The list of items that can be printed is getting bigger and more and more impressive
XNUMXD printing technology is developed with… XNUMXD speed. Every day the list of objects that can be printed grows and becomes more and more impressive. His industry 3D printing has started tentatively a few years ago to present small objects and today we have come to the point that they are printed from artificial human instruments and entire houses!
Print your ... home
A 3D printer manufactures housing units in the NetherlandsA few days ago, a Dutch architect announced that it had begun building an entire house in Amsterdam, the parts of which would have been printed in their entirety by a three-dimensional printer. If it does, it will be a world first.
At the same time, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced that it will work with the renowned architectural firm Foster & Partners to build small houses on the Moon. According to ESA executives, advances in 3D printing technology will allow the creation of small houses made of the soil materials of our natural satellite. The first plans published by the architectural firm show houses that will be able to accommodate four people.
Lunar dwellings-bases will be built of autonomous robots, dome-shaped, and will completely protect people from local climatic conditions, harmful cosmic rays and meteor drops. 90% of the buildings will be made of lunar materials. These materials will first become a pulp. This slurry will be introduced into the printing machine which, by spraying, will print solid building materials to be used in the construction of the building. Given that few parts of the buildings will have to be transported from Earth, ESA executives believe that these buildings it is feasible to be ready to welcome residents sometime in the next 40 years.
Thus the company is envisioning the first homes on the Moon Foster & Partners
They printed an artificial ear!
Researchers at USA they used 3D printing technology and managed to create an artificial human ear that looks and functions like the natural one. This is an achievement that is considered very important since, if this artificial ear is finally proven functional, will be able to be used in children with congenital ear deformities, such as e.g. microtia (this is a genetic abnormality in which the pinna of the ear is not fully developed).
Artificial prostheses are manufactured using the 3D printing method
Artificial prostheses are manufactured using the 3D printing method
3D plaster
A graduate of architectural design in New Zealand used 3D printing technology with which he managed to build a "smart" gauze dressing to repair broken bones. Cortex, called the bandage, belongs to the so-called "exoskeleton" category, consists of very light materials and is placed as a glove in the damaged hand or leg. The exoskeleton was created by Jake Evil, graduate of the University of Victoria's Architecture and Design Department.
X-rays and three-dimensional scans help to create a 3D model of the point where the bone has been injured. Then the "extrusion" that is adapted to the anatomical characteristics of each patient is then "printed".
The Cortex is very lightweight, has openings to ventilate the area in which it is placed and furthermore can be cleaned with water. Evil is now seeking financiers to advance the commercial exploitation of the extracurricular that he created.
3D plasterAnd toothbrush
Blizzident, working with experts around the world, unveiled a new revolutionary toothbrush. The person concerned should initially go to a lab to scan his denture into a 3D scanner. The created file is delivered to the person who sends it to the company which undertakes to print it on a 3D printer. This creates a toothbrush that has the shape of the denture of the person concerned and perfectly matches his teeth. The toothbrush-mascara has 400 very thin and soft hairs. According to its creators, it can clean the teeth perfectly in just six seconds.
Paint 3D
A pen-like device allows the user to "paint" in the air and create 3D shapes out of quick-set plastic. 3Doodler (a pun on '3D' and the word 'doodle', meaning a rough drawing or scribble) was developed by US start-up WobbleWorks, which hopes to launch it on the market later this year. The pen plugs into the outlet and has a heating element on its tip that melts a rod of blue plastic. The molten plastic flows to the nozzle, where it is rapidly cooled by a small built-in fan. It thus solidifies almost immediately after its release allowing the user to "paint" even vertically.
4D also comes
The US Army Research Service is funding Harvard and two more universities for 855.000 dollars to develop four-dimensional printing technologies that would allow the production of shape-changing objects or properties over time (which is the fourth dimension).
One of the limitations of 3D printers, which "print" objects from successive layers of a solidified material, is that the manufactured components often require assembly. 4D printing could, among other things, provide objects that are literally self-assembled. At the RED conference architect Skailar Tibic of MIT presented a cube that automatically gets its final shape when it sinks into the water.
The cube that forms itself in the water
Source: tovima.gr
