5 ms·

3D-Printed Flute Is Here

61 points by jamesjyu 16y ago

iwwr 16y ago
I take it this design uses UV-curing materials, like in the manufacture of PCBs.
- steveklabnik 16y ago
  Yes, Objet's process involves spraying down resin, then curing it with UV.
  - iwwr 16y ago
    Do you know of a cheaper UV-curing material for applications like RepRap?
    - steveklabnik 16y ago
      No, the process is fundamentally different. You can think of the RepRap process as being like a glue gun on a robot arm, whereas what PJet stuff does is more like printing a page of paper, but instead of ink, it's resin. Then shine some UV on it to cure it.
    - nickpinkston 16y ago
      Although really - the jetting issues are pretty big with this process. The materials and print heads are tuned with much effort. You could get around the jetting issues by using one material and do the EnvisionTec process (i.e. DLP projecting on a bath of UV cured plastic) - but it'll be more expensive materials wise - though you will be able to print hundreds of things at one time... For now the FDM (MakerBot / RepRap) process are the best start for accessible printing.
jrockway 16y ago
Pretty nice. It looked weird when Seth was playing it, but I realized that's because the keys that you would normally close with your right hand did not seal. So he was restricted to the three or so notes that you can play with your left hand. Also, the article says: the flute itself sounds beautiful acoustically when played by player Seth Hunter. Personally, I think it sounds like those plastic recorders that you got in 3rd grade music class. But that's not the point; it shows that 3d printing can produce something that used to take a skilled craftsperson days. This will be great for applications like elementary school band, though, because kids can lose interest quickly, and a $5 mass-produced instrument is perfect for learning. Once you know you are going to stick with it, then you can pay the $2000 for the real thing :) (And yes, I do play the flute!)
- pbhjpbhj 16y ago
  >because kids can lose interest quickly, and a $5 mass-produced instrument is perfect for learning It took 15 hours to print and had to be manually cleaned. Sure the process will improve but then how much does it currently cost to make a basic flute? The cheapest retail I found after a very brief search was $70, http://amzn.to/dQGdzI http://amzn.to/dQGdzI (aff link); so I'm going to guess $35 direct manufacture costs. Mind you it gets very poor reviews whilst $100 gets you a Hisonic one with pretty good reviews (http://amzn.to/eV9a6q http://amzn.to/eV9a6q). The only price I found was $50,000 USD for the printer - even if it ran everyday for 5 years without breaking or needing materials or maintenance that's $20 or so of your $5. It is awesome though how it prints composite pieces and the way the removable scaffold materials are used, love the concept of these things.
  - jrockway 16y ago
    It's not $5 today. It will be $5 tomorrow.
    - jonah 16y ago
      I don't think 3D printers will ever beat molding for mass production. Where they win is short-run and prototyping.
      - kragen 16y ago
        You're probably right, but keep in mind that mass production imposes some costs of its own. There are the up-front costs you allude to when you say "short-run" --- even if you're cutting your mold from aluminum, that's an expensive way to make five instances --- but there are also costs associated with the "mass" nature of the production. First, mass production must be geographically centralized. This means you have shipping costs. For fragile or bulky objects, the shipping cost can sometimes exceed the material cost. Second, mass production involves inventory at every stage of the supply chain, although you can cut inventory down quite a lot from what we used to do 60 years ago. Maintaining inventory is expensive. So it's possible that 3-D printers will beat molding for mass production. It's just not likely in the foreseeable future. Molecular nanotechnology will, of course, make 3-D printers beat molding.
jberryman 16y ago
That is awesome, the flute looks like the gun from the toon-world in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit". They gave themselves quite a challenge trying to 3d-print a playable instrument: as you can see from the video, on the modern flute most keys depress one or more other keys when pressed, so the mechanism has to be adjusted just so in order for all of the pads involved in a key press to seal at the same time (in fact thin pieces of paper are used to shim pads to get a good seal, so it's quite a precise thing). I really, really hope they fabricate some new and amazing Dr. Seuss instruments and commision some student composers to write pieces for them.
colomon 16y ago
Cool, but it seems like they missed a bit of a chance by not printing a simple system keyless flute. Less impressive looking, I suppose, but as long as they were careful with their CAD model design, it probably would have worked perfectly on the first try.
jacquesm 16y ago
It's nice to see this development, but replicating existing designs is not where this technology is at its best, prototyping is. That said it's an extremely impressive piece of work, and just like with the pig, the fact that it dances at all is what makes it amazing, the quality of the dance is secondary for now.

61 points by jamesjyu 16y ago

iwwr 16y ago

I take it this design uses UV-curing materials, like in the manufacture of PCBs.

steveklabnik 16y ago
Yes, Objet's process involves spraying down resin, then curing it with UV.
- iwwr 16y ago
  Do you know of a cheaper UV-curing material for applications like RepRap?
  - steveklabnik 16y ago
    No, the process is fundamentally different. You can think of the RepRap process as being like a glue gun on a robot arm, whereas what PJet stuff does is more like printing a page of paper, but instead of ink, it's resin. Then shine some UV on it to cure it.
  - nickpinkston 16y ago
    Although really - the jetting issues are pretty big with this process. The materials and print heads are tuned with much effort. You could get around the jetting issues by using one material and do the EnvisionTec process (i.e. DLP projecting on a bath of UV cured plastic) - but it'll be more expensive materials wise - though you will be able to print hundreds of things at one time... For now the FDM (MakerBot / RepRap) process are the best start for accessible printing.

jrockway 16y ago

Pretty nice. It looked weird when Seth was playing it, but I realized that's because the keys that you would normally close with your right hand did not seal. So he was restricted to the three or so notes that you can play with your left hand. Also, the article says: the flute itself sounds beautiful acoustically when played by player Seth Hunter. Personally, I think it sounds like those plastic recorders that you got in 3rd grade music class. But that's not the point; it shows that 3d printing can produce something that used to take a skilled craftsperson days. This will be great for applications like elementary school band, though, because kids can lose interest quickly, and a $5 mass-produced instrument is perfect for learning. Once you know you are going to stick with it, then you can pay the $2000 for the real thing :) (And yes, I do play the flute!)

pbhjpbhj 16y ago
>because kids can lose interest quickly, and a $5 mass-produced instrument is perfect for learning It took 15 hours to print and had to be manually cleaned. Sure the process will improve but then how much does it currently cost to make a basic flute? The cheapest retail I found after a very brief search was $70, http://amzn.to/dQGdzI http://amzn.to/dQGdzI (aff link); so I'm going to guess $35 direct manufacture costs. Mind you it gets very poor reviews whilst $100 gets you a Hisonic one with pretty good reviews (http://amzn.to/eV9a6q http://amzn.to/eV9a6q). The only price I found was $50,000 USD for the printer - even if it ran everyday for 5 years without breaking or needing materials or maintenance that's $20 or so of your $5. It is awesome though how it prints composite pieces and the way the removable scaffold materials are used, love the concept of these things.
- jrockway 16y ago
  It's not $5 today. It will be $5 tomorrow.
  - jonah 16y ago
    I don't think 3D printers will ever beat molding for mass production. Where they win is short-run and prototyping.
    - kragen 16y ago
      You're probably right, but keep in mind that mass production imposes some costs of its own. There are the up-front costs you allude to when you say "short-run" --- even if you're cutting your mold from aluminum, that's an expensive way to make five instances --- but there are also costs associated with the "mass" nature of the production. First, mass production must be geographically centralized. This means you have shipping costs. For fragile or bulky objects, the shipping cost can sometimes exceed the material cost. Second, mass production involves inventory at every stage of the supply chain, although you can cut inventory down quite a lot from what we used to do 60 years ago. Maintaining inventory is expensive. So it's possible that 3-D printers will beat molding for mass production. It's just not likely in the foreseeable future. Molecular nanotechnology will, of course, make 3-D printers beat molding.

jberryman 16y ago

That is awesome, the flute looks like the gun from the toon-world in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit". They gave themselves quite a challenge trying to 3d-print a playable instrument: as you can see from the video, on the modern flute most keys depress one or more other keys when pressed, so the mechanism has to be adjusted just so in order for all of the pads involved in a key press to seal at the same time (in fact thin pieces of paper are used to shim pads to get a good seal, so it's quite a precise thing). I really, really hope they fabricate some new and amazing Dr. Seuss instruments and commision some student composers to write pieces for them.

colomon 16y ago

Cool, but it seems like they missed a bit of a chance by not printing a simple system keyless flute. Less impressive looking, I suppose, but as long as they were careful with their CAD model design, it probably would have worked perfectly on the first try.

jacquesm 16y ago

It's nice to see this development, but replicating existing designs is not where this technology is at its best, prototyping is. That said it's an extremely impressive piece of work, and just like with the pig, the fact that it dances at all is what makes it amazing, the quality of the dance is secondary for now.