Nerd Alert: 3-D Printer

On Saturday while in New York, my friend Priscilla and I visited the MakerBot store at 298 Mulberry Street. MakerBot makes a product called the Replicator 2, which is a 3-D printer. A what? If you think of it as a model maker* it makes more sense, because that's what it does: it actually makes models, parts, and other actual 3-D objects.  Priscilla and I had each read an article about the 3-D printer in Wired and were curious to find out what it's all about. The result was a fascinating learning experience that I am excited to share with you! (*Thank you Bonnie for that explanation!)

This is the front window to the MakerBot store, which is as much an educational center as it is a retail store. (They sell about three printers each day in the store, and about another 100 online.) Each part of this contraption was made on the Replicator 2. How does the 3-D printer work? We were dying to know.

This is what the printer looks like. It's basically a big hollow box with openings on the front and sides. Inside an arm "prints" onto a board that starts high in the machine and is lowered as the item inside gets "taller" with each successive revolution of the arm. The arm revolves around and around, adding layer after layer of print medium onto the board until the product is completed.

This is a close-up of the arm "printing" a bracelet.

An even closer shot of the bracelet bring "printed."

A finished bracelet.

In the case of the Replicator 2, the substance used to "print" the objects is melted plastic that comes off one of these spools. A spool sits behind the printer and little by little it is fed into a "pen" that "writes" onto the board of the machine, creating the layers that ultimately become the object. Here are some examples of objects created by the printer:

The above objects are "printed" in one piece. Here are examples of items that were printed in separate parts, then assembled:

And here you can see Priscilla wearing her new 3-D printed bracelet. (I got one too!) While we were wowed, let's be real. This is a plastic bracelet. No big deal, right? So we asked about the practical applications of the printer. Some examples of what can be made (and are currently being made) with this type of technology are:  prototypes for engineering; architectural models; product mockups for marketers and advertisers; visual aids for teachers; models for doctors; crowns, bridges, models, and orthodontic appliances for dentists; and replicas for archaeologists and paleontologists.  Think of the possibilities beyond these:  a part can be printed in a short time even for stuff as seemingly as mundane as a button, a part to an appliance, a drawer pull, or any anything else you can think of. The possibilities are endless. I feel like a total nerd for being so excited by this, but it feels to me like if it's already at the retail level (in other words, down to my level of understanding) then it isn't far from becoming part of all of our lives. (The 3-D printers cost under $2500 and a spool of that plastic costs $48.) No, I don't want to buy one (yet) but I think it's excessively interesting. Okay, I'm almost done, but first here's another article about 3-D printing from The Economist.  Okay, I'm all done now! (Thank you for letting me vent my excitement.)