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Saturday

Aug212010

Wujec on 3D Printing

Saturday, August 21, 2010 |

Tom Wujec, Fellow at AutoDesk, spoke at the Thinking Digital event earlier this year. In a video of his fascinating talk, Tom speaks of the nature of emerging technologies, specifically tech evolution and tech possibilities.

He describes a special moment in the evolution of technology where the previously "impossible", suddenly becomes possible. This is the "sweet spot" where investment recognizes the opportunity and companies actually bring the concept to life. However, he says, timing is always critical. A product too early may fail, even if it's a great idea (Newton? Google Wave?)

He reviews several key technology concepts, including Computation, Analog to Digital, Digital to Analog, User Interaction/Augmented Reality, Mobile and Bioinformatics, most of which focus on the notion of a digital representation of actual objects. The one most interesting to us is Digital to Analog, where digital models are transformed into physical objects.

He describes a class of objects that are not producible by any other means, including an "insane" model made by one of his clients: a running shoe made from four different materials, including rubber, cloth, etc. The really interesting part was derived from a spiderweb inspiration: an intricate series of thin strands wove over the shoe. Evidently this was printed by a complex six-axis device that extruded the strands and then carefully tied the strings together in 3D!

Tom believes this type of technology could transform the shoe (and other) industries into a manufacturing-by-one model. For example, scan your feet, then select a design and await the printout. However, the shoe lasts "only about ten minutes" as it's made of very fragile stuff.

He also describes a concrete printer able to print buildings and bioprinters, capable of printing various replacement body parts. We've written of these concepts before many times, but it's still quite amazing to think about.

is 3D printing ahead of its time? What happens next?

Via Thinking Digital (Hat tip to Andy)

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Sunday

Jul042010

The Inevitable Obj Store

Sunday, July 4, 2010 |

After re-reading Bradshaw, Bowyer and Haufe's paper "The Intellectual Property Implications of Low-Cost 3D Printing", we've been considering where this personal manufacturing space is heading. In the paper, the tangled intellectual property rights scenarios they described involved personal manufacturing of some sort. It occurred to us that at the end of the day, most manufactured consumer objects are used by a person, directly or indirectly. Why else would they exist? Consumer objects are ultimately for personal use.

In the distant future when personal manufacturing capabilities become much more widespread due to more advanced capabilities and ease of use, people have the potential to become the manufacturers of the objects they use. But what does that imply? The ability to simply scan objects, make them yourself and be protected via "personal use" laws challenges current concepts of commercial manufacturing. The previously "commercial" objects found in stores would be replaced by "personal use" objects. Why would you be a manufacturer of consumer goods if the essence of your products could be quickly reproduced by everyone "for personal use"? Perhaps there will always be some aspects of manufacturing that won't appear in personal manufacturing stations (such as high-density electronics, unusual materials, etc.), but many objects don't involve those.

Those manufacturers would have to change their approach, much like other industries have transformed over the past decade. The answer might be App Stores for objects: an easy-to-use, touch-a-button store for objects. But it won't be objects you'll buy. Instead you will receive the design, which you will use to manufacture the item yourself.

We can see the beginnings of this manufacturing concept in the business models of Ponoko and Shapeways, but the technology, designs and even knowledge of this capability are simply not there yet. In coming years when the pieces are "ripe", a future Steve Jobs will put it together into a breakthrough system that everyone can use.

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Sunday

May092010

Five Things to 3D Print in 2050?

Sunday, May 9, 2010 |

PrintCountry proposed "5 Ways Your Grandkids will Use 3D Printers in 2050" in a whimsical post recently. We thought about their list and came up with our own. But first, here's PrintCountry's assessment:

Organs What if in 2050, no one will have to be on a waiting list for an organ transplant ever again? The children of the future just might be able to find a way to replace body organs. Your grandkids might be able to create skin with a 3D printer, and no one will ever know the difference.

Toys In 2050, you may not need to bring your grandchildren to the toy store. Why? They’ll most probably be designing and creating their own toys by then. You can already make your own action figures today, although it is difficult to make them out of non-toxic materials. By 2050, non-toxic materials for the 3D printer should be readily and easily available.

Automobile Parts It’s very possible that your grandchildren will construct their own cars with this type of printer. If they are able to construct a majority or all of the different parts of an automobile and are able to assemble it, then there will be no need to get them a car.

Homes When your grandchildren grow older and express interest in moving out of their parents’ house, they might just move into a home built with a 3D printer. At present, there is already talk of using this technology for building homes, but there are still many issues that have to be solved.

Electronics In this day and age, people still have to pay for their gadgets. If you want a mobile phone or a computer, you need to buy it. In 2050, things will be different. A 3D printer can print pretty much anything—including electronics. There will be no need to pay for the latest technology, because your grandchildren will be making it for you.

That's a pretty good list; we agree with most of it, but here's a few more ideas. And remember, 2050 is a Very Long Time away from today. There will be a great many radical developments by then:

Jewelry. We're already seeing jewellers use 3D printers in their design work, why not have people print jewelry at home in sufficiently capable printers?
Clothing. A 3D printer with sufficient resolution and material capability should be able to print various articles of clothing. Small articles, like gloves or shoes are a natural. Larger items will require "unfolding" when taken out of the build chamber.
ExtraTerrestrial Items. Remote controlled 3D printers stationed on other planetary bodies could use local materials to print items for exploration, settlement or, ugh, advertising.
Hair. Today hair is "sculpted" to the extremes by many people. But what if you had a printer that had sufficient resolution to print hair? We are staggered by the design and market possibilities of this one.
Your Friends. It should be a very simple matter to use high resolution stereo cam data to capture 3D representations of your distant friends and print them out. Or, send yourself back to Mom for Christmas!

If you can imagine it, you have a chance of making it really happen.

Via PrintCountry

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Sunday

Mar142010

The Battle of Big Thinking

Sunday, March 14, 2010 |

We listened to an interesting presentation from John Wilshire on the topic of "Big". He means the notion of mass production, mass consumption and the resulting mass media, where the goal is simply to have you "buy more" in a "big way". It's true. We've all been conditioned to think this way as that was one of the fundamental principles of 20th century industry.

Things change in the 21st century, where technology, networking and software permits us to be anywhere, build anything and have relationships with anyone. Well, potentially, anyway. The result is that we do what we want and then cluster in affinity groups.

These groups are increasingly less interested in "buying more" in a "big way" as they interests focus elsewhere. Wilshire proposes "Social Production", where manufacturing occurs on a lower, but more distributed scale. He describes at length the social constructs that permit the identification and development of solutions. But then the next step occurs: sharing the results.

Social Production

View more presentations from John V Willshire.

He describes how 3D printing can be the end point for this process, where the ideas become real. The conclusion: Our Future = Social Media + Social Production.

Via Slideshare

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Monday

Mar082010

3D Printing is Not China on Your Desktop

Monday, March 8, 2010 |

A 2008 quote attributed to Chris DiBona, Open Source Programs Manager at Google says: "Think of RepRap as a China on your desktop."

We strongly resonate with that image. Instead of receiving goods from China, which evidently manufactures all things these days, you can drop a 3D printer on your desk and manufacture things yourself. We Want To Do That!

But there are some issues:

The build quality of today's 3D printers (at least the semi-affordable ones) is not quite equivalent to mainstream Chinese manufacturers
The objects made in China have been professionally designed, tested and safety certified. Are yours? If not, where do you get the right 3D model to print?
The build chamber of many 3D printers is smaller than the object you want to print. Therefore you must print parts and then assemble them. In some cases, this could be difficult

But let's assume these and other issues are eventually solved. You have a quality printer, a great design and you can rapidly print out your item.

It's still not China.

That's because the unit price of printing items yourself will never approach the low cost levels of Chinese manufacturers. Your printer will be idle for much of the day, while Chinese equipment efficiently spins 24 hours per day, tended by low-cost staff, producing items at extremely low cost. Home printing can never match China on cost.

And that's the tradeoff we're all faced with: Design choice but expensive, or Inexpensive with limited choice. Choose one.

Image Credit: Joi Via Wikipedia under CC Attribution 2.0 Generic

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Monday

Feb222010

Seth Godin's Vision

Monday, February 22, 2010 |

We read Seth Godin's posts often, and recently completed his latest book, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?.

In the book Godin proposes that the industrial model that we've lived with for some 250 years is drawing to a close. With painful accuracy, he describes the fruitless struggles and frustrations many people face at work in the factories of today - even if they are information worker factories. He believes it must and is going to change:

Our economy has reached a logical conclusion. The race to make average stuff for average people in huge quantities is almost over. We're hitting an asymptote, a natural ceiling for how cheaply and how fast we can deliver uninspired work.

But what does the new economy look like? Godin sums it up thusly:

Shipping an idea went from taking a month by boat to a few days by plane to overnight by Federal Express to a few minutes by fax to a moment by email to instantaneously by Twitter. Now what? Will it arrive yesterday?

So, what's left to make - to give - art. What's left is the generosity and humanity worth paying for.

In other words, the days of commoditization are over and people will increasingly seek uniqueness, because it's not just about the money or efficiency. 21st century technology will make it possible, including one of the important technologies: 3D printing. Make exactly what you want, anytime.

Via Seth Godin's Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

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Wednesday

Jan132010

3D Jobs of the Future

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 |

The Guardian's Ian Wylie posts an interesting vision of the future, where he extrapolates technologies emerging today into full-on industries and associated job roles. They describe a great many truly interesting jobs of the year 2020, and one of them involves 3D printing: Construction Worker. Actually, they believe that Construction Workers might be at risk, because:

… "3D printing" techniques, in which solid objects can be constructed automatically from computer models, will enable buildings to be erected in a matter of hours.

That could be true, but we suspect only certain types of construction workers need worry. From what we've seen, the 3D House Printers of the future will be gigantic inkjet-style concrete pumpers that would lay out the basic walls and floors of your 21st century fabhome. There will be plenty of jobs for painters, decorators, electricians and many other skill areas.

Via The Guardian

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