Badger52
12-22-2014, 15:27
This movement (and progress) is cool, imo (for a variety of reasons) and is something that is an imagination-enabler.
From the article at Deutsche Welle (http://www.dw.de/3-d-printing-moves-toward-mainstream/a-18146261):
Kathrin Winter carefully hangs a Christmas decoration on a fir tree standing in a pot in the corner of her store.
But the plastic stars and Christmas balls hanging on the tree are somewhat special. Instead of being made in a factory, Winter printed the ornaments herself on a 3-D printer in the 3-D store she owns together with her partner, Daniel Zimmermann.
The store, called Mr Make, opened recently smack-dab in the middle of the high street of Karlsruhe, a city in Germany's southwest.
Christmas tree with 3D-printed ornaments (Photo: DW/Kate Hairsine)
"Most people have heard of 3-D printing," says Zimmermann, a computer scientist by trade. "But the average consumer still doesn't have a concept of what that actually means. So our idea is to make 3-D printing more accessible."
The display room is filled with diverse objects in brightly colored plastic. There is a cookie cutter in the shape of a guitar, an architectural model where each story is printed separately so it's possible to see the interior room layouts, a grinning Halloween pumpkin, replacement handles for a pair of pliers, and strangely shaped spare parts.
Each object has been created on a 3-D printer, which works by rapidly fusing together layer after layer of plastic or another material to make a solid object. But many items, such as the Christmas decorations, are still cheaper to produce in a factory production line rather than to print out.
The big advantage of 3-D printing, explains Zimmerman, is that it's possible to get one-off, personalized items on the spot.
From the article at Deutsche Welle (http://www.dw.de/3-d-printing-moves-toward-mainstream/a-18146261):
Kathrin Winter carefully hangs a Christmas decoration on a fir tree standing in a pot in the corner of her store.
But the plastic stars and Christmas balls hanging on the tree are somewhat special. Instead of being made in a factory, Winter printed the ornaments herself on a 3-D printer in the 3-D store she owns together with her partner, Daniel Zimmermann.
The store, called Mr Make, opened recently smack-dab in the middle of the high street of Karlsruhe, a city in Germany's southwest.
Christmas tree with 3D-printed ornaments (Photo: DW/Kate Hairsine)
"Most people have heard of 3-D printing," says Zimmermann, a computer scientist by trade. "But the average consumer still doesn't have a concept of what that actually means. So our idea is to make 3-D printing more accessible."
The display room is filled with diverse objects in brightly colored plastic. There is a cookie cutter in the shape of a guitar, an architectural model where each story is printed separately so it's possible to see the interior room layouts, a grinning Halloween pumpkin, replacement handles for a pair of pliers, and strangely shaped spare parts.
Each object has been created on a 3-D printer, which works by rapidly fusing together layer after layer of plastic or another material to make a solid object. But many items, such as the Christmas decorations, are still cheaper to produce in a factory production line rather than to print out.
The big advantage of 3-D printing, explains Zimmerman, is that it's possible to get one-off, personalized items on the spot.