Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion Not-Quite-Science Forum 3D Printer Makes Anything.

Do you remember the Sci-Fi film 2001, or any similar film where the hungry space traveller goes up to a unit,
punches a few buttons and out pops the meal he has just punched in?

Well they have just produced a 2nd generation unit thats about as big as your desktop computer, and its called a 'Replicator'

Its a 3D printer that when fed with a spool wound with a bio-degradable plastic Polymer, that will melt, and print
the end of the filament onto its metal plate, to produce any object in 3D.
It can produce a working car with all its gears, or a 3D picture of your face, even print out complicated Electronic circuits,
that it prints on its own plastic sheet that works when supplied with a battery.
Although the Replicator can produce a unique flexible battery if you want it to.

No it dos'nt print Food to eat just yet.
But it wont be long before it does print real 3D pies to eat made from any mixture of simple foods that will harden at room temperature,
like egg and milk powder, mixed with flour or pasta and chocolate, etc.etc.

The spool of bio-degradable plastic Polymer you need to place in the Replicator is made from Maize, and called PLA (polylactic acid) Its harder than PTFE, but melts at a much lower temp: and so is able to melt the end of the filament, and so build up, by printing to produce any 3D object.
The 3rd generation Replicator (out next year)
will have various snap in spools of different coloured substances both clear and opaque and rubbery.
So that you can produce 3D Art, unique working motors or engine parts complete with gears and cogs, for teachers. It wont be long before all budding Scientists and designers have a 3D printing Replicator on their desk, in the same way as you have your own 2D printer at home right now.
Remember, this is a printer....not an Extruder, thats a large machine which uses an expensive Toolmaker to produce a
very expensive metal die to manufacture, say combs or toothbrushes.
Yes ...this is very slow but it can produce complicated objects very accurately, and for every one who has a computer and an idea the World can become your future Oyster.
Look out for the 3rd Generation Replicator, which is coming out next year.
It looks as though the Future is with us Right Now.

Yep, great things are coming. Currently you can buy a 3D printer for less than $3000. Then you can download free software to design things to print with it. They call it the Maker Community. With this sort of thing you can design and build your own stuff to do what you want to do, instead of having to buy something that somebody else designed. It isn't much good for making many copies of something, but if you are looking at something just for yourself, or a prototype to be used as a first try for something to be built in quantities then it is a great idea.

They has been a 3D printer available for several years, but this one is supposed to have greater precision. As time goes by it is just going to get better and better.

Bill Gill

Mike- Thanks for posting a clear explanation of how this technology works. I have seen demonstrations of these printers on TV, but never with a sensible explanation of the technique. It is amazing, truly amazing, but a bit confronting too.

I mean, why would you ever toil over a vegetable plot or work in a factory to help construct a car if the option is there to dial a replica up on the printer instead? Are we ready for this?

But of course I'm sure we know what we are doing. After all how many times has revolutionary research, invented for the betterment of humanity, gone fiercely and horribly wrong?

Ellis, I don't think it will work out quite that way. As an example I assume you have printer on your computer. So you can make up something, say a flyer advertising something you are interested in. You can print a few copies, but if you want a thousand copies you don't print them on your home printer. You make one copy and take it to the copy shop to make a lot of copies. A home 3D printer will be the same way. You will use it to make something for your own use, and maybe a few for family and friends. Then if there is interest you will have a manufacturer produce them for the multitudes.

Of course you might use it to make a robot that would go out and spread the word for you. With an Arduino processor and your 3D printer you can create a device that will do almost anything you can think of.

As far as horrible results. We have had things happen that are the result of the ability to do things that we couldn't do before, but over all we haven't done all that badly. We are still all here and still working. I never have gotten into a doomsday mentality about the horrible things we are doing to the world. In general we are pretty good people.

Bill Gill

I agree with you Bill, that ultimately humans are mostly 'good people', however there are a lot of useful items invented for peaceful and useful reasons, which have ended up being devastating.

One example is the invention of dynamite by Nobel, who tried to deal with his disappointment at the uses to which his invention had been put by endowing the prize for Peace that still bears his name.

Maybe the thing is that we compensate for the awful things that happen- and although I do not have a doomsday outlook I still think we need to take care. I am old enough to remember the optimism that that the discovery of nuclear energy brought-- and now we can see that it really is a two edged sword. I just feel that the birth of the replicator will be as disruptive as the birth of the personal computer. I do not think that we have yet begun to fully experience or fully evaluate the latter!

I can think of a few things I would like to make , if I
had one of those 3d printer thingies.

I read that they are programming it to print circuits !!

see if you can wrap your thoughts around what that would mean...

wait , let me say it..

you dropped your cell phone and broke it , but you didnt buy a cell phone you only bought the rights and programming to build a cell phone.
so you simply toss the broken cell phone into the recycle bin that separates the different materials.

then you find the 3d printer cell phone file on your home
computer and click build it.

wait a few minutes then you have a new phone.

the same goes for every electronics item in your home.

every plastic appliance , cookware , furniture , etc.

and do you think it would stop at plastics?

why should it... aluminum , copper , silver , gold , can all
be used the way plastics can in the 3d printers...

not right now , but give it a few decades.

car parts , that old dirty dog food bowl , those worn out
crocks , but carry it a bit further and why not even make
your own clothes , clothes line , clothes dryer , why bother
to even wash them though , just make new ones when they get a little dirt on them...

Right now the printers are limited to plastics, but I don't see why they shouldn't be extended to other materials in the future. It may be a long time before you can make just anything, but it could be coming. It just takes time.

They have had things like that in science fiction for a long time, and we may be going to catch up again.

Bill Gill

On 'Catalyst' last night (Science program- Aussie ABC) printers were being used to construct body parts. Apparently the kidney, as it is solid and relatively simple to duplicate, was the organ that was demonstrated, and there was also a blood vessel manufactured.

They were printed using cells from the kidney being duplicated and mixed into a polymer. This was then squirted into a shape, or, in the case of the blood vessel, along a line to eventually build a kidney, or a blood vessel, to replace diseased organs.

It looked very very feasible, and although not ready for implanting into humans yet may not be far off!

I remember how exciting it was when stem cells were first used and a friend's teenage son was cured of leukaemia in one of the first of such treatments in Australia. He now has children of his own, and is very active and healthy! Maybe this printer is going to be as useful. I hope so.

I probably have not described the program very well-- put it down to my lack of scientific training--- but it was interesting!

That has interesting implications. Imagine a kidney grown from the person's own tissue. There would be no problems with rejection. The kidney is a complex organ with many microtubules and blood vessels. It would take more than laying down a few cells to formulate a functioning kidney. Still the implications are vast. To be able to do a heart bypass operation with a new vessel created for the purpose, rather than having to take veins from the legs as is now the practice. Less surgery and it would be the right kind of vessel from the start. Maybe they will be able to form spare parts for those who have lost limbs or vital organs. Maybe even pancreases for diabetics. The mind boggles at the vision.

I'm an old science fiction reader and SF has been full of replacing old organs with new ones built from the individuals own cells for a long time. It has always been fiction, but it looks as though we may actually be getting closer to actually being able to do it. That's when replacing organs will become a truly viable way of treating serious diseases. The current practice of organ transplantation has been a huge benefit for a lot of people, but there are a lot of problems with it. With that kind of new technology the whole thing would open up enormously.

Bill Gill

Update on 3D Printers.
Well I did discuss, and show how the basic 3D Printer worked , earlier in this post.
I have now read that someone in the USA has printed out a working model of a real gun that can kill, since it uses real bullets.
The U.S Goverment has now taken down that particular website
and its associated drawings.

My initial thoughts on this is:- Maybe the US Gov: is worrying a tad too much?
After all there are almost as many real guns in the US as there are people. So I doubt the home made printed plastic gun would be used for a serious kill. You could print a knife a stilleto, or any number of dangerous items.
What should Goverments do?
Ban the printed items, or ban 3d Printers?
Since 99.9% of people would be upright and honest in using a 3D Printer, I would not like to see its use, restricted in-any way. The vast majority of people have good sense, and we need to rely upon that.
The good that can come out of 3D Printers will far out-weigh the one or two bad items produced.
Since I believe the most amazing ideas and unique useful objects will be produce by some gifted persons.
3d working objects that will make not only the Printer rich but ultimately the Goverment, and exports of the country concerned.

"Hands Off 3D Printers"
I would like them to print in a variety of materials.
Such as combinations of various types of plastic powder and sintered metals, possibly with a binder that would fuse the print together using a UV Light, as well as the more normal hot oven used at present.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...on-designs.html

I think the governments rationale was that you could sneak a plastic gun through a scanner.

But trying to stop the spread by taking it down off of a web site is still a pretty poor choice of reactions. For one thing I see that it is still available, just not quite as readily. This of course doesn't surprise me at all. My first reaction when I heard about it was "fat chance". For another thing once you know something can be done there is nothing to keep you from doing it yourself. The action is ridiculous on the face of it.

I fully expect that 3D printers will just keep on getting better and better. And I really don't think that the government will have much success trying to control them.

Bill Gill

that depends on who is looking at its face.
it has face value to the prison industrial complex in the U.S.
simply because people who break any laws associated with the 3d printers could become a source of income to the prison complex.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison%E2%80%93industrial_complex

Paul,
I find your above reply, -too far removed,- from having anything to do with 3D printers.
I will gladly remove this and/or ...retitle?
I think it would be better to start a separate discussion on US Prisons for you?
Since I feel there will be a lot more interesting information coming in over time, on the subject of 3D Printers, and so
its not right, and rather pointless, to have the thread needlesley interupted with statistics of the US prison population.

and your most likely right !

just like drugs , they haven't been able to stop people from
using drugs either but they made laws so that they could arrest people who violated those laws and this way the prisons can make money and jobs can be created.

they have to think of the economic impacts that the 3d printers
will have on the economy.

as in the loss of taxes.

I wonder if they will get 3-D printers that print food? Imagine, a nice, thick, juicy steak, a baked potato, and some broccoli, available at the touch of a button. Just like on Star Trek, a food replicator in every lunchroom. Would you eat a steak that came out of a food printer? It might be pretty tasty depending on what you used for the "ink".

Update on 3D Printers regarding Patent Laws and Lawsuits?

I have just read that one of the worlds first 3D
printing shops is going to open here in London this weekend.
There is already a 3D Print shop open in Chicago, and another in Manhatten USA.

The British shops range is limited to a few dozen items, but within a few months as more print instructions become available ...it could grow to hundreds.
At the moment their range includes bespoke shoes, any size or color, spare mobile phone cases, spare dishwasher parts, some childrens toys, personaly inscribed individual pens, badges, buttons, luminous watch straps, car and radio knobs, plus sex toys.

They say that eventually 3D printing shops will revolutionise the way we shop.
But one expert fears that these shops could spark global job losses and harm international trading,
as shoppers opt for unique products

By letting shoppers create their own thought up products, it could affect manufacturing.
There is the possibility that Companys will not allow the special plastic grains,
or sintered metals to be used, to make copies of their own items?

I can definately see Companies taking out lawsuits against customers who use a 3D printer
to make something similar to an existing item on the market.

And then again some bright individual might come along and patent a suction mirror, car lock, or alarm for a vehicle/home ...which could save British businesses cash by cutting production costs.
Prehaps pulling the rug from under some big manufacturing companies, and force a global rethink for the future?
We shall wait and see.

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/04/26/chicago-3d-printing-shop-opens-for-business/

As far as available 3D printers are concerned there is one here in Tulsa at The Fab Lab. The Fab Lab is run in cooperation with MIT. It is intended for use by anybody who has an idea they want to build. They have a lot of tools other than just the printer, so you can build a lot of different things. They are trying to get the general public as well as small businesses involved in creating new things.

The Hardesty Center for Fab Lab Tulsa

Bill Gill