Iron Man 2's Secret Sauce: 3-D Printing

http://www.fastcompany.com/1640497/ironman-2s-secret-sauce-3-d-printing

by binarymax • 16 years ago

83 45 16 years ago

> Maybe the best example are the gloves that Downey wore--which were no thicker than a dime, and could be worn for hours without getting so hot that the dude needed some Colombian Marching Powder to take the edge off

Really?

wmeredith• 16 years ago

Indeed. That was quite a non-sequitur in the middle of what was a pretty cool tech article.

wizard_2• 16 years ago

Its a reference to his old dug habits that he was pretty famous for. I agree it didn't need to be mentioned.

francoisdevlin• 16 years ago

We use this things at my job all the time. Amazingly useful when you need a fast engineering prototype, or something to get your head around.

steveklabnik15• 16 years ago

As the costs come down, you'll see a continued move towards 'rapid manufacturing': actually using these technologies to build the final goods.

btucker• 16 years ago

This made me curious about the economics for a 3D printing on demand service. Looks like there are already some players in the space making it work:

http://www.shapeways.com/

http://www.buildparts.com/

http://www.zoomrp.com/

necrecious• 16 years ago

They probably have a willing audience in cosplayer community. If only they also automate the painting process.

steveklabnik15• 16 years ago

This is actually what my startup does.

http://cloudfab.com/

We actually offer more processes and materials than anyone else on the web.

jonhohle• 16 years ago

It's interesting to see that Cubic is still supporting Helisys LOM machines (and that your startup offers that as a service). They always produced the most interesting parts, imho (though a pain to post process).

I worked at an RP consortium nearly a decade ago and always figured that the LOM they had was a relic. It appears they still have it running (http://www.rpc.msoe.edu/machines_lom.php).

Flemlord• 16 years ago

I don't see prices on the web site. Would you mind giving me a rough idea of what it costs to print/create various items? (Not a serious prospect, just curious.)

mhb3• 16 years ago

Looks interesting. As a potential member of your target audience, I consider a valuable/essential addition to be tolerances and minimum wall thickness for the various processes. Phrases like "moderate surface detail" and "rough surface finish" are pretty useless.

Examples of models produced in the various technologies, what they cost and their characteristics and surface finish (photos) would be very helpful.

I think you need to reduce the barrier between having an stl file and knowing the cost of a part with given tolerances, strength and surface finish. Perhaps this means offering at least one higher priced, longer lead time service with a fixed cost per volume of material. Shapeways does this very well.

copperred• 16 years ago

Another http://www.redeyeondemand.com/

hop• 16 years ago

Zoom RP is amazing. We upload and order parts by noon, they are delivered by Fedex at 10am the next day in Portland. And their Polyjet printers make the best quality small parts.

Can't wait though until these printers get sub $5000 and it makes sense for every designer to have one next to their desk though. HP is getting into the mix, so prices will surely be driven down. http://develop3d.com/blog/2010/04/the-new-hp-designjet-3d-pr...

merchantly• 16 years ago

How much does it cost to print something like a cup?

steveklabnik15• 16 years ago

It's entirely dependent on the exact process and material. Cups are also a bad example, due to their geometry.

You'd probably be looking at roughly $50-75ish+, if I had to guess.

mhb3• 16 years ago

You can see the prices here:

http://www.shapeways.com/gallery

sp332• 16 years ago

New (awesome) line of merchandising: put the 3D models up for sale on http://www.Shapeways.com/ and let people order them in various materials & colors.

diziet• 16 years ago

I wonder if the same thing will happen to 3d printing as what has happened to normal printing: using high ink prices to subsidize the actual units. I sure hope not: if industries actually build goods using this process the demand will bring the "ink" cost down.

steveklabnik15• 16 years ago

That's exactly how the industry works. If you look at the manufacturers' 10Ks, it's very much the 'razor and blade' model.

And you're also right, it's a real problem when other people make knock-off materials. Lots of people are doing it, and the manufacturers are trying to stop it by making the cartridges super proprietary and making unauthorized materials void your warranty, but that's not stopping everyone...

thefool2• 16 years ago

I'm a little skeptical about the magnitude of the increase in time from concept to realization.

Four hours is the printing stage, but laying out something like that in cad is fairly time consuming, on top of that every piece surely went through numerous iterations. Additionally, the medium seems hard to fiddle with, so if the part didn't turn out, you have to scrap it completely.

Plus given that it is some sort of plastic, your only finishing options are probably powder coat, some sort of vapor deposition (which that photo looks like), or possibly some sort of plating if people have figured out how to do it.

While I'm sure that the tech will make some people's lives easier, this is one of those things that seems like it could easily be over hyped.

steveklabnik15• 16 years ago

> laying out something like that in cad is fairly time consuming, on top of that every piece surely went through numerous iterations.

"Regular" design would still go through iterations.

> Plus given that it is some sort of plastic, your only finishing options are probably powder coat, some sort of vapor deposition (which that photo looks like), or possibly some sort of plating if people have figured out how to do it.

In this case, they're using plastic, but you can also print in metal, wax, rubber, nylon, paper, and resin. (And yes, you can plate the plastic. This is how Aston Martin makes headlamps for their vehicles.)

> While I'm sure that the tech will make some people's lives easier, this is one of those things that seems like it could easily be over hyped.

It's true. People get really, really excited about all of this, and start talking about "When everyone owns a 3D printer..." It's such a sexy technology that people get irrationally excited. It certainly has downsides as well as upsides.

eru4• 16 years ago

Yes. Normal printers haven't made everyone an artist, either.

sliverstorm• 16 years ago

I figure 3D printing is still in it's infancy. Sure, it can't do all you can imagine it doing, but that's just because nobody's figured out how to make it do those things. Yet.

Definitely easy to over-hype it, but it deserves attention.

Plus... one of the things that has always sucked about modeling in my opinion is the difficulty of entering a model. Maybe with a good way to get a structure out, we will soon work out a good way to get a structure in?

steveklabnik15• 16 years ago

The best current way to "get a structure in" is through laser scanning the part, and converting the resulting point cloud to an STL file.

This isn't yet to the point of being automatic, though, as laser scanners aren't yet perfect. There's still a bit of artistry involved.

rauljara• 16 years ago

Open source 3d printing machine: http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page It can make many of its own components so is at least partially capable of self replicating.

beagle3• 16 years ago

obligatory mention: MakerBot makes $750 3D printer kits that cost pennies to operate. While the results are not comparable to what is shown in the article, the age of the 3D printer in every home is almost here.

It's already priced low enough that every designer of 3D objects can own one.

Not affiliated with MakerBot. (And they are good guys -- all the plans and source code are available for you to download and build yourself).

mattbauer• 16 years ago

I own a uPrint and run it all the time. In the same day we can print a new version, test it out on the bike, make some changes with a Dremel, measure the changes, redesign in Solidworks and repeat. Once you add time into the cost savings equation it's really a no brainer. We are looking at a much larger one that has almost a cubic meter envelope. BTW the reliability of the Stratasys printers is unbelievable.

thomasfl• 16 years ago

Home fabrication is very inspirational to read about. The fabrication process maybe extremely time consuming at the moment, but it's a glimpse of what to come. Video on the internet was ridiculously slow once, now it's becoming our main source of video. You saw this video on YouTube, not on your telly. The advantages of 3d printers are so many, that it will only be a question of time before the'll get cheaper, faster and better enough to go mainstream. Amen.

Iron Man 2's Secret Sauce: 3-D Printing

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