Thursday, March 12, 2015
Beyond Plastic: 3D Printers Are Now Printing Metal, Wood, Even Electronics
Motherboard: The challenge with 3D printing isn't the machine, it's the materials.
If you've used one of the current generation of desktop 3D printers, you'll have noticed there's a limit to what you can make: If you’ve always wanted a small, personalised model in cheap plastic, you're in luck, but that’s about it.
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13 comments:
Wow, this is some very exciting news. I remember a few years back I was reading an article on io9.com talking about lofty 3d printing milestones. A very touted goal was a point in time where 3d printers could print both circuits/electronics and physical materials together in concert. It would seem that with Voxel8's latest product release, this milestone has finally been achieved. 3d printing has already revolutionized the kind of components that individuals and small organizations can fabricate, and this ability to meld circuity and plastic components together will further expand this new capacity. I'm also impressed that the conductive ink can still print at room temperature and does not require any special kind of heating, especially given the material. The 3d printed drone that was showcased does seem rather basic, but the doors that this opens are very exciting. It would seem that the ability to press a button and print a complex device is getting closer and closer.
First of all, I think 3D printing is one of the coolest and most innovative systems of our time, it’s so simple to think about, because everything you interact with has mass, that it could potentially be one of the most user friendly interfaces of all time. I honestly had never thought about the multiple materials possibility of 3D printing, however, since I am used to thinking in the ‘assembly line’ fashion of putting things together. But 3D printing products like electronics and wood materials opens millions of doors for design, especially in the realm of seamless products and creating the inability to hack into other designs or constructions. I believe if enough effort is put into it, most any material can be manipulated into the 3D printing world. And once everything is capable of being used for 3D printing, anything could happen, really. The dream of wanting to ‘illegally download’ clothes you see on the internet could be realized!
What people are able to think of continually surprises and amazes me. The original idea of 3D printing plastics was cool enough for me to want a 3D printer, but now that electronics and other materials can be printed, I really want one. Albeit they are way out of my budget, a girl can dream. With the advances in technology that allowed Voxel8 to print one object with different materials, I can see this being expanded ever further. The only problem I see is that these materials need to be able to be pushed through a syringe and so I don’t think wood will ever be a viable option for 3D printing. Either way, someone will more than likely take this idea of using more than one material to expand material science in allowing more materials to be printed. Metal could be a viable option, and imagine what could be done if custom metal parts could just be printed.
This makes you wonder what else you can make using a 3D printer. I never thought you could 3d print something out of wood unless you are taking away material. The process of 3D printing is melting a material down and reapplying it a little at a time to make something with volume. I also think that if they are able to soon develop a way of doing this that is faster than melting and casting metal pieces, our economy would be changed. In addition I'm curious to think what else they might be able to print. Is flour 3D printable in order to 3D print bread(not that i would want to eat that) or maybe 3d printing lost characteristics on a broken family heirloom. I hope they continue to innovate this field.
This is amazing, and really interesting. The fact that the object has it’s electronic components imbedded inside it is something that isn’t really out there, and the fact that you can 3D print it is quite astounding. There are however some minor things that I am curious about. First off, if you imbed a circuitboard as was shown in the video it becomes entirely impossible to replace or repair. I guess with either a redesign (making something that can open up for service) or the notion that you can just make a new one, that becomes less of an issue. Though I realize most things made with this process aren’t exactly intended to be the most durable and reliable things, and are more made for prototyping purposes, it would be nice if 3D printing got to the stage where it could make consistently reliable and marketable products as a method of manufacturing. Though that’s still a ways away, it is something that should remain a goal. Another thing is, is it possible to print a metal that is geared more towards structure and not electrical properties? Lets say I wanted to make a plastic casing held together by metal machine screws, could I print those screws? Whatever the answer, designing objects with circuitry embedded inside them in such a way and being able to print them seems like an amazing step for this technology, and I hope to see it further developed.
I think it was in a PTM class that I heard David Boevers say that we have yet to discover a practical use for 3D printing in the theater, therefore it was not necessary to have one (heavily paraphrased). And although I do still agree at the moment, I think technology is slowly making its way towards something that can be useful for us. Bing able to print out of wood, metal and electronics is starting to move 3D printing closer and closer to practical uses versus merely aesthetic uses. Being able to print out new circuitry for a microphone or a broken sound or light board, would be great and cost much less than investing in brand new equipment. So although I don't think 3D printing has reached a point just yet where it would be useful to us, but I really think it's getting there. I think soon, every theater company is gonna want one.
I read the article that came out a while ago about the 3D printer that could print materials in different colors and flexibilities. I believe they showed a video of it printing a bike helmet with flexible and rigid parts to it. That was really cool. While $9000 is still expensive for a home 3D printer, it is way down from 250,000 I hope the trend for price drop of the tech continues. When they say that it can print wood, ceramics and metal, I would like to see an example of that, it seems to me like they could print a composite material that it mostly those materials fused together with something else, but im not sure how they would want to print wood. Unless they are printing MDF or something . . . It will be the day when I can hook the dust collection of the CNC router to the feed for a 3D printer and have it make stuff out of actual dust.
This is seriously so cool. I have be a long fan of 3D printing so to see them making something that can work as a larger part of some other machine is awesome. The price drop is really significant compared to the, like Chris said, $250,000 normal really good 3D printer. While usually the price of a printer increases depending on how thin each layer it can process and make, it makes me wonder what is the smallest their 3D printer can do. For $9000, it probably is accurate, but not that accurate. It also has to deal with the variety of materials which have not yet been made as thin as the plastic. What I really want to see is how they are thinking of 3D printing wood. That would be amazing to see. I wonder how soon it will be before the common household can have it’s own 3D printer without it costing an arm and a leg, and how that then might be used to fix broken electronics- like theatre equipment. How cool would it be to have all companies just email you a file to fix your computer instead of having to send it in.
This article tells us some pretty amazing news. I’ve been extremely interested in 3D printing ever since I’ve heard the technology was invented, and I’ve always loved hearing about the next new advancement in this area, whether it’s a kickstarter proposing a cheaper printer model, or even just a life hack in which you can use a 3D printer as a plotter, any new news always excites me as the technology moves more towards public accessibility. In short I can’t wait to get my hands on one. This printer from Voxel8 is the most promising model I’ve seen yet, with capabilities to use an array of different materials, and print embedded circuitry directly into a 3D model. No doubt this technology will change how we design electronics, because now we have a system in which the critical internal chips can be encased completely to protect from external damages. Of course this poses a problem if something needs to be fixed inside, but even so this way of printing would work great for prototyping because the designer wouldn’t necessarily have to worry about the chamber for the internal electronics right away, and could focus overall design first and foremost rather than worrying so much about the placement of internal components. Additionally I like how this printer has the promise to print other materials like synthetic wood. I’ve done some more research and the synthetic wood material is less exciting than it sounds, but the fact that this industry is exploring new materials and finding ways to print those with unique looks and abilities is really exciting. Thinking this way holds great promise for 3D printing technology.
his is so cool! It’s been incredible to watch 3D printing come so far so quickly. New discoveries every day! I especially liked that this article pointed out something which I hadn’t thought about before, and something that I think is very important to remember about 3D printing. Not only does the technology have to come this far (in programming, physically printing, etc.) but the materials engineering has to come this far as well. I did a project once on nano-engineering; where the idea is basically to 3D print with individual atoms and elements to (eventually) create a tiny computer, or create an apple or a cup of coffee. This is progress- and I hope that as people learn more about 3D printing and the possibilities involved we can get closer and closer to that. This article also leads me to wonder if metals themselves can be 3D printed: how would the system need to change, especially if the metal was something that didn’t need to be really hot, like solder? How would the actual printing method need to change?
I am not surprised that 3D printing is branching off into more than just plastic. There is no reason it shouldn’t. 3D printing, at its core, is pretty simple so why shouldn’t we expand its medium. Now, what really confuses me is how the hell do you 3D print wood…3D printing is so useful. Imagine if famous sculptors had 3D printing, maybe some of the sculptures would be better and more precise than they are. I am waiting for HUGE 3D printers…ones that can print a car. Or what it your set up a huge rig on an open plot, leave fore 10 days and come back to a completely furnished, painted and structural house. Why not? That could totally be done! I just thought of that…don’t steal my idea. That would be so cool. But back to right now innovations. Having the ability to 3D print pretty much anything we want can make those things a lot more accessible to more people. Instead of buying…lets say $4,000 worth of light switches and light switch plates, but a $3,000 3D printer and make them yourself.
It is truly amazing that this is not possible. The fact that it can print wood alone is incredible. Wood is a resource that in modern society we still heavily rely on as a form of structure and while it is cheap it is something we rely on too much. We are hurting our environment by continuing to harvest too much of it too fast. With being able to 3d print, provided we get enough machines going fast enough it might be a cost that might not save us initially but definitely down the road if we still plan on living on planet earth. It just truly astounding that material scientists have finally made the break through to make the materials that we as a society still heavily rely on to construct our basic everyday needs a reality.
I remember when 3D printing became a public thing, I was a lot younger but I still remember thing that there’s no way this is going to get big. What’s the point? Then all of sudden in like the past 3 years it’s gotten huge! People have these thing is their homes! I don’t really know why because of the same point the article made: you can only make cheap plastic trinkets. But now that they’re updating the materials… Wow 3D printing is going to be everywhere. I understand the metal printing, because that stud melts as a certain level, the wood however makes no sense to me. Wouldn’t it just burn? Or is it the paste thing? Wouldn’t that still have to be cold? Wood doesn’t have a melting point so how would they be able to extrude it at such a high temp without it turning to ash?
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