Even normal 3D printers are more for prototyping than actual production, as I understand it. The results are rather brittle and you can only use a very specific material. In this case, "glass." So yeah, if you happen to need brittle glass components on Mars... I guess this might help...?
From the GP's sig.
What good is a police state if I cant rant online about it!
Was just riffing off of his sig, but it is a valid argument if you take it that way.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
But what useful objects could you possibly make with it? An ash tray? A dildo? I'm not saying this isn't cool, but come on. Lets be real. Equipment used by astronauts is pretty sophisticated and materials are carefully selected for a reason.
Didn't I read about this two days ago on Engadget?
You can fuse material together to create air-tight shelters, a necessity on other worlds.
Mod +1 Funny
While all those Egyptians were protesting, this guy was tinkering. Sign of a true geek.
This is high tech.
Someone once explained to me the difference between low, medium, and high tech:
Low Tech: You can see how it works. Example: a mechanical wristwatch.
Medium Tech: You make the components so small, you can't see how it works. Example: a digital wristwatch.
High Tech: You make it out of the right stuff and in the right shape, and it Just Works. Example: a microwave waveguide.
I submit this also qualifies as high tech.
In Liberty, Rene
You can fuse material together to create air-tight shelters, a necessity on other worlds.
It isn't even real glass. It is brittle and porous. You're not going to make an air-tight shelter with it.
Not use martian sand as the poster up the thread implied.
In don't want to knock it though, any research into 3-d printers is good, as there time will come.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
Original source is here: http://www.markuskayser.com/work/solarsinter/
...Merging two of the deserts most abundant resources, nearly unlimited quantities of sand and sun....
Because otherwise it's nowhere close to "unlimited".
Geeze, people... how hard is it to grasp the notion that infinity is... well... infinite.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Right. First-generation design doesn't do everything, film at 11.
It's a proof of concept chief. The first cars didn't have 4-5 star crash safety ratings while able to carry you at 80mph while achieving 40mpg (which my wife's Camry Hybrid does)
I am impressed. Look at what can be achieved with just a big, controllable lens.
# cat
Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
A huge amount of energy goes into producing concrete and bricks. In that region most structures are actually a form of mud brick adobe. A series of devices like this could make individual bricks or a robotic machine could follow a programmed path and layer by layer fuse a solid wall out of sand. The structures could last hundreds of years and need little maintenance where as mud brick buildings need constant repair. Allowing for tiny air pockets could add insulation value as well to the walls. It seems a more practical use since the fuses shapes are very rough so it's unlikely any commercial products could be made from them. Durable building materials that could be made for little cost other than the machine itself seems more practical.
So? If you wreck it, just print a new one. sheesh...
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
This process could possibly be used to help start manufacturing on other words, with Mars being mostly sand.
Dust-storms - who's gonna clean the lens?
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
Ball lenses are handy things, and can be dangerous in direct sunlight - especially larger ones.
For most materials, like glass, their focal lengths generally extend away from their surface a distance less than their radius, and approach the surface as the wavelength extends into the infrarad, which means if you carry an uncovered glass sphere around on the beach or in the desert, you will burn your hand or set fire to your glove.
I learned this secondhand one day, at a beach gathering of Tolkien society geeks. One of them had taken to carrying around a 4" glass sphere she had found somewhere, calling it her "palantir." As the sun rose, she yelped and threw the thing to the ground. "It burned me!" she cried.
I had many times coupled fibers using ball lenses so I knew immediately what had happened. But I said "You know what that means, don't you? Sauron is watching you."
She wouldn't touch the thing again.
Also, speaking of ball lenses... you can use your head as a ball lens to extend the range of your car's wireless entry key fob. If you find yourself just out of range of your keys, simply put the transmitter about an inch behind your head, directly *opposite* the car. Your head is mostly transparent to the RF, but has a slightly different index of refraction from air/vaccum, thus acts as a lens. And since your head is approximately spherical, it works well enough to make a practical convergent lens.
I can see the fnords!
Right. First-generation design doesn't do everything, film at 11.
No, you don't get it. Even current industrial 3D printers that use carefully selected materials and lasers still do not produce qualtiy end products. They're primarily used for prototyping. You're not going to take rubble from some random planetoid, shine some sunlight on it, and produce an airtight habitable structure. You're just not.
Making real glass is a carefully controlled process. Honestly? If you're really that hard up for building material, happen to have suitable type of sand, and strong enough sunlight, you probably want to look into using the sun to make an oven and try to make glass blocks. That is, if you can't just cut the rock.
It's a proof of concept chief.
It is a neat project. That's it. The concept of 3D printer had already proven.
The first cars didn't have 4-5 star crash safety ratings while able to carry you at 80mph while achieving 40mpg (which my wife's Camry Hybrid does)
This glass 3D printer isn't even at the level of the first cars. Really, I don't mean to trivialize it because it is pretty neat considering who made it and what materials were used, but I don't see any real practical uses for it. You just can't make quality glass like that. And even if you could, the applications for glass are pretty limited.
Could this be useful on the moon?
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
You missed the part where he layers sand and makes 3D objects.
Not really sure about practicality of using sun as blow torch to fuse materials together in "Mars", but i'm pretty sure it's useful to convert heat as stored energy rather than chemical via photovoltaics. For instance, water. Mars supposedly have water. What if, high temperature/pressured water splitting using focus ray into water chamber to gain hydrogen as stored energy and oxygen to sustain life? I think, in foreign environment like Mars, you would want something "low tech" enough so that maintenance is kept at minimal and production and operational cost is low enough to make it reality. Also Mars has plenty of carbon dioxide. Instead of drinking Mars' water or your own piss (filtration is a huge problem), you can use hydrogen and carbon dioxide to make water using sabatier process. Hell, even byproduct can be used to make even more water and carbon extra by using heat which is plenty.
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
What other materials could be melted for other applications?
Can the target spot be made smaller?
What type of drill(s) could be used to polish?
All in all, this is definitely a candidate for the "What's Cool for 2011" award.
"Mars supposedly have water."
Really? Which Mar out of all the many Mars out there?
That's a perfect example of why we shouldn't follow the English way of using plural verbs when the subject is a collective noun. You're apparently so used to doing it, you made a major mistake with your sentence.
Let's all just get back to the American way of making subjects and verbs agree.
or brad dourif?
Perhaps more practical than not-so-recent "walls of bacteria may stop desertification" idea, because it doesn't need water, only a bunch of fresnel lenses and cheap workforce to build houses, pipes, etc right in their own village!
People who live in the desert generally like to throw stones, and you know what they say about people who live in glass houses..
Actually, many commercial 3D printers make very polished final products. In some cases these prototypes may actually be of higher quality and more durable than the final mass produced version.
The problem is that the unit price scales very poorly once you scale up from making five to test to five million to sell.
Now, it's entirely possible that given enough R&D and experiments 3D printers can be developed where the higher cost of production is more than offset by the lack of shipping and the customizability of the final product. Ten years from now our purchase decisions could very well boil down to "cheap and generic from China" or "customized and immediate from the local shop"
The problem is that the unit price scales very poorly once you scale up from making five to test to five million to sell.
There's that, and the material used for the printer is not necessarily the one you want in your final product. And this certainly applies if your material is sand.
Ten years from now our purchase decisions could very well boil down to "cheap and generic from China" or "customized and immediate from the local shop"
A 3D printer is not a replicator, you know. You don't just plug in "iPhone" and come out with a fully functional iPhone.
Couple it with a motion sensor and you don't even have to steer the aiming ray yourself!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Not only that, but have you thought about how most of the poorest nations on this planet have these two resources in relative abundance? Now all we have to find is something people would want to have and they finally have some goods they could export for much needed money.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
A 3D printer is not a replicator, you know. You don't just plug in "iPhone" and come out with a fully functional iPhone.
A replicator? Well, for solids and structural shapes, yes they are. Right now you can print working parts (with embedded working parts) done in some of the same hard plastics (or metals) that production designs are done in. I have designed and printed such things myself.
Can you 'print' an iPhone? Not with any single machine right now. But it's far passed the point where such a thing is an impossibility and has instead moved on to an engineering challenge. How about combining an additive printer with a CNC mill and a pick-and-place machine. All three are based on similar three-axis designs. In fact, I've seen several 'hobby' machines that can be converted from printer to CNC.
So something that can print a case, including the required electrical connections. Then (or rather, simultaneously) drop in the specialist chips/battery/screen where they need to go. Use the CNC abilities for final polish and you are good to go. There is no reason that you shouldn't be able to take a working phone out of the printer and turn it on, still warm.
Such a device is not beyond what could be built now, immediately. It's simply a question of cost and demand. Even five years ago there was no realistic demand for hobbyist printers/CNC and what there was had astronomical prices. Now there is a thriving community, a bunch of home brew and several commercial companies looking seriously at entering the market at affordable prices. In five more years I'll be shocked if far more ambitions solutions are not available.
The pure brilliance and determination of human beings highlights the frustration of seeing human stupidity destroy people and the planet!
I suppose it illustrates the contradictory nature of our species. We suffer from the Jekyll and Hyde syndrome. When we are good we are great IE: space program,elimination of Polio but when we are bad we are horrific IE: Holocaust,Rwanda Genocide etc
We need to find a balance within ourselves otherwise we will continue to applaud our highs while on the flip side mourning our human inflicted tragedies again and again!
While reading the article I couldn't help but imagine the great mountains of sand in the deserts across the world. How come they don't make a machine that melts sand to create glass but then equips the glass with the necessary compenents for a solar panel? It could run off of petrol at first but then as it begins making the panels it could string them behind it as it moves to pick up more sand for the next one and eventually it will be running exclusively off of the solar panels. Just an idea. is this possible with current tech?
Cheat the moderation system - here's how they downmod others, and this is where countertrolling explains what he's doing while he trolls others (to his fellow trolltalk.com friends):
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2245866&cid=36491652
And, here's where countertrolling's "troll mechanics" for downmodding others is explained in detail by someone that got sick of it happening:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2271908&cid=36579618
As far as bogus up moderations, the trolltalk.com bunch (tomhudson, countertrolling, & others) collectively "team up" to upmod one another, in teams, as favors to one another.
(Talk about low, and bogus!)
OMFG, see the links!!
2011 - 3D printer prints glass from sand
2011 - robot innovations include self-balancing androids (video on youtube guy trying to push over bot, and it reacts to keep balance), drones, life-like androids (Danish man). etc etc
2020 - 3D printer prints most stuff, commercial applications. Self-balancing androids that look life like begin appearing in hospitals
2030 - 3D printers print anything. Androids look like us. Commercial fabrication plants print autonomously, one in particular owned by the military, daughter company called ... Skynet!!!!
Shiiit. I'll soon be a pensioner by 2030, and my chances of doing a Skynet survival course will be nill. Oh well, time to start trainging the boy at least so he can wander the wastes as a nomad for his remainging years.
"Everyone knows that vi vi vi is the number of the beast" -- Richard Stallman
i'm wondering about possibly building neural net-type quantum computers by creating a crystal lattice circuit design using this 3-d printer with cerium-monophosphide (notice: document behind paywall) instead of silicon. fuck that, i'm just going to write a sci-fi novel about it instead.
insensitive clod overlords obligatory xkcd car analogy russian reversals whoosh pedant fanbois ftfy in 3...2...1..PROFIT
Gonna be so nasty when the sand works its way into those gears...
The technology seems like it has potential for alot of things, creatively and industrially related, They may find more uses for it than just melting glass to create 3D objects.