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National Lab Working To Mix Metals and Polymers For 3D Printing
Lucas123 writes "Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab are trying to expand 3D printing to include mixed materials at the same time, such as polymers and metals. With those advances, a company could build, for example, body armor for soldiers that are stronger and lighter. If their work pans out, they'll create materials that have properties that simply don't exist today."
Seems to me if you're building body armor, you'd want to target a technology that can pump out a bit more than one piece a week, no? And let me guess, "if" means "totally already exists and we're colonizing the universe now"?
will always be at the core of American leadership into new markets
... I'm sure the soldiers of the First Army will personally come over and "discuss" the matter...
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
3D Printing doesn't scale. It will never be a viable manufacturing technology. It doesn't matter if you make one or one million pieces, the per-unit cost never goes down because the raw materials for 3D printing have a static price.
That's right, we have perfected the first manufacturing process since the pyramids that has no economies of scale.
Why does every discussion of 3D printing seem to devolve into how it could make better weapons or armor? How about using metal and plastic to make elaborate layered circuit boards we can drop inexpensive chips into and make even cooler stuff? And I don't mean detonators.
I've been wondering where this has been for at least a decade!
Where was this a decade ago? Really?!? Did we not have the computational power? Was there no funding? Was no one thinking about it? Was it all pie in the sky theoretical, even then? I recall a few papers, hinting around it. But I found no where that it was actively being tried.
To me, it seemed fairly obvious to try mixing such things! Then again, I'm a lowly IT Admin, who has a minor interest in chemistry and physics, combined with computational science.
What Africa needs is less violence, and adding more firearms to the mix is not going to lead to peace.
" body armor for soldiers that are stronger and lighter"
But where do we get the soldiers that are stronger and lighter?
The big thing at Livermore is weapons, right? The next big thing isn't going to be defensive, it's going to be offensive. Think of the possibilities when you can 3D print up some Dense Metal Explosive interlaced with, say, a little sad Keanu Reeves figure?
> body armor for soldiers that are stronger and lighter.
Is you sure?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
says the hypocrite who already has a firearm to protect himself and his family.
i'd post AC as well if i were such a judgmental, holier then thou, racist prick. africans have the right to protect themselves whether you like guns or not.
people like you are the reason they continue to wallow in death. rich 1st worlders telling them what they can and can't do with this weapon or this chemical, or this technology.
My wife, who is an exec in company which produces very high end precision components from both milling and molding has told me that the owner of the firm is very afraid for the future of the business because of 3D metal printing.
I, however have told her I do not agree at all. Rather, I see 3D printing as a great opportunity for her firm to make even more complex components which today cannot be made. Her point is that anyone will be able to do it though.
Sure, maybe they could, but I think they won't. Of course, there will be some folks who want their own 3D metal printer, but it will be decades before they are so cheap that a person can just buy it without thinking about it, like an ink jet.
Much of my work is in the automotive sector, as is much of my wife's customer base. One thing that I have learned about auto manufactures. They do not make their own parts and they do not want to make their own parts. They never will either. They spec out the new model and source the bits and pieces from various suppliers. Then, they put them all together.
This is true for most industries I think.
In fact, I would say that 3D printers will actually let you expand into other market segments.
What does slashdot think? Will everyone really print at home and more importantly, will business just print their own bits?
Current materials have properties like their melting point, resistivity and density.
Will these future ones have a quognon modulus, voctitude and pluness?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
A 3D printer that can make a nut and bolt?