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World's first 3D-printed office opens in Dubai
The world's first 3D-printed office building opened this week in Dubai, Reuters reports. The 2,700-square-foot, single-story building was built in just 17 days using a gigantic, 20-foot tall 3D printer and a special mix of concrete, fiber reinforced plastic and glass fiber reinforced gypsum.
This freaky electric motorbike was 3D printed with metal powder
The Light Rider is an electric motorbike that weighs just 77 pounds and has a frame like an alien skeleton. Its creator, Airbus subsidiary APWorks, crafted the bike with 3D printing -- but it's not plastic. The hollow frame is aircraft-grade aluminum (this is Airbus, after all) and it takes shape via thousands of thin metal layers produced in a bed of metal powder.
3D-printed wheelchair promises more comfortable rides
Wheelchairs are rarely as comfortable as you'd like. You either have to settle for a generic design or wait ages for a custom model that might still be a little awkward. However, London design firm Layer might have a better way: it's unveiling Go, a prototype wheelchair that could be easier to live with. The design has manufacturers scanning your body so that they can 3D-print seats and footrests that match your exact dimensions. It'd be more comfortable, of course, but it'd also account for your weight and create an ideal center of gravity that reduces the chances of tipping over or sliding.
Toyota's concept for the next generation has a 3D-printed dash
Toyota is looking to the future of car ownership with its latest concept, the uBox, which it created in collaboration with graduate students at Clemson University's International Center for Automotive Research. The carmaker imagines uBox customers as entrepreneurs and members of "generation Z" -- the vehicle is designed to be fluid, transforming from a recreational vehicle into a kind of mobile office via a reconfigurable interior. Owners would be able to customize the vents, dashboard display fixtures and door trim with 3D printing, plus there would be an online hub for people to share their designs. The uBox has a curved glass roof and 110-volt sockets along the inside and outside of the vehicle so Gen-Z-ers can power their electronics, too.
You can buy this 3D printed car next year for $53,000
Local Motors recently held a contest to build a roadworthy car using (mostly) 3D-printing techniques, and the winner, crowned in July, is the vehicle you see above. We now know that it'll be called the LM3D Swim and cost $53,000, with pre-sales launching in spring of 2016 and retail sales later in the year. If an unknown company building an all-new vehicle using an untested manufacturing technique doesn't sound risky enough, there's another catch, too. Sales will launch on Indiegogo, so early adopters will also need to gamble on crowdfunding.
The 'world's biggest' 3D printer will build emergency houses
The design team at WASP (World's Advanced Saving Project) will unveil what is being billed as the world's largest 3D printer on Friday in Rieti, Italy. Dubbed the "Big Delta," this enormous device stands roughly 40 feet tall with a 20 foot diameter. But despite its size, the Big Delta is extremely efficient and uses only 100 watts of power. Its oversized design allows the Big Delta to quickly and easily print low-cost disaster-relief housing. What's more, it can do so using locally-sourced materials (read: dirt and mud) which also acts to minimize construction costs. The WASP team also foresees employing this printer for non-disaster-related home building. According to a company release, the Big Delta help accommodate the estimated 4 billion people worldwide that will lack adequate housing by 2030.
NASA's 3D-printed rocket pump passes brutal stress test
NASA is pushing the state-of-the-art for 3D additive printing and wants to bring US industry along with it. It recently tested a rocket engine's crucial turbopump unit that was built almost entirely of 3D printed parts (see the video below). Marshall Space Center design lead Mart Calvert said that NASA and its private partners are "making big advances in the additive manufacturing arena with this work. Several companies have indicated that the parts for this fuel pump were the most complex they have ever made with 3D printing."
3D-printed car contest winner is road ready by design
Earlier this year Local Motors set forth a challenge for the 3D printing community to design a road-ready vehicle, and now there's a winner. What you're looking at above is the Reload Redacted - Swim and Sport from Kevin Lo. It beat out over 60 other designs and Local Motors says that the Swim and Sport was chosen in part because it reflects the benefits of the company's Direct Digital Manufacturing, like the chance at a totally customizable vehicle with removable body panels. The outfit says a Low Speed Electric Vehicle (LSEV) version should ship to consumers early next year, and a prototype is on deck for a September release.
Startup launches first 3D-printed battery-powered rocket (update)
Rocket Lab is a Lockheed Martin-funded startup that dreams of taking small satellites to space for an affordable price -- but it wants to do so using technology quite different than usual. See, the company has revealed that its engine called the "Rutherford" is (1) composed mostly of 3D-printed parts, and (2) uses batteries instead of liquid fuel. It will be paired up with the company's Electron launch system, and together they make up the first battery-powered rocket, or so the startup claims. Its batteries power the turbopumps that deliver propellant to the engine.*
Despite its looks, this 3D printed violin (probably) won't kill you
It might not be a Stradivarius, but the violin you see above is pretty impressive on its own merits. For starters, it's 3D printed and only has two strings. And that's to say nothing of its appearance; this thing looks like it'd be right at home on The Citadel in Mass Effect. The Piezoelectric Violin (as it's officially called), was concepted by a pair of architects who tell BBC that the impetus for its creation was realizing that the challenges of their day jobs aren't all that different from those faced by composers and musicians. It's still playable by "anyone" too, despite its wild looks. One of its designers tells BBC that the difference between how it and a traditional violin sounds is akin to that of a classical guitar versus an electric Gibson Les Paul. That is, similar, but still pretty different.
UC Berkeley 3D prints an artsy pavilion using dry powdered cement
Here's a project that could pave way to structures both unique and affordable. A team of researchers from the UC Berkeley's College of Environmental Design has unveiled the Bloom Pavilion, which they call "the first and largest powder-based 3D-printed cement structure." It measures 9 feet high, 12 feet wide and 12 feet deep, with a traditional Thai floral motif design. The pavilion is not the first 3D-printed building, to be clear. A Chinese company built 10 houses in under 24 hours last year and finished a whopping 5-storey apartment block in January using 3D-printed parts. Plus, there's that 3D-printed castle in Minnesota. However, it was created using dry powdered cement, whereas other 3D-printed buildings were made by extruding wet cement through a nozzle.
