On 3D Printing

Could the open-source movement push 3D printing from the peak of the hype cycle to more mainstream adoption? This would enable consumers to get their hands on cheaper 3D printers and 3D printing applications.

A big catalyst for open-source hardware today is Arduino.

Arduino is the brainchild of an international team of five engineers: Massimo Banzi and Gianluca Martino of Italy; David Cuartielles of Spain; and David Mellis and Tom Igoe of the U.S. According to Banzi, who recently made a presentation at TEDGlobal 2012, Arduino has developed the Interactive Design Institute Ivrea (IDII) to help students there actually build prototype objects that could react to their inputs. Using a foam model of a prototype cell phone, for instance, simply would not make sense.

Arduino’s openness means that the micro-controller board can be found in the heart of a lot of open source hardware devices today, including 3D printers, toys and thousands of projects within the maker community. Commercial vendors and do-it-yourselfers alike are picking up Arduino boards and customizing them for their projects with the eventual launch of some compelling devices.

Implications

With more 3D printers in the hands of product creators, the reliance on “Made in China” would decrease and more goods would be made locally, even in consumer’s homes. Adding open-source technology to the equation only speeds the time to market because of the price discount experienced by consumers.

Will Arduino be that open-source component that gives 3D printing its due boost?

Via ReadWriteWeb.

Arduino photo by LenP17 used under Creative Commons license.

Top 3D Printing Headlines Last Week: Kids, Stocks, Suitcases, Fab Labs

August 13, 2012 News

A roundup of the top news On 3D Printing brought you from August 6 to August 12.

Monday, August 6

Infographic: How 3D Printing Works, Industry Growth, Stocks, and More

Tuesday, August 7

Thursday, August 9

Forbes 3D Printing Interview with Shapeways CEO Peter Weijmarshausen

Friday, August 10

Saturday, August 11

Sunday, August 12

Fab Lab of the Week: Maker Kids Lab in Toronto

Open-Source 3D Printer Pwdr Takes on MakerBot, Offers New Materials

August 10, 2012 News

There’s a new open-source 3D printer in town, and its name is Pwdr.

In a change from the technique used by MakerBot 3D printers of extruding plastic onto a platform layer by layer, Pwdr operates like the expensive industrial powder printers. This opens new doors for the consumer 3D printing market.

A whole new range of materials become available for experimenting with open-source rapid-prototyping; for example, when using the 3DP process: gypsum, ceramics, concrete, sugar, etc. And when the SLS process is fully supported, plastic materials like ABS, PP, Nylon and metals become available as building material.A Hewlett Packard inkjet cartridge is used for the deposition of binder. The cartridge can be refilled with custom binders using a syringe. A custom binder of 20% alcohol and 80% water has been proven to work.

How do you get it? You can make it yourself.

The Pwdr Model 0.1 consists of chassis, tool head and electronics. The printer entirely consists of off-the-shelf components. It has a simple design and can be built within a couple of hours. The machine is easy and affordable to build and modify. Building a Pwdr Model 0.1 machine costs about €1000.

Here’s a video of the Pwdr 3D printer in action.