RE: [rp-ml] Video - 3D Printing Basics

Programmable gradient mechanical properties throughout an object's material?
Adrian, if you accomplish that effectively, you will not only out-do all the
other fabbers on the market, you will advance the whole field past
industrial manufacturing in another critical way.

What do those who see the RepRap as antiquated technology say to this? Am I
missing important flaws that diminish the positive assessment above?

Marshall Burns
www.fabbers.com
(that site is now antiquated!)

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-rp-ml@rapid.lpt.fi [mailto:owner-rp-ml@rapid.lpt.fi] On Behalf
Of Adrian Bowyer
Sent: Sunday, May 20, 2012 03:10
To: Michael Armbruster
Cc: rp-ml@rapid.lpt.fi
Subject: Re: [rp-ml] Video - 3D Printing Basics

Hmmm...

As far as I am aware RepRap will be the first fused filament fabrication
machine that can print in any colour by mixing cyan, magenta, yellow, white
and black in a single nozzle. See:

> http://blog.reprap.org/2012/04/colour-mixing.html

We shall shortly be using the same technology to mix rigid and elastic PLA
in any proportions you like, so that you can do builds with continually
varying mechanical properties across an object. (it will also allow a
single nozzle to lay down both a build and a soluble
support...)

Ink-jet machines can already do this sort of thing, of course. But they are
far too slow and outdated for serious production. And you can have an awful
lot of RepRaps for the price of just one of them...

Having said that, I printed an inkjet in a RepRap ages ago for people who
like that sort of thing:

http://reprap.org/wiki/Reprappable-inkjet

Best wishes

Adrian

Dr Adrian Bowyer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Bowyer
http://reprap.org

On 20/05/12 04:00, Michael Armbruster wrote:
> I absolutely agree with those points, I personally do not see the
> RepRap as a finished product, and I love the open source community for
> all the reasons that you mention. I want the open source community to
> thrive and I want for more to pop up. Love love love them, 100%. A+.
> ... My only concern, as I've mentioned, is that many people are being
> exposed to this community without realizing how outdated it is. Even
> with support, the machine will still only have evolved into something
> we've already had for a long time. I don't feel like we're doing a
> good enough job of telling people that. I just want to make sure that
> the kids who are being exposed to these things understand that while a
> RepRap might very well be the future, the machine is also very much
> the past. That's why I'm so passionate about the video.
>
> - Michael
>
> On Sat, May 19, 2012 at 5:04 PM, Markus Hitter <mah@jump-ing.de
> <mailto:mah@jump-ing.de>> wrote:
>>
>> Am 16.05.2012 um 21:57 schrieb Michael Armbruster:
>>
>>> But, at the same time, I also feel it's sort of a *two steps forward
>>> and one step back* scenario.
>>
>>
>> Perhaps it isn't a good idea to see RepRap machines as a finished
> product in
>> the traditional sense. Printing a support structure is a matter of
> software
>> and with this new type of evolution, nobody stops you from uploading
> a newer
>> software or develop one for yourself - and for the development
> community.
>> There's also nobody stopping you from modifying your machine to make
> use of
>> a second extruder, extruding a support material.
>>
>> When building your own printer, you get something like a snapshot of
>> an ongoing development, of an ongoing evolution. And there is no
>> ending
> of this
>> evolution in sight.
>>
>>
>> Markus Hitter
>>
>> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Dipl. Ing. (FH) Markus Hitter
>> http://www.jump-ing.de/
Received on Sun May 20 15:09:26 2012