Posted on 02/21/2014 8:06:21 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Technology to bring 3D printing closer to the mass market is accelerating, though most 3D printed items tend to be rather small in size. To help demonstrate the effectiveness of printing larger items, BigRep, a company founded in 2014, opens the door to printing items such as furniture. The device is launching worldwide at large trade shows, and begins shipping in two months, with a $39,000 MSRP.
The BigRep One can print full-scale objects in sizes up to 45x39x47 inches, and has the ability to print plastics, nylons, Laywood (wood fibers mixed with polymers), and Laybrick (something similar to sandstone-type of material).
"We know that the need for 3D prints has increased enormously in the creative industries among architects, artists and inventors, among others," said Lukas Oehmigen, BigRep founder, in a press statement. "We have developed printing technology that lowers costs by about 90%, opening the door to a new dimension. Clients may now affordably produce life-size, three dimensional objects."
3-d printing is an exciting technology, and this is another advance. However, a $39,000 machine to make wobbly plastic Walmart chairs is not my idea of a hobby. For prototyping though, this is great and it may mean that we will see much more variety of wobbly plastic Walmart chairs in the future.
There is a guy on line who sells parts for a home build 3-D printer.....and the software to build another,
examples here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZL0A0IMFVY
and the do it yourself printer here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua2QKV8V234
looks like this: 
Maybe they can have a 3D printer make a pair of ba**s for some of our elected officials.
If you want to wait a day or more and pay what a one-off item made with expensive material on an expensive machine costs, sure.
3D printing has it’s place. That place is not everywhere for everything.
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That will change. Maybe not print times, but the prices will come down and the materials will evolve. Personally, I think even the print time will eventually become shorter.
If you don’t want the floor piece at a furniture store, you do have to wait until your custom color or size arrives at the sales point.
I can see future designs where the frame and perhaps selected areas of a piece of furniture are printed and then fabric pillows are added. However, it is only a matter of time until manmade fibers that are indistinguishable from the woven variety can be used in the 3D process. Spinnerets in place of extrusion nozzles could be one innovation. I believe industry already does this for some fabrics.
Our common upholstered furniture could someday only be available as custom orders from expensive artisan shops. People will laugh at today’s 3D printers, just as we do at the clunky early computers or brick-sized “mobile phones”.
No one ever thought PCs would be affordable for almost everyone or do all the tasks they routinely do today. Home sound production systems and home video editing equipment today offer professional quality for a relatively affordable price.
A real replicator or a universal fab that isn’t dedicated to turning out one simple widget may even become reality in the next 10 years or so. Just look at how inventors keep trying to reproduce the science fiction machines seen in Star Trek.
I believe this is the next industrial revolution.
Totally agree.
Kids will grow up with these technologies and will be hacking them without even thinking about it.
Maybe. But with competitive economies of scale, I would suspect the costs go down. Just like we’ve seen with digital TVs, et al.
This whole new “industrial revolution” we seem to be entering is fascinating. Soon, I guess they’ll be replicating, with precision, non-existing or hard to find antique auto parts and things that haven’t been produced in centuries. Probably just have to scan one as the prototype.
I’ve even seen food printers. In the future, will we be printing up pizzas? Wild stuff and consideration.
OK...so who is selling the stock? lol
I believe replication of antique parts for restoration is already a niche for 3D printing. Laser scanners have become essential for this.
The food printers are, IMO, a bit bogus. They are food extruders that simply use filled cartridges of paste-like ingredients to deposit blobs of foodstuff in traditional shapes. They can already extrude pizza.
I am waiting to be able to fill something with essential elements/nutrients and then press a button resulting in the creation of food that still looks, tastes and smells like farmed produce or meat. CHON=a steak or a salad, depending on the program.
The money will be in the software programs and the raw materials. I suspect there are companies with R&D programs ongoing to be the first to build a real replicator. However, it may well end up being a garage R&D operation.
We are at a place similar to the fascination with electricity in the 1800s, IMO, or with computers in the 1970s. What would an early photographer think of the iPad camera, for example? I know that I remember the early Brownies and my jaw just drops at what an iPad can do. Interestingly enough, I know older women who can barely send an email who have eagerly purchased an iPad just because they want the camera function.
Whatever happens, it won’t be some sort of linear geometric progression. There will be uneven development and some seemingly obscure discovery may catapult everything forward by a quantum level.
“I am waiting to be able to fill something with essential elements/nutrients and then press a button resulting in the creation of food that still looks, tastes and smells like farmed produce or meat. CHON=a steak or a salad, depending on the program.”
Like a George Jetson setup!
Amazing ventures—fer sure!
Hey, I had a great idea! (well, I think it’s great anyway) As soon as someone can make an old-fashioned full water usage toilet, I want to buy one! Ditto for washing machines and dishwashers that work the way they are supposed to and used to do.
What potential to circumvent absurd EPA regulations.
Take that, enviro-nazis!
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