3D Printing a World of Design

http://futurismic.com/2009/08/26/3d-printing-a-world-of-design/

"It’s 2017. I go in to the hairdresser to get dolled up for a night out. I bring a sample of the pale blue color of the dress I’m going to print for tonight and one of the taupe shoes I’ve already made this morning. The hairdresser uses a hand-held machine to scan my samples and my scalp, and then she sends a patented design for a hair band only available through her salon to the 3D printer in the back. Twenty minutes later, just as she’s finishing with her blow dryer, one of her assistants brings the hair band, which fits and looks perfect. After my night out, the hair band, shoes, and dress all go into the recycler to be sorted into raw material for my wardrobe the next night out.

It’s 2019 ..."

Plastic, Sugar, Metal and now Paper .... what next?

250,000 Metal Droplets Per Second

Demo of ProMetal 3D Printing from Ex One

3D Printing in Metal! Surely that is not possible?

3D printing can create functional metal parts printed directly from CAD.

[snip] The ProMetal three dimensional printing process is an accurate, flexible, and reliable tool that can create extremely intricate metal tools, workpieces and molds. In many cases, ProMetal is capable of producing components that would be impossible to produce by any other means.

ExOne holds patents on 3D Printing in Metal

[snip] As I write this, I'm making things mostly by direct-metal printing: there's a machine that takes a CAD file specifying a 3D object, and builds the object, physically, as metal. If this sounds like science fiction to you, well it might.

I don't (yet) have this machine on my desk, I just rent time on it. The process that I use is proprietary to Ex One, and they do the printing. What follows is very much a layman's explanation of how it works -- for more technical information, please visit Ex One's Prometal site. (Some information about other types of 3D printing is here.)

To start with, the design is laid down, one layer at a time, in stainless-steel powder held in place by a laser-activated binder. You can see the layering on the finished pieces, it is the source of the characteristic texture of my work. Each layer is .004" to .007" thick.

The steel granules are so fine that they feel like very heavy, cool flour. During the build the extra unbound powder supports the piece, so no extra structure is needed to handle undercuts. The powder is very flowable, it's not caky like cornstarch, so removing this extra supporting powder from the finished model is quite easy. It slides off with a little shake and a light brush, and it can be poured out of interior spaces.

After the whole model is built up, and the extra powder is shaken off, the piece goes into an oven, where heat drives off the binder and fuses the steel powder. There's just enough heat to make the granules weld together where they touch, without collapsing the entire piece into a puddle. This produces a porous steel part that's about 60% dense, like the one at left.

This "green" material is matte gray, feels like sandstone, and won't take a polish. It is soft enough to cut quickly with a hacksaw, but can't quite be dented with a fingernail. It's considerably lighter than steel, which is not surprising since it's 40% air.

An artist exploring math and science in sculpture using 3D Printing in a variety of media

Objet shows Printed Objects

Amazing 3D 'printed' objects from ObJet ... but Objet are really going to have to work on improved communications in the first part of this video. I failed to count how many times the presenter explained what was going on while managing to explain nothing at all!

MCOR 3D Printers print in 3D with 2D Paper

Bruce Sterling

Utter genius. Stick with it. Can 3D Printing save us?

Objects are print-outs!

[snip] ... the "objects are print-outs" line stuck with me. It encapsulates not just an attitude towards material possessions, but--in one pithy phrase--one possible shape of the next economy. Take a design for a simple product--an engine part, for example, or a piece of silverware, and feed it into a computer. Press "print." Out pops (for a sufficiently wide definition of "pops") a physical duplicate, made out of materials plastic, ceramic, metal -- even sugar. Press "print" again, and out comes another copy--or feed in a new design, for the next necessary object.

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/jamais-cascio/open-future/material-issue

3D Printing - The Next File Sharing?

[snip] the future will see file-sharing networks trade designs for (possibly copyrighted) products. Make a bedside lamp, flyswatter, pair of sandals, plastic wine glass or a coat hook, rather than buying one. The makers say that the next version will even be able to make its own electronic circuitry.

Pirate Bay founder labels 3D printers "the future of sharing"

Fab @ Home Video

Now you can buy relatively cheap 'kits' for 3D printing. The printing process is simpler than the high end printers from ZCorp or Objet, results won't be as professional, but the fact this is possible, at this price point, is testament to the inherent simplicity of the 3D printing process and the rapid comoditization of the parts required to build a 3D printer. Watch this video, think about your application and then go buy yourself a kit and start to Fab @ Home: