Is 3D Printing the Next Big Thing?

[GermanyChris]

Originally Posted by dukebound85

I'm curious as to how 3D priniting will make use of varying materials to actually be usueful. If everything is printed from the same type of plastic, it will only serve for the purpose of "models"

3d printing already can make use of various materials so have not tricked down to our level yet.

[samiwas]

Originally Posted by eric/

Ok one has a mold, the other doesn't need a mold.

It's still the same thing

That's like saying that an airplane and a bicycle are the same thing because they both get you from one place to another.

One involves multiple molds carved out of metal which fit together precisely, loaded onto a molding machine, and then filled with a hot plastic or other material to form a part. Each step of the process requiring a lot of technical knowledge.

The other only requires you to turn on the machine, build something on your computer, and hit print, causing the printer to go back and forth laying down layers of material. Can pretty much be done by anyone.

Not the same thing.

[Squilly]

DDD went down nearly $10. Good time to buy?

[Aeolius]

3D Printed Moon Base

"You see, nearly the entire surface of the Moon is made up of a substance called regolith. And regolith, it turns out, is quite useable as a building material. It naturally provides protection against meteorites, gamma radiation and the Moon's temperature fluctuations.

As an added bonus, regolith exists on Earth as well. This has given the Foster + Partners team the ability to test their 3D printers here before they just go shooting them off to the Moon. A 1.5-ton mockup of the facility has already been created, along with some small-scale tests within a vacuum chamber."

[APlotdevice]

Originally Posted by Squilly

That meat sounds disgusting. The other too look cool though (I read the articles).

it may sound disguising now, but I guarantee you that's a glimpse of the future of food. Not the near future... it could take a couple centuries in fact... but eventually food will no longer be grown, but instead built molecule by molecule. And when that happens the people of that time will look back on us as savages. ALL of us, since a plant is after all a living thing too...

Just food for thought.