3D printed estate set

Posted on by aneczka2307

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/03/americas/architect-3d-prints-luxury-estate/

An artists rendering of a 3D-printed estate which is set to be built by architect Adam Kushner in conjunction with 3D-printing firm D-Shape.

The luxury 3D printed estate set to be made from sand, dust and gravel

(CNN)There’s already a 3D-printed house being built in the Netherlands. In China, 3D-printed mansions are reportedly on the rise.

Now, a 3D printed estate featuring a swimming pool, jacuzzi, car port and 2,400 square foot house could be coming to a sleepy plot of land in upstate New York.

The ambitious project is being undertaken by New York City architect Adam Kushner, alongside partners including 3D-printing pioneer Enrico Dini and his D-Shape firm.

Kushner told CNN that surveying has already begun with excavation work also set to commence soon.

The swimming pool and jacuzzi are penciled in to be completed by December 2015 while construction of the house is expected to continue until the end of 2017, he says.

An artists rendering of the pool house which will be 3D printed by D-Shape.

But the project hinges on getting the giant 3D printer, which will be used to produce the digitally designed building blocks of the estate on-site, into the country.

The device is currently in Italy after it was originally being built for a project partly funded by the Italian defense agencies. Military clearance is now required before the green light is given to export the printer to the United States, Dini says.

The delay in receiving this clearance is part of the reason the project has been held up since it was first announced back in August 2014.

“We are now waiting (for) permission to borrow the printer (from the military),” Dini says. “If I had another printer I’d send it there tomorrow, but unfortunately we don’t have and must wait.”

The litmus test

Whatever the import-export issues, Kushner says he sees the estate project as a test of D-Shape’s printer technology and its distinctive method.

This practice entails collecting sand, dust and gravel on site and mixing them with a magnesium-based binding agent to produce the 3D-printed building blocks required to piece the estate together. According to literature on the D-Shape website, the material produced by the printer is “similar to marble” in its constitution.

This technique is vastly different from other 3D-printing methods, Kushner says, and enables the production of many more “sculptural forms” that simply aren’t possible with other systems.

If D-Shape can prove its technology works and is efficient for a project of this size, Kushner believes it could lead to all manner of possibilities in architecture and construction. Not only could it be faster and safer than existing construction methods, he says, it could also end up being cheaper, more streamlined and of higher quality.

A Dini 3D printer like this one will be used to construct Adam Kushner's 3D printed estate in upstate New York.

And although the 3D-printed estate is something only the very wealthiest would be able to replicate, Kushner sees D-Shape’s construction methods benefiting the less fortunate as well.

“This will serve as a way of using our project to … pave the way for more humanitarian purposes that we see as the highest and best use for our technology,” he says.

“If we can build a simple pool house, I can print thousands of refugee housings. If I can build a pool, I can print underwater reefs (which he says D-Shape has already done before) to repair bridges, piers and infrastructures.”

A technology on the rise?

Integrating progressively more advanced 3D-printing methods into the construction industry has been a topic that has generated many eye-catching headlines in recent years.

The process of contour crafting — where large 3D printers are assembled on a building site (much like what will happen on Kushner’s estate) and programmed to construct pre-designed concrete structures and their relevant sub-components — was put forward by Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis of the University of Southern California as far back as 2009.

Khoshnevis told industry website 3DPrint.com earlier this year that the first printers large enough for his version of contour crafting should become available within the next two years. He added that the method could even be used to build high-rise structures within ten years.

Chinese firm WinSun seemed to take inspiration from Khoshnevis’ methods when they claimed to have 3D printed a mansion and six-story tower block in the city of Suzhou, eastern China earlier this year.

Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, DUS Architects continue to piece together a 3D-printed house using its “KamerMaker” machine. Company co-founder Katherine De Wit described the DUS technique as being a potentially valuable tool that could be added to those already used to build homes.

An artists impression of the DUS Architects 3D printed house.

Other experts, however are more cautious about the immediate potential of 3D-printing technology in the construction industry.

In an interview with CNN in 2014, Dr. Phil Reeves, managing director of UK-based 3D-printing consultancy and research firm Econolyst, described 3D-printing a house on site like that planned by DUS as counter to existing building techniques which are already relatively efficient.

Then there are other fast-developing building methods like prefabricated construction which entails manufacturing components in a factory before transporting and rapidly piecing them together on a building site.

Chinese firm Broad Sustainable Building claimed to have used this method to piece together a 57-story skyscraper in just 19 days earlier this year.

For Kushner, however, the benefits of large-scale 3D-printing are many and will likely increase as the technology becomes more advanced.

“This is not superfluous, nor a lazy architects idyll,” he says. “I think it’s as important as the automobile was in changing the design of cities or how the printing press altered communication.”

“Why? Because it democratizes construction and architecture and puts it into everyone’s hands, just like the camera phone made everyone a photographer. Not everyone is good at it but everyone can become one.”

edition.cnn.com

by Eoghan Macguire, CNN | 12:47 GMT (1947 HKT) June 3, 2015

Tampa library building and 3D printing

Posted on by aneczka2307

http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/college/usf-tampa-library-building-on-once-exotic-3-d-printing-technology/2222371

USF, Tampa library building on once-exotic 3-D printing technology (w/video)

TAMPA — For many, a scene on Grey’s Anatomy involving a 3-D printer may have been their first exposure to a seemingly futuristic technology that is in widespread use right now around Tampa Bay.

The use of 3-D printers has grown steadily since the 1980s, when they were used almost exclusively in large government labs. These days, you can drop by the main branch of the Tampa Public Library and try it out for yourself.

Students and faculty at the University of South Florida are taking advantage of the extensive possibilities of 3-D printing. And a number of Tampa Bay businesses such as Engineering and Manufacturing Services and Tangible Labs are turning profits using high-end, commercial printers to mass produce such items as medical devices, military equipment and prototypes.

Increasingly, you can even do 3-D printing at home, with devices that used to carry a price tag of thousands of dollars now costing as little as a few hundred at Best Buy and Staples.

In 1914, a fire burned down the original dorm at the site of the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, killing at least six children and two staff members. No blueprints or photos of the building remain, presenting a big problem for researchers who wanted to understand how the fire spread.

With the help of Howard Kaplan at USF’s Advanced Visualization Center, lead Dozier researcher Erin Kimmerle used descriptions from Jackson County residents and former school staffers to build a 3-D printed model of what the school would have looked like.

“I think it gave a common vocabulary to the physical properties of the school,” Kaplan said. “From there, we can continue research on it and continue changing the digital model, reprinting parts that we need if we find new witness testimony that says otherwise.”

The 3-D model allowed researchers to also test different scenarios of where the fire was said to have started and how it spread.

Stories like those are no longer uncommon at USF.

In several university departments, 3-D printing technology has implanted itself into cross-disciplinary research: engineering students work with USF Health researchers to create models of hearts with birth defects from CT scans; architecture students create to-scale, 3-D printed models of entire cities. Even fine arts students are using the technology to 3-D print their digital sculptures.

In the John F. Germany Public Library in downtown Tampa, families, techies and aspiring entrepreneurs are seeing this developing technology up close.

In November, library staff unveiled the Hive, a multimedia and technology hub nestled on the third floor. The Hive boasts two mid-level 3-D printers in addition to a recording studio, an art center and a robotics center.

Classes using freely available 3-D modeling software are taught weekly to Hillsborough County residents, and staff members encourage them to use what they learn and take advantage of the free 3-D printing.

Hillsborough County and Friends of the Library fully fund the Hive, offering four hours of 3-D printing per month at no cost.

Principal librarian Megan Danak said the 3-D printers attract a lot of attention.

“We work with the everyday users off the street and people who want different levels of what they want to do with 3-D printing,” she said. “Some people just want to make little trinkets, but some want to make prototypes or print pieces for their model cars and at-home products.”

Printers used at the Hive have become the standard in consumer-level and at-home 3-D printing.

The Hive provides hourlong courses in some of the more user-friendly and free 3-D software such as Tinkercad and Blender, allowing students to tinker with their creations at home.

Library technical assistant and Hive staffer Taynisha Berengher said she is surprised most by how quickly young people are picking up on the technology.

“We’ve had kids as young as 9 or 10 years old blow us away with what they can create after a class or two,” she said.

The Hive has also worked with some young entrepreneurs looking to create prototypes of their new inventions.

In addition to The Hive, groups of tech-savvy and creative individuals have created what they call “hackerspaces” to pool money for 3-D printers and other technologies, as well as to share ideas and knowledge. They fund the purchase of printers through memberships to the hackerspace.

Groups such as Tampa Hackerspace and St. Pete Makers, which just recently entered the hackerspace scene, hold classes for members and the public to learn about 3-D printing and software.

Even if the technology remains more popular commercially and within the confines of research, USF’s Kaplan said the technology will ultimately have a huge impact on the everyday lives of consumers — from 3-D printed medical devices, bio-printed organs and a more tactile and visual education experience.

“People come and tell me all the time, ‘Oh, did you see Grey’s Anatomy? They’re printing body parts,’ ” Kaplan said. “We’re not there yet, but there’s a lot of things in the future of 3-D printing to be excited for.”

High school students demonstrate the use of 3D printers, including one by Ultimaker, at the 2015 CeBIT technology trade fair on March 16 in Hanover, Germany.

tampabay.com

by Roberto Roldan, Times Correspondent | Sunday, March 22, 2015 7:23pm

Help to wounded soldiers

Posted on by Malta 3D Printing

Welcome to the Future of Emergency Medical Care!

http://goo.gl/X86HWd

US Marines of the 1st Division line up for a joined prayer at their base outside Fallujah, Iraq, Nov. 6 , 2004. Four years into the Iraq war, President Bush is staring down a Congress in revolt. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

The U.S. Military Is Reportedly Looking at 3-D Printing to Help Wounded Soldiers

The U.S. military is reportedly looking into an idea that’s always seemed a little more like something straight out of a science-fiction novel.

The military is reportedly in talks with the University of Nevada to develop 3-D printed “twins” of American soldiers. The concept would require troops’ bodies to be scanned and images stored. Those images, in turn, would assist doctors and surgeons in developing 3-D printed prosthetic body parts should the soldiers ever become wounded in battle, according to 3DPrint.com.

“The idea is to image someone when they are in a healthy state so that the data is available if it’s needed at a later point,” James Mah, a clinical professor at the University of Nevada said.

“We have soldiers who get injured. They lose limbs and other tissues and it’s a challenge to reconstruct them in the field. but if they are imaged beforehand, you can send that over the internet and have a 3D printer in the field to produce the bone,” Mah said.

A similar method is already used among some in the medical field. Medical students, for example, use virtual operating tables that allow them to dissect and operate without ever needed an actual human body in front of them.

Image source: 3Dprint.com

The tables are created in much the same way as what the military is reportedly looking to do for wounded veterans. With an X-ray, MRI or ultrasound, an exact replica of a human body can be engraved into the table, thus creating a virtual cadaver.

But this isn’t an entirely new innovation as doctors have been developing 3-D printed body parts for a few years now. In 2013, doctors were able to create a virtual windpipe for a baby born with a rare, life-threatening condition. Another example happened in 2012 when doctors used the technology to give a 2-year-old girl motion back in her arms.

TheBlaze reached out to a Pentagon spokesman asking for more information on existing plans, but no immediate response was received.

THEBLAZE.COM
by  | February 19, 2015 11:59pm

3D printed food for soldiers!

Posted on by Malta 3D Printing

Feeling Hungry? Check out what’s on the menu for the future soldiers of America!

http://www.npr.org/…/361187352/army-eyes-3d-printed-food-fo…

Army researchers will try to find ways to 3-D print nutritious food with less heavy packaging than the current military meals.

US Army Eyes 3D Printed Food for Soldiers

Army scientists have spent decades concocting meals that last without refrigeration and survive high-altitude airdrops. And now, the Army is eyeing a new form of cooking: 3-D printing! Yes, food that comes fresh out of a printer, for our troops.

Lauren Oleksyk, a food technologist leading the team at the Army’s Natick research center, lays out the vision.

Imagine soldiers who are strapped, head to toe, with sensors that measure if they’re high or low in potassium or cholesterol.

“We envision to have a 3-D printer that is interfaced with the soldier. And that sensor can deliver information to the computer software,” Oleksyk says. “And then they would be able to have either powdered or liquid matrices that are very nutrient dense, that they have on demand that they can take and eat immediately to fill that need.”

“Liquid matrices” that are nutrient “dense.” And you print them?!

You read that right.

The Army is turning to 3-D printers for many purposes, including a nutrition project — to stamp out the equivalent of PowerBars, but personalized for the battlefield.

The Department of Defense has just approved research funding. And it’s going to take a lot of research. While regular printers put ink on paper, 3-D printers blast liquids and powders into complex shapes. But it’s not clear if printers could mold a solid like carrots — and what would happen to the food’s nutritional value.

“There’s synthetic types of meats, there’s real beef, there’s real meat,” Oleksyk says. “And we would see what that does in the printing process to that protein, whether it’s animal based or plant based.” She’s talking about this research with the MIT Lincoln Lab and NASA too.

Of course, the 3-D food will have to pass a taste test, just like the current rations — which are called MREs, or meals ready to eat.

Oleksyk mailed me a bunch to sample. I try a jalapeno pepper jack-flavored patty. It is full of flavor, and also very processed, like someone had to jam a lot into a little patty.

The kitchens that make this patty use flaming hot ovens and extreme heat to sterilize it. Oleksyk says if 3-D printers could use less heat, the patty could also taste better — less like a compact muscle and more like fresh ground meat.

“We hope so! It’s not being done, so it’s something that we will investigate in our project,” she says.

In the food world, 3-D printing is just getting started — and it’s a sweet start, literally.

Liz von Hasseln is giving me an online video tour of The Sugar Lab, a 3-D printing outfit in Los Angeles that turns sugar into sweet candy sculptures for wedding cakes and fancy cocktails. The startup was acquired by 3D Systems, which is sharing its technology with the military in informal talks.

She points to a printer that’s the size of an industrial photocopier and explains, “What the printer does is, a lot like making frosting in a bowl, it basically adds the wet ingredients of the frosting to the dry ingredients very, very precisely in very fine layers.”

Von Hasseln sent me some samples to try — and they’re very different from the military food. I unwrap a delicate sphere that’s a little bigger than a lollipop. It tastes like Sweet Tarts.

It’s hard for me to imagine this technology producing anything nutritious or durable. But von Hasseln husband, Kyle, co-founder of The Sugar Lab, says the printer’s ability to vary textures — to make food soft or hard — would be critical for soldiers who are injured or on the move.

“Dialing in the exact density of food could mean that they could eat more easily and because of that, as a consequence, they might even eat more or be healthier,” he says.

3-D printed food sounds sci-fi. But according to military scientists and 3-D experts, these meals for soldiers are on track to be ready by 2025.

References:

NPR.ORG
http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2014/11/04/361187352/army-eyes-3d-printed-food-for-soldiers

3D printed military grade drones

Posted on by Malta 3D Printing

The future US military drones look like they’re going to have a completely 3D-printed body and an Android phone for a brain. All for just $2500 a pop, with a wait of just over a day!

http://www.wired.co.uk/…/ar…/2014-09/17/military-grade-drone

Military-grade drones can now be 3D printed (Wired UK)

We have 3D printed keys, guns and shoes — now a research team at the University of Virginia has created a 3D printed UAV drone for the Department of Defense.

In the works for three years, the aircraft, no bigger than a remote-controlled plane, can carry a 1.5-pound payload. If it crashes or needs a design tweak for a new mission, another one can be printed out in a little more than a day, for just $2,500 (£1533). It’s made with off-the-shelf parts and has an Android phone for a brain.

“We weren’t sure you could make anything lightweight and strong enough to fly,” says David Sheffler, who led the project. Sheffler is a former engineer for Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce who now teaches at the university. After he created a 3D printed jet engine in one of his classes, the MITRE Corporation, a DoD contractor, asked him to create a 3D printed UAV that could be easily modified and built with readily available parts.

The first prototype, the orange and blue model seen in the video above, was based on a conventional radio-controlled (RC) aircraft made of balsa wood, which is much lighter and stronger than the ABS plastic used in the university’s 3D printers. The same plane made of plastic would have weighed five times as much as the wood version. “You’re printing out of a material that’s really not well-suited to making an airplane,” Sheffler explains. On top of that, the way 3D printing works –building things in layers — led to structural weaknesses in the aircraft.

To account for those downsides, Sheffler’s team reworked the design. They settled on a “flying wing” design, in which the whole aircraft is basically one big wing, and called it the Razor. The latest (third) prototype is made of nine printed parts that click together like Lego. The centre of the plane is all one piece, with a removable hatch that offers access the inner cargo bay. All of the electronics live in there, including a Google Nexus 5 smartphone running a custom-designed avionics app that controls the plane, and an RC-plane autopilot that manages the control surfaces with input from the phone. The Razor’s wing structure is one piece, with an aileron, winglets, and mount for the small jet engine that clip on.

The aircraft, with a four-foot wingspan, weighs just 1.8 pounds. Loaded with all the electronics gear, it comes in at just under 6 pounds. That lets it fly at 40 mph for as long as 45 minutes, though the team’s working to get that up to an hour. An earlier prototype could top 100 mph, and the team believes the plane could hit 120 mph, at the cost of a very quickly drained battery.

It can carry 1.5 pounds, so attaching a camera to it would be no problem. The batteries take two hours to fully charge and are easily swapped out, so if you’ve got three or four packs on hand, the Razor can be in the air nearly continuously. The plane can be controlled from up to a mile away, or fly on its own using preloaded GPS waypoints to navigate. The team uses the Nexus smartphone’s 4G LTE as well, meaning commands could be sent from much farther away, though FAA guidelines have kept them from long-distance testing.

Here’s where the 3D printing really comes in handy: The design can be modified — and reprinted — easily, to be bigger or smaller, carry a sensor or a camera, or fly slower or faster. The plane can be made in 31 hours, with materials that cost $800 (£490.75). Electronics (like the tablet-based ground station) push the price to about $2,500 (£1,533). That’s so cheap, it’s effectively disposable, especially since you can make another one anywhere you can put a 3D printer. If one version is flawed or destroyed, you can just crank out another.

Though the team’s research contract has run out, they’re hoping to get another one next year. If Sheffler’s right about how the technology will evolve, MITRE and the DoD would be wise to extend the partnership. “3D printing is at the phase where personal computers were in the 1980s,” Sheffler says. “The technology is almost unbounded.”

“This program was really tasked with showing what is possible.”

WIRED.CO.UK
by JORDAN GOLSON | 17 SEPTEMBER 14

3D printed warheads for the US Army

Posted on by Malta 3D Printing

The US Army is making warheads using 3D printing.

Not just ‘normal’ warheads. Due to better design control and use of patterns that could not be used prior to 3D printing, these warheads are deadlier, more efficient and more economical than traditional ones.

It’s worrying, yes, but it’s also really, really impressive to see how this technology can be used ANYWHERE and improve the field.

http://rt.com/usa/177064-army-warheads-3d-printing/

Reuters / Pichi Chuang

Weapons of mass production: US Army making warheads with 3D printing
The US Army is building deadlier, more efficient, and less costly warheads using 3D-printing technology, according to new reports.

While 3D printers have made more headlines for their ability to makehomemade firearms, and for more benevolent uses like the development ofprosthetic arms or facial reconstruction surgery, the Army is planning to use them to print sophisticated warhead components on the cheap, according to Army Technology magazine.

“3D printing of warheads will allow us to have better design control and utilize geometries and patterns that previously could not be produced or manufactured,” James Zunino, a researcher at the Armament Research, Engineering and Design Center, told Motherboard.

Traditional manufacturing methods are no match for what 3D printers can offer such weapons of mass destruction. 3D-processed components could allow for superior design such as the ability to “pack in additional payloads, sensors, and safety mechanisms,” Motherboard wrote.

Weaponry made by 3D printers will also allow the military to engineer more precise specifications on warheads, such as blast radiuses.

“Warheads could be designed to meet specific mission requirements whether it is to improve safety to meet an Insensitive Munitions requirement, or it could have tailorable effects, better control, and be scalable to achieve desired lethality,”Zunino said.

And while the US Army is attracted to 3D printing’s ability to offer more efficient mechanisms for killing, the cost-effectiveness at a time of budgetary cutbacks is enticing as well.

“3D printing also allows for integrating components together to add capabilities at reduced total life cycle costs,” Zunino said. “It is expected that 3D printing will reduce life-cycle costs of certain items and make munitions more affordable in the long run through implementation of design for manufacturability, and capitalizing on the add capabilities that 3D printing and additive manufacturing can bring to munitions and warheads.”

Zunino added that the Army is not likely to stop at mere component manufacturing.

“Maybe someday an entire warhead or rocket could be produced as the technology further matures,” Zunino said.

Printing weaponry in 3D doesn’t stop with the Pentagon. Defense giant BAE Systems announced in January that the British Royal Air Force’s Tornado fighter jets have performed their first flights with some onboard metal parts manufactured using 3D-printing technology.

BAE has also claimed in recent months that by 2040, aircraft will be able to use 3D printers to self-heal or produce mini-drones during missions using what they called ‘Transformer’ technology.

References:

RT.COM
http://www.rt.com/usa/177064-army-warheads-3d-printing/

TALOS

Posted on by Malta 3D Printing

Say hello to TALOS… A.K.A REAL-LIFE. FUNCTIONING. IRON MAN. SUITS

Legacy Effects, the costume and special effects company responsible for creating the suits used in the Iron Man films, are now creating a similar suit for the US Military called TALOS.

The US Military has already invested $ 10 million and they state that the suit “must be bulletproof, weaponized, have the ability to monitor vitals and give the wearer superhuman strength and perception.”

Expected to be completed in 2018. Stark Industries reportedly not receiving any royalties.

Oh, and of course the prototypes are going to be 3D-printed 😉

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/…/Iron-Man-suit-for-US-military-…

Might TALOS end up looking like Iron Patriot from Iron Man 3?

Iron Man suit for US military – thanks to Hollywood costumers
The makers of the Iron Man suit for The Avengers are consulting with the US military on weaponized armour.

In the Iron Man and The Avengers films, rich and ingenius playboy Tony Stark creates a powered suit of armour to save his life, and then the world.

The US military have been inspired, it appears, as they have gone to Hollywood costume and special effects creators Legacy Effects for advice on making an Iron Man-style suit, known as TALOS (Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit), for their troops.

The brief for TALOS states that it must be bulletproof, weaponised, have the ability to monitor vitals and give the wearer superhuman strength and perception.

Legacy Effects, on behalf of exoskeleton manufacturers Ekso Bionics, made the Iron Man suit for the Marvel films.

According to The Wall Steet Journal, Legacy Effects are among the bigger manufacturers involved in the project and will help the US Military to design and 3D print prototypes.

TELEGRAPH.CO.UK

By , Entertainment Writer | 09 Jul 2014 10:34AM BST