Tech that will change our world

[Variable]

I saw a show a few years ago on 3D printing and I am not sure if something like this has been posted here before but, I think this is a world changer. If you have some spare cash to invest I would do some research now..

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,301511,00.html

If you do a bit of digging and let your mind wander some, you can see how this type of tech has some really far reaching ramifications. It is probably years in the future... but not decades. Once this tech is out, it will be hard to put it back... Think about a group of people in a club or a coop that buy one of these machines now. The first machines that get mass produced may only have a limited material set to choose from. But imagine these devices also merge with CNC like machines. Imagine you could buy a machine for $15,000 grand, put it in your basement or garage and make parts of machines or whatever you want with blueprints you buy off the web or make yourself from templates.

Here is a device you could buy right now. Let’s assume the plastic is comparable to plastic we have now in durability and use. You are only limited by your imagination.

http://www.zcorp.com/Products/3D-Printers/155/spage.aspx

Now you say what about metal parts?

http://www.prometal.com/dmp.html

If you are a conspiracy buff, this is a excellent bit of tech to keep out of mainstream hands. You think engine design has been suppressed by big oil? Can you see why corporations would want to keep this tech expensive or out of reach of Joe blow?

Worried about Walmart selling cheap products like plastic toys and taking jobs away from Americans? What if you could download copies of toys like lego’s, army men, dolls or how about, silverware, cups, bowls, plates? Say my mower chews up a gear, what if I could go to the web and purchase the specs on a gear and build it or ... what if the machine had a 3D scanner... so I take my mangled part, scan it, then edit the image to fix the broken teeth and then make my own.

Here is an artist who sells things she makes now.
http://www.bathsheba.com/sculpt/

Now, if you can do this.... I'll bet you could make some really neat light fixtures, my wife and I have been slowly replacing our ceiling lights with nicer models, some of them are very expensive, most are lightweight metal and plastic but the nice units are pricey.

Wonder what kind you could make with the 3d metal printer? You buy the look, the innards are generic so you don't need the whole unit, you can just upgrade the outside. You could take a template and customize it. Add your family crest or name to it, whatever you can come up with, keep the same basic design or "look" and make light switch plates, outdoor sconces, door knockers, you name it. No one does that now, except for wealthy people.

How many times have you had to go to the hardware store to buy a tiny part for something, maybe you have a broken part to copy from, or need some little thing like a L bracket that it is just so, or how about your kitchen cabinet hardware breaks, have you ever tried to find a replacement for 15-20 year old kitchen cabinet hardware?

IMHO this is paradigm shifting tech. We all know that really cool tech starts out expensive and gets cheaper based on how many people buy it and find it useful. If the low end models are $20-40 grand now and work just fine... how long until you have a 5 grand plastic and soft metal printer. How long after that for a 3D printer with a CNC steel or aluminum upgrade. These devices will merge, you wait and see..

V

[George Hallam]

i really like the sound of that :D that will add a whole new age to pirate software you will able to get anything now that will be bad :(. but one of those printers will be impressive bit out of my price range at the moment :D

[PrntRhd]

This has been out for a while, it has used primarily for the creation of CAD-created prototypes for items to be manufactured.

Unfortunately for the writers of the story's conclusions, the economics of making the same item thousands of times by stamping or mold-injection is much more cost effective than making thousands of the same items individually with one of these 3D printers. Consumers do not have the skill or desire to make all their own manufactured goods with one of these machines, so the "disruptive economics" of such printers is limited and most likely an overstatement.

There are also issues with the durability of items made with these printers, plastic frames are uniform in composition, but metal parts such gears used in vehicles have heat treated wear surfaces required for durability and are made of specific alloys specified by the engineers. Again, consumers are generally not engineers.

[Variable]

PrntRhd:

Your belief that 3D printers are for prototypes is incorrect but, probably because of terminology and my lack of links. An article I read, said, that all these technologies should simply be referred to as 3D printing. So I stuck with that and gave a few neat examples.

The term "3D printing" has been out for awhile, so has the term "computers." It is a broad term that encompasses many technologies. I should have included more links but, I assumed people would do their own digging.

As for the case that people won't use them if they were cheap enough, I disagree completely. The same dated concepts you refer to are what people said when home built PC's were first sold to consumers; it was only for geeks and few people would ever build their own computer, let alone use them at home. The exact same thing was said of businesses bringing the printing of marketing sales stuff in house. Then color laser printers got cheaper and photoshop and the like became something people learned to use. What you think is too difficult, the next generation will see as the norm.

The other terms being used for this type of technology are "direct manufacturing" or "rapid manufacturing." These are not prototype machines, they are machines that manufacture end products. There is no consumer level device of this type yet. They are very expensive still, especially ones that work with metal. There are machines that can make all types of plastic objects now for less than 35 grand however, whether they be a prototype or a product. The issue is one of cost of production.

Here is one company that has both a plastic and metal machines. There are several others if you look around. The military and Boeing already use them to make parts, not prototypes, but parts. So do many Formula One teams. My post was meant to start people looking into the tech to find what the future may hold.

http://www.stratasys.com/systems.aspx

[Ajmukon]

these technologies are large and BIG for SMALL parts.
even when they are shrunk to more managable sizes, they would ONLY be able to MAKE PARTS. NOT a compleate object. Nore would these 3d Printers be able to make complex equipment (Keyboards, Computers, Moters) with INTERNAL MOVING PARTS or OBJECTS THAT are made from different materials (sucha as a Motherboard, Car (it might be able to make the individual components, but not a compleate WORKING car).

these indivuidual components:
gears, pipes, shafts, Any solid metal parts that are "stamped"

THE ARTICLE IS UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT 3D PRINTERS CAN MAKE A WORKING KEYBOARD JUST BY A DIAGRAM OR FILE
which i do not think is posible for this technology

-just my $.02

[PrntRhd]

Variable,
I was commenting on the first link's conclusions. I still disagree that it will be a disruptive technology any more than CNC machines were disruptive.
We can disagree on this if you wish.

I did not say the devices do not work to make small production items.

[mjc]

ajmukin...just because the machines will only make parts doesn't mean you can't then assemble those parts into the whole...sort of the ultimate 'kit built' system.

Now all we need to do is perfect energy to matter conversion and...;)

[Variable]

Ajmukon
That's true you cannot build a car with one of these, but you can build things with moving parts. Very inticate ones too, thats what they are best at. The Arcam ones allow you to make things that would be useful, like a say a titanium alloy carburator or a motorcycle fender or gas tank. That might be cool. How about a pair of shoes or a new car dashboard with a built in big gulp cup holder with a SLS machine from 3D Systems? Or a suit of full plate armor in black for your son, coolest Halloween costume ever.

Here are some kooky people using two types of tech to build ABS plastic furniture. They take a 3d modeling pen and draw out a design in the air and then print out chairs and tables. I thought it was kind of neat. Dunno if I would buy them though...

http://www.frontdesign.se/sketchfurniture/

[saphalline]

If one thing leads to another, this could help the slow evolution of computer interaction! This keyboard and mouse thing is getting old! :D

There are already new concepts in the works - if designing 3D objects leads to 3D interfaces... That would be cool! :cool: