Friday, September 04, 2015
Even Cooler 3D Printers On The Way
Techdirt: Most homes don't have a 3D printer... yet. But just as most homes didn't have a "computer" or an internet connection just a few years ago, technology can change quickly, and 3D printers could become ubiquitous relatively quickly. With 3D printers in your kitchen or living room, you could print up a Left Shark whenever you felt like it, but hopefully, no one will be doing that too often. If you already have a MakerBot or some other 3D printer, check out a few other developments that could be nice to have.
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There are an abundance of articles on this site that have to do with 3D printers. Each article points out a different reason why the existence of 3D printers are changing the industrial and medical world. But each time I read one of these articles, I become skeptical as to how helpful are these printers in actuality. Most of the articles that show this new device in practice are mostly about more visually stimulating items, such as intricate musical instruments and articles of plastic clothing for fashion shows. Every now and again a article comes along stating that 3D printers might actually be useful for some kind of practical item. But most of these just show theoretical designs and nothing that is actually tangible. Although this article falls into that category, the advancements that have been brought up actually might have the capability to make a 3D printer practically useful. Printing with metal is probably the most notable achievement. Especially when the metal is something as conductive as copper. It opens up for the possibilities to create 3D printed complex circuitry which may be able to change how many commercial products are manufactured. Another rather notable achievement is the possibility that 3D printers will someday have the capability to print objects larger than the printer itself. This can do a world of good for larger industries and may be able to do away with the entire mechanical assembly line process and move towards one machine or a series of machines building massive products. So although I will not believe it until I see it, there are some really cool upgrades in the works and maybe someday the printer will be more that just a machine that makes plastic trinkets.
The first part of this article makes a really good point about having 3D printers in every house. I along with the general population (I would assume) don’t really think that we need 3D printers in our house. What am I going to use them for? That is technology beyond what I need on a daily basis. They are too expensive. Now, these are also arguments that people were making against computers in their house no more than 35 years ago. What is to say that in a few years we won’t have a need for 3D printers? You could 3D print cups, plates, cutlery. Maybe a toy for your dog or even a replacement part for a broken toy. There are uses for it on a daily basis but maybe we just haven’t found them yet. I am curious to see how the price of 3D printers changes over time and what new things could be created from the base model of an extruded plastic 3D printer.
It's always fascinating to see all these new technologies people invented to the world. Though yes I agreed that we majority of the population of this century may never come across the situation where we need it in everyday lives but I still think it's cool. Actually 3-D printer can be used as a business tools to if you could first afford the machine. I went to the Willis building in Chicago last spring break and I found a 3-D printing machine where you put the money in and in 3 minutes or so you'll get a model of the building customized freshly from the machine. It was very popular among the kids the day I went to Skydeck. I don’t exactly remember the price but like for this case, it is one way to use the machine in commercial ways and not only purchase that machine to your scene shops (or cluster).
Even cooler 3D printers are on the way? Well that’s something I think we all expected.
How are they going to affect the entertainment industry on a large scale? Not at all, not for a while at least.
People are doing newer, cooler, faster, cheaper things with 3D printers. What 3D printers aren’t doing is bigger. 3D printing will always be something we use for rapid prototyping and for little effects, but we aren’t going to be 3D printing anything for production until 3D printers start printing bigger. I haven’t seen one of these spider printers yet.
These spider machines could probably print the set, but I promise it won’t be cheaper or stronger than flats.
Some of these 3D printing technologies look pretty cool, some more than others. I am kind of tired of people without a real grasp on the technology writing articles about where the new industrial revolution should be heading. If someone has a novel idea about how to make nano-scale fabrication robots, that will be really cool, but someone telling us that we need to develop these robots, that isn’t interesting. The CLIP printer that they showed in the article was very cool however. Highly increased printing speed and level of detail could make a difference in what 3d printing is being used for. No one is saying that faster better printers that do the same thing as the old printers is going to change the world, but it’s a start. The copper printing method might just make a difference if we can integrate it smoothly with plastics and other printing processes, but for now, we already have metal printing, why would I print in copper?
This article was kind of a mixed bag for me. Professional "Futurist" Jordan Brandt makes a good point that 3D printers are constrained by their size, but that idea without any execution isn't very exciting. I wonder if I too could get a full time job thinking up cool things that I would not be responsible for figuring out how to do..
Anyways, the 3D printing with copper and other metal materials is actually pretty exciting! Being able to 3D print integrated circuits into plastic components is going to be super cool and already in the conceivable future, unlike spider 3D printers. You can already print "Impossible to make" objects, and the added flexibility of embedded circuits feels like something out of a sci-fi movie. Perhaps combined with the advances in 3D printing speed and resolution, we can begin to see 3D printing used in a more mainstream fashion. Certainly, it feels like in the past six years since I've been following this kind of technology the availability and ease of use has skyrocketed tremendously. I definitely feel blessed here at CMU to be afforded access to all these tools and to really be able to explore what is out there as far as cutting edge fabrication and prototyping processes go.
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