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Australian Company Creates Even Faster 3D Printer

Posted by Soulskill on from the for-when-you-need-new-shower-curtain-rings-NOW dept.

ErnieKey writes: One of the major reasons 3D printing hasn't really caught on is because it's an incredibly slow process. Just last week a company called Carbon3D unveiled a super fast new 3D printing process that utilizes oxygen and light. Now, another company — Gizmo 3D — has unveiled an even faster 3D printing process which is claimed to be more reliable than the process presented by Carbon3D. It can print 30mm in height at a 50 micron resolution in just 6 minutes.

52 comments

  1. Faster, Pussycat by turkeydance · · Score: 2

    Kill! Kill!....i enjoy a Russ Meyer reference in the morning.

  2. TED Talk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://www.ted.com/talks/joe_desimone_what_if_3d_printing_was_25x_faster

  3. The real reason by plover · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I simply don't need a bunch of small plastic tchotschkies, no matter how fast I can print them.

    --
    John
    1. Re: The real reason by oodaloop · · Score: 1

      I bet no one ever accused you of thinking big.

      --
      Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
    2. Re: The real reason by plover · · Score: 5, Informative

      The problem is they're too limited. They have to get more capable, not faster, in order to meet my needs. If they can insert circuitry, maybe I can print things that are somewhat more useful. As of right now, I have needed exactly one 3D printed thing (a battery holder for an electronic project, which a friend provided gratis.) But at no point in the last five years have my needs for small plastic things added up to the $300 price of a Simplebot, let alone a printer with better quality, resolution, size, or capabilities.

      Maybe you have kids who need thousands of plastic army men. Maybe you are in a business where fabricating prototypes is valuable to you. Great for you, I'm glad you have a use for one. Hopefully you'll help drive volume so the costs come down even further. But as they stand today, they're too expensive for anything I need, and would take up more storage space than I want to waste on a toy.

      It has nothing to do with thinking big or small. I'm sorry you can't imagine a scenario different from your own experience.

      --
      John
    3. Re: The real reason by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      How about printing Legos?

      Just think of the possibilities!

      captcha: whimsies

    4. Re:The real reason by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      You know, I thought it was pretty badass that someone copied the starships from Star Citizen and printed them out IRL.

      https://forums.robertsspaceind...

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    5. Re:The real reason by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So you gave up on that business plan for the retail chain of while you wait custom dildo shops?

      You could have sold them as a franchise and made millions!

    6. Re: The real reason by tlambert · · Score: 2

      I bet no one ever accused you of thinking big.

      You're right. He's thinking small.

      Personally, I simply don't need a bunch of big plastic tchotschkies, no matter how fast I can print them.

    7. Re:The real reason by Skylinux · · Score: 1

      Great so you figured out that 3D printers are not for you (yet). Others look at them and will cream their pants.

      Ever needed a tiny gear or some other plastic part for a one off project .... design it, print it, done.
      My 3D printer is like the 9 needle printer I used to have as a kid. Can't wait where it will go in the next 10 years.

      Printing functional circuit boards is not required but will elevate 3D printing to the next level.

      --
      Everyone who buys Wild Hunt will receive 16 specially prepared DLCs absolutely for free, regardless of platform.
    8. Re: The real reason by itzly · · Score: 2

      A company that I work for does a lot of 3D prototyping, but they don't have a 3D printer. They just upload the designs, and get the finished parts 24 hours later by courier. Faster printing time means that the company that's doing the 3D printing can print more designs per day, and lower the cost per item.

      Also, if the resolution is high enough, you can do the same thing in production volumes. If your business is selling machines that are made from many different parts, it makes sense to 3D print some parts. 3D printing offers design options that aren't available with CNC milling, and the price can be better too. And if the volume is low (think 100-1000 items/year), injection molding will be more expensive.

      I'm sorry you can't imagine a scenario different from your own experience.

    9. Re: The real reason by itzly · · Score: 1

      Personally, I simply don't need a bunch of big plastic tchotschkies, no matter how fast I can print them.

      Maybe you only need one, and you can still benefit from a fast 3D printer.

      Say, for instance, you own a classic car, and some stupid piece of plastic breaks in half. You take the two halves to a shop in town that uses a 3D scanner to get the size of the parts, puts them back together in the computer, cleans it up, and then 3D prints a replacement.

    10. Re: The real reason by LuxuryYacht · · Score: 1

      Combining different deposition technologies to manufacture items with multiple materials has been possible for quite some time. The problem is mostly with the patent system in the west. It's a patent minefield of obvious claims by patent holders that aren't even using the tech or are not interested in anything other than prototyping at slow print rates with very high profit margins on the materials. I expect an explosion of the tech in China or after a few more of the patents expire in the west.

      --
      Quidquid latine dictum sit altum viditur
    11. Re: The real reason by DreamMaster · · Score: 1

      Wouldn't be possible. Believe it or not, Lego bricks are produced with a high degree of precision, with tolerances less than 10 micro-metres in order to be able to have the pieces 'snap' together properly (see the Wikipedia Lego article). Currently available 3D printers simply can't do that degree of accuracy. Don't know about these new "faster" printers, but I'd suspect that they've concentrated more on "fast" than "precise".
       

    12. Re: The real reason by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You are wrong, it is possible. Short version: home 3d printing doesn't compete with mass produced legos, but printing custom lego pieces is very feasible.

      I haven't read the wikipedia article as Wikipedia is only as correct as the contributers (often making it wrong) and as I can directly speak to printing legos (it is something I do) there isn't much point. I have an aging 3d printer (replicator2) and, despite its shortcomings, it is sufficient to print legos. A lot depends on what your expectations are.

      With a replicator2, your prints will have distinct layers and the top surface will be ridged. No smooth surfaces, so any piece that depends on that (mechanically, or for aesthetics) is not going to work.

      However, those layers can work for you as they simultaneously improve grip and accomodate the relative inaccuracy of the printer.

      Supposedly, printed plastic has half the strength of injection molded. I don't know about that, but I do know that you shouldn't bother trying to print lego pieces with a stratasys -- its so brittle it'll break just looking at it. And if your design doesn't have enough structural integrity the layers will delaminate. Printing PLA or wood works fine. How many wooden lego pieces can you get from Lego?

      Due to the accuracy issues I originally assumed you could not print a lego minifig. But then I got motivated to try and it turns out you can. The tolerances aren't there so don't expect the arms or legs to stay in position very well, but I have one in my office that I printed (at 1:1 scale) posed and holding items in its hands. Sure, it is no replacement for the real thing, but it *can* be done.

      Despite clamoring from my son I have resisted printing regular bricks because they are cheap (~$0.10 each) direct from lego and what I print cannot compare. Instead, I focus on custom lego pieces, things that aren't made by lego. It takes some messing around to get the tolerances right and the crappy makerware software doesn't help (caches meshes, so loading the revised mesh just uses the old one), but it isn't that big of a deal to model and tweak.

      Speed isn't really much of an issue: lego pieces are so small that prints go quickly even on older hardware.

      Is Lego in trouble from 3d printing competition? Heck no. Can fully functional lego pieces be printed from a hobbyist printer? Heck yeah. It isn't an either/or proposition.

    13. Re: The real reason by tehcyder · · Score: 2

      I bet no one ever accused you of thinking big.

      Just because we can 3D print small plastic widgets now does not mean that we will be printing cars, helicopters and the like on our home printers in a couple of years time.

      There is a difference between welcoming genuine technological advances and living in a fantasy world.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    14. Re: The real reason by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Say, for instance, you own a classic car, and some stupid piece of plastic breaks in half. You take the two halves to a shop in town that uses a 3D scanner to get the size of the parts, puts them back together in the computer, cleans it up, and then 3D prints a replacement.

      What a horrible example. If it breaks in two, you glue it back together. With the correct glue, it will be as strong as ever. You're 3D printed part can't handle sunlight, much less the harsh environment car parts deal with. You'd be much better off with subtracting 3D printing, which has been going on for decades to make prototype and one off parts. For some reason, that's not considered sexy enough for Slashdot.

    15. Re: The real reason by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But at no point in the last five years have my needs for small plastic things added up to the $300 price of a Simplebot, let alone a printer with better quality, resolution, size, or capabilities.

      At no point in the last five years have I had enough need to sew together pieces of cloth to justify a $300 sewing machine. Doesn't mean there is no market for them or others that have uses for them. There is even a market for sewing machines that costs thousands of dollars for higher speed production and embroidering.

      On the other hand, my interests require a need producing lightweight chassis and gears, so I 3d print a lot of those out of plastic. Even though I have access to CNC milling equipment and will sometimes do vacuum forming of plastic parts, there are plenty of times 3d printing stuff is faster and easier, enough so to justify several hundred dollars of equipment.

    16. Re: The real reason by unrtst · · Score: 1

      I'm sorry you can't imagine a scenario different from your own experience.

      Your quoting of the parent makes it seem like you're implying that he's wrong, but you pretty much restated his points and did so poorly.

      To quote DreamMaster, "Maybe you have kids who need thousands of plastic army men. Maybe you are in a business where fabricating prototypes is valuable to you. Great for you, I'm glad you have a use for one."

      And yet, your example was a company that does a lot of 3d prototyping, and yet they simply outsource it! Even that company is unable to justify the purchase!

      While we still have a marketplace online that'll print anything you want and send it to you within days, and do so on a printer that is probably higher quality that what you could justify having at home, why would someone buy one for home use?

      FWIW, I know there's a lot of edge cases, and I think it's all pretty cool, and I could see the simple sake of doing it to do it as reason to blow some excess income, but I've gotta agree with the DM - the feature/price/quality balance isn't there yet for "most people", or even for most of the geeky people. For many small plastic things, I can get away with using a homemade vacuum form and sculpting my form, or building it from plastic and glue and heat etc, or carving some wood, or even welding and grinding steel if that is needed, or build it in wax using traditional methods and then cast it in whatever you want. That said, I do truly hope that they keep making and improving printers in this price range or lower (ie. expensive, but not beyond the means of an average person to obtain if they wanted one)... maybe someday they'll be good enough to print virtually any plastic thing, or complex enough to include circuits, or I'll be bored enough with other things to splurge on one :-)

  4. The 3d printed elephant in the room by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The reason 3d printing doesn't catch on is because 3d printed products are absolute junk because of the type of plastic that must be used.

    It looks horrible, it feels horrible, and it isnt very durable. There's currently not much exciting about it beyond the idea. That's why it doesn't catch on.

    If you don't believe me, take an item that you think is incredibly sexy and well designed and go print a 3d protector for it.

    1. Re:The 3d printed elephant in the room by rmdingler · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Perhaps It's tough for you to imagine that 3D printing might begin with a whisper, all primitive and slow...

      Because, historically, every great leap in innovative technology immediately implemented itself as progress in one or two tries.

      Protip: Even the Enterprise's replicator didn't get medium rare ribye perfect for at least two or three attempts.

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    2. Re:The 3d printed elephant in the room by Enry · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Wat? 3D printed objects can be made using ABS, the exact same plastic used to make Legos.

    3. Re:The 3d printed elephant in the room by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For desktop FDM stuff? Maybe not for end-user products, but it's great for custom, mechanical, and prototype stuff. Also, you can print in PLA, ABS, Nylon, and a multitude of others; and that's without getting into fill filaments which incorporate everything from wood to carbon fiber.

      However, SLA/DLP printing is a whole different can of worms and makes very nice stuff which the continuous process will only make better. There's a whole range of resins you can use from rubbery to glassy.

    4. Re:The 3d printed elephant in the room by plover · · Score: 2

      If you have a business use for what they can print today, you already have one, and are likely contemplating buying a better one. If you have a personal use for the parts they can print, you probably already own one. And even if you don't have a real use for them, you may have one as a cool toy. But not everyone is going to buy the same toys as you.

      Once they get a lot more capable (maybe not Star Trek replicator capable, but substantially better than they are now) then they'll become ubiquitous. Until then, not everyone needs one. I'm thanking you now for being an early adopter, but don't expect me to join you yet.

      --
      John
    5. Re:The 3d printed elephant in the room by aXis100 · · Score: 1

      The commonly used ABS plastic used in FDM machines is very durable, but the orientation of the print matters. You do have to design the prints so that the weak join between layers doesnt experience stress.

      I do agree with the looking horrible part, but you can do funky things like acetone dips or acetone vapor to smooth and gloss them.

    6. Re:The 3d printed elephant in the room by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You 'can' print in PLA with traditional printers yes, but not SLA/DLP.

      All polymers from photosynthetic resins to date deteriorate quite rapidly when exposed to a few hours of direct sunlight, making it applicable only to indoor and internal component use.

      Really, for things to move forward SLA (not DLP) is a good step toward reducing cost of laser based 3D printing methods, but things really need to be moved forward to DMLS/SLS/SLM style printing that sinters/melts powdered deposits of materials (metals, plastics, ceramics, etc).

      This is a very tiny baby step in the right direction of a 10k marathon.

    7. Re:The 3d printed elephant in the room by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, and? Can they be made to the 0.1 mil precision that LEGOs are?

      Maybe if you have this

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      Maybe.

    8. Re:The 3d printed elephant in the room by Klaxton · · Score: 1

      All polymers from photosynthetic resins to date deteriorate quite rapidly when exposed to a few hours of direct sunlight, making it applicable only to indoor and internal component use.

      Seems like all you would have to do is paint the part to solve that problem. Or just dip it in something that blocks UV.

    9. Re:The 3d printed elephant in the room by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      ABS from ABS varies.

      LEGO is made from very high quality material with very low tolerance and variation in manufacturing

      no effing way you can 3d print something with comparable quality as LEGO, not with today's 3d printers

    10. Re:The 3d printed elephant in the room by l0ungeb0y · · Score: 2

      Ahhh AC -- the product of the gadget generation that simply can not grasp the concept that new technology does not come out all nice and shiny like an iPhone -- but takes decades to become powerful and useful to the masses. Perhaps AC had been around in the 70s or 80s and seen the evolution of the PC from a curiosity, to an expensive utility to a common place commodity he'd have a better appreciation for product evolution. In a few years, given advances in materials and fabrication technique, I'm sure even AC will start to see the potential of 3D printing as something beyond a pipedream.

    11. Re:The 3d printed elephant in the room by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      3D printing *has* had decades of development. In the 70s the computer might have been a "curiosity" for the unwashed masses, but was already used by industry and the military for decades by then.

    12. Re: The 3d printed elephant in the room by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Carbon3d solves this. Watch rheir ted talk.

    13. Re:The 3d printed elephant in the room by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      And 3d printing and it's cousin,CNC, is currently in widespread use in industry.

      Hell, someone mentioned Lego, well Lego uses a 3d printer to rapid prototype new pieces.

    14. Re: The 3d printed elephant in the room by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, we know you're mad about them cockslapping your boyfriend like the little bitch he is, but you should not take it personally. When you're shit, you get treated as shit. Oh, I get it: you are him, aren't you? I should have know: the only persons masturbator boys fuck are themselves.

    15. Re:The 3d printed elephant in the room by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      it's means it is

    16. Re:The 3d printed elephant in the room by Big_Breaker · · Score: 1

      LEGO molds are some of the best in general manufacturing. If a 3d printer could make a LEGO brick as good as the original it would imply that you could print virtually any plastic part to sufficient tolerance.

    17. Re:The 3d printed elephant in the room by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What, are you trying to suggest that my custom glow-in-the-dark phone protector case isn't cool? How dare you! :)

    18. Re:The 3d printed elephant in the room by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Protip: Even the Enterprise's replicator didn't get medium rare ribye perfect for at least two or three attempts.

      You are aware that's fiction, right? Not much of a "protip" then is it?

    19. Re:The 3d printed elephant in the room by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't think you understand the difference between a 3D printed part from an extruder based printer such as a Makerbot and a liquid resin or Stereolithography (SLA) printer such as the Gizmo 3D, and the Carbon3D or Form 1. It's not the type of plastic that extruder based printers use that result in the less than ideal appearance, texture and structural properties. It's the technique of squeezing out a linear trace around a layer in semi molten plastic. SLA printers work in an entirely different way. SLA printers are capable of a much higher vertical resolution. This allows a look and feel on almost par with injection molded plastic. Objects made on an extruder printer are structurally weak because the bonds between layers rely on the extruded material having enough thermal energy to fuse with the cold layer below. Fusion between print layers on SLA printers is pretty much seamless and results in a much stronger bond.

    20. Re:The 3d printed elephant in the room by jpatters · · Score: 2

      Have you ever looked at the output from a color printer from the 80s? Color dot matrix was absolutely hopeless for anything serious, and ink jet was expensive and not really that much better. Banding was the norm. Of course there were exotic and expensive technologies like dye-sublimation, but they were very expensive. If you are paying attention, that looks a lot like the 3D printing landscape now. The Makerbot style additave printers will probably go away, like dot matrix; and the photosensitave resin ones will improve dramatically and rapidly, like ink jet did in the 90s. They will come way down in price until they are under $100. Even the other exotic technologies will come down in price, like dye-sub did.

      Off the top of my head I can think of a dozen or so occasions in the last year where a 3D printed household item or replacement part would have been useful. Remember, it's not just the cost of the part. if you can't 3D print then there is all your time spent sourcing and obtaining the part in question, if it's even available, and then hoping that it's suitable. The factors that will make 3D printing practical for household use are speed and cost. Print speed is exactly what is discussed in TFA. Cost will come down just like every other piece of computer technology ever.

      --
      "Remember, there never were pineapple-almond cookies here."
    21. Re:The 3d printed elephant in the room by StikyPad · · Score: 1

      You are aware that Star Trek is not surveillance footage sent to us from the future?

      --
      https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
    22. Re:The 3d printed elephant in the room by rmdingler · · Score: 1

      I would never want another poster to be wrong more than now.

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    23. Re:The 3d printed elephant in the room by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It doesn't catch because the price for a real usable printer that goes beyond prototyping, I have used recently in a project a 3D Systems ProX 100 that prints using metal and it rocks compared to typical 3D printers.

  5. requires gravity^H^Hs by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 2, Interesting

    a fatal flaw with these faster printers is that they require gravis (a downward forces) to work. gravity is in very short supply here and no, spinning the station is not an option, i got in trouble for just doing a barrel roll!

    -- posted by a Robonaut

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re:requires gravity^H^Hs by Greyfox · · Score: 1

      Just spin the printer, duh.

      --

      I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

    2. Re:requires gravity^H^Hs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No it doesn't. There already is an extrusion 3d sprinter onboard ISS and works just fine without spinning the station.

    3. Re:requires gravity^H^Hs by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

      The printer on the ISS is FDM, Gravis Zero is talking about stereolithography printers that use liquid photo-sensitive resins.

      --
      Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
  6. We have known how to do this since 2012 by Plazmid · · Score: 1

    We have known how to do stereolithography really fast since 2012. The interesting thing here is that the process has been improved so resolution isn't that bad.

  7. why does that matter? by Chirs · · Score: 1

    It doesn't matter to me that 3D printing might begin with a whisper...it just means that I have no use for it *at this time*.

    If it gets good enough and cheap enough *then* I'll have a use for it.

    Other people may be able to use it now, and more power to them. But for me it's just an expensive toy and if I need something printed I'm better off paying someone to do it on a good/expensive printer out of better-quality materiels.

  8. Dual Use by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Does this fall under the Australian authoritarians' "dual use" law? Better watch out!

  9. Oh my god, noooo! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've just realised what's going to happen when 3D printing finally takes off. We're not all going to get shot by people with 3D printed guns, and we're not all going to be living in 3D printed houses, driving 3D printed cars, and using 3D printed household artefacts. No, the reality is going to be far more sinister.

    When 2D printing first took off, people thought there would be a paperless office. Instead, offices rapidly became stuffed full with more paper than ever before because it was suddenly so easy to make paper documents.

    When 3D printing takes off, our homes and businesses are going to become stuffed full with more little plastic trinkets, nick-nacks and novelties than ever before. It will be like you had a happy meal for breakfast lunch and dinner every day for the last decade, and never got rid of any of the toys. People will end up sleeping on mounds of plastic ephemera instead of normal beds. The roads will be paved with waste plastic. Grocery stores will give discounts if you take away their useless plastic trivialities in order to clear space in their stock rooms.

    Is it too late to stop the apocalypse?