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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."
... 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?
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.
Notice how they never build medical devices or something to help poor people in Africa. It's always something military? Yeah, that...
No sig today...
I think maybe you miss the point. The 3D printing vision is not that manufacturing will go away (at least not for now), it is that I can get the one off item even if I don't have access to the marketplace, or the item is no longer being made, or the price is higher than if I just made it myself or I want to customize it. For instance, I broke one of the clip-on shelves in my refrigerator. They make the part but they want $65.00 dollars for it. Now I have four more just like it, so if I 3d scan one of them and then print the replacement even if it takes a couple of hours and $10.00 or $20.00 worth of material I've saved both time and money. Even more so if the replacement weren't being sold anymore or if I wanted it to have dividers and added those after the scan.
A bit off topic to the article, I know. But, I don't think I understand some peoples instant negativity to this particular technology. I don't think it will end manufacturing as we know it, but I do think it can become a useful and normal technology. Can't you just hear it - "Hey honey, can you run off a couple more Monster-High dolls for Betty. She really liked the Frankie Stein you printed and wants Draculaura and Deuce Gorgon. I looked at the store, but couldn't find either of them."
No sigs in BETA. Beta SUCKS.
Notice how they never build medical devices or something to help poor people in Africa. It's always something military? Yeah, that...
Hey now! Military tech very much can be used to help poor people in Africa!
Help them not be alive anymore, for instance.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Actually the article was about finding ways to build weapons because we already use 3d printing to build medical devices cheaply.
http://3dprintingindustry.com/medical/
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/02/robohand-how-cheap-3d-printers-built-a-replacement-hand-for-a-five-year-old-boy/
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Next you'll be telling us that there's nothing to that microprocessor fad, because a Sinclair/Timex ZX80 can't really be used to control a nuclear power station.
Your comment just demonstrates you don't actually understand how economies of scale work. The reason things get cheaper the more you make and sell is because of all the costs that go into producing an item that aren't directly involved in the manufacturing process as well as costly aspects of the manufacturing process that 3D printing eliminates. First we have design. 3D printing doesn't affect this at all, however it is one of the costs that is reduced per item in an economy of scale. Which means 3D printing does scale and invalidates your argument right off the bat. Second we have the manufacturing process. This usually involves specialized equipment, like molds for plastic components or custom robotics for assembly. Producing that equipment is a cost that must be recouped with the sale of the item. The more items you produce and sell, the more the cost can be distributed. 3D printing eliminates this cost. Instead we just have one general piece of manufacturing equipment which can be distributed among the entire manufacturing community. Third, there's the cost of human labor which is significantly reduced by 3D printing. Finally, there's the costs of defects. If there's a 10% chance of an item being defective, producing 10 means one will be defective on average and the cost of that one item can be distributed in the sale price of the other 9. But if you only produce one and that one is defective you must produce a second one that now costs twice as much in order to recoup the cost of the defective one instead of 10/9ths the price. So, 3D printing does scale, but not as much as ordinary manufacturing, but that's OK because it is cheaper than ordinary manufacturing even at scale.
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.
Oh, come now. It's not the only such manufacturing process. For example, xerographic and ink-jet printing are both the same way, and that's why neither of them have ever become viable for "manufacturing".
That's why all the large-format photographic film suppliers are still thriving -- if inkjet or xerographic printing weren't so slow and expensive, print shops would probably have moved over to that technology long since. In fact, in an alternate reality I like to call "ours", that's exactly what happened.
3D Printing doesn't scale.
Neither does knitting or sewing. Too bad garments which are anything but blankets will always be priced out of reach.
It will never be a viable manufacturing technology.
Right, just like knitting or sewing.
" body armor for soldiers that are stronger and lighter"
But where do we get the soldiers that are stronger and lighter?
First you 3D scan them.
Then you run them through a CAD program to remove the non-essential parts, and replace the remaining parts with lighter and stronger materials.
Then you 3D print them.
Target price, $6 million each :)