8 ms·

Solar-Powered 3D Printer that Prints Glass from Sand

154 points by seven 15y ago

tzury 15y ago
That is all nice, amazing and innovative. Yet I think it is time to stop calling devices which create something and connected to a PC via USB a "Printer". Printer, print a material which you read. Anything else, is a robot which does X or Y.
- blhack 15y ago
  Do you consider it a printer if it's photos? A friend of mine owns a print shop that does very large scale advertising photos (like, building sized stuff). Should I inform his industry that they should stop referring to themselves as "printers" because they're not producing text?
  - russell 15y ago
    I think of printers as devices which produce hard copy 2-dimensional images. Star Trek coined "replicators". I think it fits pretty well even if the current versions are only 1.x of a pretty big n. "Robots" better fits the advanced articulated milling machines.
    - dhughes 15y ago
      I thought maybe lithography but instead of lithos(stone) maybe a general term for the prefix such as Dimiography or something like that.
- kragen 15y ago
  I think "printer" evokes more illuminating associations than "robot". A "printer" is something where you feed in bits and get out a physical product, which has largely replaced mass production (the very oldest kind of mass production!) with one-off custom production, in the particular domain where it's applicable. A "robot" is C-3PO.
  - regularfry 15y ago
    > the very oldest kind of mass production Actually, it's not. In ancient Egypt, bricks for house-building were mass-produced by casting mud in reusable moulds. That's the oldest example of mass-production I know of, but it would't surprise me if there were others of a similar vintage.
    - kragen 15y ago
      Holy shit, I had no idea. What were the other kinds of mass production from then until Gutenberg?
      - Someone 15y ago
        Ones i know of: coins, pottery (http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/article_index/r/roman_pottery_terra_sigillata.aspx http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/article_inde...), gadgets for tourists. I guess the Roman army mass-produced weaponry, too. Ships, forts, and bridges were semi-mass-produced (one design, adjusted to circumstances, small numbers)
        kragen 15y ago
        Ships still aren't mass-produced. Coins, though, that's a very good point. And I didn't know about pottery!
        Someone 15y ago
        It depends on what you call 'mass'. I think most people would agree Liberty ships were mass-produced (fairly large production run, assembly line, interchangeable 'parts' welded together) Even today, you still get production runs of fairly large ships, such as http://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/telstarlogistics/2011/01/us-navy-plans-to-order-20-new-littoral-combat-ships.html http://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/telstarlogistics/2011/01.... It has two companies each build a series of 10 ships.
- tzury 15y ago
  from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing. So perhaps, printer is a device which does printing.
pittsburgh 15y ago
I'm running a startup that 3D prints custom eyewear. When I explain 3D printing to somebody who isn't familiar with it, I usually show them this video of a wrench being made: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW0NZgcq9yA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW0NZgcq9yA Goodbye, wrench video. I'm going to start showing everybody Markus Kayser's SunCutter instead. Not only is it cooler, but I actually think the video of him printing the bowl in the desert helps you see what's happening more clearly. His SunCutter is a demonstration of SLS (selective laser sintering) which traditionally uses a laser (or in the above example, focused sun beams) to fuse small particles together. We're using SLA (Stereolithography) to print the glasses, which uses a UV laser to cure a liquid resin which turns it into a solid. For a good demonstration of SLA in action, check out this video of one of the printers we use: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTWFWh1x-yo&t=1m46s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTWFWh1x-yo&t=1m46s Finally, some shameless self-promotion... we're about to launch the private beta for our startup and we're actively seeking beta testers to kick the tires on our eyewear-designing software. If you're interested you can sign up at http://www.oyoglasses.com http://www.oyoglasses.com
fishtastic 15y ago
That was a great use of a huge magnifying glass. If he can somehow mass produce this, it would bring the cost of making planting pots to almost nothing. One problem with this design is that the light would deflect off the center particle and melt other sand around it. In the video, pretty much everything in 1cm radius gets melted. Unless he can somehow make it print in greater details, I can't think of a better use for this other than producing planting pots.
- Swannie 15y ago
  Combined with hand finishing, lathe finishing, 4 or 5 axis CNC milling, or any combination of the above - and there are a lot more uses.
- pyrhho 15y ago
  Scale it up and build a solid stone building? Anything else medium to large and stone, really. Giant statues?
  - cowkingdeluxe 15y ago
    I'm curious about this as well. I wonder how effective it would be at building a strong home cheaply.
  - phlux 15y ago
    GLegos. Glass LEGO made from sand and printed out. The machine needs to be scaled and cheapened - but it MUST be made to make bricks - over time, the bricks will be refined and they will be available for sale in the Organic or Fair Trade aisle of Home Depot. A smaller version shall be made and refined to allow girls in west africa to make beads and cups and such.
- primitur 15y ago
  >That was a great use of a huge magnifying glass. If he can somehow mass produce this, it would bring the cost of making planting pots to almost nothing. This technology could be used to make water sills and collectors in the desert. If you spend a week out there making water collectors, a couple weeks later you may find you have enough water for a village or two. Glass-forming in the desert could be the basis of an extraordinary micro-permaculture effort to build oases and gardens in otherwise impossibly hostile environments. This, plus a lot of water harvesting, could solve a lot of very difficult problems. If SunCutters can be made to make more SunCutters, and if templates for the SunCutter can be easily made, then I say once this tech is available to the desert masses, it could very much revolutionize restoration of these difficult lands.
pittsburgh 15y ago
This seems like a great way to build structures on the Moon. Imagine if we landed robots on the Moon to gather up moon dust into piles, and then satellites orbiting the moon could capture sunlight and direct that energy in the form of laser beams pointed at the moon dust. The robots would periodically brush away the excess dust, or add more to the pile. This idea might sound far fetched, but back in 2005 some guy actually sintered moon dust in a microwave oven. ( http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2005/09nov_lawnmower/ http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2005/09... ) This, combined with the op's article form a good proof of concept for 3D printed lunar homes.

154 points by seven 15y ago

tzury 15y ago

That is all nice, amazing and innovative. Yet I think it is time to stop calling devices which create something and connected to a PC via USB a "Printer". Printer, print a material which you read. Anything else, is a robot which does X or Y.

blhack 15y ago
Do you consider it a printer if it's photos? A friend of mine owns a print shop that does very large scale advertising photos (like, building sized stuff). Should I inform his industry that they should stop referring to themselves as "printers" because they're not producing text?
- russell 15y ago
  I think of printers as devices which produce hard copy 2-dimensional images. Star Trek coined "replicators". I think it fits pretty well even if the current versions are only 1.x of a pretty big n. "Robots" better fits the advanced articulated milling machines.
  - dhughes 15y ago
    I thought maybe lithography but instead of lithos(stone) maybe a general term for the prefix such as Dimiography or something like that.
kragen 15y ago
I think "printer" evokes more illuminating associations than "robot". A "printer" is something where you feed in bits and get out a physical product, which has largely replaced mass production (the very oldest kind of mass production!) with one-off custom production, in the particular domain where it's applicable. A "robot" is C-3PO.
- regularfry 15y ago
  > the very oldest kind of mass production Actually, it's not. In ancient Egypt, bricks for house-building were mass-produced by casting mud in reusable moulds. That's the oldest example of mass-production I know of, but it would't surprise me if there were others of a similar vintage.
  - kragen 15y ago
    Holy shit, I had no idea. What were the other kinds of mass production from then until Gutenberg?
    - Someone 15y ago
      Ones i know of: coins, pottery (http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/article_index/r/roman_pottery_terra_sigillata.aspx http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/article_inde...), gadgets for tourists. I guess the Roman army mass-produced weaponry, too. Ships, forts, and bridges were semi-mass-produced (one design, adjusted to circumstances, small numbers)
      - kragen 15y ago
        Ships still aren't mass-produced. Coins, though, that's a very good point. And I didn't know about pottery!
        Someone 15y ago
        It depends on what you call 'mass'. I think most people would agree Liberty ships were mass-produced (fairly large production run, assembly line, interchangeable 'parts' welded together) Even today, you still get production runs of fairly large ships, such as http://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/telstarlogistics/2011/01/us-navy-plans-to-order-20-new-littoral-combat-ships.html http://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/telstarlogistics/2011/01.... It has two companies each build a series of 10 ships.
tzury 15y ago
from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing. So perhaps, printer is a device which does printing.

pittsburgh 15y ago

I'm running a startup that 3D prints custom eyewear. When I explain 3D printing to somebody who isn't familiar with it, I usually show them this video of a wrench being made: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW0NZgcq9yA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW0NZgcq9yA Goodbye, wrench video. I'm going to start showing everybody Markus Kayser's SunCutter instead. Not only is it cooler, but I actually think the video of him printing the bowl in the desert helps you see what's happening more clearly. His SunCutter is a demonstration of SLS (selective laser sintering) which traditionally uses a laser (or in the above example, focused sun beams) to fuse small particles together. We're using SLA (Stereolithography) to print the glasses, which uses a UV laser to cure a liquid resin which turns it into a solid. For a good demonstration of SLA in action, check out this video of one of the printers we use: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTWFWh1x-yo&t=1m46s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTWFWh1x-yo&t=1m46s Finally, some shameless self-promotion... we're about to launch the private beta for our startup and we're actively seeking beta testers to kick the tires on our eyewear-designing software. If you're interested you can sign up at http://www.oyoglasses.com http://www.oyoglasses.com

fishtastic 15y ago

That was a great use of a huge magnifying glass. If he can somehow mass produce this, it would bring the cost of making planting pots to almost nothing. One problem with this design is that the light would deflect off the center particle and melt other sand around it. In the video, pretty much everything in 1cm radius gets melted. Unless he can somehow make it print in greater details, I can't think of a better use for this other than producing planting pots.

Swannie 15y ago
Combined with hand finishing, lathe finishing, 4 or 5 axis CNC milling, or any combination of the above - and there are a lot more uses.
pyrhho 15y ago
Scale it up and build a solid stone building? Anything else medium to large and stone, really. Giant statues?
- cowkingdeluxe 15y ago
  I'm curious about this as well. I wonder how effective it would be at building a strong home cheaply.
- phlux 15y ago
  GLegos. Glass LEGO made from sand and printed out. The machine needs to be scaled and cheapened - but it MUST be made to make bricks - over time, the bricks will be refined and they will be available for sale in the Organic or Fair Trade aisle of Home Depot. A smaller version shall be made and refined to allow girls in west africa to make beads and cups and such.
primitur 15y ago
>That was a great use of a huge magnifying glass. If he can somehow mass produce this, it would bring the cost of making planting pots to almost nothing. This technology could be used to make water sills and collectors in the desert. If you spend a week out there making water collectors, a couple weeks later you may find you have enough water for a village or two. Glass-forming in the desert could be the basis of an extraordinary micro-permaculture effort to build oases and gardens in otherwise impossibly hostile environments. This, plus a lot of water harvesting, could solve a lot of very difficult problems. If SunCutters can be made to make more SunCutters, and if templates for the SunCutter can be easily made, then I say once this tech is available to the desert masses, it could very much revolutionize restoration of these difficult lands.

pittsburgh 15y ago

This seems like a great way to build structures on the Moon. Imagine if we landed robots on the Moon to gather up moon dust into piles, and then satellites orbiting the moon could capture sunlight and direct that energy in the form of laser beams pointed at the moon dust. The robots would periodically brush away the excess dust, or add more to the pile. This idea might sound far fetched, but back in 2005 some guy actually sintered moon dust in a microwave oven. ( http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2005/09nov_lawnmower/ http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2005/09... ) This, combined with the op's article form a good proof of concept for 3D printed lunar homes.