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Machine Prints 3D Copies Of Itself
Posted by
samzenpus
on Thu Jun 05, 2008 07:57 AM
from the breed-like-robots dept.
from the breed-like-robots dept.
TaeKwonDood writes "Automated machines have been around for decades. They have basically been dumb devices that do simple assembly tasks. But RepRap takes that a step further because, instead of assembling pre-fabricated parts, it creates 3-D objects by printing them — squirting molten plastic in layers — and then building them up as the plastic solidifies. It works on coat hooks, door handles and now it can even make working copies ... of itself. The miracle of additive fabrication, coming soon to a robotic overlord near you."
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3D Printing For Everyone 183 comments
mmacx writes "Technology Review has up an article about Shapeways, a new online rapid-prototyping service that allows users to upload digital designs which are then printed on 3-D printers and shipped back. A spinoff from Philips Research, the service gives small businesses, designers, artists, and hobbyists access to prototyping tools that were once available only to the largest corporations. The fee for a typical printed object is $50-$150. Their video shows the steps behind the process." We've been talking about 3D printing for years.
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One step closer to the robot invasion (Score:5, Funny)
Dupe! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Dupe! (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Dupe! (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Dupe! (Score:5, Funny)
# the copy is never exact.
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Re:Dupe! (Score:5, Informative)
The article gives little detail beside the price of the parts: how much time is necessary for the self-replication? what are the skills needed for the assembly?
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Sweet (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sweet (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Sweet (Score:5, Informative)
In fact it can't print any structures that won't retain their shapes when melted to, say 5 degrees below their melting point.
The safe class of objects that it can print are those that are basically straight-up walls upon a flat base. The most complex stuff it would be able to print is a gothic castle (the ones with tiny windows), and you'd have to put the roofs on top of them afterwards.
The "full" class of objects it can print are those where a finite element stress analysis (*with* gravity active obviously) doesn't have any red spots.
(and now translation from technobabble to bad news
It can't print Gundam models. At least not directly. For a less limited class of objects you could make 2 half-negatives, allowing you to mass-produce them. You'd have to paint them afterwards.
Parent
Close but... (Score:5, Informative)
FTA (emphasis mine):
=Smidge=
Re:Close but... (Score:5, Informative)
Also it has a big bunch of wires coming out the back, which I bet are not replicated either... so someone was jumping the gun a bit while writing this article
Still... this is some seriously cool technology... if the resulting plastic parts are strong / durable enough it could certainly have a huge impact... essentially being able to download physical objects from the internet...
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Working copies you say? (Score:5, Funny)
Bad business model (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Bad business model (Score:5, Informative)
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Ahh, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
One of best marketing statements ever: (Score:5, Funny)
Let the Clone Wars Begin (Score:5, Funny)
Printcrime by Cory Doctorow (Score:5, Insightful)
Copy this story.
(originally published in Nature Magazine, January 2006)
Cory Doctorow
The coppers smashed my father's printer when I was eight. I remember the hot, cling-film-in-a-microwave smell of it, and Da's look of ferocious concentration as he filled it with fresh goop, and the warm, fresh-baked feel of the objects that came out of it.
The coppers came through the door with truncheons swinging, one of them reciting the terms of the warrant through a bullhorn. One of Da's customers had shopped him. The ipolice paid in high-grade pharmaceuticals -- performance enhancers, memory supplements, metabolic boosters. The kind of things that cost a fortune over the counter; the kind of things you could print at home, if you didn't mind the risk of having your kitchen filled with a sudden crush of big, beefy bodies, hard truncheons whistling through the air, smashing anyone and anything that got in the way.
They destroyed grandma's trunk, the one she'd brought from the old country. They smashed our little refrigerator and the purifier unit over the window. My tweetybird escaped death by hiding in a corner of his cage as a big, booted foot crushed most of it into a sad tangle of printer-wire.
Da. What they did to him. When he was done, he looked like he'd been brawling with an entire rugby side. They brought him out the door and let the newsies get a good look at him as they tossed him in the car. All the while a spokesman told the world that my Da's organized-crime bootlegging operation had been responsible for at least 20 million in contraband, and that my Da, the desperate villain, had resisted arrest.
I saw it all from my phone, in the remains of the sitting room, watching it on the screen and wondering how, just how anyone could look at our little flat and our terrible, manky estate and mistake it for the home of an organized crime kingpin. They took the printer away, of course, and displayed it like a trophy for the newsies. Its little shrine in the kitchenette seemed horribly empty. When I roused myself and picked up the flat and rescued my poor peeping tweetybird, I put a blender there. It was made out of printed parts, so it would only last a month before I'd need to print new bearings and other moving parts. Back then, I could take apart and reassemble anything that could be printed.
By the time I turned 18, they were ready to let Da out of prison. I'd visited him three times -- on my tenth birthday, on his fiftieth, and when Ma died. It had been two years since I'd last seen him and he was in bad shape. A prison fight had left him with a limp, and he looked over his shoulder so often it was like he had a tic. I was embarrassed when the minicab dropped us off in front of the estate, and tried to keep my distance from this ruined, limping skeleton as we went inside and up the stairs.
"Lanie," he said, as he sat me down. "You're a smart girl, I know that. You wouldn't know where your old Da could get a printer and some goop?"
I squeezed my hands into fists so tight my fingernails cut into my palms. I closed my eyes. "You've been in prison for ten years, Da. Ten. Years. You're going to risk another ten years to print out more blenders and pharma, more laptops and designer hats?"
He grinned. "I'm not stupid, Lanie. I've learned my lesson. There's no hat or laptop that's worth going to jail for. I'm not going to print none of that rubbish, never again." He had a cup of tea, and he drank it now like it was whisky, a sip and then a long, satisfied exhalation. He closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair.
"Come here, Lanie, let me whisper in your ear. Let me tell you the thing that I decided while I spent ten years in lockup. Come here and listen to your stupid Da."
I felt a guilty pang about ticking him off. He was off his rocker, that much was clear. God knew what he went through in prison. "What, Da?" I said, leaning in close.
"Lanie, I'm going to print more printers. Lots more printers. One for everyone
Doom! Doom! Doom! (Score:5, Funny)
"Knock, knock"
"Who's there?"
"Candygram"
"You're not a self-replicating cybernetic organism?"
"No, ma'am"
Re:I... (Score:5, Funny)
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=514462&cid=22998000 [slashdot.org]
I for one welcome our new self-replicating Slashdot article overlords!
Parent
Re:I... (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:I... (Score:5, Interesting)
*Aside from common stuff from a hardware store and an electronics store.
(Yes, I'm a RepRap developer, and yes, that's a cut-and-paste.)
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Obligatory Futurama (Score:5, Funny)
Professor Farnsworth: It can do other things, why shouldn't it!
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Re:I... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:I... (Score:5, Informative)
It's a significant step - but the slashdot blurb wildly over-sells it.
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