What the heck is 3d printing?

[drivebyslow]

Okay I've heard of 3d design but what is 3d 'Printing'.

I keep reading how wonderful it is and bla bla and that there are these printing machines that you can use to make anything you want.

http://formlabs.com/stories/in-house-3d-printer-vs-outsource/

So can I make this at home (Ya'right . . .)?

Apparently here you can even 'print' bike parts:
https://pinshape.com/items/5219-3d-printed-bike-pedal

Is this stuff real? If this turns out to be another over hyped crap like the Kardashians,
I'm going to sue the internet!

PS: Sorry if it sounds like a rant, just tired of waiting for a flying car and teleporting devices that they promised us ages ago

 

[The_J]

o_O ...um...yeah, it's real.
e.g. Boing (or Airbus, or whatever, quite some different big companies...wait, at least Boing, link) is printing protoypes with that technology (not exactly *that* technology, there are many versions, different substrates, different printing techniques, etc).

What you yourself can do with 3D printing...at the moment mostly producing nonsense, sadly.

 

[Zkribbler]

3D printing essential manufactures stuff by building up layers of plastic.

Howard, in the Big Bang Theory made plastic figurines of himself and his wife. [She got mad when she found out the process cost her $3,000.]

Terrorists can use them to make plastic guns. However, the firing pin still has to be metal.

BTW: Flying cars should be available next year. http://money.cnn.com/2015/05/18/luxury/flying-cars-aeromobil/index.html

 

[Ryika]

It's an interesting technology, but application is really limited. The process of printing is slow, expensive and inefficient. Therefor it's not useful for mass-production, and for an individual buying such a thing it's a product that, from the few "reviews" I've seen online, pretty quickly runs out of useful stuff to do and turns into an expensive toy.

Where it shines is areas that produce limited-sized "One of a kind"-products, such as prototypes or figurines.

Research for 3d-printed human organs also seems to be progressing well.

 

[Zkribbler]

I believe there's plans to put one on the International Space Station...just in case anyone up there needs a bicycle.

 

[Souron]

3D printing used to be called "rapid prototyping" before it became common enough to use for consumer goods. It's been around for a while in that context.

It can make shapes that other technologies, such as molds or carving, simply cannot do. But it is best suited for one-off manufacturing instead of mass production.

 

[Birdjaguar]

And while a slow and expensive process, It can make very complex items. I happened to at a 3D print shop yesterday looking at things they have done. It is all one off prototyping. There were one piece items with moving parts, gears, hinges and universal joints. All made in a single process without any assembly. None were very large though. And some of the machines were using reams of copy paper rather than plastic. A sheet of paper is put down, trimmed to size; a layer of glue goes down and then the next sheet of paper. It is cut appropriately, then more glue and the next sheet. A high pressure press is applied before the glue layer to bond the just applied paper to those below. Use yellow paper and the object is yellow. It was very cool stuff.

 

[Souron]

Not sure that I would call it expensive, you can order 3d prints online for pretty cheep.

In some cases it's easier than getting parts from a manufacturer, for rare parts.

Here's an example of something virtually impossible to make any other way, for $20

 

[warpus]

Most printers are 2-dimensional in that your printer doesn't have a height. It's like a piece of paper sitting on your desk. Most people don't even realize this, but if you look closely at your average printer, you'll soon notice that it's only got 2 dimensions and that the 3rd dimension is an illusion.

These days new 3D printers have been unveiled to the general public, printers that have a height as well as a width and a length. They take up a lot more room on your desk, but they look a lot cooler, and some of them are even able to print a document spanning multiple pages, which 2D printers are not capable of handling.

It's up to you as a consumer to determine whether the extra dimension and the room that it takes up is worth the extra functionality and the ability to print multiple pages.

 

[Kyriakos]

You may laugh, warpus, for the time being. You won't be laughing when one 3d prints a hellgate, using chasms in the binary and the golden mean.

Btw, i think someone has hacked into my account. You are seeing my post here about 3d-printing byzantine church models?

 

[Samez]

Additive Manufacturing (AM) aka 3d Printing aka Rapid Prototyping/Manufacturing is a real thing and totally overhyped at the same time. Currently AM is established for polymers and powder metals. It allows complex geometric designs/ bionic optimization which are not possible with other processes and it is very flexible as production tool. But it also has some serious flaws: Only small to medium quantities are feasible and bionic production works well but the design of free form surfaces is far from easy as conventional design software is still quite limited.
Also quality assurance is an issue as most QA systems either work with statistical relevant numbers (large production lots) or require a destructive testing of sample parts. Obviously this is not only an issue for AM but for all small lot size productions.
There was a presentation by Airbus at last years Ceramitec fair regarding AM parts in airplanes and the conclusion was that it will probably not be possible to use AM parts for conventional aircrafts in the next decade due to requirements regarding safety statistics. (cpk and so on)

Using AM for indirect production is already established. IE making tools for manufacturing with AM which can't be made in another way (e.g.cooling channels). Lego is one of the largest users of AM manufactured tools for their injection molding machines.

 

[Borachio]

Also...


Link to video.


Link to video.

 

[Recon Rover]

I am mechanical design engineer and I use 3D printers every now and then.

Most newer small sized models are inexpensive (Under $3000) and depending on the time you wish to take to print can create very strong parts. They're finicky though and require a lot of time to get used to and understand.

More expensive models ($10,000 +) can create very elaborate pieces but often need to be submerged in acid baths which makes them not very good for at home use.

The largest models are very complex machines that run into the millions of dollars.

They're incredible machines. If you know how to use design software like Catia, Solidworks, Inventor, etc. you can export pretty much any design to a format that a 3D printer can read.

 

[drivebyslow]

3D printing essential manufactures stuff by building up layers of plastic.

Howard, in the Big Bang Theory made plastic figurines of himself and his wife. [She got mad when she found out the process cost her $3,000.]

Terrorists can use them to make plastic guns. However, the firing pin still has to be metal.

BTW: Flying cars should be available next year. http://money.cnn.com/2015/05/18/luxury/flying-cars-aeromobil/index.html

Whoa! Mind blown . . . Thanks for the info you guys. At least now I know what I'll be researching this weekend. @Zkribbler - Yeah I've seen those flying cars but they are more like planes just smaller - I hope we can come up with a new energy source. I have a hunch that magnets are the answer. Cheers!

 

[trader/warrior]

You can buy a 3d printed model of your Kerbal Space program rocket for like 20€, even with modded parts and stuff which is pretty cool. What I really want is a scale model of my cities skylines city. If this progresses further there could be lots of possibilities for customizing little things in consumer products for little extra cost even if the larger mass productions won't necessarily be revolutionized.

 

[Borachio]

Can you use a 3D printer to make a 3D printer, then?

Because if you can, how long will it be before we're all knee-deep in 3D printers?

 

[Ryika]

Once we can do that all of the worlds problems will be solved! We'll just print printers that print printers that print printers that print food and voila, enough food for everybody.

Can't get TOO greedy though, or we'll drown in printers and food.

 

[warpus]

My old roommate from university a couple years ago started a company was the CEO of a company that was going to produce and sell 3D printers. He wanted to bring the tech to the consumer, and promised affordable enough prices, but I don't think the project worked out. He had a kickstarter and I thought it just didn't get funded, but now that I looke at it, it was actually cancelled. Interesting... It's possible they are still working out the kinks though, I'm not sure, they did have a "works well enough" prototype it seemed, and it looked like it wouldn't look out of place in an office or whatever, and wasn't giant. My roommate has the computer science background and possibly some Engineering background, and fairly intelligent as well, if eccentric, and he teamed up with some other on paper capable people for this project as well, so I thought it was actually going to go somewhere. Maybe it still will in some capacity, but I haven't heard anything in a while

Here is their kickstarter

edit: Looks like this venture is dead, but this guy removed me from his facebook for some reason recently, so screw him and his 3d printers. But still, having said that, at least he tried

edit2: the guy in the video in the kickstarter is not the ex-roommate, I don't know who that is. The video will tell you. If you really want to see my roommate search for "Panda Robotics introduces the PandaBot 3D-Printer on BNN" on youtube. I will not link to it as to not help out this incredible confusing bastard

Oh screw it, started watching the video, it's actually very informative and adds a lot to this thread, so here it is:


Link to video.

update: from wired of all places:

“We don’t want our Kickstarter backers, those who put their money on the line for us, to settle for a beta product,” the team wrote today on their blog and their Kickstarter page. The Panda Robotics Team decided to drop the project so it could make a better printer later on. They also cite interest in the project from distributors and academic institutions, which could indicate other support for the PandaBot.

 

[Souron]

Can you use a 3D printer to make a 3D printer, then?

Because if you can, how long will it be before we're all knee-deep in 3D printers?

You can make most 3d printer parts in a 3D printer, but you have to put them together yourself. Also, you can't make the ICs in a 3d printer.

 

[Smellincoffee]

It's spreading. My university has a 3D printing lab, and it's just a midrange liberal arts uni.