Ramblings of an Automation Mad Man ( A Blog Series)
By Jerry Maldonado -VP of Automation, Customer Lifecycle Solutions
This is by far one of the most intricate and delicate sculptures I have ever seen. The sheer power it presents is reminiscent of Van Goh, DePaul, and Monet. The beauty and simplicity of the lines in the sculpture are outstanding. You can see the marriage of classical and modern techniques in a sheer whimsical flow of artistic brilliance. What could possibly be getting all the raves, you may ask? Surely, it must be a new marble sculpture on display at some fancy art dealer. Nope it’s just my first 3d printed model, a bust of Yoda done in red plastic.
Remember the days when you were young and all it would take to build some amazing things were some string and sticks? Like for example, a light saber to battle the forces of evil or maybe it was a dream castle where your one day prince charming would come and rescue. Maybe it was a clothespin and a playing card attached to the forks of your bike so you could imagine that you were riding a big bad Harley down the cold hard streets of life. Or maybe it was just some cool thing you built to go with your barrel of green plastic soldiers. In those days, you would spend hours daydreaming and coming up with new and interesting ways to make your imagination come to life. Granted back then you needed a lot of imagination to make your string stick gum paper item into that pirate ship you could float down the river of water running down the street after a good summer rain. Imagination so thick even Walt Disney and his team of imaginers would be envious of.
Well folks, thanks to 3d printing . . . those days are back in full swing!
The thrill of not only creating a new masterpiece ,but spending hours watching your creation rise from the board as sounds of whirling motors and the smell of heat and plastic fill the room. Granted after the first 3d creation watching a highly detailed 3d print is like watching paint dry. Ah the joy of seeing my dreams come to life is indeed a fountain of youth flowing from the extruder.
And yes, this phenomenon is more than a fad, a hobbyist dream come true or a prelude of new and innovative things to come. Well I for one say it is a new wave of innovation about to be unleashed. In fact analyst predicts the 3d printer market alone will be about $6.5 billion by the year 2019. But what does this have to do with innovation? It has everything to do with it! This means that the printer market will see substantial growth over the next 4 years. Fueled by the need to do things from fix a gear in my iRobot to design a game console cover for my raspberry pi based arcade game , to designing new ways to organize my work bench. All these and others can be printed on a 3d Printer.
But wait that’s not the best yet.
With 3d printing, it’s not farfetched to use other materials other than plastic in innovative ways. Today’s creators can think of new ways to build fuel cells, solar collectors , print out there prototypes , experiment , and drive new innovation with all sorts of materials. What about the new movement in 3d printed food? Just imagine the delicacies one can create for valentines this year.
Now that’s a childhood fantasy dream come true. Remember in the movie series Back to the Future with Michael J. Fox? In the future Michael’s character Marty watches as a pizza the size of a quarter is thrown into a Black and Decker hydrator and within minutes a hot fresh pizza pops out. Or let’s look at Star Trek and Patrick Stewarts character Captain Jean Luc Picard walking up to a replicator and issuing the command “Tea earl grey hot” and with a whirl and a glow it pops up ready to be consumed. Well today 3d printers are doing just that. Today there are over 10 models of food printers that can do things like make amazing sweets and chocolates, to high quality processed pastes to Pizza. Yeah a whole pizza, now that to a child is elation in the making.
Just imagine building a heart shape box out of abs plastic, then creating a replica of your honey’s favorite piece of jewelry. Then you could create a 3d chocolate bust of you to place into the box along with some 3d print plastic roses. You can scan a scene of the spot of your first kiss and recreate it in 3d to be ready for that special day. Now if that doesn’t scream out geeky romance, nothing does.
3d printing carries with it the capabilities of easily, quickly, and cost effectively prototype an idea, testing, making changes and bringing it to market. Similar in scope to how a true DevOps strategy helps drive application speed, quality, and innovation to the market, 3d printing will do this for areas where physical product is needed. Take for example the prototype work Blacker and Decker did to create their latest line of hand held screwdrivers.
Black and Decker utilize 3d printing technology to improve the process prototyping and evaluation for their next generation of products coming to market. With this technology engineers are able to get conceptual models into the hands of the designers for evaluation sooner. Through this usage of the technology, Black and Decker can perform market research earlier in the process as well as work out any issues encountered during the design and end user testing phase.
Here is a look at some companies and how they are using 3d printing today –
1) General Electric: General Electric made big investments in 3D printing in their quest to produce more than 85,000 fuel nozzles for the new Leap jet engines. The printers can make the nozzles in one metal piece and the finished product is stronger and lighter than the ones made in the traditional assembly line.
2) Ford Motors: Ford Motor company teamed up with 3D Systems Sugar Lab around Valentine's Day this year to 3D print an edible 2015 Mustang model, made from chocolate and sugar.
3) Nike: Nike‘s CEO Mark Parker has previously stated that 3D printing technology has been a big boost for the company recently. Nike made 3D printed cleats for the 2014 Super Bowl.
4) 3D Systems: partnered with Hershey's to make a 3D printer for chocolate and other edible products.
5) Boeing: Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner plane has 30 printed parts, which is apparently an industry record.
The world of 3d printing is indeed exploding and now that some consumer versions of 3d printers are hitting the shelf at sub $1000 prices, the explosion of youthful imagination will be amazing. My own mind is swirling with ideas from a star trek warp core lamp to a new mount for a led bar for my truck, to replacement parts for my refrigerator veggie bin. But for now I will enable the fountain of youth to bring back to life an old time favorite, a couple of green soldiers and cannon for all to enjoy
Follow the Ramblings of an Automation Mad Man every Wednesday. Did you miss last week’s post? Read it here: Are You Afraid of the Dark