#TOP5 videos: 3D Printed Skaterbot and much more!
We found the TOP 5 videos of the week about 3D printing and the way additive manufacturing is shaping and changing our society. 3D printed skaterbot, micro structures, biomedical implants, metallic dental parts and more! If you enjoy these, you can view even more 3D printing videos on our Youtube channel. You can also share your comments on 3Dnatives’ Facebook or Twitter accounts. Hope you’ll enjoy and have a great Sunday!
Top 1: The 3D Printed Skaterbot
3D printing has opened the door to robots with a wide range of motions and manoeuvres. This combined with the latest research in computer science, ETH Zürich Computational Robotics Lab designed a 3D printed robot with wheels and legs. They experimented by having their robot on ice. Even though happy with the first results, there is room for improvement as the goal is to match the skill and ability seen in humans. The 3D printed robot learns on his own how to get around, check it out below!
Top 2: The CREATOR to 3D Print Metal Parts
The CREATOR is a high-end 3D metal printer; the handling and processing of the printing data is realised via CAD file. The following video showcases how the printer is used in the dental industry. The CAD file is sent to the printer which 3D prints dental parts made of CoCr. If you want to see the full process simply watch the video below. It is the year of 3D printing in the medical field and processes such as this one are developing massively and could change the way we treat patients.
Top 3: Altraspin Can 3D Print Micro Parts
This 3D printer allows additive manufacturing of extremely small parts, microparts. The existing technology has largely focused on larger volume printing and even desktop 3D printers cannot produce such small parts. Microlight3D has developed Altraspin which they present in their video below. It is based on two-photon-polymerisation (TPP) direct laser writing. This technique allows them to create shapes smaller than a micrometer, a pretty unique ability.
Top 4: Printing Plastic Bridges, the solution to plastic waste?
The largest 3D printed plastic object has just been printed. It’s a 3D printed bridge at 5.8 tones, it took 30 days and 5 hours to be printed. Polymaker explains in their video below the potential of they see in additive manufacturing. Recycling plastics helps cut down the production of new polymers, however they are often recycled simply to produce another single-use plastic object. For example a plastic bottle recycled to become another plastic bottle. Additive manufacturing offers new possibilities such as this one; the idea is to repurpose plastics for long-term solutions to plastic waste. This is possible due to large scale 3d printing and could change the way we deal with plastic waste.
Top 5: 3D Printing Metallic Biomedical Implants
Nicolas Soro, PhD student at the University of Queensland shows the powers of metal 3D printing in helping patient’s quality of life after implant surgery. There is no perfect material to replace or repair a damaged bone for example, apart from 3D printing bone which could soon be a possibility. Most implants which are currently used are far from being long lasting and often entitle many revision surgeries. 3D printing has the potential of helping the durability of metallic implants, you can find how and why that is below.
