Thats a lot of money to print a replica of your junk.
Still 3D printing with one material? We can use TEN, say MIT eggheads
Designers at MIT have used off-the-shelf components and some nifty software to build a cheap combination 3D printer and scanner unit that can use ten different materials at a time. Youtube Video Multi-material 3D printers aren't new, of course, just very, very expensive – typically costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. …
-
-
Tuesday 25th August 2015 20:58 GMT Martin Gregorie
I think its better than that...
...if I understand an unexplained feature of this printer - the scanner - I'm guessing you could use it to help print, say, a gearbox case with metal bearings embedded in its plastic walls. The scanner could be used to measure the bearings' external dimensions to allow for production tolerances so they would not be loose in the finished item. It could also avoid waste by checking the position and alignments of the bearings before starting to print.
-
-
-
Tuesday 25th August 2015 20:20 GMT Eddy Ito
In the future, they could walk into a FedEx with a design and print out batches of their finished product at a reasonable price
I suppose it depends on what one calls "a reasonable price". It's going to be quite some time, if ever, before 3D printers can compete with a continuous production process for quantities beyond a handful of pieces.
-
Tuesday 25th August 2015 22:02 GMT Anonymous Coward
"It's going to be quite some time, if ever, before 3D printers can compete with a continuous production process for quantities beyond a handful of pieces.]"
It's going to be
quite some time, if ever, a little while before 3D printers can compete with a continuous production process for quantities beyond a handful of pieces.FTFY
I remember a similar statement about producing photographic colour prints without a silver chemical development process. It was said that the concept machines worked - but would never be profitable even if running 24 hours a day. Not long after there was colour photocopying in the High Street. Then ink-jet printers appeared. Then our Kodak Express replaced their roll film processing machine with a digital printer that could do a quality job cheaper than a home printer - and up to A0 size. All within about 25 years.
-
Wednesday 26th August 2015 14:31 GMT Eddy Ito
You are aware that you're comparing apples to oranges, aren't you? You aren't mentioning that the replacement, a printed picture, isn't the same as the original even if the functionality is very similar. It's a bit like saying that celluloid film that runs through an old time projector is the same as the digital bits that are tossed up by a DLP projector when it's not even though the end result of watching a movie is pretty much the same. You might also compare vinyl LPs and CDs or flash memory for that matter. In a like way, while your 3D printed component may be functionally similar enough to replace the original it isn't the same.
The true advances in 3D printing will come when people start to leverage the strengths of the technology rather than trying to duplicate things we already make very efficiently. Yes, your plastic figures and drawer pulls are very nice and printing one is cheaper than tooling up to make ten thousand, now go out and print something useful that is nearly impossible to be made any other way and maybe folks will find it hard to give you their money fast enough.
-
-
Biting the hand that feeds IT
