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My mate told me about this a couple years back and i was a bit like so what but this this is the next big industrial step.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2 ... plane.html

Houses, robots, aeroplanes, chocolate desserts they say anything is possible and they even started looking into printing body organs (remind anyone of gantz? http://www.mangafox.com/manga/gantz/v01/c002/27.html).

yeh i took that outta bold... kinda set my self up there

Yeah, amazing technology. I came accross this one last week... Pretty good considering it prints evrything (including moving parts) in one row:

haha

Anjin wrote:this is the next big industrial step.

definitely , Some 3D printers can even print themselves (not very complex models yet), doubt any company would release it though, they would only have to sell one for everyone to have one aha

call me when we can print gifs

Crosby wrote:haha

Anjin wrote:this is the next big industrial step.

definitely , Some 3D printers can even print themselves (not very complex models yet), doubt any company would release it though, they would only have to sell one for everyone to have one aha

But then they could also monopolise the market with the necessary materials to use them...

Neat idea though, I think the next big thing should be household recycling units where items are deconstructed to usable materials

so how does this work? I assume the starting material is always something similar right?

hugh wrote:so how does this work? I assume the starting material is always something similar right?

The video djenko posted explains it.

They can uses any material, glass, plastic,metal or mixtures of whatever suits... You imput your design of whatever it is you want to print into a computer, and the printer slices it into layers to print. Each individual layer is fused to the next one until you get the final product.

More to it than that but that's the basics.

Printing Mobile phones batteries included is in the early stages...

Crosby wrote:haha

Anjin wrote:this is the next big industrial step.

definitely , Some 3D printers can even print themselves (not very complex models yet), doubt any company would release it though, they would only have to sell one for everyone to have one aha

http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page

not that new is it? pretty sure my comp got one last year, didnt know it could do moving parts though, bit cool that

The technology's been around for quite a long time. It's mostly still being used for rapid prototyping but other commercial aspects include mass customisation. For example of dentures and crowns. The most developed technologies are based on certain types of plastic as well as nickel or titanium. You can make the 3D part from the materials themselves, or you can also create molds to then form the part you want from another type of material that these technologies can't use just yet. The interesting thing about this technology is that it allows you to create fully movable parts or even designs that aren't possible through conventional machining methods. Eg you can make hinges without needing to bolt two pieces of metal together or complete chain links with no breaks. I've seen some pretty clever designs at one of the companies I used to work with.

The laser sintering systems are fairly large and they are still quite expensive (think half a million pounds upwards) so it's not going to appear in anyone's home for a while. They're also quite slow and use quite a lot of energy to run. The plastic ones are easier to make once you have a suitable 3D model but the metal ones take a bit more processing as the metal components are heavier and need posts to stabilise them. One downside to these 3D parts is that they never come out entirely smooth. You'll usually see a layered structure that's quite grainy and rough. So you tend to need to polish the parts before using.

Printing body organs has been around for a while too (cue picture of mouse with human ear on its back). They don't actually print the organs, they print a biodecomposable polymer instead that acts as a scaffold for them to then grow tissue over. This is usually done by inkjet printing. You can also make plastic parts like the sintering methods above using inkjet printing but it's relatively new. There's an inkjet printer that can print molten metal but they haven't really used it for making 3D objects yet, I believe.

You can print most parts of a mobile phone using inkjet (everything apart from the chips probably). Not necessarily with the greatest efficiency or longevity, but it's possible. There's quite a lot going on in printed electronics these days, from RFID antennae to displays to solar cells.

Whoah... ok so its alot further along than i realised.

From New scientist Magazine 30th July 2011

"Print Your Liver

The technology is even being explored for the creation of human bones and organs. Using cells as the "ink", Anthony Atala of WAke Forest University in North Carolinaamong others, one day hopes to able to print whole organs from scratch."

I hope i see this in my lifetime

Mind=blown.
If I was in space, I'd print myself some weed.

Anjin wrote:Whoah... ok so its alot further along than i realised.

From New scientist Magazine 30th July 2011

"Print Your Liver

The technology is even being explored for the creation of human bones and organs. Using cells as the "ink", Anthony Atala of WAke Forest University in North Carolinaamong others, one day hopes to able to print whole organs from scratch."

I hope i see this in my lifetime

One of my colleagues is working on an article about 3D printing I think. I'll link it up here when it's released.

Now that I think of it, wouldn't an object render money obsolete?

I wish it did but i dont thinks so. You'd still have to get the materials and lets say further down the line you can print anything, its a hot day so you print a t shirt and ice cream, maybe there'd be different software for printing different products.

Unless there was a big overhaul of the economy, I think someone would find a way to make money out of this.

Anjin wrote:I wish it did but i dont thinks so. You'd still have to get the materials and lets say further down the line you can print anything, its a hot day so you print a t shirt and ice cream, maybe there'd be different software for printing different products.

Unless there was a big overhaul of the economy, I think someone would find a way to make money out of this.

Couldn't you just print the material?

zerbaman wrote:

Anjin wrote:I wish it did but i dont thinks so. You'd still have to get the materials and lets say further down the line you can print anything, its a hot day so you print a t shirt and ice cream, maybe there'd be different software for printing different products.

Unless there was a big overhaul of the economy, I think someone would find a way to make money out of this.

Couldn't you just print the material?

From what?