The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
In 1450, Johannes Gutenberg changed the world. A goldsmith by trade, he is the man credited with inventing the printing press. Before his time, every written work created needed to be copied out by hand. This made the production of books and pamphlets slow and expensive. After Gutenberg, the price of written articles fell dramatically and could be distributed far and wide much easier than in the past. This same revolution is slowly coming for regular consumer goods. Soon, for under $5,000, consumers will be able to purchase a machine known as a rapid protyper, or a 3D printer. The concept is simple and similar to the regular inkjet printer that you probably have in your house. These printers move a cartridge back and forth across a page, spraying out a fine mist of ink, able to create almost any colour by simply mixing together the few options that it has. Rapid prototyping moves a small cartridge that usually contains plaster, resin, or epoxy of some kind instead of ink. The cartridge works slowly and methodically off of computer generated drafts or plans, building up thin layers of plastic, drying them using infrared light, and eventually an entire 3D object emerges. This technology first emerged in the early '90s when the Oakley sunglasses company needed a radical new way to design the flowing designs their glasses were famous for. They designed their own machine, which shot lasers into a tank filled with a gel that hardened upon contact with the laser. Again, over time, the lasers formed inside the tank a first model of the sunglasses, allowing Oakley to prototype designs in plastic that had never been seen before. These days, 3D printing is being used in many factories to produce everything from custom-sized abs pipes to glassware to first scale models of automobiles. These machines are rapidly falling in price, from approximately $20,000 two years ago to the current $5,000 range. These machines are also catching the eye of hobbyists and geeks who are working on their own models. I've even seen a home made 3D printer that prints in sugar, allowing a high-end custom food company to print huge, exotic shapes in caramel and spun sugar! The implications of this are absolutely huge. Science fiction writers such as Neal Stephenson have been writing for years about societies where people will have some sort of device in their homes that will be able to produce almost all of their basic needs at a simple request. While we are definitely decades away from asking for new pillows when we need them, we are only a few short years away from being able to custom fabricate a new piece for our car that has sheared off, or from printing off a set of custom-fitted washers for an old faucet for which we can no longer buy parts. Watching companies scramble while this technology emerges is going to be interesting. For example, all of these machines require detailed plans to be completed before they can begin their work. In a few short years, will stores allow you to purchase and download your own plans for items, saving you the work of designing things for yourself? Instead of selling you the actual item, which you will now be able to produce at home with your own 3D printer, will they instead sell you the plans you need, ensuring they are not locked out of the loop of production and sales? In the experience of companies and universities who have made their machines available to the public, most people don't want to make things they can find in the store, but instead they custom design things they need that they can't buy anywhere else. So get your thinking caps on. What do you want to make today? ([email protected]) Tech Notes runs Mondays.
