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Post by swamprat on Jan 25, 2015 9:46:59 GMT -6
3-D Printed Buildings
The Chinese are taking 3-D printing to a whole new level..... (No pun intended)
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Post by Deleted on Jun 7, 2015 10:17:07 GMT -6
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Post by plutronus on Nov 11, 2015 8:31:57 GMT -6
Hah! 3D printers are ah commin!! Their development state are just about where personal computers were in 1985? Another 15 years, I would not be surprised to see the 3Ders in-built into new homes. Lots of neato advancements are being made almost daily now, things like low cost photo-polymer resin printers (can make very exotic and artistic structures), like 'crystal-skulls' with a loose-nut rolling aroud inside brain cavity, or 'wood' based filament material for printing wood articles. Lotsa good 'newsy' stuff regarding 3D printers can be read here: www.3ders.orgI have finally decided (actually can hardly contain myself) to bake a printer... I am now fabricating the tron-strapus delta Rostock 3D printer...got about $300 invested in parts so far. Almost everything was bought from individual eeBayeskee vendors located in Chynaville. Still need to get the hot-end (baybee!) and some smooth drill-rod for the three delta sliders and also a length of 1"x1" square aluminum tubing for the frame and I am making stepper-motor mounts out of sections of 1" x 2" aluminum angle... Last night I broke down, amidst a bunch of anguish and bought 1250pcs of metric Allen socket-head cap screws, an assortment (for a mere $89 + free shipping), that's a bit o'money for a box of screws....<sigh>. Don'tcha think screws should be free? I hope I don't end up eating this thing.... I'm including (below) a link to a picture of a similar architecture printer, although it is not what I am making, but very similar in structural concept. Mine will print a 15inch W x 15inch L x 24 inch H articles, while almost all hobbyiest 3D printers only print around 8"W x 8"L x 6"H. Here's the link to the photo of a 'Rostock' style delta printer that is similar to that which I'm baking: reprap.org/wiki/Rostock_Mini_Proya can click on the photo for a closeup...yep, those are rod-end bearings on the sliders!!! I'm using plastic bearings to decrease the print effector mass. Also my design has a more robust print-head assy, in that I can change the hot-end with that of a 40W CO2 cutting LASER, so that I can not only print plastic articles, but also cut stainless steel solder masks and route PCB boards by vaporizing the paths between the copper traces, heh heh, how cool is that? And for the mentally copaired, here are some instructions for building your very own (down about middle) (repraps are the cheapest): www.3ders.org//3d-printing-basics.html#build-3d-printer And my favorite of the Prusa style machines, see this little gem called the SmartRap: reprap.org/wiki/Smartrap_minigotta go.. plutronus
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Post by skywalker on Nov 11, 2015 20:29:09 GMT -6
You're all excited about these 3D printer thingies. If I was a computer expert I probably would be too. It's cool to be on the cutting edge of new technology. Since I can barely even get my puter to turn on half the time I'll probably have to wait until people like you perfect the things and then buy one cheap at Walmart. I can definitely think of a few uses for them if the things they print have any strength to them.
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Post by patsbox7 on Nov 11, 2015 21:39:16 GMT -6
I've been considering buying one of those things as the prices are pretty reasonable. I'm just trying to justify getting one by figuring out what the heck I would do with it. If I could figure out something that I could print out that would make me money I would pull the trigger forsure.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 12, 2015 9:28:24 GMT -6
3D printers by their very nature, currently, are extremely limited in what can be produced. What purpose for instance would a housewife have for a 3D printer? Make a skillet? How about curtains? Some clothing hangers? What about a fella around the house, what would he use a 3D printer for? A hammer? A pipe wrench? Replacement handle for a weed wacker? Or a new toilet seat?
Few if any of the above items can be 'printed' and actually be used, as the printed articles are printed using fragile plastic 'ink' which renders the 'printed' article impractical for most home-owner's applications. In time, that may change. While a few of the $1,000,000 versions of 3D printers can produce a few of the above cited items and be useful, how many in the public can afford such a machine? But article writers don't mention any of this. The reason is simple, when it comes to emerging technology, they are optimists, futurists and most, it seems are presuming a future technology product usefulness. Unfortunately (because I'd really like to own one) 3D printers are not the fictional replicators seen on episodes of 2nd Gen Enterprise, 'Earl Grey', --they don't configure boundless energy directly into usable practical matter.
The primary purpose of 3D printers today and the reason they were developed, is for rapid prototyping of engineering developmental mechanical parts. With the exception of one or two industrial 3D printers, all 3D printers use some form of plastic for their 'ink'. Those few 3D printers that print using 'metal-ink' are mainly experimental machines, often costing millions of Dollars, are temperamental, costly to operate and to maintain. But those are on the horizon too.
Of the plastic 'ink' type 3D printers, there are three usage sectors today. Research, industrial, and hobbyist. In the research sector, which is really not too different from the hobbyist sector, is the ongoing development of new and interesting strategies to print physical articles, with a primary difference being that the 3D printer researchers are funded and well educated, while hobbyists and niche' entrepeneurs are tinkerers and usually have little or no money.
In the commercial sector, 3D printing is mainly used for mechanical component engineering visualization, and engineering part dimension verification, of mechanical components prior to the part's actual intended fabrication process. The produced prototype parts include objects such as, --injection molded products mold verification; prototyping of intended metal machined components visualization; custom mechanical assemblies with odd or unique and difficult to machine (co$tly) shapes, and again, simply to see if the mechanical assembly will fit a gadget being engineered, etc.
Another emerging industrial application, and the basis of the US Gvrnmntl hysteria surrounding gun printing, is the direct fabrication of low force plastic components for one-off or small volume production factories. But these printers are mainly used for small plastic parts, such as gears that might be found in video-disc-players, or plastic scanner lens bearing supports, things that are employed in the interior workings of other gadgets.
Then there is the hobbyist/experimenter robotics sector. These are people who fiddle with gadgets for fun. The tech-nerds, like me. Instead of making and flying model airplanes, some of these folks are home-brewing, home constructing RepRap 3D printers, and are making 'stuff' for hobbyist and crafts applications.
In recent employment with ITT Aerospace Comm Div, we owned a 3D printer, which was located in the ITT Ft. Wayne facility. All of the ITT ACD engineering divisions would simply send a 3D Inventor (an AutoCAD program) mechanical .dxf file via e-mail to Ft. Weenie and a mere 24 hrs later, via Overnight FedEx, we'd have the prototype part in our sweaty little paws, --a Teflon 3D printed component for testing in our engineering gadgets. This local ITT inter-department 'service' was very timely, useful and inexpensive. If there was an engineering mistake, this service facilitated easy, inexpensive and timely correction, compared to the exorbitant costs of machine-shop lead-time prototyping which often expended many weeks, just to determine if a part would fit.
But our $1,000,000 3D printer could not fabricate a skillet, we could prototype it, tune up the drawing specs, and be able hold it our hands, to see it, look for the flaws, if any? But it would not be very useful on a stove, same thing is true for a hammer but not for the wrench. We could actually make a reasonably useful plastic spanner wrench. However, generally speaking, plastic is just not strong enough or heat resistant enough for most practical home-use applications. But as a designer's prototyping tool, its hard to beat.
The publicly available hobbyist versions of these robots, 3D printers work a bit like an ink-jet printer, where, ink is sprayed onto a printing surface, in the 3D printer, the 'ink' is a small diameter plastic 'wire' or fishing line like filament which is rolled onto a dispensing spool.
"Fused Filament Fabrication from materials such as ABS plastic filament"
The basic principal of these 3D printers, un-spools, and simply heats the thermo-plastic filament until a small, portion of the plastic filament becomes liquid, and a drop of it is 'gated' through a small diameter pipe onto a flat 'printing' surface. One drop per spot.
Ink-jet printers are 2D printers, that print in two dimensions X is the row dimension, and Y is the column dimension. 3D printers print in three dimensions, X is row, Y is column, and Z is height. In addition to moving (X) back and forth across a printing 'page', and doing (Y) line-feeds, the print head, can move (Z) vertically, up and down.
To print a rectangular drinking glass, (easy to describe) one would create an 3D CAD drawing/file, import the file into the 3D printer software.
The bottom of the 'glass' need be one solid piece, a filled in rectangle. The print head would position to the far upper left corner, squirt a drop of plastic, move to the next column to the right, squirt a drop of molten plastic, (which runs-together, merging with the first drop), and the process is continued until the row is printed, then the print-head, does a line-feed, dropping down to the next row down position, squirts a drop of hot liquid plastic, and continues across the page, repeating the process until the entire bottom is filled with a thin layer of cooling, returning to solid plastic, thereby forming the bottom of the rectangular plastic drinking glass.
Then, the print head returns to the upper left corner of the printed bottom, only this time, the head is raised just a tiny bit over one drop's height. The print head, squirts a drop of plastic there, and prints a one row line of plastic, finishing the row. Then print head does a line feed, squirts one drop, then moves all the way across the printing area to position over the far left wall of the glass, squirting one drop of plastic, positions down one row, squirts another drop, moves all the way to the right, over the far wall, squirts a drop, etc.
It does this until a five inch tall rectangular plastic drinking glass has been squirted into physical existence. And yes, one can actually use this plastic printed 'glass'.
Here are some typical public 3D printers. There are three types available, 1) construction plans + software (free), 2) partial parts kits, full parts kits (for lazy hobbyists who enjoy a more engineered 'project') and the fully assembled hobbyist 3D printers.
There is a distinction to be noted that exists between that of hobbyist 3D printers and non-hobbyist 3D printers. Namely cost & functionality.
High-end fully assembled hobbyist 3D printers sell for upwards of $5,000. One does not see too many of these being used. While low-end fully assembled 3D printers sell for around $1500, mainly owing to the usage of wood structural parts in lieu of expensive T-Slot metal structures. Kits and partial parts kit, which are the mainstay of the 3D printer MakerFaire mechnician cultural movement are available starting from around $40 upwards to around $1500. The average 3D printer seen today in the hobbyist world, is a home-built RepRap machine which typically costs the constructor around $500. All of the hobbyist 3D printers require a fair amount of futzing-around-with to be able to generate physical objects. The quality of the finished 3D print articles are quite variable depending on many different things, and there is nothing produced that is of commercial grade quality. While non-hobbyist 3D printers, in other words, commercial and light industrial 3D printers, prices begin around $7,500 going upward to around one million US Dollars.
Putting 3D printing in a plastic-nutshell, simply stated, its an engineering prototyping tool. From the hobbyist perspective, there's many kewl plastic things that have been out of the hobbyist-home-craftsman's reach that can be done, like printing custom cooking-cutters or fancy 'scrolled' picture-frames but printing useful guns are not one of them.
Incidentally, "RepRap" is the open-source origin of the 3D printer hobbyist movement, engineered by University of Bath, UK Ph.D. roboticists professors, who designed and fabricated a series of experimental home-brew level 3D printers. After 'copylefting' their designs, to protect hobbyist's right to replicate the printers legally and their own rights, from the greedy American corporations, they released the full engineering plans and software into the InterNet public domain. Be sure to visit their wiki page and watch THEIR video, as they are the de facto fathers of the 3D printer hobbyist movement!!
See the RepRap Wiki: reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page
Here are just a few of the hobbyest printer movement links:
A few RepRap 'hobbyist' 3D printer photos:
1st generation RepRap reprap.org/wiki/File:All_3_axes_fdmd_sml.jpg
2nd generation RepRap "Mendel" 3D printer reprap.org/wiki/File:Reprappro-Mendel.jpg
A $2000 hobbyist home-built RepRap printer and the German hobbyest who made it kuehlingkuehling.de/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/IMG_5690.jpg
A few typical 3D printed hobbyist 'stuff':
Various 'bracelets' www.thingiverse.com/categories/fashion
Customized Camera Lens Case www.thingiverse.com/thing:43781
A gear imgur.com/G9RXUeB
A (20mm) 5/8" cube with a (10mm) 7/16" hole, but printer needs a bit of futzing-around: imgur.com/fjuVIcu
Expander flange with holes thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders//09/83/28/b7/P1154324-_preview_featured.jpg
Hobby Sail Plane www.thingiverse.com/thing:86982
Vendors who supply parts for making 3D RepRap printers www.a2aprinter.com/index.php?route=common/home shop.seemecnc.com/main.sc
A $450 full parts kit www.a2aprinter.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=20
And if you are still reading this, I **know** you....a tech-nerd fer sure heh heh heh, (guys like Bewildered, SwampRat, Spotless38, SkyWalker and of course, Cliff!! as well as a few others and mayhaps a few gals too?) so here's the good stuff, the plans!!!
The body lives baybee!...
The lean, mean, machina
reprap.org/wiki/RepRapPro_Mendel_frame_assembly
X Axis reprap.org/wiki/RepRapPro_Mendel_x_axis_assembly
Y Axis reprap.org/wiki/RepRapPro_Mendel_y_axis_assembly
Z Axis reprap.org/wiki/RepRapPro_Mendel_z_axis_assembly
The hot-plastic print engine plans
reprap.org/wiki/RepRapPro_Mendel_hot_end_assembly
Ok...that should whet your appetites, here's the remainder of the RepRap Pro plans.... reprap.org/wiki/Build_instructions
plutronus
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 12, 2015 9:37:36 GMT -6
(the "frown" is because I don't have the luxury to play with these things! Lol.)
Look what's changed since 2013!
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Post by auntym on Jun 11, 2016 13:42:21 GMT -6
www.space.com/33130-3d-printing-rock-world-author-interview.html?cmpid=514648How 3D Printing Will 'Rock the World' — and SpaceBy Jesse Emspak, Space.com Contributor June 10, 2016 In this artist's rendering, a 3D printing robot pours layer after layer of hardened lunar dirt and dust onto an inflatable dome shell, 3D printing a lunar base. Credit: ESA/Foster + Partners Three-dimensional printing, also called rapid prototyping, has finally started to go mainstream. Companies like MakerBot create home versions of machines that use computerized blueprints and extruded plastic to make objects, which were once limited to design firms. In space, the ability to 3D-print parts would mean that a longer mission could avoid carrying spares, instead bringing only the raw materials. This would make repairs and experimentation much easier. As the technology becomes more common, 3D printing will fundamentally alter the way people manufacture things, on Earth and in space, said John Hornick, an intellectual property lawyer and a partner at Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, L.L.P. Hornick recently published a book, "3D Printing Will Rock the World" (CreateSpace independent publishing platform, 2015). [3D Printing: 10 Ways It Could Transform Space Travel] www.space.com/25706-3d-printing-transforming-space-travel.htmlIn his separate essay "3D Printing Our Way to the Stars," Hornick noted that NASA has already experimented with 3D printing. The agency emailed the blueprint for a wrench from NASA's Huntsville Operations Support Center to the space station, which has a 3D printer on board, and the wrench was successfully printed out. Made In Space, Inc., the company that designed the space station's 3D printer, said the machine could reproduce about a third of the spare parts the station needs. Meanwhile, companies like Aerojet Rocketdyne have experimented with 3D printing in metals, which could make it possible to create rocket engine parts more quickly and cheaply than with traditional methods. In the new book, Hornick also cited a number of advances in 3D printing that would have space applications, such as Boeing's patent application for a 3D printer that can print in any plane. Ordinarily, a 3D printer builds layer by layer, and would require some kind of gravity. Boeing's design can build layers in any orientation, and actually suspends the part, levitating it with magnetic fields or sound waves. Such a machine would allow for building parts in microgravity environments — either in Earth orbit or on a trip to Mars. CONTINUE READING: www.space.com/33130-3d-printing-rock-world-author-interview.html?cmpid=514648
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Post by auntym on Jun 17, 2016 14:38:37 GMT -6
www.universetoday.com/129458/first-3d-tools-printed-aboard-space-station/ First 3D Tools Printed Aboard Space Station16 Jun , 2016 by Evan Gough This simple wrench was the first tool printed with the Additive Manufacturing Facility on board the ISS. Image: NASA/MadeInSpace/Lowe's Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have manufactured their first tool using the 3D printer on board the station. This is another step in the ongoing process of testing and using additive manufacturing in space. The ability to build tools and replacement parts at the station is something NASA has been pursuing keenly. The first tool printed was a simple wrench. This may not sound like ground-breaking stuff, unless you’ve ever been in the middle of a project only to find you’re missing a simple tool. A missing tool can stop any project in its tracks, and change everybody’s plans. The benefits of manufacturing needed items in space are obvious. Up until now, every single item needed on the ISS had to be sent up via re-supply ship. That’s not a quick turnaround. Now, if a tool is lost or destroyed during normal use, a replacement can be quickly manufactured on-site. This isn’t the first item to be printed at the station. The first one was printed back in November 2014. That item was a replacement part for the printer itself. This was important because it showed that the machine can be used to keep itself running. This reliability is key if astronauts are going to be able to rely on the printer for manufacturing critical replacements for components and spare parts. CONTINUE READING: www.universetoday.com/129458/first-3d-tools-printed-aboard-space-station/
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Post by plutronus on Oct 20, 2017 7:55:11 GMT -6
Australian-made 3D-printed sternum and rib cage implanted into NY patientA New York woman previously diagnosed with a rare bone cancer has received a 3D-printed sternum and rib cage produced by the CSIRO and Anatomics. Tas Bindi By Tas Bindi | October 19, 2017 -- 00:07 GMT (17:07 PDT) An Australian-made 3D-printed sternum and rib cage has successfully been implanted into a 20-year-old New York patient who had been diagnosed with a rare bone cancer, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) announced on Thursday. The 3D-printed titanium and polymer sternum and rib cage was produced by the CSIRO in partnership with Melbourne-based medical device company Anatomics. The patient, Penelope Heller, had to have her sternum removed after being diagnosed with chondrosarcoma in 2014. While the cancer was successfully removed, Heller's replacement sternum and rib cage that was developed using off-the-shelf solutions made post-operation life painful. In August this year, she underwent additional surgery to replace her implant with a customised sternum and partial rib cage made from 3D-printed titanium and combined with Anatomics' PoreStar technology, which is a porous polyethylene material providing "bone-like" architecture to facilitate tissue integration, the CSIRO said. "3D printing allows for advanced personalisation of implants so they uniquely fit their recipients, as well as rapid manufacture, which could mean the difference between life and death for a patient waiting for surgery," the Australian government-backed organisation added. For Remainder of article see: www.zdnet.com/article/australian-made-3d-printed-sternum-and-rib-cage-implanted-into-ny-patient/?loc=newsletter_small_thumb&ftag=TRE4d0d0ca&bhid=25662848637681348141988945858592
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Post by swamprat on Oct 20, 2017 9:36:45 GMT -6
"Australian-made 3D-printed sternum and rib cage implanted into NY patient"
Love it! Before I retired from the automotive manufacturing industry, we were using 3-D printing to obtain new design samples. It was quick, easy, and gave us samples that exactly matched blueprints.
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whatwouldyousuggest
Junior Member
I once was...I am again..I always will be....all hail the personal opinion
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Post by whatwouldyousuggest on Oct 23, 2017 23:16:02 GMT -6
That is so amazing. I hope it serves her well
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Post by swamprat on Nov 15, 2017 10:22:57 GMT -6
Those pesky humans! Always preparing for WAR!BAE Systems Wins DARPA Contract to Develop 3D Space Warfare LabBy Sandra Erwin, Space News November 15, 2017
WASHINGTON — The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded BAE Systems a contract worth up to $12.8 million to develop a digital lab to help U.S. military commanders prepare for combat in outer space, the company announced Nov. 14.
The task is to create a virtual space-battle zone so U.S. military leaders can better understand the space environment and the potential threats.
"Military commanders must have superior space domain awareness in order to quickly assess, plan and execute operations in this increasingly complex environment," said Mike Penzo, director of ground resiliency and analytics at BAE Systems, in Reston, Virginia.
DARPA dubbed the project "Hallmark testbed."
The technology will help the military "quickly evaluate and integrate technologies for space command and control," Penzo said in a news release. In a virtual space war setting, commanders would learn how to gain "situational awareness" — a tough challenge when the action is happening hundreds or thousands of miles above Earth. Awareness in the space domain means tracking and managing many thousands of objects that are moving at extreme velocities.
The testbed also would allow leaders to practice "multi-domain" operations so data collected in space, on land, in the air, at sea or in cyberspace can be combined and analyzed to support simultaneous space and terrestrial missions. DARPA describes it as a "flexible, scalable, and secure enterprise software architecture that would become the backbone of technology development and experimentation."
The first phase of the Hallmark project focuses on space situational awareness and command-and-control technologies. Later DARPA wants to add new features to the system for "realistic, scenario-based exercises for testing space command-and-control technologies against sophisticated emerging threats."
BAE will host exercises to collect metrics for Hallmark's cognitive evaluation team, and to identify technologies for future use by the Defense Department's Joint Space Operations Center and the National Space Defense Center.
DARPA launched the Hallmark project in 2016 to support military efforts to hone space war-fighting skills.
"Military commanders responsible for situational awareness and command and control of assets in space know all too well the challenge that comes from the vast size of the space domain," DARPA said in a statement. "The volume of Earth's operational space domain is hundreds of thousands times larger than the Earth's oceans. It contains thousands of objects hurtling at tens of thousands of miles per hour. The scales and speeds in this extreme environment are difficult enough to grasp conceptually, let alone operationally."
Current space awareness tools and technologies were developed when there were fewer objects in space. Only a few nations could even place satellites in orbit, and those orbits were easily predictable. "That situation has changed dramatically in the past decade with a developing space industry flooding once lonely orbits with volleys of satellite constellations," noted DARPA. Against this backdrop, "commanders with responsibility for space domain awareness often rely on outdated tools and processes — and incomplete information — as they plan, assess, and execute operations in space."
DARPA expects this technology will give commanders "unprecedented awareness" so they can shorten the timeline required to make decisions and take action.
The next phase of the project is a "Hallmark space evaluation and analysis capability" to be located in Northern Virginia. The analysis center would be used for development, integration, modeling, simulation and realistic testing of space command-and-control software and processes.
www.space.com/38775-bae-systems-darpa-3d-space-warfare-lab.html
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Post by swamprat on Mar 22, 2018 9:58:04 GMT -6
Years ago, we were very impressed with our first 3-D printed engineering samples. Since then, the science has become more complex and expansive. Some day, we'll be able to 3-D print a human body with artificial intelligence! A Data! Four-in-one 3D printer paves way for custom-made robots and phonesExperimental device is one of the first to combine multiple printing techniques in one machine.
Mark Zastrow 21 March 2018
A machine that combines multiple 3D printing methods could one day produce prosthetic limbs.Credit: Jae C. Hong/AP/REX/Shutterstock
A prototype 3D printer has for the first time combined several printing methods to enable researchers to produce devices out of multiple materials in a single print run. So far the machine has created basic electronic devices, but the technology brings materials scientists a step closer to their goal of printing complex equipment such as robots or smartphones.
The printer is being presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans, Louisiana, on 21 March.
“This is a remarkable technological advance and a great leap for the field of 3D printing,” says Xuanhe Zhao, a materials scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, who was not involved in the work.
The most common 3D printers heat a plastic filament and lay it down in repeated lines, building a layered structure from the bottom up. This is the technique used in inexpensive consumer models. Several other 3D-printing methods have also emerged in recent years, including spraying fine streams of aerosols, printing with liquid resin that is then cured to form a flexible polymer, laying down thin layers of ink that are dried and hardened when exposed to light, and even printing ink that contains conductive nanoparticles, to produce wires and circuits.
“Each printing technology has its own limitations,” says Jerry Qi, a materials scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, who led the design of the multimaterial printer. “We put four 3D-printing technologies under one platform.”
Combined forces Although current 3D printers can already produce electronic parts and devices made of multiple materials, if a structure requires more than one printing method, a different machine is required for each. But moving an object from one printer to another is usually impractical for the micrometre-level precision that is required in 3D printing, and is inefficient if multiple materials are used in a single layer, says Qi.
His team’s multimaterial printer has printheads — the nozzles that produce the material — for each of the four techniques on a single printing platform. Each has its own software, lights for curing the materials, and a moving platform and robot arms that can pick up and place components. This allows the printheads to work together to build single layers with multiple materials. “It is a very smart solution to this challenge,” says Zhou.
Qi and his colleagues have used the printer to embed a light-emitting diode inside a plastic case, printing the inner circuitry at the same time as the outer enclosure. They have also printed a layer of conductive ink inside a rubbery material that can stretch and flex while delivering a current, demonstrating its possibilities for flexible electronics.
The printer has excited researchers in the field. “We just had a conversation where we were dreaming of that kind of machine,” says Geoff Spinks, a materials engineer at the University of Wollongong in Australia. Such stretchable electronics could be used in compact soft robots, because they offer flexibility that is impossible using the current process of embedding wires into a device, he says.
The machine was mostly funded by the US Air Force and cost roughly US$350,000 to build, says Qi. He thinks the printer’s first customers will be aerospace companies that will use it to design circuitry for avionics, where the ability to print antennas directly could enable rapid prototyping of avionic devices. Qi estimates the printer would sell for about $1 million.
Spinks says this is only the beginning for multimaterial printers. He expects devices with expanded capabilities will soon become available: “I’d imagine in the near future we might have 16 different types of printheads, or even more.”
www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-03446-4?utm_source=briefing-dy&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=briefing&utm_content=20180321
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Post by jcurio on Mar 23, 2018 15:49:08 GMT -6
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Post by auntym on Apr 15, 2018 17:28:15 GMT -6
This Steel Bridge Was 3-D Printed In Midair | CNBCPublished on Apr 9, 2018 Dutch robotics firm, MX3D, 3-D printed a stainless steel bridge that will serve foot traffic in Amsterdam's red light district. » Subscribe to CNBC: cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBC
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