Rapid Prototype Blog

How It’s Made: 3D Metal Printing (Courtesy of Ex One)

Have you always wanted to understand 3D printing? Well…we’ve thought about that and have made an animation showing you how 3D printing works.

There are actually several 3D printing technologies and this animation shows you the Selective Laser Sintering process from start to finish. With Selective Laser Sintering a fine powder is laid down. The laser then hardens the powder that will become the very bottom layer of your object. The rest of the powder remains in powder form. A new layer of powder is applied and the process repeats itself. Your model is then lifted out from all the loose powder and cleaned.

Watch revolutionary new 3D Printer technology in action at the Technology Sandbox at SIGGRAPH 2011, the largest conference in the world for 3D animation, computer graphics and new visual arts technology. In this demo, the 3D Printer is the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic.

This is a High resolution 3D Printer I have developed at home. The printer quality is amazing.

Demo of manually printing simple 3D objects using an old inkjet printer

3D Printing of a Laser scanned wooden statue, 1meter tall, scaled down and printed on our Zcorp Z450 3d Printer.
Rapido3d, London based laser scanning, 3D Printing, and Large CNC machining.

Here we have a topological model designed by Steven Tippett from Texas. Steve designed this model using topological mesh modeling software and contacted me via my website http://www.printo3d.com to 3D print this model for him.

I HAVE full permission from Steven to share his model for the world to see!

Steven’s work can be seen here:
http://www.sevenblah.deviantart.com

The Objet24 Personal 3D Printer is the first office system to print true-to-life models — featuring strong materials, small moving parts, thin walls and smooth, paintable surfaces.
Print exactly what you design – ideal for product and industrial designers and engineers looking to produce highly accurate models for visual aids, fit and assembly testing and functional applications. Models produced by Objet24 can be painted, drilled, machined, uses as a mold or used for vacuum forming.

In this segment we hit the streets to ask average folks: What is Rapid Prototyping?

ATETV is a web-based video series and interactive network designed to connect students and professionals with careers in advanced technology. Our video series highlights ATE success stories from community colleges and ATE programs nationwide.

A PCB is the acronym for Printed Circuit Boards, which are cards or circuit boards that are composed of a very thin flat metal or hard plastic-type board called an insulator. It is upon this that computer silicon chips and other similar electronic components are mounted. These PCBs are then used in electronic appliances like televisions, computers, washing machines, digital cameras, and so forth.

A prototype can be considered the first working model of an invention. So in this case, a PCB prototype is the first circuit board that is invented for a new electronic device. By using this PCB prototype in the electronic device, the inventor can see if the prototype serves its purpose in the invention. Once the electronic device is made to function with the PCB prototype, any mistakes that take place can be rectified in the prototype. In this way, the PCB prototype saves the inventor of the electronic appliance lots of money, as any mistakes that may be present in the PCB will be pinpointed before the actual commercial manufacture of the PCB.

Without having a PCB prototype, the model of a new invention will be of no use if its PCB is not in good condition and up to requirements. Electronic appliances are getting more and more technologically advanced by the day. This advancement is done through changes on a PCB prototype, which is then tried on the appliance to see if the advancement is in right order. Using different materials of the PCB also account for changes in the PCB prototype. You can use fiberglass, Teflon or cross-linked polystyrene for the PCB, and it is through the PCB prototype that you find out which PCB material best fits your PCB. Nowadays, new PCBs are in use in electronic appliances, thanks to the PCB prototypes.

Prototypes provides detailed information on Prototypes, Prototype Makers, Pcb Prototypes, Car Prototypes and more. Prototypes is affiliated with Invention Patents.