Latest in 3D Printing Thread

[ScienceRocks]

NASA 3D-prints and fires rocket engine component
NASA 3D-prints and fires rocket engine component

Star Trek's Mr. Scott will have fewer reasons to panic as the day comes closer when even rocket engines can be cranked out on 3D printers. In recent tests, NASA and Aerojet Rocketdyne fired a rocket engine injector at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio that was made using a 3D printer. The project, done in collaboration between NASA and private industry, aims at speeding up the manufacture of rocket components while reducing costs as well as eventually printing them in space.

The 3D printing process that was used is known as a laser additive process. Unlike other 3D printing techniques that deposit layers of plastic or other materials to build an object, this process uses high-powered lasers focused on a bed of metallic powder. The laser melts a fine line of this powder into solid metal and then another powder layer is added. In the end, the excess powder is brushed off and the final product remains.

 

[ScienceRocks]

NASA tests 3D-printed rocket engine

Published July 15, 2013
FoxNews.com

Can your printer do this?

NASA and Aerojet Rocketdyne designed and fabricated a key part for a rocket engine with a 3D printer, shaving six months and 70 percent off the cost of production. A successful test of the component, a rocket injector assembly that delivers liquid oxygen and hydrogen into the engine’s combustion chamber, may lead to more efficient manufacturing in the future.

Read more: NASA tests 3D-printed rocket engine | Fox News

 

[ScienceRocks]

The world's first full-colour 3D desktop printer

London and New York-based company botObjects recently announced the ProDesk3D, which they claimed to be the first full-colour 3D printer small enough to fit on a desktop. In addition to its colour abilities and compactness, they confirmed that it would print at 25 microns – some four times more accurate than its competitors (Makerbot's Replicator 2 has a resolution of 100 microns).

This gives an extremely smooth finish, overcoming the issue of surface grooves which often appear in 3D-printed objects. The machine uses different-coloured cartridges on the fly, just like an inkjet printer, instead of requiring single-colour spools of raw plastic to be swapped out. This includes a palette of new "translucent" PLA colours for some impressive blending effects, customisable with software on Windows 7 and Mac OS X. There is no complex or tricky set up, as the ProDesk3D arrives out-of-the-box complete.

botObjects*?*botObjects | ProDesk3D - The World's First Full Color 3D Desktop Printer

 

[ScienceRocks]

Researchers demonstrate internal tagging technique for 3D-printed objects (w/ Video)

2 hours ago

The age of 3D printing, when every object so created can be personalized, will increase the need for tags to keep track of everything. Happily, the same 3D printing process used to produce an object can simultaneously generate an internal, invisible tag, say scientists at Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft Research.

Read more at: Researchers demonstrate internal tagging technique for 3D-printed objects (w/ Video)

 

[ScienceRocks]

Printing in gel takes 3D printing freeform and enables an undo function

Printing in gel takes 3D printing freeform and enables an undo function

The additive layer process of conventional 3D printers means they are usually limited to bottom up fabrication on three axes. The Mataerial printer managed to defy gravity by using a quick-solidifying print material, but now the LA-based NSTRMNT team led by Brian Harms, a Masters student at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, has created a 3D printing process called suspended disposition that gets around gravity by printing objects within a gel. Not only does this allow freeform additive fabrication on six axes, it also enables an "undo" function.

 

[ScienceRocks]

3D printed shoes signal revolution in how we shop

3D printed shoes signal revolution in how we shop (Wired UK)

3D printing has until now been the reserve of hackers, tinkerers and makers. Much has been made of its transformational impact, but that has only really extended as far as manufacturing and prototyping.

Janne Kyttanen has other ideas -- he wants to use 3D printing to transform retail, and he's starting with 3D printed shoes.

"Today we are bound by the products in physical stores. Personalisation is difficult and rare," Kyttanen tells Wired.co.uk. "Online shopping helps a little bit, but it's still a static 2D experience. 3D [printing] totally changes the game.


"The consumer now also becomes a designer and manufacturer."

 

[ScienceRocks]

3D Printer Bound for Space Station Passes Key Test

A 3D printer has notched an important milestone on the way toward its planned launch to the International Space Station next year.

An engineering model of California-based startup Made in Space's 3D printer passed a battery of tests at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., confirming that the machine can survive the rigors of launch and function in a microgravity environment, company officials announced Wednesday (Aug. 7).

"This developmental testing was vital to the design of our flight-unit printer. We’ve engaged in a fast-paced mission starting in early 2013 to produce hardware that NASA would qualify for launch and installation to the ISS in 2014," Michael Snyder, director of research and development at Made in Space, said in a statement. "The fact that we’ve been able to pass another milestone in an abbreviated time frame is extremely exciting."

3D Printer Bound for Space Station Passes Key Test

3-d made parts, 3-d made rocket engines, Grasshoppers going to cost maybe .3% to refuel....

Space fucking rules and we're so fucking close to trimming the cost of surface to orbit flight that it is simply amazing.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Beyond 3D printing: The all-in-one factory
15 August 2013 by Chris Baraniuk
Magazine issue 2930. Subscribe and save

3D PRINTERS are about to get an upgrade. The latest not only prints objects, it can cut and etch them too, making it far more versatile.

The Microfactory is a portable, self-contained machine just a little larger than an average desktop 3D printer. As well as the standard printing equipment, it contains a series of milling and printing heads that can cut and etch plastics, hardwoods and some light metals. Its creator, Massachusetts-based start-up Mebotics, describes it as the "world's first machine shop in a box".

"If you had a database of parts for your Humvee you could connect the machine to a Wi-Fi hotspot, download the part you need from a directory and make it on the fly out in the middle of nowhere," says Jeremy Fryer-Biggs, one of four co-founders of Mebotics. All met as part of the "maker" movementMovie Camera – in which people get together to create DIY technology.

Beyond 3D printing: The all-in-one factory - tech - 15 August 2013 - New Scientist

 

[ScienceRocks]

China's 3D bio printer 'Re-human' to create scaffolds for cardiac repair
Aug.20, 2013

Last week, researchers at Hangzhou University of Electronic Science and Technology in China unveiled their Regenovo 3D bio-printer. Unlike other 3D printers, which work with plastic or metal powder, Regenovo prints living tissue.

The Hangzhou team isn't the only company in China developing 3D bioprinter. Unique Technology in Qingdao, Shandong province recently unveiled their 3D bio printer "Re-human".

3ders.org - China's 3D bio printer 'Re-human' to create scaffolds for cardiac repair | 3D Printer News & 3D Printing News

 

[ScienceRocks]

Elon Musk Announces Latest Invention: Gesture-Based 3D Printing

Elon Musk Announces Latest Invention: Gesture-Based 3D Printing

Entrepreneur Elon Musk this week promised to deliver on the latest round of life imitating art, announcing that he would soon unveil a system that lets users make rocket parts with the wave of a hand.

What this mean in its particulars is not quite clear. Musk hasn't demonstrated the manufacture of a gesture-designed rocket part yet: so far the public only has his tweeted promise that next week he'll post a video of himself "designing a rocket part with hand gestures & then immediately printing it in titanium."

Musk says his newest invention was inspired by the design process in "Iron Man": "We saw it in the movie and made it real," he tweeted to the film's director, Jon Favreau. The homage is not out of place, as Musk has been compared to Iron Man's alter ego, Tony Stark.

To the chagrin of fanboys everywhere, Musk said he has no plans to make himself an Iron Man suit.

 

[Mr. H.]

Do you need 3D glasses to view 3D printing?

 

[ScienceRocks]

No


SpaceFab: 3D printing and robotic assembly in space

SpiderFab, a series of technologies under development by Tethers Unlimited, Inc. (TUI), combines 3D printing and robotic assembly to build and create spaceship components and structures in orbit. The groundbreaking systems are being designed to enable on-orbit construction of antennas, booms, solar arrays, trusses and other multifunctional components, ten to hundreds of times larger than currently possible with existing technology.

SpaceFab: 3D printing and robotic assembly in space

 

[ScienceRocks]

Food printer concept converts 2D doodles into 3D edibles

Imagine having the opportunity to create something awe-inspiring — three square meals a day. That's the promise that the Atomium makes with anyone who eventually gets their hands on one. With it you'll be able to print everything from cakes shaped like your favorite action figures to burgers that resemble those awesome sketches you worked up during history class.

Still a concept, the Atomium will eventually be equipped with a 3D imaging camera and software capable of creating 3D objects out of 2D renderings. The user interface will focus on simplicity above all else. Ingredients can be loaded into individual containers housed in the Atomium's feet and the finished food sculptures can be retrieved from it's head. It's so simple that even a child can use it.

Food printer concept converts 2D doodles into 3D edibles | DVICE

 

[ScienceRocks]

Print and scan with ZEUS: the all-in-one 3D copy machine

3D printers and scanners are awesome. They let you create real world objects in the shape of your every desire. But they do have their flaws. For instance, most 3D printers require a lot of manual maintenance and design tweaking before a model comes out of its hopper just right. ZEUS, a new 3D copy machine, aims to solve such hiccups.

In development for the last five years, ZEUS is a table-top 3D printer that also happens to house a 3D scanner and the ability to make multiple copies from the same template or send those copies as 3D faxes to other 3D printers. In short, it's a the world's first all-in-one 3D copy machine.

Featuring a plug-and-play user interface, ZEUS is also one of the easiest to use 3D printers in the world. A seven-inch touchscreen allows you to print scan or 3D fax at the touch of a button and an auto-bed leveling system makes sure that your 3D printed objects don't collapse due to an uneven print surface.

Print and scan with ZEUS: the all-in-one 3D copy machine | DVICE

 

[ScienceRocks]

Now, 3D printer to create organs at the touch of a button

LONDON: Scientists have created a 3D printing device that could soon be used to make tailor-made transplant organs at the click of a button.

The breakthrough by British experts involves a special print head nozzle that can dispense a wide range of different materials highly accurately.

The nozzle, called the Vista 3D, can print large particles and fluids through improvements in droplet ejection, opening up the possibility of printing products as diverse as toys, medical devices, aircraft parts and even organs.

Now, 3D printer to create organs at the touch of a button - The Times of India

 

[Mr. H.]

3Doodler

A 3D doodle pen!

 

[Mr. H.]

Robohand uses 3D printing to replace lost digits - Yahoo! Finance

JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- Richard Van As, a South African carpenter, lost four fingers from his right hand to a circular saw two years ago.

He was unable to afford the tens of thousands of dollars to get a myoelectric hand, which detects a muscle's electric impulses to activate an artificial limb.

More at link...

 

[ScienceRocks]

That's cool mr.h. I don't like making everything about RACE but that isn't what I expected to see....5% of the population and all.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Researchers plan to develop a 3D printer that prints graphene

By Signe Brewster

Oct. 10, 2013 - 2:25 PM PDT

3D printers are becoming compatible with new materials all the time, including metals, paper, resin and even pizza ingredients. So it was only a matter of time before someone decided to pair the sci-fi-like machines with the most sci-fi material out there: graphene.

Mining and technology development company American Graphite Technologies announced this week that partner researchers at the Kharkov Institute of Physics in in Ukraine received final approval to begin researching how to adapt 3D printers to print with graphene.

Graphene is a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms with impressive physical characteristics. It is stronger than diamond and extremely conductive, which means it could have applications in electronics and solar panels, among other industries. The researchers will also study applications for other nano-scale varieties of carbon.

“Now that we have the approval from the project administrator … we will be gearing up and starting immediately on the project,” CEO Rick Walchuk said in a release. “We have some exciting ideas and if successful, we hope that our developments could open up new and innovative products for the marketplace.”

Researchers plan to develop a 3D printer that prints graphene ? Tech News and Analysis

 

[ScienceRocks]

The world’s craziest toothbrush cleans your teeth in six seconds and is 3D printed

One of the most promising applications of 3D printing is the customization of everyday objects to the most personal and variable thing we possess—our bodies. A new example of this is the Blizzident toothbrush, which is made possible by two intersecting technologies—3D scanning and 3D printing.


The result is a toothbrush shaped exactly like your teeth. You simply bite it, chomp for six seconds, and voila: every single one of your teeth is perfectly brushed in both an up and down and side to side motion. Or so, at least, it’s claimed.

The world?s craziest toothbrush cleans your teeth in six seconds and is 3D printed ? Quartz