3d Printer -- Engadget

3d printer posts

Z Corporation's ZPrinter 350 will create a 3D object of any color you want, so long as it is white

by Tim Stevens posted Oct 16th 2009 at 7:42AM

Z Coporations ZPrinter 350 will create a 3D object of any color you want, so long as it is white

We're not quite to the point where everybody has a 3D printer sitting on their desktop, spewing out conceptual widgets and free energy devices, but by golly if we aren't getting close. The ZPrinter 350 from Z Corporation is the latest, a (relatively) compact machine that uses easy snap-in cartridges of material and automatically recycles any waste created during production. It sports a 300 x 450 dpi resolution, can create objects that are up to 8 x 10 x 8-inches, and while its printing speed doesn't exactly seem blazing (just .8-inch per hour vertically), that's apparently the fastest on the market. All that for only $25,900! We can't wait to see what Steorn will create with theirs.

Gallery: Z Corporation ZPrinter 350

Video: MakerBot's build-it-yourself 3D printer in action, replicator in the works

by Paul Miller posted Jun 10th 2009 at 9:09PM

We just bumped into the MakerBot industries folks and got a quick look at the CupCake CNC rapid prototyping machine (3D printer, for us luddites). The thing extrudes Lego-type plastic into fairly detailed shapes, and MakerBot sells it as a kit for $750, or fully assembled for $2,500. What's most exciting is that the MakerBot folks are now working on a 3D scanner kit, which once combined with the CupCake CNC will make a full-on homegrown replicator. Diamond Age, here we come! A quick demo of the CupCake is after the break.

Continue reading Video: MakerBot's build-it-yourself 3D printer in action, replicator in the works

Z Corp's 3D printers available to Hawaiian school students, the wealthy

by Joseph L. Flatley posted May 4th 2009 at 2:31PM

We're eagerly awaiting the day when 3D printers achieve the same sort of ubiquity as their two dimensional brethren -- we can only imagine the sweet office pranks that will become available once we can conjure tiny objects from our imaginations (via AutoCAD). It looks like the fine folks over at Hawaii's State Department of Education have more civic-minded uses for the machine, however. As high school students from throughout the islands complete their 3D design projects they send the files to the education office in Honolulu, which manufactures physical models with a Z Corporation 3D printer and ships them back to the students, who can then review the model and refine their design. A machine like Z Corp's ZPrinter 310 Plus (seen above) will run you a cool $19,900 before shipping, sales tax, and so forth, so it looks like all of you amateur CADsters out there might want to find a pen-pal in the Pineapple State if you want to make your ID dreams a reality. Either that or do it yourself. And make sure you send us the YouTube link when you do.

Mcor launches Matrix 3D printer, only asks for your paper and glue

by Darren Murph posted Nov 9th 2008 at 4:03AM

We wouldn't go so far as to say that 3D printers are growing tired, but we are growing short on patience waiting for a commercial version that the average joe / jane can afford. Thankfully, Mcor is up to the challenge, recently delivering its Matrix to the UK and gearing up to bring it to other parts of the world in 2009. Put simply, this carving creature uses traditional A4 paper and PVA glue to create objects like the ones you see above. Throw in a nice, sharp blade and a little bit of computational prowess, and you've got yourself one wicked 3D printer with running costs "up to 40 times less" than competitors.

[Via SlashGear]

Objet announces the Alaris 30 Desktop 3D Printer

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Oct 17th 2008 at 12:32AM

It looks like the slow crawl towards a consumer 3D printer continues with Objet's newest outing, the Alaris 30. The relatively compact peripheral uses something called PolyJet Photopolymer Jetting to produce 600 x 600 dpi objects up to 11.5 x 7.7 x 5.9 inches in size (not too shabby when compared to the 5-inch cube of last year's Desktop Factory offering). Equally impressive is the printer's ability to manufacture small moving elements and elements as thin as 0.0011 inches. A generous build tray means that many small parts can be printed simultaneously, and the company promises up to 36 hours unattended printing from your 3D CAD files. Finished models leave the printer fully cured and hardened by UV light. There is no pricing or availability yet, but if you hit the read link below there are plenty more juicy details.

[Via TFTS]

Desktop Factory's cheapo 3D printer is coming

by Joshua Topolsky posted Sep 14th 2007 at 1:01PM

Tinkerers, schemers, makers and DIY-buffs: grab your ball-peen hammer and heaviest piggy bank, because you're about to need a loan. A company called Desktop Factory is going to make your 3D-printing dreams a serious reality with the introduction of its 125ci 3D printer, a $4,995 hunk of concept-plastic magic which could possibly represent a paradigmatic shift for the state of three-dimensional printing for the masses. The DF crew calls the pricing "disruptively lower than the nearest competitive offering," and we're inclined to agree, as most 3D printers crest easily over the $10,000 mark. The printer takes up a paltry 25 x 20 x 20-inch space, and weighs about 90-pounds, while the maximum size of printed objects is 5 x 5 x 5-inches, and Desktop Factory says per-cubic-inch printing costs will hover somewhere around $1. One of these beautiful babies could be all yours, just put down your $495 reserve fee, and then go to work on that string of robberies you've been planning.

[Via TG Daily]

DIY'ers create homemade 3D printer

by Joshua Topolsky posted Aug 17th 2007 at 9:32AM

Hot on the heels of the candy-object-making printer, an ingenious group of DIY'ers from Russia have managed to create a homemade 3D printer from a CNC lathe kit and some cobbled together bits and pieces. Typically, 3D printers are quite expensive (running anywhere from $20,000 up to $100,000), but working with cheap materials and using free, open source software, the designers were able to construct this project for considerably less. The printer software uses standard STL (a stereolithography CAD file) to render the objects, and it employs inexpensive plastic waste or powdered paint as raw material to create the real-world item. Motor over to the translated Russian site to see how it all takes shape -- pun intended.

[Via Make]

DIY 3D printer utilizes hot air, sugar to craft random objects

by Darren Murph posted May 10th 2007 at 11:01AM

Just when you thought a $5,000 3D printer wasn't such a bad deal after all, the zany gurus at the Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories have put Desktop Factory's iteration to shame. The CandyFab 4000 is a homegrown printer that utilized a bevy of miscellaneous spare parts around the lab as well as the same sort of CNC hot-air control mechanism that we previously saw in the text writing toaster contraption. Their selective hot air sintering and melting (SHASAM) method allows the printer to begin with a bed of granular media (sugar, in this case) in which a directed, low-velocity beam of hit air can be used to fuse together certain areas repeatedly, eventually working the remaining grains into a three-dimensional object. The creators claim that while their CandyFab machine only ran them $500 in addition to junk parts and manual labor, even starting from scratch shouldn't demand more than a grand or so, so be sure to click on through for a few snaps of the fascinating results and hit the read link for the full-blown skinny.

[Via MetaFilter]

Continue reading DIY 3D printer utilizes hot air, sugar to craft random objects

Desktop Factory to offer up $5,000 3D printer

by Donald Melanson posted May 8th 2007 at 1:40PM

While they're still a long ways from sharing shelf space with cut-rate inkjet printers, it looks like three dimensional printers are slowly inching towards the consumer space, with Idealab company Desktop Factory set to sell its first 3D printer for not entirely unreasonable price of $4,995 sometime this year. According to The New York Times, some 200 customers have already signed up to buy the printer, which will make up the entirety of the initial test run. They may be feeling a bit a buyer's remorse before too long, however, as the company says the price of the printers will come down to $1,000 in four years. Eventually, Idealab foresees companies selling 3D designs of products on the Internet, which people could then simply print out at home. For now, however, the printers would seem to have somewhat limited applications, relying on nylon mixed with aluminum and glass that results in gray objects that have somewhat jagged edges and a sandy finish.