Making the strongest material ever: 3D printing graphene at MIT

3D Printing Industry ^ | January 9, 2017 | Beau Jackson

[sauropod]

study

[EEGator]

How does one invest in graphene?

[dp0622]

Just make sure one of you guys lets me know when it’s time to buy 3D stock.

Companies really have zoomed since inception.

[HandyDandy]

Graphene is a zero-gap semiconductor, because its conduction and valence bands meet at the Dirac points. The Dirac points are six locations in momentum space, on the edge of the Brillouin zone, divided into two non-equivalent sets of three points. The two sets are labeled K and K'. The sets give graphene a valley degeneracy of gv = 2. By contrast, for traditional semiconductors the primary point of interest is generally Γ, where momentum is zero. Four electronic properties separate it from other condensed matter systems.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Now in English for the scientifically challenged.

[wally_bert]

Put me on that list too.

[AustinBill]

PRNT is an exchange-traded-fund (ETF) that specializes in 3D printing. It debuted last year at $20/share and closed today at 22.60. I think it's a reasonable way to get exposure to this sector without trying to pick winners from losers.

Like most industrial advances, while there will be startups that do very well, the bulk of the real money is going to be made by incorporating the new technology by existing companies. For example, GE is currently 3D-printing turbine blades. No startup has the capital or expertise to get into that market.

[Ken H]

That’s what I’ve suspected all along.

[TChad]

Gyroid sculpture

[EEGator]

Most boring class ever...

[muleskinner]

Exactly. They just SIT there.

[EEGator]

Was that the worst nerd joke ever? :)

[Bellflower]

For Brian.

[dp0622]

ETF. Interesting. It is MUCH better than trying to pick the winning one or two out of many.

Thanks. I will do DD.

[LibWhacker]

So I Googled it and I'm surprised at how much information is out there about investment opportunities, particularly since they seem to be some distance away from developing a saleable, usable product. For instance, check out this one. It mentions at least one company by name that might be worth examining.

[fireman15]

I bought a RepRap based 3-D Printer which required very little assembly two months ago. It has been great. There was and still is a bit of a learning curve with the 3D Design software and figuring out the best settings and prep for various types of filament.

PLA is extremely easy to work with. ABS is a little trickier. The strongest filament that I have purchased and used so far is nylon based and it is quite amazing. There is an incredible variety of filaments now available with properties that can meet a wide variety of requirements.

If one wants to learn about 3D Printing... I think that you will not get a good perspective until after you purchase one and get your hands dirty. At this point it is still not a plug and play activity. The one that I purchased was less than $300. And gives great results.

[Clutch Martin]

So if there are an estimated 89 million gun owners and each one owns an average of 8.1 guns... something isn’t adding up.

Sounds like a skewed data set.

[trebb]

Read a story one time about the strongest possible material called “Nothing”. Went on the premise that nothing ever tears on the perforated lines provided, so if one were to keep adding perforations until there was nothing left, you would have the strongest and lightest material ever....

[TXnMA]

Thanks!

Big help for those of us whose mental processes are fundamentally visual!

Wish I had those in 3-axis manipulable graphics; I believe I perceive an assembly structure organization that could result in microchannel plates for image intensifiers...