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

Some brainiacs at Monash U in Australia are working with graphene (single atom thick graphite) and natural cork as inspiration, to create very strong, elastic, and conductive building materials... Coming to a 3d printer near you?

A method called freeze casting allowed the researchers to form chemically modified graphene into a cork-like, 3-dimensional structure. The result was graphene blocks, not only lighter than air, but also capable of supporting 50,000 times their own weight, as well as being highly elastic and good conductors of electricity. The blocks’ elasticity was such that they were able to recover from more than 80% deformation.

"We've been able to effectively preserve the extraordinary qualities of graphene in an elastic 3-dimensional form, which paves the way for investigations of new uses of graphene - from aerospace to tissue engineering," said Professor Li.

www.iom3.org - Cork helps give 3D graphene structures elasticity

adding link to Monash
Cork the key to unlocking the potential of graphene

reply to post by happykat39


link is dead

Awesome pics and great thread.

Star and Flag.

-SAP-

YOU can take our guns you cant take our PRINTERS!

not hat i have any im from the uk.

reply to post by hotbread


Nope still alive

Someone else said the same so I linked to the stories they were linking the pics to.

www.abovetopsecret.com...
Enjoy

Originally posted by hotbread
reply to post by happykat39

 

link is dead

I just checked it and it works for me. Try again later in case you are having some kind of internet trouble.

reply to post by unityemissions

Of course you need that. The scanner isn´t a magic device that scans things that are somewhere else.
You need to put it on the table and scan its dimensions. So you need the physical holding.

OR

it has been scanned before. There you have it, physical holding unavoidable. And if you have that much quality time with your key, you can simply copy it.

Do you know how a lock works? And your copy. It fits to one particular lock. So I don´t think 3D key copying is or will ever be a big issue. You will be much faster with a sputnik. Its the middle one, that looks like a, well like sputnik if you need to emulate a key in the lock or can´t do it with picks.
www.blogcdn.com...

reply to post by happykat39


Do you realise polymers take thousands of years to break down in the environment, look at the dramas we have with plastic bags and aquatic life.
Just seems the tech heads only thinking of more ways to simplify jobs and reducing manpower which takes your job away all in order to make more money.
I dont think they are a good thing, anyway it'll go the same way as the Epson buy our hardware cheap and we'll sell you the resins and inks for a fortune. Dont be naive, this is another moneymaking scam by the corporates.
Without sufficient lucra, you'll only ever be a reseller or buyer.
You'll never own one of these things.

Every timeI see a "3d Printing is Awesome" thread someone gets their knickers in a wad about 3d printing a gun.
Well some guys printed the lower receiver of an AR-15, not the metal parts just the plastic lower receiver, that holds the bolt, trigger etc. together.
After an amazing 5 jammed filled rounds it fell apart.

www.youtube.com...

I would't worry too much about the 3d printed gun department yet.
And yes you can download files of gun parts from the internet, But what are the specs on them?
Just because it looks like the right shape doesn't mean they will all fit together and work.

I'm waiting for someone to combine a 3d printer and Pink Slime.
Instant printed plastic burgers!!
.....oh wait McDonald's already does that.

reply to post by mash3d


Glad someone said it. People need to read and open their eyes before they jump to conclusions that stick to them like flies on a hot sweaty day.

edits really took the joke away at the end

We've been using solid model printers for years to build prototype plastic housings for stuff we design.

It's never seemed that big a deal. You know you can get access to a solid modeler, right? A big, really capable one? All you need's the money for the prototype, enter your design files, and you get one in a few days. It's a stock service in the engineering world.

I just saw the 3d printing of cells and organs videos and I am stunned. If in the future they can help people with kidney disease by printing healthy kidneys or other required organs I will change my opinion.
Presently I am sure there is a great deal of cost involved and no doubt only the affluent can afford these things currently, but this will change peoples lives for the better.
My previous post's were from a dinosaur who's sees printing as a 2 dimensional thing.
I started in Letterpress in the late 70's, that died embraced Litho/Offset and now I am a Flexographic printer.
Obviously this is a complete different field of Printing, not what I would call Printing.
This technology used the right way will be a boon for mankind, it just depends on what they decide to use it for.
Sadly if the technology has been around 10 - 20 years you can guarantee it has already been used in producing
Guns and munitions, we just dont know about it.

Originally posted by kudegras
reply to post by happykat39

 

Do you realise polymers take thousands of years to break down in the environment, look at the dramas we have with plastic bags and aquatic life.
Just seems the tech heads only thinking of more ways to simplify jobs and reducing manpower which takes your job away all in order to make more money.
I dont think they are a good thing, anyway it'll go the same way as the Epson buy our hardware cheap and we'll sell you the resins and inks for a fortune. Dont be naive, this is another moneymaking scam by the corporates.
Without sufficient lucra, you'll only ever be a reseller or buyer.
You'll never own one of these things.

You do realize that you just made a self contradictory reply, don't you? If you apply your logic on the 3-D printers to your prior statement about Epson and printer supplies then we would not have printers with our computers. But we know that is wrong since almost 100% of computer owners have some kind of printer. Some, like me, have more than one printer. I have a standard all in one unit for everyday use and a large format printer for producing drawings from AutoCad.

Are the supplies expensive, of course they are. That's where the money is. But to make the supplies so expensive that no one would be able to afford them would be self defeating since no one would buy the equipment that uses the supplies if they couldn't afford to "feed" them.

Any commodity, like printer ink and 3-D resins, is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it. Price it too low and you lose profitability. Price it too high and you kill your market. So the companies that produce the supplies have to strike a happy medium to maximize profit.

Then, after a while, someone comes along and makes the supplies cheaper than the original manufacturer . That is what is called free market competition and capitalism. Eventually those once expensive supplies will become more affordable and reach a point where the price is actually fair.

reply to post by randomname


Actually a matter replicator insures hunger. Only those with the money, electricity, and base matter will be able to use it, and in many cases those owning the technologies will put a price on it. So that's a monopoly you buy matter from, and a monopoly of producers for the machine.

I use such technology and if the results did not outweigh the cost, it would be a scam. But it does cost bunches, and costs only go up the more monopolies come in and get involved to fix prices.

We're a good 200-400 years away from being able to just grab matter A and make it matter B, C, and D. For these centuries ahead, you have to purchase certified and approved materials that must follow regulations and prices to be sold. (toxic is a given for all inedible material.)

It's really a lot like medicine. No clue how to make it, but you have to buy it....only from approved venues. So you get the short end of the stick.

reply to post by signalfire


My apologies for the wording in my post. I truly did not feel like searching for videos on the thread.
Now that would be a great invention. If only

reply to post by happykat39


Thank you so much! Mind blowing what we can do these days. Also mind blowing what we don't do. Haha.

Originally posted by kudegras
This technology used the right way will be a boon for mankind, it just depends on what they decide to use it for.
Sadly if the technology has been around 10 - 20 years you can guarantee it has already been used in producing
Guns and munitions, we just dont know about it.

Ok, now you do.

I've got a gagged patent on 'printing' something munition-y. You can get effects you just can't manage any other way.

So yes, for some things, it's just ducky.

Let me jump in here and give my take on where 3-D printing will go, and where it won't go.

First of all, 3-D printing will never compete with high production machinery that can mold or stamp out parts by the hundreds of thousands a day. Back in the mid 80s they already had punch presses that could run at 1200 strokes a minute. The Raster and the Minster Pulsar are just two of them. Then you have multi cavity injection molding machines that can produce 50 small parts per cycle and cycle at the rate of 4 to 10 strokes a minute. Both the stamped and molded parts can be simple or extremely complex. Some fine stamping dies can produce parts to tolerances of 1/10,000th of an inch or better. If there is a 3-D printer that can match that speed and tolerance I haven't heard about it yet.

Will there ever be a new technology that will compete with that, maybe, but it probably won't be 3-D printing.

So, where will 3-D printing shine? We are already seeing one area in rapid prototyping. That allows an engineering team to have a working hands on sample of their design for evaluation weeks sooner than most older methods and much cheaper as well. Especially if that engineering sample would need to have some expensive tooling custom made to produce it.

Another area will be in the manufacturing of very complex shapes that would take just as long to produce on a 5 axis CNC milling machine as on a 3-D printer. And, the 3-D printer would be orders of magnitude cheaper than a very complex and high precision machine tool. Back in the days when I ran my industrial engineering and repair service I worked on high precision grinding machines that cost $500,000 a piece and all they did was to grind precision bores and outside diameters in parts that were already machined to shape and just needed to be ground to final size on one or more dimensions.

The final area will be in producing parts and assemblies that simply cannot be made using conventional machining methods. With 3-D printing, if you can draw it you can print it. Even if it has internal details impossible to produce with conventional methods.

Some of the Objet brand 3-D printers can produce things like a working faucet with all the soft and hard parts in place and in several different materials all in one pass. While that is not the most efficient use of 3-D printing technology, except for rapid prototyping, it does show off some of the capabilities of the technology.

So, in the final analysis, 3-D printing will not take over every area of manufacturing, but they are here to stay and have already carved out their niche in the grand scheme of things.

Originally posted by StareDad
reply to post by unityemissions

 

Of course you need that. The scanner isn´t a magic device that scans things that are somewhere else.
You need to put it on the table and scan its dimensions. So you need the physical holding.

OR

it has been scanned before. There you have it, physical holding unavoidable. And if you have that much quality time with your key, you can simply copy it.

I can't believe I have to explain this to you. This is getting ridiculous... ATS.

In your scenario, I must be in physical possession of the object, take it to a shop to get copied, and then return it before someone notices.

In my scenario, one must merely be around a key which can be digitally scanned. I don't have to possess it.

Did you seriously not consider this?

Freaking ridiculous.

Do you know how a lock works? And your copy. It fits to one particular lock. So I don´t think 3D key copying is or will ever be a big issue. You will be much faster with a sputnik. Its the middle one, that looks like a, well like sputnik if you need to emulate a key in the lock or can´t do it with picks.

You seriously just asked me that?

GTFO

If you've got a really good photo of a key, and some knowledge of the lock series, you can make a key from the photo.