The Most Mind-Blowing 3-D Printed Objects of 2012

Skills evolve. Any robot can design, and 3D print, a monkey wrench, but remember, it takes ingenuity to design something complex and innovative, BEFORE it's sent to the printer. The printer is merely a shortcut from the designer's mind, to reality. I can take ten engineers, throw them into a room and get ten different approaches to the same problem. With 3D printing, I can test them all immediately. Not to mention that once the engineers understand fully, the design and manufacturability constraints that have been lifted, you will begin to see some VERY innovative solutions by today's standards. I am talking in ALL fields. This has BIG potential to change our world significantly. If a country plays these cards right, it can put itself at the top of the manufacturing game. Although, that game is totally re-defined from what we have known. Lagging slightly behind is the development of software that can replicate human ingenuity.

I can just picture it now....instead of pirating movies, games and music, the big deal is going to be sharing 3D print files.

reply to post by randomname


Do you think it's making stuff out of thin air?

reply to post by PutAQuarterIn


You hit the nail on the head. File security is going to need to develop greatly or nobody is going to make a profit off of this except for the material suppliers.

Originally posted by zayonara
reply to post by PutAQuarterIn

 

You hit the nail on the head. File security is going to need to develop greatly or nobody is going to make a profit off of this except for the material suppliers.

Thats exactly what the world needs, more ideas for the good of mankind and less profit making. Greed is mankinds worst enemy.

Great slide show!
Thanks for a great thread. SnF.

I am also fascinated by this technology.
I will be following the progress in this technology closely.

reply to post by happykat39


Thank you for providing those videos, it only shows how little time until it is a possibility. Between "printing" people and cloning, the potential military applications become horrifying to me though it is a double sided coin. In one hand you have the ability to actually make a change, potentially save extinct species, produce vital organs, etc. In the other you could find a human at his/her peak and produce it large-scale then sell the "copies" as weapons of war. I'm in awe, yet terrified of what this will be used for.

I liked the handcuff key!

Unfortunately nowadays when the police arrest multitudes, they use very durable plastic cuffs.

Fortunately, the Hells Angels defeated those waaaaay back in the day with a simple USGI bootlace and a lil bit o back and forth friction!

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" - Arthur C Clarke



Well we already have instant global exchange of information with the Internet. Wait until these "printers" are large and advanced enough to produce entire buildings/cars/homes/weapons, etc.

The links not working for me. I hope they haven't taken it down.

reply to post by polarwarrior


Nope still up

What they link to below

pic 1
www.popsci.com...

pic 2
www.popsci.com...

pic 3
www.popsci.com...

pic 4
www.popsci.com...

pic 5
www.popsci.com...

pic 6
www.popsci.com...

pic 7
www.popsci.com...

pic 8
www.popsci.com...

I love these things....
there's a site online where you can design something, they will print it up....even sell it.
and well, if anyone wants to sell these things, I ran across a company that was looking for sales reps.
I just think they are neat, although in a few decades they are probably gonna replace alot or our workforce, making our lives oh, so much easier....
or could but those in charge would still be insisting that we work our 40 hour weeks for our small pittance of pay that doesn't even cover the cost of living, even if we had machines doing all the work... they'd just be raking in trillions more in profits.

unfortunately, no matter how much I love the little things, and well, I do come up with some good ideas from time to time.....I doubt I would ever get enough understanding of the technical aspects involved to get the thing to do what I wanted...

Originally posted by goochball
Hopefully they'll figure out how to 3d print 3d printers so we can all get one for cheap.

They are working on that, and they are working on how to make circuit boards and processors via 3d printing.

Originally posted by PutAQuarterIn
I can just picture it now....instead of pirating movies, games and music, the big deal is going to be sharing 3D print files.

You can already get 3d print files off of Pirate Bay - they have a section for it along with music and movies.

The thing about this technology is many people want to see it grow up where one 3d printer can become self replicating by producing the parts for another whole 3d printer. All you need are the cost of the materials to feed into it and Poof, you have a 3d printer of your own that can replicate everything you need. This can be a huge game changer in the way we not only build products but in the way we sell, buy and acquire all our stuff.

Suddenly a form of Plast-Steel isn't looking like a bad idea.( a nod to the plastic steel of William Shatner's Tek War - Great series of novels)

reply to post by Lompyt


The problem is that the only way for a technology to mature is for it to be profitable. Why would anyone develop something that has no profitability (not necessarily money)? Would you hand out your money or services to random strangers all day long?

Time is money. If I spend years of my time perfecting a design to be useful to humanity, I need to make sure that it is worth my time to develop it, and I need to make sure it is distributed fairly and then used for it's intended purpose. In a 3D print world, file security is the only way to manage the future of this technology. I can see that a saint may want to sacrifice his/her life for the good of humanity, but a human still needs to eat, have shelter, and provide for the family.

What if a printer can print out an instrument like an acoustical guitar and have all the sound qualities and plays with real precision. It probably would be real thin, but if it has a proper neck thickness and tunes up right.

Gad that lower the price of those top grade guitars immensely such as the Santa Cruz om/pow. Even though it would not be wood, if the playability is there and the sound is spot on. Wow what a concept !

Can't wait :^)

Though in reality, that might be a while. When I read things like this, the information is so stunning, I can hardly believe that it is true. But so many here are verifying it I guess it really is starting to happen big time.

This is one reason I like ATS because of new things coming out in so many fields of endeavor.

It's real, and instruments are a good possibility, even now. I have been using 3D printing for over 10 years now.

Here is a another example of what can be done.

www.youtube.com...

and more

www.youtube.com...

Originally posted by randomname
reply to post by kudegras

 

When it can replicate matter it will end world hunger, When it can replicate houses it will end poverty, when it can replicate aircrafts, cars and spacecrafts it will transport all man.

There will be no need for money because you can replicate your hearts desires.

You will not need a "job".

One step closer to the vision of gene roddenberry.

edit on 3-1-2013 by randomname because: (no reason given)

erm, you will need a job to pay for the huge electricity bills needed to operate these machines...

We getting our hands on this tech means the DOD had it 40 or so years ago...

Imagine what they're holding now...

Excuse me if anyone else made this remark already.

reply to post by 00777


I'd also bet the ink/resin it uses isn't cheap

What's the most useful thing it can print? lego blocks?

here I thought the idea was to do away with plastic because of the environment