What is Digg?Sponsored by Dragon Age: Origins
Can't get enough Dragon Age: Origins? Check out new footage. view!
DragonAge.BioWare.com - EA presents BioWare's new dark fantasy epic Dragon Age: Origins. '9/10' from Game Informer.
53 Comments
- glowb, on 10/12/2007, -1/+36Sweet
- ravage386, on 10/12/2007, -0/+30"Could you pass the sugar dodecahedrons, dear?"
- TokenUser, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10If you read the article, their limiting factor is the size of the hot air stream they are using, resulting in a 2mm pixel resolution. Powdered sugar (confectioners sugar) could be used I guess, but since the air is always on, it would be blown everywhere :)
- ho0ber, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9@ransomowris
Reading the article helps:
"Our fabricator is not designed for prototyping machine parts; it's designed for fun, for large-scale 3D illustration, for sculpting, architectural models, and other applications where resolution isn't the only important factor." -- and where attracting flies isn't an issue either, I guess. - geekd, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10That is so cool. Very well written article.
I want some candy now.
-geekd - Edmunds, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7So do they have to manually pour each new layer of sugar?
- MadScientist420, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7not even close my friend. NaCl, for example doesn't melt until over 800C. Plus making a physical mixture of salt and sugar does not result in a new melting temperature for the mixture. Maybe your thinking about water/salt mixtures which alter the melting/boiling properties of water? That has to do with disrupting the hydrogen bonding network of the water.
- markforbrains, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I like how they have to unearth the "printout" when it's done, it's like digging for treasure.
Awesome article! - davidrools, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5rapid snackotyping FTW
- TeCuervo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Dude. What does mine say?
- daqnewb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5it wouldn't even taste as good either...
- PlagueMonkey, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Dude
- tablatronix, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5What about powdered sugar and a relativly cheap laser ?
- rdmillar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3awesome, I love the low cost approach.
- MadScientist420, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Great but it seems that it's not totally automated in that they have to manually add sugar after each layer is complete. I could see bakeries having tons of fun with this thing.
- oskay, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The process to add the next layer of sugar is fully manual, and needs to be done each time that a layer finishes, which can be from several minutes to several hours, depending on the amount of 2D area that is printed on a given layer
We had originally planned to build a large hopper above the unit that would sprinkle down the correct amount of sugar and then run the carriage back and forth with a squeegee to flatten it out. That's not necessarily an easy task, so we decided to put it off until everything else was working.
As a temporary measure, we realized that we could just put in two scoops of sugar by hand after each layer and use a straight edge to flatten out the newly added sugar. This has turned out to be so easy and reliable that we simply lost interest in trying to make an automated system. - CheeseheadDave, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Hmm... I wonder if you could make this out of a Mindstorms set?
- cdnbambam, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Shasam!!! Sweet!
- oskay, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3The cheapest lasers that would do the job are still over $1000-- other than that, it's an excellent idea. A much better idea along the same line is to use a halogen light bulb-- that's what's being used in the Desktop Factory
http://www.desktopfactory.com/ - MadScientist420, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2That's the impression that I got. Where as with polymer prototypers the medium is liquid and therefore lowering the stage that the object is on automatically covers the object with the monomer and is ready to build the next layer using a laser, etc.
- FnordBob, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3That is very cool!
I wonder if they could get a finer level of detail by using powdered sugar... - pjkli, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I once had a chance to play with one of these (a large expensive version) in college that used cornstarch and colored water. Pretty cool stuff.
- gringer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3You could always make that task a little less arduous by having a sugar hopper just above the tray that gets slid across after each layer -- stick a plate on one side of the bottom of it, and you'd be able to smooth out the next layer of sugar at the same time.
- Warpling, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I don't know what you are going to do with a rough 2px sugar dildo, fearziz?
- antdude, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2And then?
- thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Too bad they won't last long... and then it's just plain messy to clean up.
- Conchubhar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That is very neat. I like how they even use 1930's jailbirds to scoop off the extra sugar to save even more money.
- bluemonki, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2"The printing process begins with a bed of a granular printing media that has a fairly low melting point. Using a narrow, directed, low-velocity beam of hot air, we selectively fuse together the print media, forming a two-dimensional image out of the fused grains. We then lower the bed by a small amount, add a thin flat layer of media to the top of the bed, and selectively fuse the media in the new layer, forming a two dimensional image that is also fused to any overlapping fused areas in the layer below. By repeating this process, a three-dimensional object is slowly built up. At the end of the build, the bed is raised to its original position, disinterring the fabricated model, while unused media is reclaimed for use in building the next object."
Yup looks like it.. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1http://www.duggmirror.com
Pictures got lost. - BESTenemy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3 Laser idea is impractical. First of all, sugar's a white crystal. It reflects and refracts most of the light. More energy would be required to start the process. On top of that, once sugar melts it darkens, and becomes more sensitive to light. So instead of melting the raw material you are more likely to affect the sections of the model that have already been molded. If you are only using a laser to melt the sugar before it is applied, then why not use a conventional coil heater, save money and energy?
Relatively cheap laser? Relative to what, an outrageously expensive laser? How cheap is a relatively cheap laser? Also, why powdered sugar? What qualities does it possess that makes it a superior alternative? - lampshade, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I don't think the laser idea is a good idea, but as far as cost goes there are lasers that can pop balloons by melting them for less than a 1000 dollars. I would think that it would work for sugar. http://www.wickedlasers.com/ comes to mind off the top of my head
Again, however, I think the hot air was a more impressive and better way of doing it. - jfranman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That's pretty cool.
- echomary, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Sugar *****!!!
- Samiyam, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Any plans for CAT scan image import? Creating a copy of your own skull out of sugar would be awesome! You could also give sugar hearts for valentines. On second thought...
- anthonyk28, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2These have been around for almost ten years now. Using mixtures of corn starch, sugar, and polymers, industries like toy companies have been using this printing method to create prototypes. However, several years ago I priced a home version used for the purpose in the article, and they sat at about 30K. So this is...very, very impressive to say the least.
The ultimate use proposed by the creators of the newer, mobile 3D printers is that you would be able to use them to literally download and "print" temporary replacement parts for weapons, vehicles, and other misc objects. Imagine going on a camping trip and being able to print disposable cutlery, plates, cups, tools, and even seats onsite. - markr, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I would've thought you would get a better resolution with a soldering iron rather than a hot air blower - but this is absolutely amazing.
Thinking about it - maybe the soldering iron would get a bit messy - at least this method has no touching of the parts... - adamwho, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I think the best info out of this article is the Google SketchUp information.
- caffiend, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4I want candy, bubblegum and taffy.
Skip to the sweet shop with my girlfriend, Sandy.
Got my pennies saved. so I'm a sugar daddy.
I'm her Hume Cronyn, she my Jessica Tandy.
I want candy! - prosy1986, on 07/30/2008, -0/+0Interesting neat project. How far commercial success has to be evaluated.
http://buy-cialas.howtobuynow.com
http://buy-cealis.howtobuynow.com - hippypaul, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0A killer science project - i sent a link to all my young geek friends
- kgmk, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0wounder how this will affect the cake bake offs on the food net work channel
- dudley9, on 05/25/2008, -0/+0http://www.genericsmed.com/
http://www.generics.ws/ - cthulhupunk0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@ caffiend
They should seriously setup MC Chris as their mascot for this thing. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1 Now that is just too cool for words!
- notman, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2WOW, giant sugar sex toys!
- mississippiman, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3i bet a sugar/salt mixture would work well doesn't salt melt at a lower temp?
- Tanglefuzz, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1dude, sweet
-
Show 51 - 56 of 56 discussions
Browsing Digg on your phone just got easier with our enhancements to the 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is