New technology could change the way things are made - and the world economy.
Apr 12, 2012
By Joel N. Shurkin, ISNS Contributor
Inside Science News Service
(ISNS) -- Peter Schmitt, an MIT doctoral student, printed a clock in 2009. He didn't print an image of a clock on a piece of paper. He printed a three-dimensional clock -- an eight-inch diameter plastic timekeeping device with moving gears, hands and counterweights.
When he put it up on a wall and pushed the counterweight, it went ticktock.
"It wasn't very accurate, but it was a functioning clock," Schmitt said.
MIT scientists also would like you to be able to print your own robot. Their vision: Decide what you want it to do, download the design from the Internet, use software to make whatever changes you want and hit "print."
Scientists around the world are working on a technology that could go well beyond robots and clocks and turn the world's economy upside-down. It goes by the name of 3-D printing, and some proclaim that it will trigger a new Industrial Revolution. The Atlantic Council, a public-policy think tank based in Washington, D.C., says the technology is "transformational."
Those working in the field call it "additive manufacturing." [...]
Apr 12, 2012
By Joel N. Shurkin, ISNS Contributor
Inside Science News Service
 |
| View full-size image Credit: bre pettis via flickr Rights Information |
(ISNS) -- Peter Schmitt, an MIT doctoral student, printed a clock in 2009. He didn't print an image of a clock on a piece of paper. He printed a three-dimensional clock -- an eight-inch diameter plastic timekeeping device with moving gears, hands and counterweights.
When he put it up on a wall and pushed the counterweight, it went ticktock.
"It wasn't very accurate, but it was a functioning clock," Schmitt said.
MIT scientists also would like you to be able to print your own robot. Their vision: Decide what you want it to do, download the design from the Internet, use software to make whatever changes you want and hit "print."
Scientists around the world are working on a technology that could go well beyond robots and clocks and turn the world's economy upside-down. It goes by the name of 3-D printing, and some proclaim that it will trigger a new Industrial Revolution. The Atlantic Council, a public-policy think tank based in Washington, D.C., says the technology is "transformational."
Those working in the field call it "additive manufacturing." [...]
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