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Fast 3D printing with nanoscale precision. 285-micron racecar (credit: Vienna University of Technology) Printing three dimensional objects with very fine details using two-photon lithography can now be achieved orders of magnitude faster than similar devices in a breakthrough by Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna) researchers.

Fast 3D printing with nanoscale precision

The 3D printing process uses a liquid resin, which is hardened at precisely the correct spots by a focused laser beam. The focal point of the laser beam is guided through the resin by movable mirrors and leaves behind a hardened line of solid polymer a few hundred nanometers wide. This fine resolution enables the creation of intricately structured sculptures as tiny as a grain of sand. “Until now, this technique used to be quite slow”, says Professor Jürgen Stampfl from the Institute of Materials Science and Technology at the TU Vienna. This progress was made possible by combining several new ideas.

Faster printing for large objects too “The resin contains molecules, activated by the laser light. Gallery: 3-D Printing's Dream Projects. Gallery: 3-D Printing's Dream Projects. Shapeways and 3D Printing. Bone Machine: A 3-D Printer To Fix Broken Body Parts. It’s 2020 and you have severe gum disease.

Bone Machine: A 3-D Printer To Fix Broken Body Parts

It’s bad enough to require surgery to replace lost bone. Fab at Home, Open-Source 3D Printer, Lets Users Make Anything. October 1, 2007 12:00 AM Click here to post this video on your blog or website.

Fab at Home, Open-Source 3D Printer, Lets Users Make Anything

Click here to post a photo of this winner on your blog or website. Hod Lipson didn't set out to revolutionize manufacturing. He just wanted to design a really cool robot, one that could "evolve" by reprogramming itself and would also produce its own hardware--a software brain, if you will, with the ability to create a body. The Making of A 3D Printer. Geek Tool: Slashdot Video of Award Winning 3D Printer From CES. Designers Print 3D Buildings, Make Models Out of Metal Powder. The future of manufacturing and design relies on a printer that costs up to $60,000.

Designers Print 3D Buildings, Make Models Out of Metal Powder

MIT Media Lab professor Neri Oxman and materials science professor Craig Carter have created machinery that makes 3D printing of buildings and other structural prototypes a reality. One of the latest examples of 3D printing is a 6-inch cube sculpture that says "Making the Future. " Check out the process in the Mashable video above. The inkjet hovers over a flat surface and creates the cube from the bottom up, layer by layer.

The biology-inspired printer consists of mounted inkjet heads that deposit plastic layers to form an object. SEE ALSO: Will 3D Printing End Mass Manufacturing? The result of these 3D processes is better design, because it allows for the stretching of one's creative mind. So, what's the science behind these printers of the new age? MakerBot's Replicator Prints Larger 3D Creations In Two Spectacular Colors. Sculpteo iOS app: 3D printing without the printer. A new free iOS app from Sculpteo will let you craft 3D objects of your own without having to actually purchase a 3D printer.

Sculpteo iOS app: 3D printing without the printer

It works like this: you take a sideways photo of someone's face and the software automatically recognizes their profile, at which point you can order a vase or mug custom-printed with the silhouette. Users can also customize cups of varying sizes with 2D dot-matrix designs that can be previewed within the app before being printed three-dimensionally. We're told it takes around 30 days for orders to ship, and the mug costs around $39 while the larger vase is $299.

More products are supposedly in the pipeline as well. Sculpteo iOS app and custom printed objects hands-on pictures Previous Next View full Gallery. Your 3D design turns into reality with the 3D printing. Shapeways - Customize and create 3D printed products. Welcome to the Future of Stuff. Building a 3-D Printer for Supercool Ice Objects. InShare0 Photo: Michel Pilon Water may freeze at 32 degrees Fahrenheit, but it prints at about minus 8.

Building a 3-D Printer for Supercool Ice Objects

This is just one of the insights that Pieter Sijpkes, a professor emeritus at McGill University, has discovered since cobbling together a machine that prints objects by building up ultrathin layers of ice. He and his team have printed a statue, an egg carton, a martini glass, and molds that melt conveniently away. Why ice? HardwareThe researchers used a robot arm, because it had the right structure and workspace for the system they wanted to build. Print Your Own 3D models (by @baekdal) #trends. PlusBooksanalysisinsightsopinionblog About BaekdalFollow Baekdal RSSAdvertiseSearch.

Print Your Own 3D models (by @baekdal) #trends

One Per Cent: Evolve your own objects for 3D printing. Jacob Aron, technology reporter Want to get into 3D printing, but lack the skills to make your designs a reality?

One Per Cent: Evolve your own objects for 3D printing

No matter - you can now create 3D objects in just a few clicks with EndlessForms, which uses evolutionary principles to gradually modify designs then brings them into the real world with 3D printing. The site was created by a team of researchers at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York led by Hod Lipson, who recently explained how 3D printing is bringing about a second industrial revolution. The technology has the potential to democratise production, but users need an easy way to create designs without the need for complicated software. EndlessForms lets you start with a basic shape then evolve it by selecting simple variants or combining it with other shapes to create your ideal design.

In addition to bring 3D printing to the masses, the researchers hope their site will also help them learn more about the evolutionary model that powers it. EndlessForms.com - Design objects with evolution and 3D print them! World’s first ‘printed’ aircraft. SULSA is the world's first "printed" aircraft (credit: University of Southampton) Engineers at the University of Southampton have designed and flown the world’s first “printed” aircraft, which could revolutionize the economics of aircraft design, the engineers say.

World’s first ‘printed’ aircraft

The SULSA (Southampton University Laser Sintered Aircraft) plane is an unmanned air vehicle (UAV), with its entire structure printed. This includes wings, integral control surfaces, and access hatches. It was printed on an EOS EOSINT P730 nylon laser sintering machine, which fabricates plastic or metal objects, building up the item layer-by-layer. It took only 48 hours to print. Prof. “The great attraction is the fully automated manufacture with guaranteed quality and very simply assembly — weight is comparable to other systems since reduced strength of nylon compare to CFRP is compensated for by structural design sophistication,” Keane told KurzweilAI.

Makani flying wind energy. Evolve objects and 3d print them. 3D printing UAVs from design to flight in days. New Scientist - a team led by Andy Keane and Jim Scanlan of the University of Southampton, believes that 3D printing will soon allow uncrewed aircraft known as drones or UAVs to go from the drawing board to flight in a matter of days.

3D printing UAVs from design to flight in days

No longer, they say, will one design of UAV be repeatedly manufactured on a production line. Instead, designers will be able to fine-tune a UAV for each specific application – whether it be crop spraying, surveillance or infrared photography – and then print a bespoke plane on demand. Keane's team set out to see how quickly they could design a 1.5-metre-wingspan, super-low-drag UAV, print it and get it airborne. A UK-based 3D-printing firm, 3T RPD of Greenham Common, Berkshire, joined the venture, agreeing to print the UAV out of hard nylon. The budget for the Southampton University Laser Sintered Aircraft (Sulsa) was £5000 (US$8000), which imposed a number of design constraints. The "Introduction to Arduino" Comic Makes It Easy to Get Started with Electronics Hacking.