UPS To Offer 3D Printing; Personal Action Figure Fabrications Expected To Skyrocket

The amazing rise in popularity of 3D printing has taken the technology everywhere from construction to medicine to the International Space Station.  But how does the everyday person avail themselves of its use?  You may need to look no further than your local UPS.

According to money.cnn.com, UPS will be offering 3D printing for customers at 100 participating stores.  They will be the first major US retailer to do so, and the capabilities they offer are extensive.  Using Stratasys 3D printers to create objects from customer-submitted designs, one could concoct anything from a horde of toy soldiers to an entire femur bone (although the latter would run you about $325, it seems like it could be really worth it in a time of need.)

UPS will also offer assistance to connect patrons with outside professionals who specialize in creating 3D file designs, which would be crafted at an hourly rate.  As for the objects themselves, simple items take five or six hours for fabrication, while something more detailed may take over a day (so if you've got your eye on one of those fancy new 3D printed skulls, be sure to give yourself enough time for your replacement to be printed before you try out that self-trepanation.)

Pretty cool, but the installation is such a headache.

The demand at 6 pilot UPS stores was enough to warrant the increase in 3D printer availability.  Who knows, someday you might not need UPS to ship anything at all...your recipient could just pick up their 3D-printed present at the other end of the line.

Wonder how quickly they'll get tired of printing out legions of personal action figures? (Image: photographer Jens Lennartsson's 3D-printed mini-clones.)

Whip Up A New Whip: Launching The World's First 3D Printed Car

Everything about the automotive industry is changing, from manufacturing to fuel to even the required cognizance of the driver (or now, computer) behind the wheel. Recently, a major manufacturing barrier was broken when Arizona's Local Motors company used an oversize 3D printer to craft up a new car, the Strati, from scratch.

One of the highlights of the International Manufacturing Technology Show 2014 in Chicago, the 2-seater Strati was printed and assembled in 44 hours. According to techodrom.com, it was built as a single-piece chassis augmented by 39 other parts (dramatically lower than the 20,000-odd bits that comprise conventional automobiles.) The Strati was created from carbon fiber-reinforced black plastic and runs on a battery with a range of 130-150 miles.

"We are the first company to make a 3D-printed car using carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic," Local Motors CEO John Rogers told the Wall Street Journal. "The seats, body, chassis, dash, center console and hood will all be 3D printed."

That leaves a few parts that had to be obtained by conventional means, including the tires, windshield, battery, electric motors, wiring, suspension, and seat cushions. Still, it's a pretty impressive invention, made possible in part thanks to the relatively behemoth 3D printer (made by Cincinnati Inc.) that was able to print at dimensions up to 3 feet by 5 feet by 10 feet.

Local Motors is proud of their product and states on their website they'll be creating more "production-level 3D printed vehicles that will be available to the general public for purchase in the months following the show."  Prices are expected to run around $18,000-$30,000, depending on additional features.  Now, is it possible to 3D print some fuzzy dice?

Do computers dream of fun little 3-D printed joyrides?

#1 Fan? New 3-D Printed Mini Wind Turbine Generates Power, Portably

A major tenet of the sustainable energy revolution is soon to be found in convenient to-go form. Thanks to a new invention, you'll soon be able to spin windpower into electricity anywhere you can catch a breeze thanks to the AirEnergy3D portable wind turbine.

As reported by factcoexist.com, the AirEnergy3D is a lightweight, backpackable wind turbine that is currently under development via a kickstarter. It will eventually be able to generate enough power to fuel a laptop, or feed energy back into a personal grid. It requires no tools for assembly and can be plugged directly into.

Truly a machine for the people, the AirEnergy3D's inventors plan to make their schematics open-source so the design can be improved upon. Engineer Kamil Dziadkiewicz, of the Polish developing/printing company Omni3D, said, "We want to make it as easy to develop upon the original project...Thanks to 3-D printing, everybody as a community can experiment and prototype better solutions for the machine."

Also adding to the humanity of the project are AirEnergy3D's outreach plans. Already, they plan to donate pre-printed parts to send to Africa for easy, mobile power sources. Sustainable independence is a valuable power that we are seeking to make ever more containable.  While options like solar may currently work better on the small scale in some environments, portable windmill power could someday at least be a breath of fresh air to those in emergency need.

An AirEnergy 3D turbine/DNA windchime.

New 3-D Printed Books Let Blind Kids Read By Touch

The usage of 3-D printing to help those with physical impairments has taken many interesting paths. Recently, this technology has found another excellent use, helping blind children "read" picture books by 3-D printing in Braille.

According to newscientist.com, The Tactile Picture Books for Children Project, an initiative from the University of Colorado, aims to use 3-D printers to bring literature to life for visually-impaired youths. The printers layer the stories' images onto the pages, allowing readers to feel the pictures, which are augmented by text in Braille.

"Since our children have limited or no vision, having a book that they can feel gives them a sense of what the world looks like," says Alice Applebaum, the executive director of Denver's Anchor Center for Blind Children.

So far, 3-D titles include Goodnight Moon and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Later this year, the Denver group will team up with Boston's National Braille Press to offer the new title Dragons Love Tacos.  Fortunately, Everybody Poops is not yet being considered for this 3-D treatment.

A detail from a 3-d printed book.  No, adults, you CANNOT request a 3-D 50 Shades Of Grey.

Replace Your Face: 3-D Facial Implants Approved By FDA

Thanks to the success of Oxford Performance Material's 3-D printed skull (75% of which took up residence in a patient's headspace last year with great results), the FDA has announced approval of the company's OsteoFab Patient-Specific Facial Device, which can substitute your face-bones should such a dramatic need arise.

It's as simple as printing out the required new part and surgically installing it into your face-space. The rapid rise of 3-D technology has aided surgery for prosthetics, bones, and has even made strides on creating new organs, so this bit of reconstruction is not surprising, and also not significantly different from what you were born with.

According to cnet.com, Oxford Performance Materials' CEO Scott DeFelice said, "With the clearance of our 3D printed facial device, we now have the ability to treat these extremely complex cases in a highly effective and economical way, printing patient-specific maxillofacial implants from individualized MRI or CT digital image files from the surgeon."

So basically, you just need to steal one of your favorite movie star's MRIs and tell the surgeon to build you a fresh visage. OK, that might not work, but for those in need of serious cosmetic surgery, this offers a chance at restoring relative reality.

DO NOT ABUSE THIS NEW TECHNOLOGY.  We don't any more Cages or Travoltas running around.
A few extra Harrison Fords wouldn't be bad, though.

Be Future-Fashion Forward With 3-D Printed Dresses

Science has determined that soon we'll be able to 3-D print out whole new organs for our bodies. But what are our freshly-invigorated forms going to wear? 3-D printing now has an answer for that too.

As shown by burlesque performer, "muse and model" Dita Von Teese in New York City, 3-D printing proved that isn't just in fashion, it's creating fashion. Her $100,000 3-D printed mesh dress, inspired by the ever-escalating Fibonacci sequence, conforms precisely to her form thanks to virtual technology imbuing the dress with next-generation design elements.

“It’s that continuous variation — managing the complexity of the subtle adjustments in form to respond to curvature of the body, how things tighten or narrow, where we need more flexibility or less flexibility of the mesh, all that was able to be tuned to a really high level,” says Francis Bitonti, who along with fellow designer Michael Schmidt created the dress using various 3-D imaging software programs.

According to wired.com, the process was elaborate. First, a 3-D model of the dress was built by Bitonti from an original sketch by Schmidt, using the Maya design program to custom tailor it to Von Teese's figure. Using Rhino, a software program that works to intricately detail surfaces, he fleshed out the 2,633 "rings" that interlock to form the garment. The dress was then sintered on an EOS P350 laser printer by Shapeways and manually assembled from the 17 different sections of material.

The dress, while expensive, could set the stage for a whole new category of couture. Shapeways designer Evangelist Duann Scott enthused, “Traditionally, all garments are either a weave or a stitch...with 3-D printing, we can…introduce something completely different. So we can grow designs rather than just using something that’s centuries-old technology. It’s a whole way to move forward in fashion and clothing and textiles.”

The 3-D technology of the future holds many promises...it can stop sweatshop labor yet quickly create necessary items when none are available...could its refinement and tailored-tech finally be able to solve the problem of finding that perfect pair of jeans, too?

Von Teese's fabulous fabricated frock.

3-D Bombs Away! U.S. Army Eyes "Printable" Explosives

The science of detonation physics is one that requires accuracy. The science of 3-D printing allows layers of material to be carefully plotted and strategically placed. The confluence of these two disciplines may soon literally be the bomb.

The U.S. Army is currently investigating how to create a new type of warhead using the technology of 3-D printing. This would theoretically allow them to have more control over precise design elements required to achieve a desired blast radius or to hit an extremely specific target, all in the same size as a conventional warhead. In a report from Army Technology magazine reprinted by popsci.com, U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center materials engineer James Zunino explained, “The real value you get is you can get more safety, lethality or operational capability from the same space."

Forward-placed 3-D printers could also expedite the testing processes for warheads in the field, a critical component of the design process. Soldiers could possibly print and test the weapons to discover the most desirable traits for a specialized mission within just a few days.

Peace remains unfit for print.

Students Create $350 3-D Printed Prosthetic Arm

The future will be full of 3-D printed materials, and as this progresses we will recognize more and more that these creations will not just be helpful in daily life, but may also save astounding amount of money and effort for specialized fields and devices. Such was the case this week when Albert Manero, a Ph.d student in engineering at the University of Central Florida, helped outfit Alex, a 6-year-old boy, with a 3-D printed arm that cost only $350. Alex had been born missing part of his right arm, and that's where science stepped in.

Manero had teamed up with Alex's mom via the e-NABLE project, which seeks to create 3-D printed hands via online efforts, and after seven weeks of tests with an engineering team, finally created a working prototype. As reported by www.cbc.ca, Alex quickly learned how to use the technology in conjunction with his upper arm strength. Manero noted, "The first thing he did when he could actually control it a little bit was hug his mother."

Since Alex is young and will require upgrades as he grows, additional parts for the arm mechanism can be printed out, at a cost of $20-$50. A conventional prosthetic arm could run up to $40,000.

High five for 3-D printed arms!

Alex Pring and his innovative, inexpensive new arm.

3-D Me: Mechanically-Printed Organs And You

With tremendous biomedical leaps set to save you as 3-D printed organs are poised to become a reality, 
www.engadget.com wants to tell the true story behind the technology.  Beginning with "building blocks" printed at the Wake Forest Center for Regenerative Medicine in the late 1990s, bladder cells were printed for the purposes of study.  Later, scientists at Clemson University began printing the actual 3-D organs.  In 2007, the biomedical company Organovo began creating slices of human livers for testing.

After CAT and MRI scans to determine the size and placement of the organ needed, scientists use stem cells as well as other non-organic printable material (such as titanium) to craft the part in question.  Live cellular organisms are then put into incubators to help aid their growth and cell fusion.

Of course, the organs still require acceptance by the body to go into action.  As Cornell engineer Hod Lipson is quick to point out:  "You can put the cells of a heart tissue in the right place together, but where's the start button?  The magic happens after the printing has taken place."

78,837 people currently await organ donations, although only 3,407 donations have been created organically since January of this year.  Hopefully this new onslaught of organ technology will make breakthroughs in time to save lives.

The smallest elements of a freshly-printed organ.

3D-Printed Rock Gear Rolls Out For UK Band Klaxons

Klaxons, a band from the UK, plan to embark on the world's first "3D printed tour." Using guitars, amps, and lights created by 3-D printing software, the band are innovating possibilities for new types of sound and new opportunities for equipment creation.

Crafted by Chelmsford company SJA 3D printing, the attempt was a challenge, though one they took to with great results thus far. Klaxons' Jamie Reynolds told NME, "We're going to do something nobody has ever done before. Something big, something fresh. Why not?"

The band plans to take their futuristic gear on a 9-date tour of the UK, beginning at the Norwich Waterfront on October 25th.

One example of a 3D-printed guitar, by Olaf Diegel of New Zealand

Reprinted On The Red Planet: Could We "Grow" Humans To Colonize Mars?

Martian exploration is a tempting challenge for space agencies worldwide, but NASA's current budgetary woes and the extensively dangerous elements of such an operation are keeping any advanced projects on the red planet still firmly in the realm of science fiction.

However, scientists have pondered a fascinating plan to colonize Mars much in the way that they suspect life arrived here on earth: first send bacteria to terraform the harsh environment, then send bacteria encoded with DNA plans.

The Huffington Post quoted Harvard biologist Gary Ruvkun as saying, "If we could also send along assembly instructions, for the bacteria to produce an array of descendent organisms that assemble the genome segments over some time period into a human, it is a way to 'print' humans remotely."

The ability to "encode" the human genome into bacteria may be within our reach in the next few decades, and though it may be some time before the human-printing "instructions" can manifest, the idea offers an interesting option for the beginning of Martian colonization.

Blueprints for 3-D Printed Gun Going Viral

The online blueprints for a 3-D printed gun published by a company called Defense Distributed are going viral online, with distribution help from Kim Dotcom's recent venture.  The blueprints have already been downloaded 100,000 times.  From Forbes:

That’s the number of downloads of the 3D-printable file for the so-called “Liberator” gun that the high-tech gunsmithing group Defense Distributed has seen in just the last two days, a member of the group tells me . . .

The controversial gun-printing group is hosting those files, which include everything from the gun’s trigger to its body to its barrel, on a service that has attracted some controversy of its own: Kim Dotcom’s Mega storage site . . .

The gun’s blueprint, of course, may have also already spread far wider than Defense Distributed can measure. It’s also been uploaded to the filesharing site the Pirate Bay, where it’s quickly become one of the most popular files in the site’s 3D-printing category. “This is the first in what will become an avalanche of undetectable, untraceable, easy-to-manufacture weapons that will turn the tables on evil-doers the world over,” writes one user with the name DakotaSmith on the site. “Share and enjoy.”