We’ve all seen different kinds of iPhone cases, protectors and covers. Most users simply don’t use one at all, but for some carrying their beloved smartphone around without protection is a horrifying thought. A 3D printing house based in Amsterdam […]
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3D printing has certainly taken off in the past couple of months as we’ve seen it produce some amazing products such as designer eyewear, a bionic ear and even a kidney. But this latest feat of 3D printing is both amazing and creepy at the same time as an artist has used DNA to print 3D portraits of people.
Artist Heather Dewey-Hagborb retrieves the DNA from her subjects by stumbling onto them during her travels through a number of ways such as picking up a dropped piece of gum or discarded cigarette butt, which is then analyzed and has its DNA mined to retrieve information such as the gender, ethnicity, and eye color of the person. The DNA is then fed into a custom computer program the translates the information into a 3D model of the person’s face.
The result of the 3D printed disembodied faces isn’t an exact replica of the person, but instead, is described by Dewey-Hagborg as being more of a “family resemblance” of the actual person. Either way, we’ll be mindful of what DNA we leave out in public as we would rather not become the subject of this kind of project.
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Being stylish is of utmost importance to some of us, think “The Devil Wears Prada” and you will get what I mean. Well, the 3D printing industry might be in its infancy at this point in time, but this does not mean that no quantum leaps in progress can be made. It is encouraging to hear that the 3D printing industry does not seem to be affected by the economy as there is no slowdown at all, considering projects such as the 3Doodle pen and 3D photo booths springing to life, but when will we see innovative 3D printed consumer products finally catch up? Marc Levinson, the chief executive officer of Protos Eyewear, has come up with a slew of 3D printed eyewear that is not only consumer grade, but will boast of, in their own words, “striking designs that are impossible to make through standard manufacturing methods.”
It seems that 3D printing was once considered to be a technique that was used primarily for prototyping, although more and more companies are experiencing a paradigm shift, hoping that 3D printing of goods can be sold directly to the market. Levinson’s 3D printed frames for San Francisco-based Protos Eyewear is a classic example of manufacturing process informing aesthetics.
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We talked about the controversial practice of 3D printing guns in the past, only the gun wasn’t entirely 3D-printed in that case, it was only a component for an AR-15 rifle. Now, a company called Defense Distributed has now test fired the world’s first fully 3D-printed gun. The weapon in question is a single shot pistol.
The only components of the pistol not 3D printed are the firing pin and the bullet itself. The firing pin used in the weapon is a small nail.
The gun was test fired using a “remote triggering system” consisting of a long piece of string. It fired a .380 caliber pistol cartridge successfully – one time. The second test firing reportedly resulted in a misfire. The people behind the 3D printed pistol project also test fired the weapon using a larger 5.7 x 28 rifle cartridge. The weapon exploded when the larger caliber rifle cartridge was used. Check out the video below to see the gun in action.
[via Forbes]
Now that we have confirmation that the Liberator 3D-printed pistol can be fired without destroying the body, let’s address what this means for 3D printed weapons and, presumably, homemade weapons in general.
Does the pistol work? Yes, it can be fired at least once without damage to the body of the gun or the person at the trigger. Andy Greenberg at Forbes has seen the gun fire multiple times and the video above shows one shot.
Is it a real pistol? No. This is more of a zip gun than a pistol. Zip guns were improvised firearms made of tubes, rubber bands, and nails. Kids fool-hardy enough to shoot one (this cohort included my own father who showed me how to make them) were promised a second of hair-raising and potentially deadly excitement when they made zip guns out of pipe and rubber. To fire one, you fitted the cartridge into the pipe and pulled back on the nail attached to the rubber band. If it hit the charger properly the bullet would fire. A similar thing is happening here: a spring-loaded nail is hitting a cartridge.
The barrel of the gun is threaded but I wouldn’t expect this weapon to be very accurate. Think of this gun as a controlled explosion generator. It uses a very small .380 caliber bullet which is deadly, to be sure, but quite small.
Could I print one? Yes. You can easily download the 3D-printable files from DEFCAD.org (here is a private mirror) and if you have a 3D printer you can easily print any of these parts.
The creators built this gun using the Stratasys Dimension SST 3D printer, a high-resolution printer that works similarly to the Makerbot but offers a far finer and more durable print. This printer has a layer thickness of .25mm, however, which the Makerbot can easily match.
Would I print and fire this using on my Replicator? No. I’m far too risk averse. I asked multiple 3D home printer manufactures and none would comment specifically on firearms, so there is no implicit or explicit promise of safety.
Will someone try to print it on home equipment? Yes.
Is this legal? Yes, but I’m no lawyer. It is a legal, homemade firearm and those have been made in basement workshops for most of this century. In most cases, a Federal Firearms License is mandatory to begin making or manufacturing weapons. For example, anyone building this gun would be a “Manufacturer of Destructive Devices, Ammunition for Destructive Devices or Armor Piercing Ammunition.” Anyone can apply for this license, thereby making the manufacture of this thing legal. For decades, however, the need to license was a minor barrier to entry into what would be a non-trivial process. The tools and materials necessary to build a real gun in your basement were expensive and it made economic sense to legally safeguard your home workshop. The manufacture of a 3D-printed weapon, however, is trivial, and can be built by anyone with an investment of $8,000 or so for a Stratasys printer or, for the less risk-averse, a home 3D printer that costs about $2,000.
It is also designed to comply with the Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988 because it contains a small block of steel. From the print instructions:
It is, in short, legal to make a gun and this is a gun.
Can this be stopped? No.
What’s next? The cynic would say we will soon see the first murder with a 3D-printed gun. The cynic will also say that this will cast 3D printing in an entirely new, more sinister light and could affect the home printing industry dramatically. The cynic would also expect a great deal of messy legislature to come out of this that will, depending on which side of the gun debate you fall on, “get these off the streets” or “infringe on our rights.”
A cynic would also say that the entire Defense Distributed agenda is an example of trolling that will eventually do more harm than good. The cynic would also say that a harsh government crackdown would also be equally silly.
A nuanced approach is absolutely necessary.
The non-cynical would find this to be more a proof of concept than a real manufactured weapon and say that it was bound to happen eventually. 3D printing has made manufacturing trivial. This is a logical evolution of an entrenched industry and a centuries-old product. Gunsmithing is not a new hobby. However, it just got much easier.
While 3D printers having been for sale for quite a while now, it seems they’re gaining enough popularity to begin selling in major retail stores. Office supplies retail chain Staples has announced that they will begin selling the Cube 3D Printer at its stores, becoming the first major US retail store to sell 3D printers.
The Cube is available now on Staples.com, and will eventually be available in a select number of Staples store by the end of June. The Cube costs $1,300, which is quite a bit less than MakerBot’s offerings, which usually start at around $2,000. The printer is able to print objects that are up to 5.5-inches wide and tall.
The Cube features WiFi and is compatible with both Mac and Windows. Plus, the printer comes with 25 free 3D templates to get you off to a quick start, with more templates available online. Staples is also selling ABS and PLA plastic cartridge refills, CubeSticks, and replacement Cube Print Pads. We heard late last year that Staples would be starting its own 3D-printing service, so perhaps this is the first baby step into that realm.
The 3D-printing community hasn’t gone quite mainstream yet, as it’s still very much a niche hobby at this point, but with the beginning of selling 3D printers in major retail chains, the awareness for 3D printing may go up, encouraging more people to get into the hobby and create an even larger community around it.
Staples becomes first US retailer to sell 3D printers is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
We’ve heard plenty of stories about 3D-printed guns in the past, but a 25-year-old law student has just created what is the world’s first fully 3D-printed gun. It’s certainly nothing fantastic to look at (it looks like a squirt gun), but the creator of the gun, Cody Wilson, calls it “the Liberator,” so it must be pretty intimidating.
The gun is made up of 16 different pieces that were 3D-printed separately using ABS plastic. Every part of the gun is 3D-printed except for the firing pin, which is needed to be metal due to the amount of force it handles. The gun is designed to fire standard handgun rounds, and it uses interchangeable barrels for different calibers of ammunition.
Wilson plans to soon release the CAD files for the gun on the Defcad.org website, which is a database full of CAD files for 3D-printers of different guns that you can make. As for the Liberator, it can fire a traditional round without a problem, but in order to comply with the Undetectable Firearms Act, Wilson put a chunk of steel in the body so that metal detectors can detect it.
Of course, 3D-printed weapons have been a controversial topic lately, since anyone with a 3D printer can make a gun without ever going through background checks or any other kind of verification system. Users can even obtain CAD files for high-capacity automatic rifles like the AR-15 and AK-47, which are illegal in the first place in many states.
[via Forbes]
Law student creates world’s first fully 3D-printed gun is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
It seems that the world of 3D printing is getting more and more advanced, and having said that, to see 3D printing used in medical circles is also a boon, such as the story that we talked about earlier this week concerning the ability to print one’s own kidneys sometime down the road, as early experiments in mice proved to be successful. Well, a group of researchers led by Michael McAlpine, an assistant engineering professor at Princeton, have managed to cobble together a prototype artificial ear using an antenna and 3D printed cells.
McAlpine has labored for years when it comes to churning out electronic parts which can be be integrated with the human body. For instance, a couple of years back, he and his team built a graphene tattoo which could be stuck on a tooth in order to detect bacteria. This time around, he managed to deliver a 3D printed bionic ear that would merge cartilage alongside an antenna, and early tests showed that this ear is capable of picking up radio waves, where throwing in a “complementary” left and right pair combination might enable one to listen in stereo, now how about that?
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Sometime earlier in the month, we talked about scientists having met with success when it came to manufacturing a kidney in the confines of a laboratory. Well, some of us are aware that when it comes to organ transplants, finding a match is hard enough, what more, getting enough donors. In fact, over 60,000 folks in the US are on the waiting list for organ transplants, and here we are with a potential solution for those who need a new kidney – growing cells in a lab which contain the characteristics of kidney cells.
In tests, these lab-grown cells were placed on an artificial renal device which sports a tubular component, collection system, and a reservoir, making it not too different from that of a bladder. Whenever the device was implanted in animals, the cells within could form kidney structures, and in the process, produce a urine-like fluid, which more or less makes it a successful mini-kidney of sorts. Following up on that success, researchers have worked on a printer which can print kidney cells into a 3D kidney prototype, now how about that? This 3D organ prototype will be printed layer by layer, and we look forward to future developments in this aspect. [Press Release]
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Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week’s most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us — it’s the Week in Green.
The Northern Hemisphere is finally beginning to wake up from a long, cold winter, and green vehicles are taking to the skies. This week Korean automaker Hyundai unveiled a multi-rotor flying electric car for congested cities and SolarWorld and PC-Aero announced plans to launch two new solar-powered electric airplanes at an air show in Germany. Speaking of sun-powered planes, the Solar Impulse just made its final test flight around the San Francisco Bay Area before embarking on a cross-country voyage next week. Even cycling is reaching new heights — bike hacker Richie Trimble recently built a two-story-tall bike that soars above car traffic.
Filed under: Science
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