Now is the time to act on 3D printing

Gartner, a leading IT research and advisory company, says that while 3D printing is gaining broader acceptance, now is a good time to experiment with the technology, because the prices for 3D printers are falling and will continue to decline. By 2016, the company says, enterprise-class 3D printers will be available for under $2,000. http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/why-businesses-should-adopt-3d-printing-now/15985?fb_ref=activity-widget

Late last year, Airbus and Aerosud agreed to collaborate with South Africa’s CSIR research business to develop the fastest, biggest 3D printer using titanium powder to produce aircraft parts. Boeing is reportedly already using the technology to make small parts. By fusing layers of the powder together with a powerful laser, the part is built up from a design, rather than milled from a solid block. This is also known as Laser Additive Manufacturing (LAM).
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1392&doc_id=251754

A third method of printing, other than melting plastic filament or sintering metal powders, focuses lasers in a bath of photo reactive fluid, creating solid structures only where the lasers come into focus. This is proving a great way to print micro structures that are detailed at the nano scale, quickly and accurately.
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/511856/micro-3-d-printer-creates-tiny-structures-in-seconds/

So this emerging technology is already beginning to diverge into several related but different fields, all with a role to play in innovative new manufacturing methods. Expect further breakthroughs to come thick and fast in the near future.

First posted on FuturesForum 

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Rotorless helicopter laughs at gravity | TG Daily

Rotorless helicopter laughs at gravity | TG Daily

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This is what the Skycar should have been developed into, only using four rotors instead of two.

Cool innovations on iPhone

IPhone: Friend Book to Beam Your iPhone’s Contact Data with a Shake
“The coolest feature without a doubt is the new “Handshake”: put two iPhones running Friend Book together, shake them up and down, and the personal contact information of the phones’ owners will be beamed through the net to the paired phones. Handshake doesn’t work through a device-to-device connection, but instead passes location data back to Tapulous’ servers — two shaking phones in the same location means it’s time to swap information.”
 
Courtesy of Trends

Rumors of a future war: Fuel vs Food

A recent MindBullet explored the scenario of competition between food crops and biofuel. Could it erupt into real conflict?

Read the full story online: FUEL VS FOOD: THE WAR SPREADS.

Laptops and phones that self-destruct on command

Have you got a laptop or printer that needs to be recycled? Here’s a cool idea for making them capable of disassembling themselves when required:

“Active Disassembly is a promising technique for recycling electronics that relies on shape-memory connectors inside devices to pop apart under heat, separating valuable components without any manual labor required. Screws have been prototyped that lose their threads, as well as screen housings for laptops that pop apart to separate glass from LCD substrate. A typical cell phone can be broken down in seconds without any need to handle the toxic components”
 

Courtesy of Trends.