3D printing: the desktop drugstore
September 27, 2012
3D printer (credit: MakerBot)
A small Indian village is perhaps the last place you would expect to see the future of manufacturing, but in the Maharashtra region, there are plans to create one of the hottest pieces of technology around, BBC Future reports.
“Learning while doing” is the philosophy behind an educational project in Pabal called the Vigyan Ashram — part of a worldwide project called FabLab, set up by physicist and computer engineer Neil Gershenfeld at MIT.
Through this initiative, local villagers are taught to find ways of solving problems using a kit given to them by MIT. The first project involved making a sensor to check milk quality. Later this year, Amitraj Deshmukh hopes to build something for the ashram that might prove to be a life-saving piece of kit in remote regions like this — a 3D printer. …
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Comments (2)
by asiwel
Have you read the really good sci-fi book series, Daemon and Freedom, by the author Daniel Suarez? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daemon_(technothriller_series)
Part of the story has to do with the effects of real honest-to-goodness 3-D fabrication on “politically-independent” rural communities, etc. A pretty good extrapolation from today’s 3-D printing “revolution.”
by Bri
I’m amazed at how fast and how far 3D printing has come. In just a few short years it has started to become affordable for the masses, and at the same time, it’s taken leaps and bounds forward. This is a trend that won’t slow down. If anything it will speed up. It also has enormous ramifications for industry and the economy.. In a short time we will be able to print any part that might be broken on any machine. In reference to the automotive industry, it will put parts manufacturers out of business. Even if you own a vehicle that the parts are hard to find or impossible, you’ll be able to print them. Right now these printers have a very small print area. In awhile the print heads will be manipulated like a CNC machine. By this I mean that they will print in open air, the printer will move around the object to be printed, rather than the print heads being concealed in a box like structure. You’ll be able to print a vintage automobile. If you have the relic of a model T Ford you can print an electric upgrade with autonomous driving capabilities. The possibilities are staggering. It also means goodbye automotive plants. The economic transformations will be unparalleled. There will even be 3D printers that print the feed materials for 3D printers. This development is happening far faster than I thought it could. These things coupled to robots and AI will transform our world with dizzying speed. The genie is out of the bottle. It is now on the near horizon. It will accelerate change like no other.