3 ms·

I consider 3D printing to be mature technology once a 3D printer can clone itself! I bet at that point von Neumann smiles in his grave for self-replicating syst

• alanctgardner2 14y ago
  I may be wrong, but there are a few problems with a self-replicating printer of this type: - The size of the stage determines the largest size of part that can be printed. The stage is necessarily smaller than the largest part of the printer. - The print head has to have a melting point greater than the material being printed. Meaning it can't be made of the material being printed. RepRap is a project with the state goal of creating a self-printing machine like this. But looking at the current designs, they mostly stick together common materials with some 3-D printed bits. This is much more attainable and useful than really being able to recursively print a new machine, because the common parts are produced at scale through existing channels and are stronger/cheaper than the machine-printed parts.