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Amazon Files Patent For Mobile 3D Printing Delivery Trucks
ErnieKey writes: Amazon has been inching its way into the 3D printing space over the past 10 months or so. This week, however, the U.S. Patent office published a filing by Amazon for mobile 3D printing delivery trucks. The trucks would have 3D printers and CNC machines on board and be able to communicate with a central hub. When a product is ordered, the mobile 3D printing truck that's closest to the consumer's home or office would then get the order, print it, and deliver it as soon as possible.
I really don't get it. With all the 3D hype, I've never seen anyone in the street or personally talk about or have a 3D printed object.
What are people doing that it requires such a massive infrastructure?
Last I heard, it was only Luddites that had factories or delivery trucks, we were going to 3D print everything at home, including the home itself?
I think they need to read the reasons why WebVan failed. Nobody needs this yet. They're too early.
Prior art, right here. I've got the idea of a "mobile 3D printing drone."
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
So Amazon just patented 3-D printing... ON A TRUCK? What other existing technologies can we add "on a truck" to to create a novel invention?
my, your, his/her/its, our, your, their
I'm, you're, he's/she's/it's, we're, you're, they're
Does a youtube video of people doing that in the past 3 years count as prior art?
I am not really understanding what the point of making the fabrication itself mobile, other than not having to pay rent on dedicated facilities. They would still have to have some kind of depot for the raw materials, so why have all the extra weight of driving around the equipment? Esp since you could not print while driving since that would really screw up the accuracy.
There is plenty of prior art. Mobile sintering machines that get emailed instructions on how to fabricate a part have been in use for quite a few years. Get the instructions, make a part via sintered printing, machine it to final specs. The US military uses them to fabricate parts by deployed troops, who can haul the machine around in a deuce and a half, or whatever they call a truck nowadays.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
This isn't an invention, it's a frickin' business model.
People have been driving around in trucks for decades making stuff on location -- think welders and machinists. People have been dispatched to drive around and make stuff for decades.
But somehow you can get a fucking patent for "a system and methodology of placing one or more existing technologies in a truck and dispatching using existing technologies".
If the patent office approves this, they should be lit on fire, dipped in shit, shot and then fired.
OMG, we're going to use the intertubes to cause trucks to use existing technologies and then deliver it to you. Seriously?
I know people who work as ferriers (you know, the guys who shoe horses). And largely, this is what they do.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
And here I thought that they would be making trucks filled with concrete and with big nozzles attached that could print houses, roads and bridges...
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
id like to see the aparatus they will need to create to isolate the printers from the vibrations of driving.
Has anybody patented delivering boxes on a truck yet? Better jump on that one.
ok, patents are getting ridiculous if this sort of thing can be patented.
I thought 3d printers and CNC machines required stable platforms. Even a guy whittlin' with a knife has the sense not to do it in a moving truck.
If they can make a good 3D print while driving over speedbumps and potholes. That seems quite good.
I'm going to order a 3D printer from Amazon. I hope they can 3D print a truck to deliver it.
If I am going to order a custom 3d printed object, I am going to want to order it from a company using a decent printer on stable ground, not some tiny peace of crap printer bumping around down the road.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
I don't think anyone could just mount a 3D printer or CNC mill on a truck and get it to produce decent parts. Just like clocks didn't work on sailing ships until someone invented one that *did*. I would think getting these technologies to work while inside a moving vehicle could involve novel and patentable inventions.
Just put the fabrication equipment in a commercial building and ship the finished products. Next day delivery infrastructure is already in place. Why does it need to be fabricated in my driveway? If there turns out to be a demand for same-day delivery, set up regional production facilities and deliver the product via courier. Amazon, feel free to PayPal me a huge consulting fee.
how fast is 3D printing? slow as death by clean living. so that's one notch in the handle.
can you 3D print in a moving truck? the platform and system have to be stable like a $6000 turntable. notch 2.
is a 3D print product pretty? flexible? neon colors, black, and white are what you have, assuming you are not slinging molten metal or concrete, the other two mediums in use. not flexible. notch 3, fashionistas in revolt.
so far, it looks like three strikes and Amazon is out. they spend more time on slick PR releases than thought there.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Load up a couple trucks with tools, lumber, and labor; drive to the location, build the house. (Could that be prior art?)
Except we've already figured out that it's more economical, in many cases, to build the house in a factory, put the pieces (or the whole thing) on truck, and deliver it to the site.
Doesn't seem particularly innovative. Or novel. Maybe they're just trying to boost their patent portfolio. "I'll trade you a Charizard, an Honus Wagner, and 3D-print-on-a-truck for your 3D-print-on-a-drone"
Filed isn't awarded. Let's hope the USPTO sees through this and denies it.
Seems in US you can patent anything and kitchen sink.... In Europe they would not newer able to patent something this obious.
"I'm pretty sure these shoes aren't supposed to have these spikes on the inside." -- "Sorry, sir, but that's what it printed."
"Oh, your child had a clown that made balloon animals? That's quaint! Was the party retro themed? Timmy had custom action figures of his friends printed at his party. The pony rides were also personalized for each child with printed commemorative saddle horns"
I would use this service. Not quite the model they're discussing, but man, just sayin'
...It will print an accompanying drone to carry you order from the truck if it can't get there before the print job is done.
3D Printing "on a truck" has got to be as novel as writing an invoice "on a computer".
You can't bend reality to meet your perceptions.
I can see a contractor wanting mobile 3D printing and CNC milling for field use.
But Amazon is a general merchandise retailer. The successor to the Sears, Roebuck catalog.
What is the point to putting printers and mills on wheels rather than just setting them up at their existing regional distribution centers?
Perhaps that undocumented worker should've filed a patent for it...
I don't know what is the sadder comment about businesses and the patent system: That Amazon filed this patent, or that Amazon needed to file this patent. More than half the stupid shit that companies patent these days are just a defensive move to protect them from some patent troll getting there first and raking in the bucks from the folks just doing business and doing all the real work. They never follow through on the "cannot be obvious" requirement, or that you actually have to capitalize on the patent to keep it. There's no larger source of stagnation today than patents.
We already have 3-D printing VOLCANOES. Also, I don't see this as a patentable process. Also, it will have to be a big truck (as big as Timothy Olyphant's control truck in the movie Die Hard 4.0) with plenty of power, space, cooling and venting for the StrataSys Objet500 Connex3 printers that they will need to have onboard.
When prices for 3D printing fall, they'd have the system ready. The problem as noted, there is prior art.
I was just going to patent combo taco trucks and 3D printing trucks. First the printer makes you a chicken burrito with guacamole, and then prints out Elon Musk's latest rocket nozzle in titanium. That's an invention worth patenting like Amazon's, right, right???
He should focus on what made Amazon successful. Their prices are no longer as competitive as they used to be, and their shipping is getting slower and slower.
I've been a Prime member for years, but I won't be renewing next month. I'm tired of 90% of my packages being shipped via USPS - the slowest, most unreliable bunch of idiots in the business. Hell, even shopping at Walmart online is better than Amazon now.
Maybe Bezos has too much money and too much free time on his hands? Maybe he's into drugs now? He needs to get his head out of the clouds and his ass back to doing what he did to grow the company.
So more of the "put an lcd on something" and "put a network card on something" wow, how un-obvious.
how fast is 3D printing?
How fast is traditional manufacturing? Sure, once you get your tooling set up and dedicate an entire warehouse to production and assembly, you can crank out ten thousand widgets a day... but it takes months and lots of money to get to that level of production.
Meanwhile, if a part can be 3D printed, you press a button and the next morning you have it in your hand. Client/customer needs some customization? No problem, a day or so of computer time and press the button...
can you 3D print in a moving truck?
Probably. Depends on the printing method. It's not completely certain it would be necessary to print on the go to make this work, though.
is a 3D print product pretty? flexible? neon colors, black, and white are what you have, assuming you are not slinging molten metal or concrete, the other two mediums in use. not flexible.
Full color printers have been available since before most people knew 3D printing was even a thing. Flexible? Could be, with the right materials. Just about anything you can reduce to a fine powder could conceivably be used.
The relatively cheap filament-based machines that are all the rage now are far from the pinnacle of additive manufacturing. 3D printing is 30+ years old at this point. ...All that said, though, I think Amazon's idea is kinda dumb. It's amazing what some people would rather have than money, though.
=Smidge=
Since there may be a restriction of drones and Amazon wants to deliver by drones, they should partner with UPS to have 4 drones on top of the UPS truck that spread out to the four winds and it saves on travel and gas time. There is a new 3D printer that prints in a few seconds, but I think it is pretty pricy for plastic spoons. Yes that's the ticket, I will patent trucks on drones that have 3D printers on drones that deliver in sight of the driver and as a bonus they make a drone strike if they don't get paid for the product. Sorry, I was reading Phillip K. Dick "autofac" and became pizzled.
But if they hold the patent, anybody who does put thought into it to make it work has to pay them.
What the heck is a patent for doing something . . . on a truck . . . doing?
An Invisible Entity of Vast Power whose existence must be taken on faith alone: Liberal Media
Thats today's technology, but it will not be that way forever.
Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada