Students at Virgina Tech can make their 3D-modeled dreams into little plastic realities thanks to the DreamVendor, a free 3D-printing vending machine in the College of Engineering, powered by four MakerBot Thing-O-Matics. The machine was created by Virginia Tech’s DREAMS Lab (Design, Research, and Education for Additive Manufacturing Systems).
From their site:
The DreamVendor is an interactive 3D printing station for Virginia Tech students to enable them to quickly fabricate prototypes for their academic, and even personal, design projects.
Think of it as a vending machine with an infinite inventory – you simply insert an SD card that contains 3D printer code (generated from your CAD model) into the machine; the DreamVendor then prints your 3D part and dispenses it into a bin when it’s finished.
In addition, the DreamVendor houses physical examples of the latest research by the members of the DREAMS Lab. We hope that the DreamVendor will provide students with an easy way to access the exciting field of additive manufacturing.
[via Gizmag]
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