Geekosystem: MakerBot Industries, the aptly named company that makes MakerBots, has just released their newest impressive printer-that-could. The Replicator 2 has a host of upgrades from previous models, and though it can’t take garbage off the street and print it into an edible dinner or usable firearm just yet, it wouldn’t be surprising to learn that we’re currently living in the time period when that kind of future technology got its start.
5 comments:
Ben can we have one? please?
Seriously one of the things that threw me for a loop with 3d printing is the capability of printing working moving parts. I guess i just have not kept up enough with the 3d printing circuit. its definitly impressive to see what these printers are capable of. It would be interesting to see what some scenic designers might be capable of doing with making models via 3d printer.
its interesting to see the comment that $2,199 might keep people away from it but really that does not sound like a ridiculous price tag.
Even watching at YouTube channel on 3D printing in stagecraft was very impressive. Now it is another 3D printer which is more intricate and detailed that makes me even more surprised. Looking at how amazing jobs that a printer can do, I do not doubt that someday, a SciFi printer which can print edible food as mentioned in the article will be invented. As the upper post mentioned, I believe that this kind of printer will bring the scenic designers an impressive innovation by creating 3D model of scene that they design. It is very impressive how this printer can do so many things such as spending less energy, creating case, and making the objects with temperature-resistance. I would like to see more production of these printers, so people can buy with affordable price.
I've been following the creation of 3D printing ever since the first post about the kit from Make magazine a few years back, and it's incredibly impressive that such technology has made leaps and bounds in a very small span of time.
I've heard of a couple small companies in our industry that have bought 3D printing machines in order to make to-scale true-to-life models to show their clients. They all seem to be incredibly well received, and that drawings for the machine are no more complicated than a 3D CAD file. I've been sent pictures of objects printed in the past few months that look incredibly smooth, with rounded surfaces and impressive layering detail, that you wouldn't have seen a year or two ago when the printers could only handle so many faces on the polygons that they were printing.
As with the laser cutter, this could become the new tool for those up and coming scenic designers with formidable drafting skills. Long gone will be the days of foam core and modeling clay!
While at the Maker Faire in NYC the weekend before last I saw an endless amount of 3-D Printers and saw some really cool things that companies are doing with them. I mean if I wanted to there is nothing stopping me from drafting the components on a winch and motor and building a prototype scale model with moving parts. I feel like these could be incredibly useful for making molds and such when the detail is too great for the cnc. In addition, there are 3D printers out there that are capable of printer edible objects. There are specific nozzels or print heads that are sold for various materials, plastics, metals....and chocolate even. I believe they work by using a heated paste or "chocolate agent" that as it prints cools via room temp and poof, before you know it, you are the proud owner of a chocolate Yoda head (I have photographic proof or said object by the way). So even though it's not made out of garbage off the street, it is in fact edible.
Iv'e been following the 3D printer scene for 5 or 6 years now. I'm a big fan of MakerBot industries and their goal of making high quality 3D printing available to everyday people. They haven't quite got the price low enough yet for every house hold to put a MakerBot next to the computer, but they are on the way.
This artacil makes the new MakerBot sound very expensive. And it is, but compared to larger more corporate printers the price is pretty good.
The new features in the Replicator 2 are not revolutionary, but they are solid (pardon the pun) improvements to 3D printing in plastic. My high school had a 3D printer (not a makerbot) and one of the challenges was that the layer size was lager then I would have liked. In part this lead to many hours sanding down small parts. So the Replicator 2's 100 micron resolution is very appealing.
I wish I had the money to get one. Or maybe that the school of drama could get one...
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