They’re called three-dimensional printers and they’re mainly used in the industrial design industry—car and airplane manufacturers. for example—to test out designs before mass production. Us normal folk can look forward to using printers to create items that we need or want after downloading the plans from the Web. Did your pesky child see a toy advertised on toy? Download the plans, send ‘em to the printer and hang out for a bit. In a few minutes out will come the toy. It’s like Futurama in its awesomeness.
One of the leading manufacturers of these printers is Desktop Factory, which says that such printers should cost only around $1,000 in about four years. (Prices this year will hover around $5,000.) It’ll work by having a halogen lamp melt nylon powder into the desired shape, up top, a bunch of widgets and right here, Gumby being made.
Damn, another great thing we’ve seen today. Rock out.
Beam It Down From the Web, Scotty [New York Times]
I have seen these things in action (industrial kind), to say that they are slow is an understatement… but the results are absolutely mind boggling… out of what seems like a “thick water” emerges with the use of laser light something solid out of NOWHERE… by far the coolest thing in the world.
Right now I can barely write as I am always typing, I guess with one of these I will no longer be able to build, just program it in ;-) I think this is cool if you could mesh it with a 3D application like 3DS Max… become your own “factory” for products… lots of possibilities! You can already buy some “desktop” versions of this using heated wire mesh that melts foam… regardless, this stuff is cool.
Jon
Z-Corp has been making these for years, and while rather expensive ($19k), they have a much larger build volume and much better resolution than what desktop factory is selling. You’ll be surprised what doesn’t fit into an 8×8x10 build. 5×5x5 isn’t much – a baseball is 3″ in diameter.
The “thick water” that Jon is talking about above is SLA and is a very expensive machine, but produces great results.
1000 isnt bad at all this is friggin insaneeeeeee damn!
im your bigest fan