Tag: 3D printer

bookmark_border3D Printer Makes Wrench in Space

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OUTER SPACE — What happens if you are on the Space Station and you need a wrench? Just have NASA e-mail it up and print it on the 3D printer.

It is the first time that hardware was e-mailed to space.

Mike Chen, founder of Made In Space (the company behind the 3-D printer) said, “We had overheard ISS Commander Barry Wilmore mention over the radio that he needed one, so we designed one in CAD and sent it up to him faster than a rocket ever could have.”

“The socket wrench we just manufactured is the first object we designed on the ground and sent digitally to space, on the fly.

“It also marks the end of our first experiment — a sequence of 21 prints that together make up the first tools and objects ever manufactured off the surface of the Earth.”

bookmark_border3D Fetus Models

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3D Model of a Fetus
3D Model of a Fetus

Tthe Parkside Hiroo Ladies Clinic in Tokyo is partnering with Japanese engineering company Fasotec to produce a 3D model of fetuses. The process is being called the “Shape of an Angel”. The model is created though a multi-step process that converts an MRI scan of the mother’s womb to an the image that is then run through 3D imaging software and sent to a 3D printer. A 3D printer uses plastic resins to create a model.

cost = 100,000 yen (about $1,230 USD)

ABOUT 3D PRINTING

Additive manufacturing or 3D printing is a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital model (usually created by CAD software.) 3D printing is achieved using additive processes, where an object is created by laying down successive layers of material. The process is considered distinct from traditional machining techniques the use “subtractive processes” that remove material by methods by shaving, cutting and drilling.

3D printing is usually performed by a materials printer using digital technology. Since the start of the twenty-first century there has been a large growth in the sales of these machines, and their price has dropped substantially. The technology is used in the fields of jewelery, footwear, industrial design, architecture, engineering and construction (AEC), automotive, aerospace, dental and medical industries, education, geographic information systems, civil engineering, and many others items.