Latest in 3D Printing Thread

[ScienceRocks]

Disney develops 3D-printed lighting for toys Disney said the use of 3D-printed parts meant it could test new types of toys at a much faster rate than before
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Disney is exploring the use of 3D printers to build new kinds of light features into objects.

The firm's researchers are working on a range of techniques including "light pipes" and tubes of enclosed air that can be made to glow in controlled ways.

They say that 3D printers can create objects with "micron accuracy" that would otherwise be more complicated and costly to build.

It paves the way for the firm to create new kinds of toys.

However, one expert suggested it might be some time before the innovation became cheap enough to use to create mass produced items.

Light-hardened polymer

A paper published by the entertainment giant's Pittsburgh labs details prototypes already created including a bug-like figure with glowing eyes that display different graphics; chess set pieces that use light to display information about their position on the board; and blocks of plastic that appear to show explosions inside when light is shone at them.

"We envision a future world where interactive devices can be printed rather than assembled," wrote the team.

Disney built hollow tubes into one toys' centre which could be illuminated to make it look like it was beating
"A world where a device with active components is created as a single object, rather than a case enclosing circuit boards and individual assembled parts."

The engineers used computer software to make objects which included innovative lighting elements. They explained that creating the toys on 3D printers allowed them to create a real-world prototype within minutes, rather than having to wait for a factory to be retooled.

BBC News - Disney develops 3D-printed lighting for toys

 

[Mr. H.]

Jeepers, Wally. That sure is swell!

 

[rdean]

University of Texas had their printer taken away when they tried to print a "hand gun".

 

[ScienceRocks]

University of Texas had their printer taken away when they tried to print a "hand gun".

I don't understand what's illegal about it??? When did a business start to care what their product does once it is out the door.

What a weird country we're becoming.

 

[ScienceRocks]

How 3D Printers Are Reshaping Medicine
Published: Wednesday, 10 Oct 2012 | 12:25 PM ET Text Size By: Cadie Thompson
Technology Editor, CNBC.com

Printing off a kidney or another human organ may sound like something out of a science fiction novel, but with the advancements in 3D printing technology, the idea may not be so far-fetched.

While 3D printing has been successfully used in the health care sector to make prosthetic limbs, custom hearing aids and dental fixtures, the technology is now being used to create more complex structures — particularly human tissue.

a San Diego-based company that focuses on regenerative medicine, is one company using 3D printers, called bioprinters, to print functional human tissue for medical research and regenerative therapies.

"This is disruptive technology," said Mike Renard, Organovo's vice president of commercial operations. "It's always interesting and fun, but never easy." (More: 15 Surprising Global Technology Cities)

Tech Edge - US Business News

 

[Mr. H.]

But could it print "Finding Nemo 3D"?

 

[ScienceRocks]

3D Printers Can Now Print Chemicals

Posted: 10/11/2012 1:45 pm

3D printers, or additive manufacturing as it is also called, have gone beyond printing prototypes to printing final products ready for use such as jewelry, chairs, human jaw bones, and parts for jet engines to name just a few. 3D printers work by using lasers to deposit and fuse a thin layer upon layer of materials such as plastic or metals to create a solid object.

Recently, Professor Lee Cronin from the University of Glosgow has taken the idea of 3D printing a step further. He's using a $2,000 3D printer to print lab equipment--blocks containing chambers that connect to mixing chambers--and then injecting the desired ingredients into the chambers to produce organic and/or inorganic reactions that can yield chemicals, and in some cases new compounds.

Just as early 3D printers were used for rapid prototyping, his new chemical printer can initially be used to rapidly discover new compounds. And if you look at the development of 3D printers, it is not hard to see that in the near future you could print highly specialized chemicals and even pharmaceuticals. The team is currently working on printing ibuprofen, the main ingredient in popular painkillers. This, of course, raises a regulatory red flag, and it will be difficult to regulate what individuals in all parts of the world will do with access to the Internet and a 3D chemical printer.

Daniel Burrus: 3D Printers Can Now Print Chemicals

 

[LAfrique]

Since just a few employees run dozens of printers — vs. several hundred or thousands of workers in traditional factories — some experts say the technology can neutralize the low-cost labor advantage that countries such as China and India enjoy over the U.S. That, along with 3-D printing's ability to accommodate quick product launches, is expected to accelerate a nascent "reshoring" trend that has seen a growing number of manufacturers bring some production back to the U.S.

"It becomes very cost competitive with anything you can get from China," says Scott Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing.

At its factory here, ExOne makes 3-D printers for manufacturers but also uses the machines to turn out parts on a contract basis. On a recent weekday, a torque converter for a car transmission and a corporate trophy were being made side by side in one printer. Another was making fingers for a prosthetic hand. A third was printing 12 stove burners as part of an order of 500.

To make the gas burners, which look like sewing thimbles, a computer-aided design, sliced into multiple cross-sections, is entered into a computer, telling the printer precisely how to shape the burner. A roller puts down a layer of gray metal powder. A cartridge then glides across the surface like a quiet dot matrix print head, depositing a chemical to bind together certain particles and form 12 images of three concentric circles. It looks like a rough sketch of a gas burner, but it's actually a 1/4000-inch layer of it. The completed layer drops down and a new gray sheet of powder is smeared across. After a box is filled up and its contents heated, a worker removes the block of powder and clears away the excess to reveal the burners.

Other 3-D printers follow different processes. Many plastic parts, for example, are shaped by squirting successive layers of melted plastic through a nozzle.

It takes 5½ hours to make the 152 layers that will constitute each of the 12 burners, about half the time it took two years ago with slower machines. This fall, ExOne will install new machines more than four times faster than current models.

"Every time we drive down our (unit costs), we add another potential market group," says ExOne President David Burns.

Making the burners the traditional way would have required the creation of a die, out of which metal parts are stamped. Dies, molds and other tools cost thousands of dollars and take weeks or months to forge, delaying product rollouts. They still make sense if manufacturers can spread that cost across many thousands of products — but not for a few hundred or even several thousand.

Another benefit is that the 3-D printer layers only as much metal powder as needed. Standard manufacturing cuts figures out of blocks of metal or other substances, often wasting as much as 90% of the raw material. Also, inventory costs are sharply reduced or eliminated, because a small number of parts can be made on the fly, circumventing traditional industrial machinery that must make many thousands of widgets to be cost-effective.

The gas burners are well suited for 3-D printing because they're complex. Each has dozens of tiny holes out of which flames shoot. The 3-D printer is uncannily precise, making the holes evenly spaced so all sides of a frying pan are heated equally, says ExOne CEO Kent Rockwell. Printers also make multisection pieces with odd twists and angles as easily as a simple square — the printer just follows the design. With conventional manufacturing, the gas burner's two parts would have to be made separately and welded, adding time, labor and occasional errors.

For example, 3-D printers routinely make surgical tools, medical implants and orthodontic braces that are tailored to patients' unique bone or tooth structures.

But as production speeds and quality continue to improve, and printer and material prices fall, a growing universe of industrial parts is expected to be printed rather than bolted, bent or molded. Large sneaker manufacturers, for instance, are considering making latticework soles that use less material — so shoes are lighter, yet durable — that can be shaped only with 3-D printers, Wohlers says.

Christine Furstoss, who heads General Electric's manufacturing and materials technology group, says up to half of the parts in GE's energy turbines and aircraft engines could be 3-D printed in 10 years.

"It's difficult to name an industry that won't be impacted," Wohlers says.

3-D printing could remake U.S. manufacturing

Amazing. This tech one day could be nearly completely done by computers for nearly anything besides food(drink). This could even shake up economic theory in ways that one could only imagine.

With this you can make what you want, be it
guns
tools
doors
nobs
nails
screws
iphones-one day
computers
cars-one day
airplanes-one day
braces
engines


Nothing will be centralized with this.

Are the above going to be paper products or would printer be constantly fitted with various materials for desired product result?

 

[ScienceRocks]

Since just a few employees run dozens of printers — vs. several hundred or thousands of workers in traditional factories — some experts say the technology can neutralize the low-cost labor advantage that countries such as China and India enjoy over the U.S. That, along with 3-D printing's ability to accommodate quick product launches, is expected to accelerate a nascent "reshoring" trend that has seen a growing number of manufacturers bring some production back to the U.S.

"It becomes very cost competitive with anything you can get from China," says Scott Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing.

For example, 3-D printers routinely make surgical tools, medical implants and orthodontic braces that are tailored to patients' unique bone or tooth structures.

But as production speeds and quality continue to improve, and printer and material prices fall, a growing universe of industrial parts is expected to be printed rather than bolted, bent or molded. Large sneaker manufacturers, for instance, are considering making latticework soles that use less material — so shoes are lighter, yet durable — that can be shaped only with 3-D printers, Wohlers says.

Christine Furstoss, who heads General Electric's manufacturing and materials technology group, says up to half of the parts in GE's energy turbines and aircraft engines could be 3-D printed in 10 years.

"It's difficult to name an industry that won't be impacted," Wohlers says.

3-D printing could remake U.S. manufacturing

Amazing. This tech one day could be nearly completely done by computers for nearly anything besides food(drink). This could even shake up economic theory in ways that one could only imagine.

With this you can make what you want, be it
guns
tools
doors
nobs
nails
screws
iphones-one day
computers
cars-one day
airplanes-one day
braces
engines


Nothing will be centralized with this.

Are the above going to be paper products or would printer be constantly fitted with various materials for desired product result?

One day they will all be real products! 3-d printers already can make steal, glass, plastic, ect objects.

 

[LAfrique]

3-D printing could remake U.S. manufacturing

Amazing. This tech one day could be nearly completely done by computers for nearly anything besides food(drink). This could even shake up economic theory in ways that one could only imagine.

With this you can make what you want, be it
guns
tools
doors
nobs
nails
screws
iphones-one day
computers
cars-one day
airplanes-one day
braces
engines


Nothing will be centralized with this.

Are the above going to be paper products or would printer be constantly fitted with various materials for desired product result?

One day they will all be real products! 3-d printers already can make steal, glass, plastic, ect objects.

Must be some gigantic printer. Anyway, I love technology and only have problem when it is used to abuse - as in used to dehumanize.

 

[Mr. H.]

Let your Lafrique flag fly.

 

[Mr. H.]

Ahhh... frique out!

LAfrique, c'est chic.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Interruptible 3-D printing method wins Gehry prize

October 22, 2012
by Nancy Owano

(Phys.org)—A husband and wife architecture team have managed to turn 3-D printing into something that is less rigidly planned and more on the fly and have won a prestigious award as a result. Liz and Kyle von Hasseln are winners of the inaugural Gehry Prize from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (Sci-Arc) in Los Angeles. The prize is named after architect Frank Gehry, who is known around the world for his architectural wonders including the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain; the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles; and the Dancing House in Prague.

The prize is given to those who can demonstrate exceptional thesis projects. The couple won for their method of 3-D printing that allows the user to make changes to the design in progress. In 3-D printing an object is created by laying down successive layers of material that can render finished objects.3-D Printers make objects in three dimensions, layer by layer, which may be only microns thick. The model that is destined for replication has usually been fully resolved. The Phantom Geometry method allows the user, in contrast, to print outside the specifications of a given 3-D mode. Fundamentally the Phantom Geometry method is designed to create a physical model of streaming information. Using advanced robotic arms, the von Hasseln team proceeded to manipulate the model as it was being printed. According to their idea, as a printed product emerges, the designer can make alternations to the design in-progress, and in so doing change the downstream architecture of the printed product.

Read more at: Interruptible 3-D printing method wins Gehry prize (w/ Video)

 

[ScienceRocks]

DNA Pioneer Craig Venter Developing a 3D Printer for Vaccines


DNA Pioneer Craig Venter Developing a 3D Printer for Vaccines | ZeitNews

Article | October 25, 2012 - 7:23am
Comment0

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Geneticist J. Craig Venter told attendees at the recent Wired Health Conference in New York City that his scientific team is working on what he calls “a 3D printer for DNA, a 3D printer for life.” Such a device which Venter also refers to as a “biological teleporter”—could be used to instantly produce vaccines, medications or biological materials anywhere in the world simply through the transfer of a digital file.

The replicator described by Venter would use an electronic file expressing DNA code that could be emailed or otherwise transferred to the receiving device. Deborah MacKenzie, writing for New Scientist, says you would need a printer “that can deposit a repertoire of nucleotides, sugars and/or amino acids where they belong, and link them up chemically.” Obviously this would be a device much more complex than today’s 3D printers that are used to replicate plastic parts, but the concept is potentially transferable to biological materials.

 

[ScienceRocks]

NASA 3D-printing parts for its next rocket headed for Mars

A process called selective laser melting, similar to 3D printing, is being used to create parts for NASA's new Space Launch System.



by Eric Mack
| November 9, 2012 11:09 AM PST

3D printing has captured the imaginations of just about anyone who knows what it is -- even NASA, apparently.

The space agency is using a similar technology to create precise metal parts for its next heavy-lift rocket, which it hopes will eventually help take humans to Mars.

The method is called selective laser melting, or SLM, but it's not quite the same as printing up a sweet "Star Wars" chess set out of extruded plastic. It's more of a cross between 3D printing and some high-end, defense-grade awesome tech.

"Basically, this machine takes metal powder and uses a high-energy laser to melt it in a designed pattern," says Ken Cooper, advanced manufacturing team lead at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, in a news release. "The laser will layer the melted dust to fuse whatever part we need from the ground up, creating intricate designs. The process produces parts with complex geometries and precise mechanical properties from a three-dimensional computer-aided design."

NASA says SLM can create parts more quickly and cheaply than in the past.

"Also, since we're not welding parts together, the parts are structurally stronger and more reliable, which creates an overall safer vehicle," says Andy Hardin from NASA's Engines Office.

The rig used to print, or "selectively melt," the rocket parts is actually made in Germany -- the M2 Cusing machine, built by Concept Laser. You can see it in action in the video below.

NASA is currently planning the first test launch of its new Space Launch System using parts created by the machine for 2017.

NASA 3D-printing parts for its next rocket headed for Mars | Cutting Edge - CNET News

 

[Mr. H.]

Matt attack, ack-ack-ack-ack-ack. You oughta know by now....



Really- good shit here. Keep up the good work.

 

[ScienceRocks]

I love doing it...


US army builds its own 3D printer

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20269645

The US military is developing its own 3D printer that it can use to produce spare parts for spacecraft.

By putting 3D printers behind the front line it hopes to be able to produce spares more cheaply and quickly than it can get them from manufacturers.

The army embarked on the project to produce its own printer as commercial devices were too expensive.

Early versions of the printer cost $695 (£436) compared to $3,000 (£1,880) for a commercial model.

The 3D printer has been developed by the Future Warfare centre at the US Army's Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC) in Alabama.

3D printers are gadgets that form objects by melting and shaping plastic into a design dictated by a data file. They are becoming increasingly common and many engineering and research firms use them for rapid prototyping.

"The ability to replicate parts quickly and cheaply is a huge benefit to the warfighter," said D Shannon Berry, an operations research analyst at the Future Warfare office, in a statement. Eventually, it is hoped the printer will find a larger role with US forces deployed overseas

"Instead of needing a massive manufacturing logistics chain, a device that generates replacement parts is now small and light enough to be easily carried in a backpack or on a truck," he said.

The key reason to develop the printer, said Mr Berry, was to produce cheap spare parts for the sensitive instruments it develops. SMDC systems are typically deployed in space, but prototypes are tested terrestrially on drones and other small aircraft.

 

[Mr. H.]

Carried in a backpack or on a truck?

Don't they have in-between models like for my Avalon?

 

[ScienceRocks]

3D Printing Is Getting Pretty Flexible These Days


3D Printing Is Getting Pretty Flexible These Days | WebProNews

The folks at Objet are doing some pretty awesome things with 3D printers. Even better, they’re doing some awesome things with the kinds of materials that 3D printers can work with. It’s not just about hard plastic anymore as models can also contain moving parts or be flexible enough to bend into other shapes.

The Objet blog takes a behind-the-scenes look at some of the latest 3D printed models being printed at Objet HQ. On display are a wide assortment of models and 3D printing materials ranging from multi-material 3D printed parts (gear cubes), to clear transparent material parts used in consumer electronics, to ABS-like Digital Material for extra toughness (the green iPhone cover with interlocking gears), to Objet’s original yellow-transparent general purpose material (elephant), rigid blue material (horse) for extra detail visualization and rigid white material (vase) for all-round rapid prototyping.


Not mentioned in the above video description is a hand printed out of a rubber-like substance. It looks to be pretty flexible, and can bend without breaking. It’s this kind of material innovation that will take 3D printing to the next level, not the hardware itself. 3D printing is in fact held back by its reliance on plastics. Once 3D printers can start creating objects out of other materials, there should be an explosion of innovation in manufacturing.

 

[Mr. H.]

But the important thing is... can it print money?