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3D printers - our Star Trek replicators? (photos)

Summary: From blood vessels and chocolates to cars and planes, 3D printers are showing off their amazing skills.

By Silicon.com | October 4, 2011 -- 08:43 GMT (01:43 PDT)

This bike may lack the quintessential British charm of a Raleigh Chopper but it can be created from nothing more than powder.

The Airbike, made by aerospace company EADS, is made out of high-strength nylon powder and built using a process called additive-layer manufacturing.

To make the bike, a computer-controlled machine sprinkles successive layers of nylon powder on top of each other and then fuses them together using a laser in order to create a solid object. Each layer is printed out in a pattern that matches the design of a 3D computer model of the bike.

It might not look too comfy, but the bike features auxetic design that allows it to flex to provide some cushioning.

Photo: EADS

Topics: Hardware, Printers

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5 comments

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No yet there!

These printers can contruct 3D objects but cannot duplicate material properties. They have been common in engineering departments for years. They ARE neat (but expensive) toys!

kd5auq
5 October, 2011 08:08

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3d printers (laser sintering) can make stainless steel parts

we use them in our business. definitely not toys.

stevey_d
5 October, 2011 14:42

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use solidworks or pro/engineer (now called creo) to design your part

you can also get a 3d scanner to capture a part - these are quite cheap. You could capture - edit, print of course. (repair that old worn part). can't make everything - you probably wouldn't want to make a bearing surface that needs to last a long time for example. But some of the shapes you can make you can't make any other way. (eg: parts completely contained by other parts).
And you get color plastic 3d printers.

stevey_d
5 October, 2011 14:46

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the food printer - very interesting (coke freestyle)

I guess you could flavour different parts of say chocolate using something like the coke freestyle flavour engine:
http://www.springwise.com/food_beverage/cokefreestyle/

stevey_d
5 October, 2011 14:58

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ModelMaker

A 3D printer option out of the market that I recently came across is a machine called the ModelMaker. The machine has two target markets, education and geo. I haven't done much research of the company, 2BOT, but this is the basic information on the ModelMaker: www.2bot.com/product-info

bcarl1
6 October, 2011 10:19

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