Co.Design | business + design: Earlier this morning, we unveiled what might be the future of 3-D printing. Hyperform was developed by MIT grads and designers Marcelo Coelho and Skylar Tibbits to print large objects using small desktop printers. Where orthodox 3-D-printing techniques are fundamentally limited by the size of a printer bed, Hyperform prints large objects through a process of computational folding. You might be wondering about some of the project’s practical applications and the possible uses it has for designers and architects.
8 comments:
Although it seems like some are still even skeptical of 3D printing as a realistic alternative for modeling, innovations like this i think are likely to help forward their use. I think it is interesting that a possible solution to the practicality problem of 3D printers could be solved by a new seemingly impractical development.
Hyperform printing seems efficient but is also time consuming. The nanostructure feature has so much potential because you can change the overall shape of an object. The potential this machine holds is truly remarkable considering how recent 3D printing is. The technology is only going to continue to progress and I cant even imagine where its going to be in even five years.
While this idea seems amazing, and I'm sure Hyperform technology will eventually make its way into the consumer market and be useful for a number of small projects, it seems like there is much development to do before this is possible. I wish this article had more concrete information in it. All I could think about when the possibility of building furniture pieces and architectural elements with the technology was discussed was, "What is the material that is going to be used?" It doesn't seem like the current standard plastic 3-D modeling material would cut it for those sorts of projects, especially if they needed to support the weight of people or objects. The fact that the standard materials being "swapped or mixed with stronger stuff" was so casually mentioned seems odd to me. Nonetheless, I'm very interested in the potential of this technology and would love to learn more about it.
I'm not sure I quite understand how this works, but the idea is really cool. Size and quality are the big goals for 3d printing. Obtaining theoretically limitless size is a huge step towards an amazing technology that really could change they way our world works. I doubt it is really there yet, this looks like a prototype. But I can;t even imagine how cool the world is going to be in a decade or two.
This hyperform technology seems very cool, though I'm not sure how much of a theatre application it will have. I can see it having a large impact on other uses. It's interesting, though, that as the technology behind 3D printers increases, the public awareness of 3D printing and its capability increases as well. For example, the newest episode of Elementary featured a 3D printer in a key role.
Science is pretty freaking amazing. I'm still waiting for the day where they can print a printer!! In all seriousness, though, this concept is amazing, and the fact that they brought it to life shows how innovative our society is. While the actual mechanics of Hyperform escape me, I can appreciate it's myriad of possibilities for the future. In fact, it seems like we're living in the future, now that we could possibly print basically anything, including, wait for it, furniture.
I've been so excited for this new way of printing. It is absolutely remarkable watching a form appear straight out of liquid. However, while it is relatively quick and more accurate, it seems incredibly expensive. Yet I love the capabilities that this product provides in that it can create new structures that were only able to be created with the hands of a skilled craftsman. I really cannot wait to see where the world of 3d printing will take us next.
As the article indicates, this technology seems to have a lot of potential for aerospace and other unique environment 3D printing applications. I’m not really sure what this could mean for entertainment. It is rare for a show to require a large structure to be built in such a small space. Wouldn’t it be cost prohibitive to print a theatre flat frame and cover it with luan? This machine might be useful for the closet-sized props shops, or scenic designers that want to put together a super fast massing model. Perhaps even the “chain frame” structure can be coated or filled to create a heavy, realistic looking piece.
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