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photo of objects printed using a 3D printer

Photo by Jessica Sabo at the at 2009 Annual ASEE Conference.

The Future of Printing is 3D [I removed the broken link]

At this year’s annual ASEE Conference in Austin, one of the main topics of conversation started with the question, “have you seen the 3D printer?”. The company Stratasys, Inc. has created their Dimension 3D Printers. Their latest innovation is their line of uPrint machines, which are less costly (prices starting at $14,900)
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Jesse Roitenberg, the representative from Stratasys at the conference, explained the benefits of using 3D printing as opposed to building models by hand:

“With a 3D printer, you are actually able to create an object as you had designed it. Once the object is created, the designer is then able to hold, test and verify the design. The object created is more accurate and the process is less time consuming.”
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The Dimension 3D printers have been used in both educational facilities and the workplace, benefiting everyone from engineers to middle school science teachers. Below is a video of Jay Leno explaining how he was able to use the 3D printer to recreate an old steam engine car part.

Related: Open Source 3-D Printing – A plane You Can Print – Cool Mechanical Simulation System – Transferring Train Passengers Without Stopping

I owned stock in Stratasys a few years ago and made some money, but I sold it and do not own any now. In the video Jay Leno says: “this is like the Jetsons, it really is.”

9 thoughts on “3D Printing is Here”

Alex September 17, 2009 at 8:33 am

Supposedly Jay Leno has one of these in his garage, so he can make parts that are no longer available for his old classic cars.

Anonymous September 17, 2009 at 12:53 pm

yes..this is like the jetsons where you can print out any tools or gadget that you want. Low cost and Rapid prototyping is likely to be the first of many uses for many home inventors. we will also probably see more varied usage as the costs of 3d printing gets cheaper. for example, there could also be a home toy maker where parents can choose the toys that they want online on a website and buy the designs then print at home for the kids…

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Anonymous September 26, 2009 at 3:01 pm

I had the opportunity to see a commercial version of one of these in action when I was interviewing with a toy manufacturing company. They made action figures of celebrities and sports stars, so they would do a full-body scan and then use the 3D printer to create the basic form. It was later painted and touched up by an artist. I always thought it would be cool to have something like this at home, but I never thought it would happen!