3D printing is overrated?

[compro01]

sometimes you want to take something that already exists and copy it.

And that's where 3D scanning comes in.

[guybrushthreepwood]

sometimes you want to take something that already exists and copy it.

And that's where 3D scanning comes in.

What's next? Technology is incredible. When will we have cloning machines?

[gogodr]

3D printing is perfect for prototyping for example.
An initial invest of 1 or 2 thousand dollars will get you a pretty decent 3D printer and then the materials for printing 1 prototype goes around 40$ or 100$
It gives you a 3D representation of a product and depending of the product it can be tested just with that or not.

Industrial equivalent before 3D printing was to just stick with sketches or virtual representations that were not tangible or couldn't be tested until production starts.
An injection mold itself costs as much as a 3D printer and the machine that does the injections go for the hundreds of thousands.

On a more casual industry and where printers are going for now, is for home use. You can print useful plastic gadgets, create your own and even print figurines if you are into that.
you could do something like this in a couple of hours
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCKsQB8_698
print it and then paint it.

[johnstevenjacob]

You probably haven’t seen some of the great use of 3D printing technology. Did you know that it has successfully reconstructed a human face, completely made an aerospace engine, a car model, and whole lot more. If you want to see more proof, take a look at this: http://www.3d2print.net/shop/our-customers-cool-prints/cool-print-gallery/.

[hilariousandco]

You probably haven’t seen some of the great use of 3D printing technology. Did you know that it has successfully reconstructed a human face, completely made an aerospace engine, a car model, and whole lot more. If you want to see more proof, take a look at this: http://www.3d2print.net/shop/our-customers-cool-prints/cool-print-gallery/.

But I thought it was overrated?  I saw that face reconstruction a while back and thought of this thread. Clearly the technology is underated and also under-appreciated.

[oli123123]

It's not  overrated, you can even print guns.

[jparsley]

Intresting technology

[Equate]

3D printing is not over-rated but quite expensive.

[hilariousandco]

3D printing is not over-rated but quite expensive.

Isn't all new technology? It'll quickly get cheaper.

[jparsley]

It seems they are real, they also print guns. Organs, skin bones. Maybe they can build computers. This will a useful tool in nanotech.

[hilariousandco]

It seems they are real, they also print guns. Organs, skin bones. Maybe they can build computers. This will a useful tool in nanotech.

Not sure they can print skin and organs.

[kuroman]

 As a mechanical and design engineer I can tell you that 3d printing is the future and it is massively used in prototyping it is also used To produce complexe products Chat would require many processes ( ex casting +machining +assembly+treatement) the on ly thing right now is that it is not good for high quantity production

Dont be fooled by FDS printing which is the most popular ans cheapest form of 3D  printing there are many other technologies

[JPSelzer]

It seems they are real, they also print guns. Organs, skin bones. Maybe they can build computers. This will a useful tool in nanotech.

Not sure they can print skin and organs.

Not a long time ago in I_Dont_Remember_Which_Country quite an interesting operation took place. Some girl received a 3D printed skull (part of it). Her own bone was too small for her brain and this was the decision.

So I don't know about the skin and organs, but hard enough plastic that can be used instead of a skull is a reality

[vnvizow]

It seems they are real, they also print guns. Organs, skin bones. Maybe they can build computers. This will a useful tool in nanotech.

Not sure they can print skin and organs.

Nope they can, search for ghost organs. The organs don't have blood in them yet so they look kinda transparent hence the name 'ghost organs'

[techgeek]

3D printing is not overrated. Its still fairly new for most, and I know most dont know it.

Despite the popular youtube videos on Vice with the 3 D printing guns, now they plan on building one that does for houses.

I`ll link the housing one, I just have to find it again. Its supposedly to reduce future labor costs to build a house.

[hilariousandco]

It seems they are real, they also print guns. Organs, skin bones. Maybe they can build computers. This will a useful tool in nanotech.

Not sure they can print skin and organs.

Not a long time ago in I_Dont_Remember_Which_Country quite an interesting operation took place. Some girl received a 3D printed skull (part of it). Her own bone was too small for her brain and this was the decision.

So I don't know about the skin and organs, but hard enough plastic that can be used instead of a skull is a reality

I'm aware of that as I mentioned above, but skin and organs are an entirely different matter.

It seems they are real, they also print guns. Organs, skin bones. Maybe they can build computers. This will a useful tool in nanotech.

Not sure they can print skin and organs.

Nope they can, search for ghost organs. The organs don't have blood in them yet so they look kinda transparent hence the name 'ghost organs'

Pretty sure ghost organs aren't 3D printed.

[Bitcoin Magazine]

we don't really need 3D printing, but virtual reality houses.  so we can just store people like sardines in the matrix, but live in a beautiful Minecraft mansion in their thoughts

[hilariousandco]

we don't really need 3D printing, but virtual reality houses.  so we can just store people like sardines in the matrix, but live in a beautiful Minecraft mansion in their thoughts

We don't really need trolls either.

[jparsley]

It seems they are real, they also print guns. Organs, skin bones. Maybe they can build computers. This will a useful tool in nanotech.

Not sure they can print skin and organs.

yep with blood and they can use the recipients dna to make . Search google for '3d printed organs

[bitsmichel]

It is potentially useful for a lot of things,.
examples:

new organs
new cars (yes we would download cars)
personal airplane (print an airplane anyone?  )

This technology is not quite there yet, but ideally you could print at an atom level - and print any physical product you want.