Gun (3D printing) Open Source Pushes 3D Printers to Success. Whether or not desktop 3D printing is the forerunner of the "third industrial revolution," as Jeremy Rifkin and Chris Anderson have suggested, it's definitely one of the hottest tech trends around.
Open source DIY hacker engineers, artists, and craft designers have led the surge on the low end while higher-end models are already being used in rapid prototyping and short-run, custom manufacturing. The market has been fueled by open source hardware communities, primarily the RepRap project and the MakerBot community. RepRap released its first open 3D printer kit design in 2007, inviting hackers and manufacturers to tinker with hardware and software. A RepRap-based industry has emerged almost as magically as the plastic objets that grow layer by layer in a 3D printer.
There are now over a dozen open source spinoffs of RepRap's Darwin, Mendel, Prusa Mendel, and Huxley designs. RepRap Prusa Mendel 3D Printers Grow Up RepRap Pro Huxley MakerBot's Proprietary Reversal Image Credits. Tim O'Reilly. Engineers fly world's first 'printed' aircraft. Engineers at the University of Southampton have designed and flown the world's first 'printed' aircraft, which could revolutionise the economics of aircraft design.
The SULSA (Southampton University Laser Sintered Aircraft) plane is an unmanned air vehicle (UAV) whose entire structure has been printed, including 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. No fasteners were used and all equipment was attached using 'snap fit' techniques so that the entire aircraft can be put together without tools in minutes. The electric powered vehicle aircraft, with a 2-metres wingspan, has a top speed of nearly 100 miles per hour, but when in cruise mode is almost silent.
The aircraft is also equipped with a miniature autopilot developed by Dr Matt Bennett, one of the members of the team. Bikinis Made from 3-D Printers Custom Fit Every Curve. Despite being of the male persuasion, even I know that bikini season is no day at the beach.
Finding the right fit in a style and cut that threads the needle of decency is enough to make any woman throw up her hands and opt for a one-piece with shorts. Well ladies, Jenna Fizel and Mary Haung of Continuum Fashion have heard your dressing room distress calls. In search of the elusive 'perfect fit,' they've designed the N12 bikini, the world's first 3-D printed two-piece made of small nylon discs held together by thread-like springs. The N12 gets its name from the material it's made of: Nylon 12. Shapeways uses their 3-D printing technology to create the material for the designers and calls Nylon 12 "ideal swimsuit material as it is innately waterproof.
" "Thousands of circular plates are connected by thin strings, creating a wholly new material that holds its form as well as being flexible," the designers explain. N12.bikini – Intro Video from Continuum Fashion on Vimeo. [Via Gizmodo] L’imprimante 3D de mes rêves. L’imprimante 3D de mes rêves Je crois que j'ai trouvé le cadeau que vous allez tous m'offrir pour Noël !
Il s'agit d'une imprimante 3D inventée par des ingénieurs de l'Université d'Exeter au Royaume Uni, qui "n'imprime" pas des objets dans de la résine ou de la silice comme celles dont je vous ai déjà parlé. Non, celle là est encore plus terrible car elle imprime carrément des chocolats ! En gros, à partir d'un logiciel spécial développé en collaboration avec une autre université (celle de Brunel), la machine, à partir d'un modèle 3D, est capable de construire un chocolat en déposant des couches successives de chocolat, les unes sur les autres. Et comme les chocolat, c'est ma deuxième passion dans la vie après vous (z'avez vu le faux-cul ? [Source] Vous avez aimé cet article ? A Closer Look at 3D Printed Shapeways Objects.