[rp-ml] MIT Media Lab Prints Out a Sweet-Sounding Flute with a 3-D Printer

Interesting application. It was good enough to get some engineers where
I work asking questions.

Tracy Taylor
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, Inc.
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> http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-01/mit-media-lab-prints-
> sweet-sounding-flute-3-d-printer
>
> Video: MIT Media Lab Prints Out a Sweet-Sounding Flute with a 3-D
> Printer
> <http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-01/mit-media-lab-prints
> -sweet-sounding-flute-3-d-printer>
> By Clay Dillow </category/popsci-authors/clay-dillow> Posted
> 01.05.2011
> As far as things that come out of the MIT Media Lab are concerned,
> perhaps a flute is among the less impressive. But take into account
> that the entire fully-functioning acoustic instrument was created via
> 3-D printer
> <http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/29/3d-printed-concert-flute-rapidly-p
> rototypes-sound-video/> with a minimum of human assembly, and it
> sounds markedly more impressive.
> The flute was created on an Objet Connex500 rapid prototyper, a 3-D
> printer that can print in multiple materials at the same time. The
> flute was constructed from a few different materials - a rigid
> material for the body, a softer one for the mouthpiece, another for
> sealing the air in at the proper places - during a print run of about
> 15 hours, during which time the materials were added on one thin layer
> at a time.
> The finished product was in four pieces, which simply had to be rinsed
> of supporting materials and assembled by hand (the springs were the
> only element added after printing). It's not a perfect flute just yet
> - as you'll see in the video below, there is still some fine tuning to
> be done - but it does produce good acoustic sounds. Moreover, it
> heralds just how far 3-D printing technology has come over the last
> couple of decades.
>
Received on Tue Jan 11 02:18:58 2011