07.01.2013, 18:22
Sure, the piracy arguement. In the same way normal printers are dangerous too: you can print out costy images or books instead of buying them. But sure, theres a catch, its a difference if you read a bunch of papers, or in a well glued and bound book.
3D printers commonly "print" either by cutting small layers of plastic and glueing them together, or by cutting a form directly into a block of plastic. With that you can print mostly static things, like figures, or simple mechanisms. Some guys even printed a working and probably lethal all-plastic gun. And theres a printer that can even reproduce itself; at least its plastic case and some mechanics. But again, you wont reach the quality of industrial cast plastic.
The problem with current 3d printing techniques is that they are all limited to a certain material. The famous example of downloading and printing out a shoe is purely utopian. Creating those complex compounds of all kinds of different material needs a completely different printing technique (and thats not just a difference like monochrome and colour printing) And even then it will be a lot of work to gather and prepare all materials, unless someone invents a star trek like material synthetisation, that magically creates any kind of material by pressing a button.
All that 3D piracy panic is really exaggerated imo.
Build one 
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX1cO2XhMrg[/ame]
3D printers commonly "print" either by cutting small layers of plastic and glueing them together, or by cutting a form directly into a block of plastic. With that you can print mostly static things, like figures, or simple mechanisms. Some guys even printed a working and probably lethal all-plastic gun. And theres a printer that can even reproduce itself; at least its plastic case and some mechanics. But again, you wont reach the quality of industrial cast plastic.
The problem with current 3d printing techniques is that they are all limited to a certain material. The famous example of downloading and printing out a shoe is purely utopian. Creating those complex compounds of all kinds of different material needs a completely different printing technique (and thats not just a difference like monochrome and colour printing) And even then it will be a lot of work to gather and prepare all materials, unless someone invents a star trek like material synthetisation, that magically creates any kind of material by pressing a button.
All that 3D piracy panic is really exaggerated imo.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Haydn
 I WANT ONE. Too bad they cost so much.
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[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX1cO2XhMrg[/ame]