Now this is a useful pice of kit!
- Thread starter Hornet_UK
- Start date
elton
Well-Known Member
I was thinking how amazing that is, but then I begin to wonder how it can 'print' what it can't scan. eg how does it know that the jaws of the wrench are separate parts?
Reverend Ludd
Well-Known Member
Spoof alert
Hornet_UK
Well-Known Member
I guess they fix that once the scan is done just don't show it on the video. You can see the adjuster part selected as a seperate element when they select and make it red.
ithet
Well-Known Member
DIY 3D printer
For those that want to move on from ultrasonic kits!
http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page
For those that want to move on from ultrasonic kits!
http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page
RichardS
N/A
These commercial powder machines are currently very expensive - around £10,000 - but for £1000 you can now buy home versions which use different coloured thermoplastic wire as the feed material - like the plastic cable in a strimmer head.
We saw one being demonstrated at the Gadget Show Live - it was churning out all kinds of 3D objects, even hollow ones, but more slowly than the professional versions. You could have produced the wrench but it would take longer and would need to make it in separate parts like the original metal version.
Apart from the control circuit board, even the home machines can produce the parts needed to make another machine! You just need to remember to make a full set of spares before a part breaks!
Richard
We saw one being demonstrated at the Gadget Show Live - it was churning out all kinds of 3D objects, even hollow ones, but more slowly than the professional versions. You could have produced the wrench but it would take longer and would need to make it in separate parts like the original metal version.
Apart from the control circuit board, even the home machines can produce the parts needed to make another machine! You just need to remember to make a full set of spares before a part breaks!
Richard
Lakesailor
Well-Known Member
D
Deleted member 36384
Guest
I will take it on faith that Snopes is correct. That is remarkable technology.
Evadne
Well-Known Member
The "printers" themselves have been around for at least a decade, it's a remarkable technology. You can now not only draw things on CAD that are impossible to machine, you can make them as well!
AntarcticPilot
Well-Known Member
As others have said, this is real, here and now technology - there is even an "open-source" version, which has the interesting property that it can be used to create copies of itself!
We've used bureaux services using this kind of thing to create 3D maps.
We've used bureaux services using this kind of thing to create 3D maps.
snowleopard
Well-Known Member
And here's one for the girls... clicky
pendlecats
Well-Known Member
I'm now working on a CapEx form for one here. 
D
Deleted member 36384
Guest
Not Just Machinery, Human Organs Too
There was a TV programme about a chap that grows organs for humans. He used a "printing" machine, using the same principle as the bubble jet, to spray the cells / medium so that they grew to a 3D shape. The example used in the programme was a thorax, shown materialising out of the "printer" tray.
There was a TV programme about a chap that grows organs for humans. He used a "printing" machine, using the same principle as the bubble jet, to spray the cells / medium so that they grew to a 3D shape. The example used in the programme was a thorax, shown materialising out of the "printer" tray.
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Sgeir
Well-Known Member
The Economist carried some interesting articles about 3D printing a few months back;
http://www.economist.com/node/18114327
http://www.economist.com/node/18114221
http://www.economist.com/node/18114327
http://www.economist.com/node/18114221
Baggywrinkle
Well-Known Member
It's here today ... all our prototype parts are first produced by 3D printers ... and if you're into sci-fi here's where it could all lead ....
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6422238-makers
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6422238-makers
V1701
Well-Known Member
Can it really "know" which parts move and how, and also "know" how the different moving parts interact with each other? Replicating that complex drilling head that they showed at the start of the film, no way surely. I think I'm with Elton...
MM5AHO
Well-Known Member
Strathclyde University have one of these printers.
BrendanS
Well-Known Member
Can it really "know" which parts move and how, and also "know" how the different moving parts interact with each other? Replicating that complex drilling head that they showed at the start of the film, no way surely. I think I'm with Elton...
Ordinary cad cam software provides the parts, and the tolerances between them. Then just print. It's quite old technology, it's just becoming cheaper and more usable.
You can even buy 3D chocolate printers now, to make elaborate chocolate shapes.
grumpy_o_g
Well-Known Member
The scanner puts the image in but there's some pretty clever software that "guesses" what are moving parts, etc. It's the same technology as image enhancement and face recognition plus a few other techniques all thrown in for good measure. The scanning (which can take hours for a complex object) is one real breakthrough. The other is the printer itself. In some ways it isn't that different to the layer techniques that have been used for building prototypes for some time - a layer of a plastic material is sprayed onto a surface by a nozzle controlled by a CNC device. The big problem there is that you can only get smaller as you built up of course. The idea of using the un-fixed powder as surface to build on is very clever.
It's a very clever piece of kit all round and the idea of taking one into space is novel - but, having seen what some ship's or boat's workshops can turn out from a small lathe, a bench drill and a decent welding kit, I'm not sure it's a giant leap forwards yet. We're a while from knocking a new turbocharger on the way to Newton Creek when the old one gives up, that's for sure.
It's a very clever piece of kit all round and the idea of taking one into space is novel - but, having seen what some ship's or boat's workshops can turn out from a small lathe, a bench drill and a decent welding kit, I'm not sure it's a giant leap forwards yet. We're a while from knocking a new turbocharger on the way to Newton Creek when the old one gives up, that's for sure.
