Maker Faire 2012 New York - Attack of The 3D Printer Bots
One of the big attractions, a technology area that has experienced explosive growth recently, is the land of 3D Printing. MakerBot took the open source RepRap 3D replicator project mainstream back in 2009 with the release of the Cup Cake CNC machine, then came the Thing-o-Matic and then a little bot called Replicator. With each iteration, improvements in process and technology are bringing better, more capable 3D printers to market, from MakerBot's new Replicator 2, to new machines and technologies in the field from Solidoodle, Up!3D, Ultimaker, and Tinkerines.
MakerBot's Replicator 2 is a proprietary design, a first for the company and a first in a field that historically established its roots in a passionate, collaborative open source community model. Most commercially available 3D printers today are delivered unassembled and as such, modifications and improvements can be introduced easily, spurring new designs, features and capabilities.
To watch a 3D printer in action is like witnessing art, science and engineering all working together in glorious unison. And regardless of your geek status or lack thereof, the objects you can design and build with one of these machines will blow you away. Watch...
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MakerBot's Replicator 2
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The Netherlands-based Ultimaker
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Ultimaker 3D Model Results
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UP! 3D Mini Printers and Model Products
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Solidoodle 2 (left) - Tinkerine Ditto Acrylic (right)
As you can see, some of the models being built at the event were absolutely amazing. Ultimaker's human statue models were especially stunning, with intricate detail previously only produced by sculptors and artists manually. Some of the mechanical structures like gears and other types of machinery just wowed us as feats of engineering marvel.
We're going to be watching this space closely in the months ahead and may even coordinate a "3D Printer Round-up" of sorts. Stick around!
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Via: HotHardware | News Archive
| Tags:
3D,
MakerBot,
3D Printer,
Ultimaker,
RepRap,
Maker Faire,
3D printing
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I frikking love 3D printers! I work in the R&D department of a medical device company, and we have one for rapid prototyping. I'm not trained to be anywhere near that thing, so I don't get to play around with it, but it' still amazing that what used to take a sculptor weeks to do now takes an engineer with some SolidWorks knowledge and a few hours. I saw that mesh thing was pretty floppy, but how rigid were the solid pieces? The stuff we make are pretty brittle and we only use them to make moulds for actual plastic prototyping. |
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The solid pieces were very sturdy and rigid. Depending on the patters used to fill the interiors, weight, strength and density can vary, but the quality pieces that were printed to show off the tech were very strong. We saw MANY of the pieces dropped to the ground without any damage. |
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The show was such a mob scene and a hustle but it was well worth it. There was some amazing stuff to see for sure. I think 3D Printing is going to take off big time in the next few years. |
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Shame you missed www.typeamachines.com Bigger build volume that the Makerbot, more reliable too! Cool people, with cool 3D printed hats! http://t.co/ZCNQeFnL |
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You wouldn't happen to be from the company, would you? ;) We'll have to take a look! |
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Wake me up when you can buy a printer for maybe $1k where everything doesn't come out all blotchy. Look at the edges on that propeller in the 2nd from last pic... terrible... it has big chunks missing out of it. |
Knock-knock, wake up justniz! :) That propeller was just a bit beat-up. Look at the precision on the engine body underneath it. These printers are able to print resolutions and precision down to 20 micron, that's .2mm dude, crazy tight. And the cheapest one at the show was $500 actually, with the ability to hit 1 micron/1mm resolution. There was a 20 micron capable machine for $1500. Not bad at all for what you can do with these amazing machines. |
justniz:
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