30 ms·

Next Year’s 3-D Printers Promise Big Things — Really Big Things

29 points by replicatorblog 14y ago

breckinloggins 14y ago
It's fun to imagine the type of replicator a Type I civilization might be able to produce. Imagine a machine that takes hydrogen and energy (or just energy) and builds, from the subatomic particles up, all the elements needed for production (just as stars do). Then, using a combination of scaffolding, precise placement, and self-replicating nano-structures, creates any object, organic or otherwise. Who knows, we may ultimately figure out how to manipulate a more fundamental physical substrate than just "packets of energy orbiting each other" and so create exotic but stable condensates and states of matter we can now only imagine. This would be something akin to using the hypothetical "quantum foam" as a sculpting material. Granted, this all requires physics that aren't currently understood and may not even exist, and the amount of energy required would be staggering, but a true "anything replicator" would surpass the Star Trek vision into something that needed no "raw materials" at all except energy.
- KaoruAoiShiho 14y ago
  Might not even need energy, require information only.
  - archivator 14y ago
    Well, there's work to be done (quite literally), so unless we discover the laws of thermodynamics don't work, energy will always be expended.
    - deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]
    - robertk 14y ago
      Not if you can set up a framework where physical objects are equivalent to reversible computations (and hence energyless).
  - salgernon 14y ago
    Or we could just render the satisfaction of owning an object, rather than actually producing the object itself. (One possibility of the whole singularity thing - desire for physical objects may not be satisfied when we lack a physical existence. (For some value of singularity.))
- ChuckMcM 14y ago
  Strangely enough the problem might be 'too much' energy. If you take some hydrogen and fuse them together several times to make iron you liberate a lot energy, its how stars work. The tricky bits involve starting it off (you do need energy to start fusing Hydrogen into Helium, then you can use that energy to keep fusing helium in to carbon, Etc. And directing it, which is to say if you've got a hot plasma of Iron, Nickel, and Carbon atoms how to coalesce them into stainless steel, and in the shape of a dinner fork? Quite the challenge that.
micro_cam 14y ago
I expect ski boots to be the first consumer breakthrough 3d printed product. Personalized fit matters immensely, so much so that it is common to pay someone to grind and stretch an existing shell and/or to use exotic heat moldable or vacuum fit liners. Further they are fairly expensive and one of the main cost of producing a new model is the cost of producing molds in each shell size. The market is also large enough to justify significant investment but also very receptive too new boutique products. (Any one with a 3d printer feel free to use this business idea so I can buy a pair and stop my feet from hurting.)
3amOpsGuy 14y ago
I'm still sceptical of 3D printing. They're hyped so much with little to show for it - when did you last use something printed on a 3D printer? This is a technology designed to bring affordable, easy manufacturing to your bedroom, it's been around for years now, supposedly widely deployed. Yet hardly anyone alive today has handled or used a product printed on one of these machines? From what i've read, the plastics suitable for printing do not easily make viable "hard wearing" products - although i understand various techniques can be used to improve this to some degree. The raw materials used are not cheap and there doesn't appear to be much scope for future cost reduction. Perhaps more worrying is the limited option to reuse existing materials. Until i start seeing and using products of 3D printing, colour me unconvinced. I'm sitting this revolution out.
- ComputerGuru 14y ago
  Honestly, I find the 3D printing to be most useful for rapid prototyping. No more sending schematics out, waiting for the results to come back via post, and repeating the cycle until you have something you're happy with and ready to take to the actual manufacturer. It's a better small CNC machine* for inventors and hobbyists. As much as its proponents will claim there will be one in every home which you'll use to re-create broken pieces of appliances, tools, and equipment and how you'll be downloading specs left and right to print your own odds and ends - the fact of the matter is that at this point in time and for the near future, this is not a realistic option. Price of the raw materials, time to creation (a whole day for small complex objects), price of the devices, cheap quality of the only affordable 3D printers (need constant adjustment, calibration, and repair), maintenance, etc. mean that it's another tool for the workshop and not a consumer electronic device like an office copy machine and especially not like your household printer or scanner (* actually, CNCs are better, more reliable, cheaper to work with, etc. but this is 3D so...)
- salgernon 14y ago
  I've decided to buy one for my family this year, couched as a Christmas gift. Ok, that's a lie, I'm buying it as a toy for myself. 32 years ago, my best friends father bought his family an apple II+ (and novation applecat modem!). Well, that's a lie, he bought it for himself. I think more than it being actually useful as a production device, I'm hoping that having direct access to one of these will instill in my kids the same sense of OMG this is magic, that I had as a kid. Or, it might just collect dust like any number of other things in my home. (Hmm, perhaps I could print some sort of dusting device...)
ComputerGuru 14y ago
All on one page: http://www.wired.com/design/2012/11/big-3d-printers-euromold-2012/?pid=1387&viewall=true http://www.wired.com/design/2012/11/big-3d-printers-euromold...
gdubs 14y ago
Last night at dinner, a friend was telling me about how Jay Leno (an avid classic car collector) was restoring old vehicles through 3d printing. Found the clip on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzA_7tkKmM0&feature=youtube_gdata_player http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzA_7tkKmM0&feature=youtu...

It's fun to imagine the type of replicator a Type I civilization might be able to produce. Imagine a machine that takes hydrogen and energy (or just energy) and builds, from the subatomic particles up, all the elements needed for production (just as stars do). Then, using a combination of scaffolding, precise placement, and self-replicating nano-structures, creates any object, organic or otherwise. Who knows, we may ultimately figure out how to manipulate a more fundamental physical substrate than just "packets of energy orbiting each other" and so create exotic but stable condensates and states of matter we can now only imagine. This would be something akin to using the hypothetical "quantum foam" as a sculpting material. Granted, this all requires physics that aren't currently understood and may not even exist, and the amount of energy required would be staggering, but a true "anything replicator" would surpass the Star Trek vision into something that needed no "raw materials" at all except energy.

KaoruAoiShiho 14y ago
Might not even need energy, require information only.
- archivator 14y ago
  Well, there's work to be done (quite literally), so unless we discover the laws of thermodynamics don't work, energy will always be expended.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - robertk 14y ago
    Not if you can set up a framework where physical objects are equivalent to reversible computations (and hence energyless).
- salgernon 14y ago
  Or we could just render the satisfaction of owning an object, rather than actually producing the object itself. (One possibility of the whole singularity thing - desire for physical objects may not be satisfied when we lack a physical existence. (For some value of singularity.))
ChuckMcM 14y ago
Strangely enough the problem might be 'too much' energy. If you take some hydrogen and fuse them together several times to make iron you liberate a lot energy, its how stars work. The tricky bits involve starting it off (you do need energy to start fusing Hydrogen into Helium, then you can use that energy to keep fusing helium in to carbon, Etc. And directing it, which is to say if you've got a hot plasma of Iron, Nickel, and Carbon atoms how to coalesce them into stainless steel, and in the shape of a dinner fork? Quite the challenge that.

micro_cam 14y ago

I expect ski boots to be the first consumer breakthrough 3d printed product. Personalized fit matters immensely, so much so that it is common to pay someone to grind and stretch an existing shell and/or to use exotic heat moldable or vacuum fit liners. Further they are fairly expensive and one of the main cost of producing a new model is the cost of producing molds in each shell size. The market is also large enough to justify significant investment but also very receptive too new boutique products. (Any one with a 3d printer feel free to use this business idea so I can buy a pair and stop my feet from hurting.)

3amOpsGuy 14y ago

I'm still sceptical of 3D printing. They're hyped so much with little to show for it - when did you last use something printed on a 3D printer? This is a technology designed to bring affordable, easy manufacturing to your bedroom, it's been around for years now, supposedly widely deployed. Yet hardly anyone alive today has handled or used a product printed on one of these machines? From what i've read, the plastics suitable for printing do not easily make viable "hard wearing" products - although i understand various techniques can be used to improve this to some degree. The raw materials used are not cheap and there doesn't appear to be much scope for future cost reduction. Perhaps more worrying is the limited option to reuse existing materials. Until i start seeing and using products of 3D printing, colour me unconvinced. I'm sitting this revolution out.

ComputerGuru 14y ago
Honestly, I find the 3D printing to be most useful for rapid prototyping. No more sending schematics out, waiting for the results to come back via post, and repeating the cycle until you have something you're happy with and ready to take to the actual manufacturer. It's a better small CNC machine* for inventors and hobbyists. As much as its proponents will claim there will be one in every home which you'll use to re-create broken pieces of appliances, tools, and equipment and how you'll be downloading specs left and right to print your own odds and ends - the fact of the matter is that at this point in time and for the near future, this is not a realistic option. Price of the raw materials, time to creation (a whole day for small complex objects), price of the devices, cheap quality of the only affordable 3D printers (need constant adjustment, calibration, and repair), maintenance, etc. mean that it's another tool for the workshop and not a consumer electronic device like an office copy machine and especially not like your household printer or scanner (* actually, CNCs are better, more reliable, cheaper to work with, etc. but this is 3D so...)
salgernon 14y ago
I've decided to buy one for my family this year, couched as a Christmas gift. Ok, that's a lie, I'm buying it as a toy for myself. 32 years ago, my best friends father bought his family an apple II+ (and novation applecat modem!). Well, that's a lie, he bought it for himself. I think more than it being actually useful as a production device, I'm hoping that having direct access to one of these will instill in my kids the same sense of OMG this is magic, that I had as a kid. Or, it might just collect dust like any number of other things in my home. (Hmm, perhaps I could print some sort of dusting device...)

ComputerGuru 14y ago

All on one page: http://www.wired.com/design/2012/11/big-3d-printers-euromold-2012/?pid=1387&viewall=true http://www.wired.com/design/2012/11/big-3d-printers-euromold...

gdubs 14y ago

Last night at dinner, a friend was telling me about how Jay Leno (an avid classic car collector) was restoring old vehicles through 3d printing. Found the clip on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzA_7tkKmM0&feature=youtube_gdata_player http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzA_7tkKmM0&feature=youtu...