3D printing WILL change the world!

Lunavast DIY DLP printer

Very limited data is available about this printer, however it is interesting concept that uses LCD DLP to print in resin.

Specifications:

• Electronics: Gen6 Electronics
• Firmware: Sprinter Lunavast Version
• Software: Kliment's Printrun Lunavast Version
• Printed Parts: None
• Non-Printed Parts: All parts
• Cost: USD 1,299 (Non assembled. Projector is not included.)
• Printing Size: 107.2mm x 153.6mm x 150mm

http://lunavast.a-z-ia.net/

Happy birthday Morgan!

First prints of RepRap Morgan, the SCARA arm 3d printer designed and built by Quentin Harley.

3d printed WiFi antenna signal amplifier

Great idea from iphands: he designed and printed parabolic WiFi antenna signal amplification dish. Foil was glued on.
He notes that the signal was amplified from 1200-1500KBps (~12mbps) to 2000-2500KBps (~20mbps) on an old WRT54G.

For more details and 3d files go to:
http://iblog.ahands.org/2013/02/3d-printing-wifi-antenna-enhancers.html

DAS RepRap - Kühling&Kühling RepRap Industrial

Here is DAS RepRap or üBER RepRap: Kühling&Kühling RepRap Industrial. It's the Mercedes Benz of RepRaps.

Features

• Specifically aimed at printing ABS with zero warping, low maintenance effort through highly accessible sub assemblies
• Rigid frame made of 20x20mm t-slot aluminium extrusion
• Fully enclosed by acrylic and wood, doors on the front
• A heated chamber capable of 65-70°C recirculating air temperature
• Heated PCB print bed
• Water cooled hot-ends and extruder steppers to ensure reliable extrusion in high ambient air temperature
• Fully parametric design in OpenSCAD
• Dual extruders, primarily for use with different nozzle diameters for perimeters/infill to save printing time on big objects (we are testing with 0.35mm for perimeters and 0.75mm for infill at the moment)
• 3mm filament diameter
• Compact, rigid parts with integrated mounting points for endstops and such
• Activated-carbon air filter to remove unpleasant smell of molten plastic
• Cable management
• Semi-automatic print bed levelling makes calibrating the machine a matter of seconds
• Z-leadscrew bearing supported on both ends, sugru spider coupling for absolutely wobble-free operation
• 12mm precision ground shafts with LM12UU linear ball bearings on all axes (will be replaced by Igus RJMP, see below)
• Tool-free belt tensioning with built-in thumbwheels
• Direct-drive extruders with high torque geared stepper motors
• Permanent printbed material (FR4) – no Kapton or PET tape needed
• Adjustable nozzle height to align both extruders on the same level
• 200x200x200mm build volume
• Custom designed, precision extruder drive gears to provide enough grip on the filament in a heated enviroment
• Integrated LED lighting
• Hotends from reprap-fab.org with 40W each for short heat up time

Electronics

• RAMPS 1.4 controller board – we will give the R.U.M.B.A. a try as soon as it is delivered.
• Modular additional MOSFET driver boards for lights and fans
• Brand new high power 15A MOSFET driver boards (still in development bycarbonfrog) for chamber heaters, total power >550W
• ATX power supply 1000W
• Water cooling based on a EHEIM/Innovatec PCPS1104 water pump

Upcoming development

• Raspberry Pi with a 10″ capacitive touch interface for ethernet enabled standalone operation
• Touch optimized user interface for the raspberry pi is in development
• The frame will be revised for 30x30mm extrusions, so we can use T-slot nuts that can be swivelled in, providing much easier assembly. These nuts are poorly available for 20x20mm extrusions
• All LM12UU linear ball bearings will be replaced by low maintenance Igus RJMP slide bearings that are rated for continuous use in 90°C ambient temperature
• Magnetic door locks

Price: unknown, it's still under development

Source: http://kuehlingkuehling.de/2013/02/13/the-kuhlingkuhling-reprap-industrial/

I WANT ONE!

DIY RepRap with triple extruder setup for mixing and blending multicolored filament

RichRap2011 shows off his 3 extruder setup with a single hot-end combining nozzle, to 'mix' and blend colored filament plastic or different materials on a RepRap 3D printer. It was some time before new RepRapPro Mendel Tricolour which does not mix colors.

SCARA 3d printers

The SCARA acronym stands for Selective Compliant Assembly Robot Arm or Selective Compliant Articulated Robot Arm. By virtue of the SCARA's parallel-axis joint layout, the arm is slightly compliant in the X-Y direction but rigid in the ‘Z’ direction, hence the term: Selective Compliant.
The second attribute of the SCARA is the jointed two-link arm layout similar to our human arms, hence the often-used term, Articulated. We will see how this concept develops. Nice new innovation after Delta approach.

Here is the first video of SCARA used for 3d printer by ttsalo (http://github.com/ttsalo/Armstrong-SCARA)

Here is RepRAP Morgan, a more sophisticated SCARA FDM 3D printer developed by Quentin Harley
https://github.com/qharley/Marlin

Take a look at more SCARA machines:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/search/label/scara

Optomec Aerosol Jet 3d printed electronics

In video bellow Stratasys 3D Printer is used to created the wing structure for an Unmanned Air Vehcile (UAV). Then an Optomec Aerosol Jet System is used to print electronics onto the wing structure including an RF antennae, sensor, and circuitry to power a propeller and LED. All electronic are functional. The RF antennae broadcasts live video from a camera to remote display screen.

Here is the same technology in action at Sirris:





More information and video:
http://www.optomec.com/Additive-Manufacturing-Applications/Printed-Electronics-for-3D-Printing

RepRap Tricolour Mendel is out!

RepRapPro has their Tricolour Mendel out. It is designed to work with three colours or three different plastics at the same time. They also plan future usage of electrically-conducting plastics, magnetic plastics and soluble support materials. Great to see that the technology is advancing. Hopefully first reviews of the working machine in real world applications will be out soon. It is priced around 1000 USD.

Specs:

• Build volume: 210x190x140mm
• Overall size: 500x460x410mm
• Printing materials: ABS, PLA, 1.75mm diameter thermoplastic.
• Build surface: PCB-heated bed to reduce complexity of assembly and to ensure parts do not warp. Computer interface: USB
• X-carriage: Three Z-adjustable deposition heads.
• Accuracy: 0.1mm
• Resolution: 0.0125mm
• Building speed: 1,800 mm/min
• Moving speed: 12,000 mm/min
• Deposition rate: 33 cm3 / hr
• Motion: Linear ball bearings on X and Y axes, Igus low friction bushings on Z axis.
• Pre-soldered electronics with built-in microSD card slot for standalone printing.
• enhanced widely-used Marlin firmware allowes the addition of a slave controller board to drive the extra extruders.
• Arduino-compatible Melzi electronics for both the master and slave controllers.

http://reprappro.com/Tricolour_Mendel

JP Aerospace 3d printed PongSats

I'v blogged about 3d printed satellites HERE before, but PongSats are new project I found. Basically they are launching ping-pong ball sized nano satellites to the edge of space with helium balloons. 







Video of the full flight:




3D printing files fro PongSat can be found on Thingiverse:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:37426

PongSat Users Guide:
http://www.jpaerospace.com/pongsat/PongSGuide-n.PDF

Main company site with lot of cool content, ideas and balloon launch photos:
http://www.jpaerospace.com/ 

Flomio embeds NFC into your 3d models

New service from Flomio that enables you to make your 3d printed models interact via embedded NFC tags. Effective for anti-counterfeiting, AR gaming solutions, marketing etc...

http://flomio.com/shop/nfc-tags/nfc-custom-3d-printables/

From their site:

Have a 3D solid modeled object that you want to print out with an NFC Tag embedded inside? We can help you with that.
We charge $0.50 per cm3 as well as a $4 handling fee per item. Additional is your NFC tag of your choice and shipping. Object build size must be larger than the NFC tag. We can print embedded NFC 3D objects as large as 15cm cubed.
Here’s out it works:

1. Send us your 3D solid model file (.stl format only).
2. Choose your build size, NFC Tag, and color plastic (white, green, or blue)
3. We price it out and if you’re happy, we 3D print it.
4. We test it.
5. We mail it to you.

Soft silicone robot

It looks ... kinky ... or creepy ... air powered robotic tentacle made with 3d printed model and molding ... work by Matthew Borgatti






http://har.ms/category/blog/soft-robots/

Bleuette hexapod robot

Almost everything on this robot is 3d printed. If it gets selfreplication upgrade, we will have a problem. I for one, welcome our robotic overlords.

http://www.digitalspirit.org/blog/index.php/post/2012/08/06/Le-retour-de-l-hexapode-Bleuette



Bleuette first step from hugo on Vimeo.
Bleuette is a hexapod robot completely free, all plans mechanical, electronic and software are available on GitHub https://github.com/hugokernel/Bleuette
--
Bleuette est un robot hexapode entièrement libre, aussi bien les plans mécanique, l'électronique que le logiciel sont mis à disposition sur un dépôt GitHub https://github.com/hugokernel/Bleuette

DIY Bioprinter

It's not your usual 3d printing, but it is very interesting development in printing revolution going on ...
DIY bioprinter. It prints  layers of organic matter using old inkjet cartridge. DIY printed human organs next. 

http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-BioPrinter/

As our first real "bioprinting" experiment, we wanted to start with something simple, instead of jumping straight into printing with live cells. We decided to print with a solution of arabinose onto filter paper. Then we cut out the filter paper, and put it onto an agarose plate on which we had grown a lawn of E. coli that we had engineered to carry the pGLO plasmid. This plasmid carries the Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP), under control of an arabinose-sensitive promoter. (Stay tuned for an instructable on how to make your own GFP-expressing E. coli).
As a result, wherever we had printed arabinose on the filter paper, we now saw the E. coli light up green under UV light! Note that the beauty of this experiment lies in its simplicity: we only had to print with a simple sugar solution, rather than with bulky live cells; and we were printing on paper, so we didn't even have to change the paper handling machinery. You could also try printing with antibiotics, or even proteins, such as enzymes or growth factors.