Want a 3D printer?
p2pnet.net OT news:- Would you pay $5,000 for a desktop printer —
— one that prints out a solid, 3D object.
Because that’s what IdeaLab’s Desktop Factory will do, promises the company.
“Three-dimensional printers have been seen in industrial design shops for about a decade,” says The New York Times. “They are used to test part designs for cars, airplanes and other products before they are sent to manufacturing. Once well over $100,000 each, such machines can now be had for $15,000. In the next two years, prices are expected to fall further, putting the printers in reach of small offices and even corner copy stores.
“The next frontier will be the home.”
And that frontier has now been breached, says IdeaLabs.
“The Desktop Factory 3D printer builds durable, functional models from the bottom up, one layer at a time,” it says. “The Desktop Factory 3D printer has a build speed comparable to existing 3D printing technologies, and produces robust parts that are strong enough to be thrown across a conference room table!
“Desktop Factory proprietary software imports STL files and other industry standard 3D printer formats, automatically slices and orients the part for optimal build performance and creates any required support structures.
“The Desktop Factory 3D printer measures about 25 x 20 x 20 inches and weighs less than 90 lbs. The maximum build volume of the initial product will be 5 x 5 x 5 inches. The thickness of each layer is 0.010 inch.”
The 3D printer is aimed at small design/engineering firms, departments within large companies, and schools. It can be plugged into standard wall outlets, is fully network compatible, and requires no special ventilation.
With a targeted price of $5,000 to $7,000, it uses a halogen light source and drum printing technology to build the finished result from composite plastic powder.
How much would a 3D model cost? About fifty cents per cubic inch, says the company.
Also See:
The New York Times – Beam It Down From the Web, Scotty, May 7, 2007
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at thIs the endSurvey: How Did Copyright Infringement Become Equated with Robbery? (of the Net) nigh?zze University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
