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As we’ve mentioned so many times in past articles, the convergence of additive manufacturing and the ‘miracle material’ graphene could have major ramifications for dozens of industries over the next several years. Because of this, researchers and companies are spending a great deal of time and money figuring out the best methods to 3D print graphene. A group of researchers, led by Seol Seung-kwon at the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute’s Nano Hybrid Technology Research Center (KERI) are at the forefront of this research. As we mentioned last month, KERI, a unit under the Ministry of Finance in South Korea, recently...

For the first time ever, hardware designed on the ground has been emailed to space to meet the needs of an astronaut. From a computer in California, Mike Chen of Made In Space and colleagues just 3D-printed a ratcheting socket wrench on the International Space Station. “We had overheard ISS Commander Barry Wilmore (who goes by “Butch”) mention over the radio that he needed one,” Chen writes in Medium this week. So they designed one and sent it up. “The socket wrench we just manufactured is the first object we designed on the ground and sent digitally to space,...

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station needed a socket wrench, so NASA engineers emailed him designs for 3D-printing one.

As many women know only too well, finding a dress that fits like a glove is no easy task. But a new dress, created using a 3D printer, may be the answer to every woman's style woes. A design studio have used 3D printing technology to create an innovative dress customised to a woman’s body. The dress, which costs a staggering £1,900 ($3,000) to print, features 2,279 printed panels interconnected by 3,316 hinges. Creators Nervous System call it a ‘4D dress’ as, like fabric, the printed garment can go from a compressed object to its intended shape. Jessica Rosenkrantz, co-founder...

One of the obstacles to jumping headlong into the additive manufacturing milieu for many people is often the expense of the 3D printer itself. Further, for those intrepid, budding engineers, designers, makers, and artists, an initial foray might more reasonably and affordably involve logo-instructables-01using a less expensive and complex machine. Enter one Instructables contributor, “mikelllc,” who has designed a make-it-yourself 3D printer that is constructed largely from recycled electronic components. Currently, only about 12.5% of all electronic waste, or “e-waste,” is recycled. Instead, the majority of cast-off electronic products — around 20 to 50 million metric tons per year worldwide...

“Makers, make love, not war.” This appears to be the best way to summarize UPS’s 3D printing service guidelines. UPS has been offering 3D printing services for a little while, but of course, these services come with a strict set of guidelines about what they will and won’t print for you. Naturally, just like going through airport security, weapons are at the top of the list of no-no’s. Anything gun or gun part related and anything that can be used in the “design, development, manufacture, testing, construction, operation, or maintenance” of nuclear weapons, missile or rocket systems, unmanned air vehicles,...

You can use 3D printing to make a handful of electronics, such as antennas and batteries, but LEDs and semiconductors have been elusive; you usually need some other manufacturing technique to make them work, which limits what they can do and where they'll fit. A team of Princeton researchers recently solved this problem, however. They've found a way to make quantum dot LEDs (and thus semiconductors) using only a 3D printer. The scientists choose printable electrodes, polymers and semiconductors, which are dissolved in solvents to keep them from damaging underlying layers during the printing process; after that, the team uses...

One of the things that have prevented 3D printed guns from gaining popularity with the mainstream is the fact that they can't fire more than several rounds without wearing out. The plastic used to make the body of the gun is simply too fragile to accommodate the force of firing. A 25-year-old machinist has found an easy, although time-consuming, way to solve this problem. Michael Crumling has developed ammunition he calls .314 Atlas, after the .314-inch caliber and the Atlas lathe he used to make his bullets. Each bullet designed by Crumling is buried deep inside and reinforced with a...

When was the last time you used your computer's disc drive? What about your DVD player? E-waste is all around us, but as the brilliant Instructables user behind this $60 3D printer proves, there's plenty to be done with it—if you've got some engineering chops. Last week we wrote about the world's smallest 3D printer, which costs less than $300 and prints resin. But an Instructables user named Mikelllc has gone way further, uploading his designs for a 3D printer made from 80 percent recycled e-waste and costing roughly $60. Part of the idea, he writes, is to "help us...

If you want a reason to opt out of school, you’re not alone. And Angad Daryani might just be the inspiration you were looking for. Daryani, a 16-year-old Mumbaiker, quit school in the 9th grade, frustrated by rote learning. Soon after, he built India’s first 3D printer (and possibly the world’s cheapest 3D printer). In 2013, he developed an “eye-pad” for the blind with MIT. When he was younger, he set up a miniature solar-powered boat and created an automatic watering system for garden plants. He has a longer list of hobbies that you can see here. He calls himself...

French designers alter 3D printer to let you ink yourself 3D printing technology has now followed the curve of most emerging inventions. What starts as a prototype gets picked up by the industries the idea most impacts, then by corollary industries, then by the art and hobbyist crowd. This month, Paris design studio Appropriate Audiences made that final step by hacking a 3D printer and turning it into a tattoo gun. The printing device itself, called Tatoue, affixes a tattoo gun on rails to a square metal frame. The frame and gun can move on three axes so the tattooing...

Yoshitomo Imura has become 3D printing's first martyr.  He was sentenced to two years in prison for designing and producing blank firing guns on a 3D printer.   From the-japan-news.com: YOKOHAMA (Jiji Press) — The Yokohama District Court sentenced a former Japanese college employee on Monday to two years in prison for producing guns with a three-dimensional printer. I have not seen that any of the guns actually fired a projectile; the only ones that I have seen on videos fired blanks.   Imura stated that he did not believe that he was violating the law.   Building blank firing...

In yet another move which may send shivers down the spines of law enforcement agencies around the world, while at the same time exciting techies and firearm advocates, Solid Concepts has revealed yet another 3D printed metal gun. Just under a year ago, the company, which has since been acquired by 3D printing giant Stratasys, revealed the world’s very first 3D printed metal handgun, the 1911. Although there had been a number of interesting plastic firearms 3D printed up until that time, this metal firearm was the first capable of shooting several rounds of ammunition flawlessly. In fact the original...

Health professionals who treat burn victims are acutely aware of the necessity to treat burn injuries, particularly severe ones, as rapidly as possible. As one journal article explains it, “In severe burn injuries where both the epidermal and dermal layers of skin are destroyed, prompt wound closure is critical for favourable [sic] patient outcomes and reduced mortality rates.” A team of biomedical and mechanical engineering graduate students at the University of Toronto have developed what may at the least be considered a preliminary–but certainly extremely technologically advanced–solution to the problem of critical, temporal health intervention for burn patients. For their...

While we have seen so many incredible life-changing applications for 3D printing, there are still many concerns which remain on the table when dealing with the possible negative implications of the technology. Whether you believe that the ease in which practically anyone will eventually be able to fabricate a firearm is a good or bad thing, just the thought of 3D printed firearms will send shivers down the spines of law enforcement agencies around the world. There has been an incredibly fast progression of the technology behind the methods of manufacturing guns with 3D printers in the last two years...

There are two 3D printing technologies that are capable of producing products that are almost indistinguishable from those created using traditional manufacturing techniques. These would be Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), and Polymer Jetting technology. The former is widely used by 3D Systems in their industrial level machines, which can cost in the $500,000+ range. The latter is currently used by Stratasys in their patented PolyJet technology, which is utilized in most of their industrial level 3D printers. These printers also cost in the 6-figure-plus range. While these 3D printing technologies are some of the best out there, the price tags...

Tungsten is an extremely hard, robust rare metal that has the highest melting point of all the elements, at 3422 °C (6192 °F). It also has a density that is 19.3 times that of water and about 1.7 times that of lead, which makes it comparable to uranium and gold. And now, a Philips-owned company is 3D printing it. Netherlands-based Smit Röntgen, a medical imaging parts manufacturer, has used Direct Metal Laser Sintering to 3D print tungsten parts. The company began researching the potential of 3D printing tungsten as a business opportunity over a decade ago and announced on Monday...

3D castle printed by Andrey Rudenko in Shorewood, Minnesota as seen at the end of August 2014. The castle is about 3.5 metres high.People have used 3D printers to print everything from medical devices to guns. But one Minnesota man is hoping to take this new technology to the next level and print a house. Andrey Rudenko, of Shorewood, Min., plans for the house to be about 10 metres by 20 metres. If it is two storeys, it will be about 3,600 square feet. And he is hoping to print the entire house in about a week. It would be...

Building site of the first ever 3D printed estate in Gardiner, New York. New York City architect/contractor Adam Kushner begins construction of the first ever 3D printed estate, which features a 3D printed swimming pool, 4-bedroom, 2400 square foot home, and more. The 3D printer which will be a modified version of Enrico DiniÂ’s D-shape printer, will, if all goes as planned, eventually be able to automatically place rebar within the 3D printed house, as it prints. We have covered a lot of news concerning the 3D printing of houses, over the course of the last year or so. Whether...

When will 3D Printers be able to build electronic devices from the ground up? ThatÂ’s a question many within the 3D printing space have been pondering for some time. Some experts feel as though it is only a decade away, while others think it could be a lot longer. Without a doubt, when this happens, it will change the world in ways that we could never imagine. Close your eyes and think about all the electronic devices that you use on a daily basis. There are smartphones, TVs, PCs, home lighting, automobile key fobs, and the list goes on. Now...