Jul 26
At some point, the world of 3D printing had to fold back onto itself, leaving us all slack-jawed and wondering when 3D printers will start printing things for printers themselves? That moment is now.
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Jul 26
3D printing just keeps getting better and better, and while the printers themselves seem to be gradually overcoming their resolution and speed limitations, materials continue to be the bigger challenge. Now, there is yet another way to enhance 3D printing, and it is awesome.
What you’re looking at here wasn’t actually printed on a 3D printer though – these gold-plated brass pieces are cast from 3D-printed models. The guys at Shapeways are now offering this material for outputting your digital models, and it’s quite spectacular.
The process involves printing a wax model with a hi-res 3D printer. Then the wax is placed into plaster to form a mold, after which the wax is melted out. This plaster mold is then used for casting the 3D model out of molten brass. Once cooled, the piece is polished, and then electroplated with nickel and then 24K gold. So while the latter stages are traditional jewelry-making processes, it’s the first step that creates truly innovative forms.
Sure, it would be cool if you could 3D print directly with precious metals, but we’re not there yet. For now, this process results in impressively detailed and shiny models which would be nearly impossible to envision being hand-sculpted in wax, resulting in unique works of art and jewelry.
Shapeways’ gold-plated brass material sells for $35(USD) per cubic centimeter, and can currently produce objects measuring up to 100mm x 100mm x 30mm.
[via SolidSmack]
Jul 26
Stick It To The Military-Industrial Ink Complex By 3D Printing Your Own Printer Cartridges
Posted in: Today's Chili
This has to be one of the most uniquely disruptive uses of 3D printing I’ve seen: an ink refill company has successfully 3D-printed a Kodak ink cartridge, refilled it, and printed with it. Using a Makerbot Replicator 2 and some PLA, the company created an exact replica of the Kodak cartridge casing and stuck in an ink bladder of their own devising, thereby creating a sort of Frankenstein’s monster of ink delivery.
To be clear the company, InkFactory, is fooling no one here. The ability to print an outer casing for an inkjet printer cartridge is fairly limited and is useful only if you have a nice supply of bladders or you break your cartridge. This holds doubly true for cartridges with chips and delivery systems built-in. Until we can make high-resolution, soft prints using a 3D printer, there is no real way to make an entire cartridge on a home printer and there is almost no way to replace the cartridges that have proprietary circuitry built in.
That said, the ease with which they replicated the casing and placed their own ink in is heartening. The fact that you can now measure, design, and build a proprietary object should strike fear in the hearts of ink merchants everywhere and there are plenty of people out there who would, in a fairly unscrupulous manner, supply the proper ink bladders to home makers who simply want the nozzle and ink container and will make their own PLA or ABS cartridges.
As a proof of concept it’s great. It’s a perfect storm of righteous indignation – ink refillers stick it to public enemy #1, ink salesmen, by using the tools of mass production. If Marx had a tech blog, he’d be all over this. It’s a cute, if sensational, way to get the word out about ink replacement and I’m sure it will send someone at what’s left of Kodak scrambling to type up a cease and desist letter.
Jul 26
While manual transmissions are a lot better than automatics, many people still don’t know how to drive them. However, whether you’re a youngster with a learning permit, or are just starting out on a manual transmission, Ford wants to make the learning process a bit easier, with a new shift knob that tells you when to shift based on haptic feedback.
Zach Nelson, a junior engineer at Ford, came up with an idea to help newbies learning how to use a manual transmission. By tearing apart an Xbox 360 controller and using its vibrating motors, Nelson 3D-printed a custom shift knob and placed the motors inside in order to give drivers haptic feedback. Whenever the driver needs to shift, the shift knob will vibrate.
Nelson installed the shift knob in a Ford Mustang by tapping into the car’s diagnostic system and connected the shift knob to the car using an Arduino controller, an Android tablet, and a Bluetooth receiver. From there, Nelson can program the knob to vibrate at different times, like vibrating as the engine redlines, or vibrate at a more fuel-efficient rev point.
The prototype shift knob that Nelson built also includes a seven-segment display on top to show what gear the car is currently in. Nelson says that was merely just a fun thing he added, since drivers probably won’t look down anyway to see what gear they’re in, as the instrument panel already displays this information.
Of course, it’s not necessarily when to shift that’s the hard part in learning a manual transmission — that was actually the easiest for me. I had the most trouble with getting out of neutral and going to first gear, and I would always stall the car at stop lights, which was pretty embarrassing. If they can discover a learning-assist tool for that, then I’ll be good.
VIA: Wired
Ford 3D-printed shift knob provides haptic feedback for manual newbies is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jul 26
Say you have a 3D-printed item you’re selling. Maybe you slap a barcode on it that identifies what it is, where it came from, and how much it costs. However, Microsoft has developed a new technology called InfaStructs that offers a better alternative. With it, you could embed information directly inside of an item.
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Jul 26
In this touchscreen, push-button, mouse-click world, there’s an undeniable mechanical satisfaction about driving a manual transmission. A perfectly rev-matched downshift proves to the world that you’re the master of the machine, not vice-versa. But if you’re a stick shift novice raised on video games, how will you teach your button-mashing hands to finesse a gear lever? An inventive Ford engineer has your answer in a smart shift knob that tells you when to shift.
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Jul 25
Home 3D printers – particularly FDM, Makerbot-like devices – are still in their infancy and, as such, are untested when it comes to safety. That’s why some researchers at the Built Environment Research Group at the Illinois Institute of Technology decided to test a popular model for ultrafine particle emissions, a measure of how much junk these things emit while in use.
The result? PLA, a starch-based material, emitted 20 billion particles per minute while ABS, a plastic, emitted 200 billion. This is similar in scale to using a gas stove, lighting a cigarette, or burning a scented candle. In short, it’s a significant bit of potential pollution in an unfiltered environment but it’s nothing we don’t do to ourselves on a daily basis already.
The study didn’t take into account what materials were being expelled, which makes it a bit more troubling. For example, according to PhysOrg, ABS is known to be toxic in lab rats but PLA, oddly enough, is used in nanotechnology for the delivery of medicines.
What’s the takeaway? Ventilate your 3D printer.
Because most of these devices are currently sold as standalone devices without any exhaust ventilation or filtration accessories, results herein suggest caution should be used when operating in inadequately ventilated or unfiltered indoor environments. Additionally, these results suggest that more controlled experiments should be conducted to more fundamentally evaluate particle emissions from a wider arrange of desktop 3D printers.
Obviously these devices are designed for home and office use and probably will never end up under a lab-grade ventilation hood. However, given the various processes used to make 3D objects, it’s important that this research is done to reduce the effects of UFPs on children who may be using these in schools as well as the teachers, designers, and makers who use them on a daily basis.
You can read the entire paper here or just turn on a fan.
via Physorg
Jul 24
As the days of affordable, technologically sound at-home 3D printing loom ever nearer, creative minds around the world have been dripping with the wondrous possibilities these plastic-spewing, magic machines hold. Unfortunately, magic or not, the laws of physics still apply—and your liquid plastic dreams probably don’t take into account the fact that your models are going to have to, you know, balance. The authors of Make It Stand want to take care of that for you, and they’ll take whatever monstrous contortions you toss at them and turn your rendering into something structurally sound.
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Jul 24
Bukito, A Portable 3D Printer With A ~$600 Price-Tag, Gets Funded On Kickstarter
Posted in: Today's Chili
3D printers generally have a pretty large footprint, so it was likely only a matter of time before someone decided to work on shrinking one to the point of portability. Just, well, because. Meet Bukito: a “take it everywhere” extruder 3D printer which has already doubled its original Kickstarter funding goal of $54,000 with 10 days still left to run on the campaign.
The printer has a handle up top for carrying it from place to place, and can apparently continue printing even when being held upside down or at an angle, although that’s not entirely advised by its creators. Weight is sub-2kg, with aluminum used for the frame. And just in case you had any doubts about its portability the creators have shot a video showing the printer being hoisted aloft by an octocopter while still printing.
Being small enough to be portable, the printer obviously isn’t going to be spitting out massive objects. Build volume is 125 x 150 x 125mm, with a nozzle size of 0.5mm. The metal extruder design can apparently handle the following materials: PLA, ABS, MABS, Nylon, Laywood (although they say you may need a different platform to handle some, which they will be including with the shipping product). Print resolution is 50 microns on the X/Y axis and 100 microns on the Z.
What’s the point of a portable 3D printer? We’re not entirely sure that’s massive mileage in the concept but of course it does mean you can more easily take the printer round to friends, your work, school and so on. Also there’s the shrunken price factor to consider, which may be what’s most attracting backers here. Creator Deezmaker’s early bird offer of 75 pledges of $549 to bag a Bukito have all gone, but there are still a few pledge options at $599 (or more).
A circa $600 price-tag means the Bukito is a lot cheaper than high end 3D printers like the Makerbot Replicator 2.0, which costs circa $2,199 (but will of course turn out a far superior end product), and a little more expensive than Pirate3D’s Buccaneer ‘affordable’ 3D printer, which has a price-tag of around $350.
As well as its relatively low price, the Bukito’s apparently rugged portability may be attracting interest — since, with 3D printing still a nascent tech, having a carry-handle on top gives the impression that it’s robust enough to handle a bit of user misuse/trial and error too.
Jul 24
3D printing is becoming all the rage now, but so was smoking back in the roaring 20s, both of which are harmful to you, according to a new study by the Illinois Institute of Technology. Researchers have discovered that 3D printers can emit harmful ultrafine particles into the air, and they compare that to the harm of smoking a cigarette indoors.
If you’re wanting to get technical about it, the researchers revealed that emission rates of these particles were “high,” and they ranged from 20 billion particles per minute for a 3D printer utilizing a lower temperature for melting the plastic, to around 200 billion particles per minute utilizing a higher temperature. The researchers say this is comparable to cooking on a gas or electric stove, burning scented candles, operating laser printers, and even lighting a cigarette.
Of course, there’s also the factor of the toxicity of the materials used in 3D printing, such as the ABS plastic that most commercially-available 3D printers use. Obviously, it’s not something that humans can digest, and we would be surprised if there wasn’t harmful chemicals in the plastic.
Many of you may be asking how harmful is this on your body exactly, and the researchers say that the worst case scenario is obviously death, but asthma-like symptoms could form, with the potential for cardiac arrest and even a stroke, since the particles can get lodged in your lungs and brain, with the power to attract other harmful chemicals over time.
Of course, 3D printers are used all the time in factories and such, but they most-likely have good ventilation systems and the workers are probably wearing protective equipment. With 3D printers available for the home, there are most likely tons of users who aren’t aware of the emissions and may be setting themselves up for long-term trouble.
VIA: Phys.Org
3D printers shown to expel harmful particles, not healthy for home use is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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