3D Printers
If you remember the MASH episode where Hawkeye and BJ got the Korean fix-it guy to build them a one-of-a-kind vein clamp, then you will understand the importance of custom-designed surgical tools – surgery is definitely not a field in which people should just make do with the next-best thing. Unfortunately, the production of some types of instruments can be quite involved, meaning they can't always be created quickly or cheaply. At this month's MEDTEC Europe trade show, however, researchers from Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials will be demonstrating new technology that uses a laser melting process to easily create pretty much any surgical instrument imaginable ... or so they claim. Read More
Put simply, the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic is a thing you can make to make your own things – automatically. It is a desktop 3D printer that comes in kit form and, once assembled, can then be plugged into a PC via USB to print 3D objects from your own 3D digital designs. While you won’t be able to print your own car or your own replacement organs, you will be able to churn out everything from a customized plastic chess set to an action figure of yourself. Read More
3D imagery is one technology that's generating buzz in 2010, and while it has been around for decades there's now a strong push to bring it to the everyday consumer. One such company is Fujifilm, who having launched their FinePix 3D REAL W1 digital camera last summer are now poised to follow-up with a 3D printing solution as well. Read More
Wouldn't it be great to have a digital food machine sitting in your kitchen that could create any dish, real or imagined, from scratch at the touch of a button? Cornucopia: Digital Gastronomy is a concept design that uses the well-established principles of 3D printing - plus precisely timed and temperature-controlled mixing and cooking - to open the door to a virtually limitless realm of replicable, creative cuisine in shapes and combinations that are simply impossible using our current, centuries-old cooking techniques. It's a wonderful look into the future of cooking, from the creative food lover's perspective. Read More
3-D printing technology is maturing to the point where rapid prototyping machines are becoming affordable to small business owners - and even for high-end home use. Dimension's uPrint 3D printer has just been released at a retail price of US$14,900, giving anyone with CAD skills the ability to prototype and even manufacture pretty much any small shape they want in hard ABSplus plastic - including pre-assembled objects with moving parts. What would you create if you could have any plastic shape you wanted? Read More
A team of engineers and artists at the University of Washington's Solheim Rapid Manufacturing Laboratory has revived an ancient Egyptian glass casting method and developed "Vitraglyphic," a technique to manufacture glass objects from fine glass powder using computer-aided design and a 3-D printer, paving the way for a significantly faster and cheaper method for artists, architects and designers to build high-precision prototypes. Read More
June 5, 2007 With multimedia technologies maturing, we are beginning to see some quite remarkable media tools emerging so that experts and educational publishers can more easily develop new ways of displaying information and furthering understanding. Going one step further, Zygote Media Group used its expertise in those fields to create hyper-accurate 3D models of the human body. The models are available to anyone but will find most application with companies in the biomedical, entertainment, athletic gear, and video gaming industries to ensure the term “anatomically correct” applies to the products they develop. The models are incredibly detailed (skeletons, heart, arteries, nerves, and muscle tissue) and have already been used in the development of new products such as back braces, shin guards, sports shoes and stents to place in damaged arteries. Read More
May 9, 2007 Modern advanced production techniques are fast moving into the realms of the fantastic. We've regularly marveled at some of the modern advanced production techniques such a 3D printing and now there's a new one - micro metal powder injection molding (micro-MIM). Until now, the production of tiny metal parts using techniques such as etching or milling has been a very complex and time-consuming process, and not suitable for many types of metal. It has been possible for a long time to produce very small parts from stainless steel, but with micro-MIM, it is now possible to combine and shape different types of material such as this (pictured) biocompatible titanium stirrup, a replacement for the small bone in the human ear. Read More
December 31, 2006 Colorado-based Medical Modeling is set to begin using an EBM (Electron Beam Melting) Metal Rapid Manufacturing and Prototyping System to design and build titanium implants for insertion into the body. The company is also planning to provide surgeons and medical device manufacturers with titanium models for improved surgical planning and implant development. Using data acquired from CT or MRI (Computed Tomography or Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scans, Medical Modeling creates highly accurate, three dimensional anatomical models of bone structures – such as the skull, pelvis and spine – and soft tissue – such as the brain and organs. Using its Arcam EBM system with titanium material, Medical Modeling can create fully dense, fully functional models of surgical instruments, guides and potentially implantable devices. The rapid manufacturing and prototyping system is a Stratasys Arcam EBM S-400, which manufacture real parts or prototypes from metal. Read More
May 18, 2006 With desktop colour printers now under US$100, we constantly marvel at what we'll be able to do a few years from now. In recent times we've enthused about desktop cutters, and we regularly write about printers that can print three dimensional objects (here, here and here), and one that can even print metal parts. Well now there's a printer that can print on any cylindrical object. Croatian desktop printer company Azon specializes in printers that print on unconventional objects and materials, such as fabrics and textiles, and fingernails. Unbelievably, the company now offers several models that print on 3D objects such as pens, mobile phones, metal products, acrylic, fomax ad infinitum. Now the company has released a 10,000 Euro desktop printer that will print on any cylindrical object up to 17 cm long and with a a diameter of 2-14 cm for the cylinder. Like a coffee cup, f';rinstance - cool heh! The AZON MICRO CYLINDER uses Piezo inkjet technology with a two-level ink filter system to ensures the printhead doesn’t get clogged and anti-scratch technology ensures an extended life life for the printhead, reducing the cost of printing. Read More
