Top 10 Strangest Things Printed on a 3D Printer

More than 30 years ago in 1983, Chuck Hill (Chuck 'Hull) invented the first STL 3D printer (STL is a stereolithography technology where, under the influence of UV radiation, polymer by layer with certain properties is cured), after 3 years it founded the company 3D Systems. And although 3D printing technology is the same age as CD players and camcorders, it has not achieved such popularity. However, with the advent of the RepRap project, the alignment of forces has changed, and cheap Chinese 3D printers, even FDM and not STL, have brought this technology to the masses in recent years. Almost everyone has already heard about 3D printing, and there are constantly unusual methods of using these technologies in the news. But the photo below is the world's first 3D STL printer.



So, I present a selection of ten of the strangest things that can be printed on a 3D printer.

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1. Angelic forms

Japan is the birthplace of all kinds of unusual gadgets, customs and trends. So in 3D printing, they managed to distinguish themselves. The Japanese company Fasotec , or rather its division Biotexture, offers an unusual service. For future parents, not just a photo or video of their fetus is available, but a whole printed 3D model.



It sounds a bit unusual, visually it looks even more extraordar. Like a frozen beetle in amber, an embryo is located in its natural position in a transparent polymer crystal. It is good that the colors are chosen just contrasting and not like they are in a natural way, but it would look altogether terrible. This was all possible thanks to one of fasotec's core business, Magnetic Resonant Body Scanning. In principle, the company on such things "ate a dog", they have long been engaged in scanning various organs and their seal, which allows surgeons to prepare well for the upcoming operations.



Well, here it’s like a “by-product”, although it made quite a lot of noise and drew additional attention to the company. It's no joke, a germ in a crystal. Such crystals with an embryo inside are called “Shapes of Angel” (angel form) and cost about 100,000 yen not so cheap, which is about $ 870 dollars (as of 02/11/16), the price excluding the flight to Japan of course. The size of such a crystal is approximately 90x60x40mm, and it is issued to the customer in a nice beige box with pink silk inside.



It is worth buying one to shock your future children when they grow up.

2. Tapkburger

Oh gods, he eats sneakers! So probably people think when they first saw a person absorbing "Shoe Burger". And here, in fact, there is nothing unusual. This is just a burger with a bun in the form of your sneaker or shoes.



Several advanced technologies came together here: 3D scanning, 3D printing, and silicone casting. That's basically all the description of the process.





Put your shoe on the table of the 3D scanner, create a digital copy. Print it on a 3D printer and make the reverse form of heat-resistant food-grade silicone. Now it remains only to fill it with dough and send it to the oven.





I think this is a great way to surprise your friends who came to visit you. Just feed them with slippers.

3. Nano-sculptures

We live in amazing time, we are surrounded by a huge amount of wonderful things that can be seen and often even touched. But Jonty Hurwitz creates sculptures that can not be touched, and even to see them without a microscope will not work.



All this thanks to a special 3D-printer that can create such tiny objects.



Who was complaining about the lamination of the print? With such a printer, there will be no problems with lamination, although in order to create an object that is more or less visible to the human eye, you will have to wait a very long time.



Such nanosculptures appeared thanks to the technology of the institute "Karlsruhe Institute of Technology" , which are successfully used in the "Weizmann Institute of Science" . Such a printing method is called multiphoton lithography which is based on the phenomenon of two-photon absorption.



So, at the junction of advanced technology and art, something new is created, now the whole museum can easily be carried in your pocket.

4. Weapons

Printed weapons on a 3D printer have long been known. When people find out that you have a similar printer, the first question is - can you print a gun on it? All thanks to the world famous liberator. Wow, how he made some noise in the net ... Some people even got real criminal cases for his production at home, for example: ... Although in my opinion than using such a gun, it would be easier to carve a spear from any suitable stick. Especially since when firing there is a big chance that the trunk can simply break.



But inquisitive minds do not stand still, after the liberator came into the world a multiply charged revolver.



It looks good, it is already getting more interesting, isn't it? Although this is not a classic revolver, the design is similar to a barrelless weapon, when the bullet itself is the barrel. Here something is average - in the rod of the trunk the drum itself comes out. It can be a capacity of 6 or 8 bullets. Bullets again from the "melkashki" and fly at subsonic speeds.



Bullet holes need to strengthen the metal tubes, which by the way and will act as a barrel. And in the case of the 8th charging drum, it is also necessary to strengthen the drum itself with metal elements.



Or, for example, from fresh, already semi-automatic pistol Shuty MP-1. This is already serious, although the caliber is still small.



About him there was an article on Geektimes more recently: Shuty MP-1

But the crown of 3D-printed weapons (plastic) can still be recognized as RailGun. And although there is not the most powerful shot and he does not pierce the walls, but this weapon looks very menacing.

5. Human organs or their substitutes

While some people print tools of destruction, others are thinking about how to restore the human body, again using 3D printing. For example, metal printing using SLS or SLM technology (selective laser sintering or selective laser fusion) has long been known; often, if the budget allows, prostheses or missing parts of bones are created.



But science does not stand still, and it is becoming realistic to print not only metal structures for the human body, but also the basis of organs that will not be rejected by the human body.



In some cases, used and plastic. Plastic also does not stand still and already in some countries they are testing fillings and dentures that destroy bacteria and prevent caries from re-developing.



It remains to wait a little longer to make fantastic films where people improve themselves with the help of technology have become a reality.

6. Glass Vases

Glass. Very interesting stuff. On the one hand, it’s just sand in a large crystal, and on the other hand, it’s not so easy to work with this material. To create some complex shapes of glass, especially not easy. And what if you try to print glass on a 3D printer?
Apparently, they reasoned in the MIT's Mediated Matter Group, the result of their research was perhaps the only one of a kind 3D glass printer.



True, there are a number of limitations to this technology, such as, for example, printing speed and layer thickness.



In addition, the structures are still layered, which imposes some kind of restrictions on the use of finished products. So far, the ideal product obtained with the help of this technology is the vase.



Beautiful vase, giving an interesting diffused light, if you shine a light bulb on top of it.

7. Bioprint or what have you heard about B-code?

Different types of art have always been considered by some people amazing, and others - strange. Now I will talk about really strange, hmm ... probably forms. I do not know which category this belongs to :)



This is the so-called bioprint. Printing objects pori help bees. That's where the fantasy can play out, paint incredible machines using bees. But no, everything is much simpler. Biologist Jennifer Berry (Jennifer Berry) once looked at the wild hives, thought it looked good, and it would be interesting to control the creation of forms of hives.



In the end, after several attempts, she created a kind of bioprinter-artificial hive in which the bees live and create honeycombs under her control.



The technology is simple - you need to create a form that limits the external borders of the model being created,



And it is also necessary to specify the direction of growth of honeycombs from a special material.



All this is placed in a transparent box, in which a certain microclimate is maintained and there is a special valve that blocks the bees from entering the hive after they complete the creation of the object. I wonder how many finished paintings sold Jennifer? Although attention to her person she definitely attracted.

8. Giant sculptures

While some print nanosculptures, others create giant art objects on ordinary FDM printers. For example, the famous artist Hong-Ji Pung from Taipei (Taiwan) implemented a powerful artistic project at the Museum of Fine Arts - an ocean liner, allegedly twisted by the forces of nature.



The creation of this exhibit took a total of 42,000 hours of work. Printing was carried out by thirty-two FDM printers, 6000 pieces were printed with a total weight of 500 kilograms. And the length of the liner was 8 meters.





With his project, Pang wants to remind mankind of his impotence in the face of uncontrolled natural forces, sometimes leading to terrible catastrophes.

9. Cars

One of the most appreciative industries for 3D printing is perhaps automotive. In addition to prototyping and creating prototypes, the automotive industry is actively testing new types of materials in automobile production and new methods for their production.



For example, the FORD corporation which owns as many as five centers of three-dimensional printing, producing hundreds of parts per day. Printers in these centers print a wide range of materials: from silicates to nylon, and even sand. One of the favorite examples of the company when it comes to three-dimensional printing is the engine intake manifold.



But this is all particular. Of interest, in the context of this article, are the projects of cars entirely or mostly printed on 3D-printers.



A recent example of a high-tech car created using 3D printing technology is the Blade supercar from Divergent Microfactories.



Blade is a frame structure consisting of carbon rods and special aluminum hubs. According to the creators of Blade, this not only saves material, but also eases the car by 90% compared to traditional designs. Blade is equipped with a 700 hp gasoline or natural gas engine. Thanks to the powerful engine and light body, the car can accelerate from 0 to 100 km / h in 2.2 seconds.

10. Food

I remember fantastic movies and stories, where special food printers print any food with any taste to order practically from the air. It probably sounds fantastic, and in practice it is not yet applicable. However, some imitation of such devices already exists. The strangest thing printed on a 3D printer at number 10 is food.



Strange here, the fact that it is only shaping with the help of a 3D printer, no changes in the properties of materials or the creation of almost nothing are out of the question.



Filled the mince into a tube and squeeze it according to the program in the desired shape, then into the oven.



Filled the dough - squeezed the base for pizza or tartlets. It is rather an assistant for the culinary specialist, when it is difficult to extrude the drawing with hands. The machine will do it with an accuracy of hundredths of millimeters.



Although the artistic value is still present here. With proper imagination and small skill, you can create masterpieces of culinary art.

Conclusion

Thanks to Chinese stores, even with the growing currency, it has now become possible to purchase a home FDM 3D printer for little money. For example, one of the most popular kits for building a printer: Sunhokey Prusa i3 ( * ), which only this seller bought 1748 times. I personally bought this set last fall. Then it cost me a little less than $ 17,000. Now it costs about the same money for aliexpress. For half a year of owning this printer, I did not identify any particularly critical places, he earned me almost immediately after assembly.

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