[LINK] O/T - 3D Printing or re-inventing our manufacturing base.

[David Boxall]

On 4/08/2011 6:42 AM, Tom Koltai wrote:
>> From an article in NewScientist Magazine: [1]
>
> Quote/
> 3D printing has come on in leaps and bounds since its origins as an
> expensive prototyping tool over two decades ago. It uses laser-assisted
> machines to fabricate plastic or metal objects, building up the item
> layer by layer, each slice just 100 micrometres thick.
>
> To do this, the 3D printer first slices up an object's computerised
> design into hundreds of easily printable layers....

Given the IT involved, not really O/T.

Me, I'm hanging out for my nanofactory:
<http://www.foresight.org/nano/nanofactories.html>
> The cost of most manufactured products, especially the most complex and currently most expensive ones, like computer chips, will be reduced toward a bottom limit set by the costs of the raw materials ... Perhaps the most significant cost component will be product design.
:)

-- 
David Boxall                    |  When a distinguished but elderly
                                |  scientist states that something is
http://david.boxall.id.au       |  possible, he is almost certainly
                                |  right. When he states that
                                |  something is impossible, he is
                                |  very probably wrong.
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