MIT 3D Prints With Glass 43
An anonymous reader writes: MIT's Mediated Matter Group has published a paper and a video about their new technique for 3D printing with glass. The top part of their printer is a kiln that heats the glass to temperatures of approximately 1900 degrees Fahrenheit, causing it to melt. The molten glass is then passed through an alumina-zircon-silica nozzle, which moves just like an extruder on normal 3D printers. "The frame of the printer is constructed out of 80/20 aluminum stock and square steel tube. They used three independent stepper motors and a lead screw gantry system and drivers which were controlled via an Arduino and a RAMPS 1.4 Arduino shield." The device's makers say, "The tunability enabled by geometrical and optical variation driven by form, transparency and color variation can drive; limit or control light transmission, reflection and refraction, and therefore carries significant implications for all things glass."
Mixing multiple types of glass (Score:4, Interesting)
Mixing multiple types of glass within a single piece is crucial to making apochromatic lenses [wikipedia.org]. If a fourth wavelength has to hit the same focal plane accurately, it gets much trickier, but can still be done under some conditions. The primary problem is getting glass with the right refractive index in the right place. The better this can be controlled, the more consistent the results will be. It's also more important as the maximum aperture increases, both because of larger lens elements and shorter depth of field.
I'm looking forward to this finding its way into camera lenses, which I would imagine is one of the primary design goals. it could bring what are currently $2500 f/2.8 "L" lenses within reach of the people who opt for f/4 and f/5.6 due to cost. (Unfortunately, there's nothing to be done about size and weight. If you want to gather light, you need lots of glass.)
imagine the water pipes! (Score:2)
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"Sure would beat 8 hours with torch for that perfect new spoon."
You're doing it wrong if it takes you that long to blow and fume and spec a perfect spoon.
Takes me about 15 minutes tops.
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MIT has done nice glass for a long time:
http://glasslab.scripts.mit.ed... [mit.edu]
Similar printing for plastic (Score:2)
Nice Slideshow (Score:2)
I liked the Vimeo slideshow.
Maybe the MIT crew could put up a video somewhere. Something on YouTube perhaps, because it would be nice to watch what people are doing instead of seeing fixed frames every few seconds.
(Or maybe if the Vimeo plugin would continue loading the video while paused you could stop the video, work for a bit, and come back and see what's going on. Nope - preload is apparently fixed at some insufficient amount ahead of the stopping point.)
(Also, Adobe Flash FTW!)
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Glass pencil holders (Score:3)
OK, so other than some flower vases, as well has hard to clean (but cool looking) beer glasses, what is the real utility?
Sorry for being a naysayer, but the whole 3D printed "revolution" has been underwhelming thus far. It has a really high cool factor, but I am still waiting to see a whole lot of useful stuff come from it.
Re:Glass pencil holders (Score:4)
OK, so other than some flower vases, as well has hard to clean (but cool looking) beer glasses, what is the real utility?
1. Optics
2. Scientific instruments
3. Art
4. ???
Sorry for being a naysayer, but the whole 3D printed "revolution" has been underwhelming thus far.
You fit right in. Most Slashdotters are cynical naysayers, sure that the social media bubble is about to collapse. Your grandfather likely complained about Robert Goddard's silly rockets, and your dad likely thought home computers were a passing fad.
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I'm also unimpressed by the video. I think what they really proved is that molten glass is too thick for 3D printers, or that 3D printers are a long way off from working well with high melting point materials.
As for 3D printing in general, I think it's going to change the world and it needs its own Richard Stallman to inspire people to fight to make 3D printing useful for the general public (instead of the other possible future where a few big companies own mountains of patents on building things and all t
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OK, so other than some flower vases, as well has hard to clean (but cool looking) beer glasses, what is the real utility?
Sorry for being a naysayer, but the whole 3D printed "revolution" has been underwhelming thus far. It has a really high cool factor, but I am still waiting to see a whole lot of useful stuff come from it.
When motorcycles were first spring up in the late 1800's, people had the same basic attitude.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycle_history#First_commercial_products [wikipedia.org]
Now we have some devices that go from zero to 200+ mph so fast you can have a hard time remaining properly seated... and that's if your shorts stay clean.
What something is at the prototype stage (and that's where 3d printing is now) has no bearing on what it may become. This is doubly true given we are just trying out zero gravity printing a
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Now we have some [motorcycles] that go from zero to 200+ mph so fast you can have a hard time remaining properly seated... and that's if your shorts stay clean.
Oh. That's why bikers wear leather trousers with boots?!
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FINALLY! (Score:1)
I can throw things in glass houses. Anyone that tells me otherwise can now shut up. :p
It can make vases. nice trick. (Score:1)
I want to know if it can replace the people in the mall that make the pretty handmade hummingbirds and butterflies.
Now that would be neat to own!
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I want to know if it can replace the people in the mall that make the pretty handmade hummingbirds and butterflies.
Now that would be neat to own!
You must not be in the US. Molten glass in a shopping mall in the US would draw a pack of salivating lawyers in seconds!
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I want to know if it can replace the people in the mall that make the pretty handmade hummingbirds and butterflies.
Now that would be neat to own!
You must not be in the US. Molten glass in a shopping mall in the US would draw a pack of salivating lawyers in seconds!
While the GP is talking about replacing people with tech, why not start with lawyers.
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On that aspect a lot could be done just by making the laws on the books available online.
They say ignorance of the law is no excuse.
Yet its not very easy for most to even find out what the laws are where they live.
Is it really illegal to hunt whales in oklahoma?
Is it really illegal to drive a motor vehicle on mainstreet of town?
Is there really a federal law forbidding students cellphones in Oklahoma?
Is it legal for me to replace a lightbulb without being a licensed electrician?
Shouldn't I be able to find th
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Central Mall Fort Smith Arkansas.
They had a setup about like this: http://youtu.be/ELnMD6RrKMI [youtu.be]
Every once in a while someone is setup in a booth in one of the aisles doing that.
Big hit in Colorado (Score:1)
Now all we need... (Score:2)
is a big lens. Can it bootstrap its own lens, I wonder?
(Background: "The Man Who Sold the Moon", by Cory Doctorow. https://boingboing.net/2015/05... [boingboing.net])