Friday, October 17, 2008
3D Printing: Objet Alaris30 3D Printer Puts a Star Trek Replicator On Your Desk
Gizmodo: "3D printers are a boon to industrial designers, many of whom have been happily using ultra-expensive real-life Star Trek replicators for years now. Yeah, cool, good for them, but when the hell will I be able to print my own Army Men? Considering the recent announcement of Objet's Alaris30 3D desktop printer, my miniature plastic battle royale may not be as far off as I thought."
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10 comments:
Ever since I first saw one of these things work in a video I really wanted to play with one. Its like the ultimate video game player toy. Make a really cool looking character, make a model of him to show off. What worries me some about this article is that it never really talks about how "affordable" this thing might be. I've heard of lots of cool gear like this tagged as "affordable" and still go for a considerable amount of money (I'm talking about PhotoShop and Xbox-360). While it's really cool that technology like this is getting cheaper, I now worry about the number or rich jerks who will buy one just because they can.
It's $40k. That's a lot, considering there's DIY ones which can be built for $2000. Insane level of detailing. I wonder if there's a variable setting for layer thickness, cuz .0011 inches per pass is a little tedious.
There's a really cool video of a popup toaster on their website.. Sure puts the rapid prototyping assignments at CMU to shame..
I'm surprised that some guys made on themselves for $2,400 while the professional ones are up to $40,000. I'm sure the accuracy is completely worth it when making plastic parts for a machine, but when using it for hobbyist modeling I think a cheaper model wouldn't be a bad market for Objet to tap.
This sounds so cool. I would have so much fun with one of these, too bad its too expensive to be just for fun. I think that if you need to make models like this regularly then it is an amazing device but for most people its just pretty cool.
I think that this would be a great thing to have for hobbyists of all sorts: model ship and plane builders, toy makers, action-figure makers, etc. This device would open up a lot more opportunity for creativity and customization. If only it were cheaper...I'm sure they could produce a cheaper version somehow, and it would be so handy! One can only hope...
I want this to make props. Plain and simple. And small nifty fiddly bits like buttons and buckles. Think of the level of customization if you could print your own starched collars or moldings. Designers would go crazy.
Still...$40,000?!! o_o I can't see technology that expensive being viable for a very long time. Please make it cheaper, kkthnxbai.
I took an AutoCAD Inventor course in high school which culminated in us getting to design our own chess set and plot in on a 3d plotter. It was the coolest thing EVER! I love 3d plotters, and its nice to know that developers understand that they need to start making the move towards smaller, less costly machines.
These 3D printers are seeing more and more use lately in 'rapid prototyping' which durastically changes the design process, especially for industrial designers. I got to see one at a science museum at chicago, it's really quite impressive how quickly they print. http://reprap.org/bin/view/Main/WebHome is a project that makes a DIY 3D printer, with freely available plans and software. Their goal is to make one buildable only with standard hardware store parts, and things it can print for itself. Not far from a self-replicating machine.
I'm personally a fan of the 3d Sand Printers that you can use to print metal pour casts. Need a piece of jewelery for a show? Print out the mold and pour some bronze in there. Poof, instant bronze pretty thing. A few baby desktop milling deals exist for major machining houses but the ability to have a home user level of printing is kinda cool but scary at the same time.
3D printing is going to hit the consumer world. check out what www.jujups.com is doing with it.
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