A 3D PRINTED SPACESHIP ON THE SCALE OF A HUMAN HAIR? HELLO NANOSCRIBE 3D PRINTER - 3D printing has become one of the most exciting and talked about technologies of 2013. The ability for the masses to make almost any object not only fuels imagination but challenges modern consumerism and its supply chain. While some enthusiasts continue to showcase the technology by producing toys, cars, and even guns in their garage, others look to 3D printing to manufacture the next generation of electronics, whether for mobile applications, medical devices, or wearable computing. Regardless of the application, the challenge in manufacturing at the submicron scale is fabricating structures in a precise, rapid, and consistent fashion. Even though 3D printing is just getting started, the race for the fastest, most capable printer is already on. Last year, a group of researchers at the Vienna University of Technology in Austria refined a 3D printing technique that allowed the construction of sophisticated structures (an F1 racecar and a cathedral) smaller than dust mites in about 4 minutes. Now, a company called Nanoscribe GmbH that emerged from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany has made a 3D printer called the Photonic Professional GT which can produce detailed structures on a similar scale but faster. In fact, the technique was able to produce a spaceship (from the Wing Commander line of video games) from a CAD file that measures 125µm x 81µm x 26.8µm (on the order of the width of a human hair) in less than 50 seconds. (via A 3D Printed Spaceship On The Scale Of A Human Hair? Hello Nanoscribe 3D Printer | Singularity Hub)

A 3D PRINTED SPACESHIP ON THE SCALE OF A HUMAN HAIR? HELLO NANOSCRIBE 3D PRINTER

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3D printing has become one of the most exciting and talked about technologies of 2013. The ability for the masses to make almost any object not only fuels imagination but challenges modern consumerism and its supply chain. While some enthusiasts continue to showcase the technology by producing toys, cars, and even guns in their garage, others look to 3D printing to manufacture the next generation of electronics, whether for mobile applications, medical devices, or wearable computing.

Regardless of the application, the challenge in manufacturing at the submicron scale is fabricating structures in a precise, rapid, and consistent fashion. Even though 3D printing is just getting started, the race for the fastest, most capable printer is already on.

Last year, a group of researchers at the Vienna University of Technology in Austria refined a 3D printing technique that allowed the construction of sophisticated structures (an F1 racecar and a cathedral) smaller than dust mites in about 4 minutes. Now, a company called Nanoscribe GmbH that emerged from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany has made a 3D printer called the Photonic Professional GT which can produce detailed structures on a similar scale but faster.

In fact, the technique was able to produce a spaceship (from the Wing Commander line of video games) from a CAD file that measures 125µm x 81µm x 26.8µm (on the order of the width of a human hair) in less than 50 seconds. (via A 3D Printed Spaceship On The Scale Of A Human Hair? Hello Nanoscribe 3D Printer | Singularity Hub)

(via republicofideas)

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MakerBot unveils ‘Digitizer’ 3D scanner (Wired UK) At the SxSW conference in Austin, Texas, 3D printer manufacturer MakerBot has announced a 3D scanner called the “Digitizer”. The desktop-sized device uses cameras and lasers to scan objects and create digital files that can then be used to replicate the object exactly using one of MakerBot’s digital printers. MakerBot founder Bre Pettis said: “The MakerBot Digitizer is an innovative new way to take a physical object, scan it, and create a digital file — without any design, CAD software or 3D modelling experience at all — and then print the item again and again on a MakerBot Replicator 2 or 2X Desktop 3D Printer.”

MakerBot unveils ‘Digitizer’ 3D scanner (Wired UK)

At the SxSW conference in Austin, Texas, 3D printer manufacturer MakerBot has announced a 3D scanner called the “Digitizer”.

The desktop-sized device uses cameras and lasers to scan objects and create digital files that can then be used to replicate the object exactly using one of MakerBot’s digital printers.

MakerBot founder Bre Pettis said: “The MakerBot Digitizer is an innovative new way to take a physical object, scan it, and create a digital file — without any design, CAD software or 3D modelling experience at all — and then print the item again and again on a MakerBot Replicator 2 or 2X Desktop 3D Printer.”

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Giant Nasa spider robots could 3D print lunar base using microwaves (Wired UK) The first lunar base on the Moon may not be built by human hands, but rather by a giant spider-like robot built by Nasa that can bind the dusty soil into giant bubble structures where astronauts can live, conduct experiments, relax or perhaps even cultivate crops. We’ve already covered the European Space Agency’s (ESA) work with architecture firm Foster + Partners on a proposal for a 3D-printed moonbase, and there are similarities between the two bases — both would be located in Shackleton Crater near the Moon’s south pole, where sunlight (and thus solar energy) is nearly constant due to the Moon’s inclination on the crater’s rim, and both use lunar dust as their basic building material. However, while the ESA’s building would be constructed almost exactly the same way a house would be 3D-printed on Earth, this latest wheeze — SinterHab — uses Nasa technology for something a fair bit more ambitious.

Giant Nasa spider robots could 3D print lunar base using microwaves (Wired UK)

The first lunar base on the Moon may not be built by human hands, but rather by a giant spider-like robot built by Nasa that can bind the dusty soil into giant bubble structures where astronauts can live, conduct experiments, relax or perhaps even cultivate crops.

We’ve already covered the European Space Agency’s (ESA) work with architecture firm Foster + Partners on a proposal for a 3D-printed moonbase, and there are similarities between the two bases — both would be located in Shackleton Crater near the Moon’s south pole, where sunlight (and thus solar energy) is nearly constant due to the Moon’s inclination on the crater’s rim, and both use lunar dust as their basic building material. However, while the ESA’s building would be constructed almost exactly the same way a house would be 3D-printed on Earth, this latest wheeze — SinterHab — uses Nasa technology for something a fair bit more ambitious.

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4D Printing: Self-Assembly Brings 3D Printing to the next level

The next big thing may very well be 4D printing, a new technology from Skylar Tibbits, an architect, designer and computer scientist. The core concept behind this new technology is self assembly. It may sound strange and far out, but it’s actually quite simple. 4D printing is being billed as a process where synthetic objects can change and adapt themselves to the environment. In a recent TED interview, Tibbits compared the process of 4D printing to the process of natural adaptation:

Natural systems obviously have this built in — the ability to have a desire. Plants, for example, generally have the desire to grow towards light and they generate energy from the translation of photosynthesis, carbon dioxide to oxygen, and so on. This is extremely difficult to build into synthetic systems — the ability to “want” or need something and know how to change itself in order to acquire it, or the ability to generate its own energy source. If we combine the processes that natural systems offer intrinsically (genetic instructions, energy production, error correction) with those artificial or synthetic (programmability for design and scaffold, structure, mechanisms) we can potentially have extremely large-scale quasi-biological and quasi-synthetic architectural organisms.

(via 4D Printing Is The Future Of 3D Printing And It’s Already Here | WebProNews)lf

(via joshbyard)

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How An Army Of MakerBot Replicators Will 3D-Print The Future

Ever seen a 3D printer in action? If not, here’s your chance.

At CES 2013, MakerBot showed off its new Replicator 2X, an “experimental” version of the company’s landmark 3D printer that offers some twists on the Replicator 2’s design. The 2X features dual extruding nozzles that allow printing in multiple colors, and it uses thermoplastic ABS instead of the material known as PLA, which tends to be the preferred material for those new to the 3D printing world.

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Blogging the Singularity » 10 fascinating facts about 3D printing

3D printing, or additive manufacturing, is quickly becoming mainstream and we’re are rubbing our hands with glee at the prospect. But what’s so exciting about a technology, which some say has the potential to be as important as the Internet?

1. Well, for a start, it can print cars! The makers of the latest Bond movie, Skyfall, got German 3D printing company, Voxeljet, to knock up three 1:3 scale models of 007′s precious Aston Martin DB5 for (gulp) destruction during filming. Never mind, though—one survived, and was later sold by Christie’s for almost £100,000.

 2. Smaller but equally as suave, the world’s very first Nokia Lumia 820 shell was printed by 3D printing wizards, Makerbot just last week. The specs had been available for less than a day when the guys did what they do best, 3D magic.

via 10 fascinating facts about 3D printing – Nokia Conversations : the official Nokia blog.

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Dutch architect to build house with 3D printer A Dutch architect has designed a house “with no beginning or end” to be built using the world’s largest 3D printer, harnessing technology that may one day be used to print houses on the moon.Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-01-dutch-architect-house-3d-printer.html#jCp

Dutch architect to build house with 3D printer

A Dutch architect has designed a house “with no beginning or end” to be built using the world’s largest 3D printer, harnessing technology that may one day be used to print houses on the moon.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-01-dutch-architect-house-3d-printer.html#jCp

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Filabot Turns Your Plastic Junk Into Material for 3-D Printers | Wired Design | Wired.com For desktop 3-D printers to work, they need some kind of material to work with. Most contemporary printers use plastic filament, available in spools from various suppliers. Filabot reduces the need for that stuff. Instead you can grind up household plastics or even past projects to make new lines. Think a meat grinder on top of a pasta maker and you get the general idea. “Plastic extrusion is nothing new,” says McNaney in the Kickstarter pitch video. “The only thing we’d like to do is adapt it to the desktop environment.” The need for something like this is enormous. The whole point of 3-D printing is that you can do rapid prototyping and customization of parts.

Filabot Turns Your Plastic Junk Into Material for 3-D Printers | Wired Design | Wired.com

For desktop 3-D printers to work, they need some kind of material to work with. Most contemporary printers use plastic filament, available in spools from various suppliers. Filabot reduces the need for that stuff. Instead you can grind up household plastics or even past projects to make new lines.

Think a meat grinder on top of a pasta maker and you get the general idea. “Plastic extrusion is nothing new,” says McNaney in the Kickstarter pitch video. “The only thing we’d like to do is adapt it to the desktop environment.”

The need for something like this is enormous. The whole point of 3-D printing is that you can do rapid prototyping and customization of parts.

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Lasers, 3-D Printers, And Robots: The New Shop Class | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation

DARPA is funding the creation of 1,000 Makerspaces in high schools across the country to get American kids interested in making things again.

“We have to move from an engine of bureaucracy to an engine of innovation,” said Undersecretary of Education Martha Kanter, announcing this week that at least 1,000 high schools around the country will be opening up Makerspaces over the next four years.

What is a Makerspace, you ask? “It’s a place where you get to do things,” Dale Dougherty, founder of O’Reilly Media’s Make magazine and creator of Maker Faire, told Co.Exist. “I think it’s sort of a mashup of a shop class, a computer lab, an art class, and maybe a bio lab.”

It’s sort of a mashup of a shop class, a computer lab, an art class, and maybe a bio lab.

The national Makerspace project is the brainchild of Dougherty and Saul Griffith, many-tentacled inventor and founder of Squid Labs, Instructables, and Howtoons, and is sponsored by a grant from DARPA MENTOR, the defense department’s research arm related to advancing manufacturing and reviving the nation’s strategic interest in making things; the organization is already sponsoring Makerspaces for adults, so this is a logical extension. There’s some pretty heavy national goals riding on this initiative: getting American kids excited about science, math and technology again and fostering a spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship. “I feel we’re at this point in time where people are looking for some substantial change in education,” says Dale. “And I want to be that new thing.”

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Direct 3D-printing of nanostructures by electrostatic autofocussing of ink nanodroplets via  futurescope: nextbigfuture: ETH-Zurich researchers have developed an economic, fast and reproducible method for printing tiny structures in a way similar to printing art by an ink-jet printer. Now they are planning a spin-off. [read more @nextbigfuture@33rdsquare] [ETH Zürich]

Direct 3D-printing of nanostructures by electrostatic autofocussing of ink nanodroplets

via  futurescope: nextbigfuture:

ETH-Zurich researchers have developed an economic, fast and reproducible method for printing tiny structures in a way similar to printing art by an ink-jet printer. Now they are planning a spin-off.

[read more @nextbigfuture@33rdsquare] [ETH Zürich]

(via futurescope)

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Can 3D Printing Make Everything We Need? - PSFK This article titled “Is 3D printing the key to Utopia?” was written by John Naughton, for The Observer on Saturday 12th May 2012 23.05 UTC You know the problem: the dishwasher that has cleaned your dishes faithfully for 15 years suddenly stops working. You call out a repairman who identifies the problem: the filter unit has finally given up the ghost. “Ah,” you say, much relieved, “can you fit a new one?” At which point the chap shakes his head sorrowfully. No can do, he explains. The company that made the machine was taken over years ago by another outfit and they no longer supply spares for your ancient machine. Up until now, this story would have had a predictable ending in which you sorrowfully junked your trusty dishwasher and bought a new one. But there’s an emerging technology that could change that. It’s called three-dimensional printing. Eh? Surely printing is intrinsically a two-dimensional process, involving the squirting of coloured dyes on to flat sheets of paper? And indeed it is, so perhaps the use of the word “printing” in 3D printing is a bit naughty – which is why men in suits tends to call it “additive manufacturing”. But there is still a strong metaphorical correspondence between the 2D and 3D processes. In the former, we take an electronic representation of a document on a computer screen and output a replica of that on to paper; in the latter, we take a three-dimensional computer model of something and use printing-like technology to create a three-dimensional version of it in plastic or other materials. It works like this: a designer uses computer-assisted design software to create a three-dimensional model of an object. Another program then “slices” the model into thin sections and instructs the “printer” to lay down an exact replica of the section in plastic (or other types of) granules which are then fused to become a solid layer. The process is repeated, slice by slice, until the entire object has been made. via PSFK:

Can 3D Printing Make Everything We Need? - PSFK

This article titled “Is 3D printing the key to Utopia?” was written by John Naughton, for The Observer on Saturday 12th May 2012 23.05 UTC

You know the problem: the dishwasher that has cleaned your dishes faithfully for 15 years suddenly stops working. You call out a repairman who identifies the problem: the filter unit has finally given up the ghost. “Ah,” you say, much relieved, “can you fit a new one?” At which point the chap shakes his head sorrowfully. No can do, he explains. The company that made the machine was taken over years ago by another outfit and they no longer supply spares for your ancient machine.

Up until now, this story would have had a predictable ending in which you sorrowfully junked your trusty dishwasher and bought a new one. But there’s an emerging technology that could change that. It’s called three-dimensional printing.

Eh? Surely printing is intrinsically a two-dimensional process, involving the squirting of coloured dyes on to flat sheets of paper? And indeed it is, so perhaps the use of the word “printing” in 3D printing is a bit naughty – which is why men in suits tends to call it “additive manufacturing”. But there is still a strong metaphorical correspondence between the 2D and 3D processes. In the former, we take an electronic representation of a document on a computer screen and output a replica of that on to paper; in the latter, we take a three-dimensional computer model of something and use printing-like technology to create a three-dimensional version of it in plastic or other materials.

It works like this: a designer uses computer-assisted design software to create a three-dimensional model of an object. Another program then “slices” the model into thin sections and instructs the “printer” to lay down an exact replica of the section in plastic (or other types of) granules which are then fused to become a solid layer. The process is repeated, slice by slice, until the entire object has been made.

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Muscle tissue produced with a 3D printer. San Diego startup Organovo has developed a bioprinting technique which allows it to create human tissue starting with any cell source. The printer deposits lines of cells closely together, where they are allowed to grow and interconnect until they form working muscle tissue. Unlike other experimental approaches that utilize ink-jet printers to deposit cells, Organovo’s technology enables cells to interact with each other the way they do in the body. How? They are packed tightly together, sandwiched, if you will, and incubated. This prompts them to cleave to each other and interchange chemical signals. When printed, the cells are grouped together in a paste that helps them grow, migrate, and align themselves properly. In the case of muscle cells, the way they orient themselves in the same direction allow for contractions of the tissue. The company hopes to one day build entire organs for transplants. Because tissue is able to be built from a patient’s own cells, the risk of rejection would be very low. via 8bitfuture:

Muscle tissue produced with a 3D printer.

San Diego startup Organovo has developed a bioprinting technique which allows it to create human tissue starting with any cell source. The printer deposits lines of cells closely together, where they are allowed to grow and interconnect until they form working muscle tissue.

Unlike other experimental approaches that utilize ink-jet printers to deposit cells, Organovo’s technology enables cells to interact with each other the way they do in the body. How? They are packed tightly together, sandwiched, if you will, and incubated. This prompts them to cleave to each other and interchange chemical signals. When printed, the cells are grouped together in a paste that helps them grow, migrate, and align themselves properly. In the case of muscle cells, the way they orient themselves in the same direction allow for contractions of the tissue.

The company hopes to one day build entire organs for transplants. Because tissue is able to be built from a patient’s own cells, the risk of rejection would be very low.

via 8bitfuture:

(via 8bitfuture)

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Elderly Woman Receives First 3-D Printed Titanium Replacement Jaw: The method was developed by the BIOMED Research Institute at Hasselt University in Belgium and creates the replacement from layer-upon-layer of titanium dust. A computer-controlled laser ensures that the correct molecules are fused together. The technique, the first to replace the entire jaw, takes mere hours to make the substitute choppers, with other options taking several days. While the final product weighs a bit more than its natural predecessor, but that didn’t stop the patient returning close to “normal speaking and swallowing” the day after the operation. via joshbyard: via 83-year old woman gets replacement 3D printed titanium jaw, makes her the coolest member of the bridge club — Engadget

Elderly Woman Receives First 3-D Printed Titanium Replacement Jaw:

The method was developed by the BIOMED Research Institute at Hasselt University in Belgium and creates the replacement from layer-upon-layer of titanium dust. A computer-controlled laser ensures that the correct molecules are fused together. The technique, the first to replace the entire jaw, takes mere hours to make the substitute choppers, with other options taking several days. While the final product weighs a bit more than its natural predecessor, but that didn’t stop the patient returning close to “normal speaking and swallowing” the day after the operation.

via joshbyard: via 83-year old woman gets replacement 3D printed titanium jaw, makes her the coolest member of the bridge club — Engadget

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Mineways turns your Minecraft creations into something you can hold | The Verge

New software called Mineways enables you to export your Minecraft creations into models and texture maps ready to send to a 3D printer. To do this, you’ll need an exported world map from Minecraft with your favorite design inside. Using a birds-eye view, you can then select the area you want to print, save it as a model, and then send it over to a 3D printing service like Shapeways. 

thisistheverge:

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