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Nice round up of what 3D printers can do now... via BtB.
The concept of custom manufacturing is exciting to nearly everyone, but it always seems to be something that will happen in the “future”. Gibson was right and the following list of applications for 3D printers show the truth in the saying “The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.” The following items are all available for purchase or are being used in industry now. We are still a long way from Replicators like the ones from Star Trek: The Next Generation, but we probably won’t have to wait til the 24th century either.More:
Bathsheba Grossman, 3D sculptures ...Santa Cruz, California. 3D sculptures digitally printed in metal. Instant fabrication equipment printed out the artist's 2004 sculpture Lazy Eight directly in bronze. To help with the arduous task of generating intricate surfaces on the metal, she'll write her own computer scripts in Perl. With the advent of affordable 3D printing, she says, "advanced prototyping went from something that was completely in-house at Boeing to something you walk in off the street and order. I can't tell you how cool it is to have your own small hunk of metal." Makers: page 28.
Thanks for the kind words, There is also a follow up to this post highlighting Print On Demand technology. 3D printing is certainly more glitzy, but POD is making personal expression almost as easy in tangible form as in social media. Sort of like 3D printing's more studious sibling.
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Very nice post, but I think that it misses one single thing 3d printers can do - replicate.
link for more details:
http://reprap.org/bin/view/Main/WebHome
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