3-D prinerts and advance materials?

Any information on 3-D printers and advanced materials like these?

http://theweek.com/article/index/236550 ... paper-thin

http://discovermagazine.com/2009/jan/083

Not sure about the top link but the "paper" seems plausible as a 3-D printing material. It would be great to assemble an orbiter in your own garage!

Actually most nanostructures and even machine components are made indirectly by chemical processes such as deposition and evaporation of a solvent and then photo or acid etching. This is what both of the examples in your links use.

Right now available "3D printing" really isn't precise enough to do nanoscale. I'm sure it will in the future but at the moment its easier and cheaper to use other methods.

There is an open source 3d printer project http://www.reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page

There is i think an option to design your own print heads but printing at the size your talking about is i think going to need a clean room level sealed printer. And although i am optimistic after reading up and watching some of the stuff that foresight publishes i suspect MEM level printing maybe on the 5-15 year scale and Nanotech printing on the 10-25 year scale at least at practical commercially feasible versions. IIRC Big Blue is doing some interesting stuff in its Zurich labs moving multiple atoms around with multiple STM heads but does not expect it out in the wild for more than a decade.

I think this could be done, by creating nano "blocks" that are assembled using printing tech,



So a target adhesive that has the property you need
(conductive or insulating or heat conducting etc)

and a cube that has properties you need like
(conductive or insulating or heat conducting, processor cube, photo-sensor cube,power pickup cube)

here is another cool thing, make the adhesives have a solvent that does not damage the cubes....... then you can recycle instantly!!!!

Actually I was thinking of things like spars, ribs panels and larger pieces to assemble.

you could assemble any size parts, the smaller the more complex the electronic function could be, but you could also vacuum form exotics, in small pieces, that add up to be VERY strong..

Imagine "blocks" the size of sugar grains that can take on any shape you program them for. They probably won't have the same/as good as mechanical properties as dedicated materials but the adaptability and multi-use (your structures are also the computer and energy storage) of them will more than make up for it.

We are still a long way from that point. Being able to push atoms around to make a micron gear or wire still makes the news...

All the way down to the bottom.
- Feynman

Getting closer to the bottom and at a reasonable bandwidth as well

http://www.gizmag.com/3d-printing-photo ... 9/pictures

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y0j191H ... r_embedded

check this out,

we can print ANYTHING

No that is still MEMS level using a single polymer IIRC the rumours are that Big Blue has a multi headed STM printer in its Zurich research labs not sure if it can do more than one type of atom but they reckon a practical product maybe a decade or so away. So although with STM's and their cousins we have proof of principle that it is possible to print anything possible that does not break the laws of physics we are not quite there yet with practical products. Tho i think with our current level of progress within 15 to 30 years practical nanotech will become widespread if it is not badly abused early on causing mega/giga deaths.

The main problem with Fabricators (Another word for #d Printers, only broader to include other technologies like Stock Removal) is you can't make anything larger than what you're Printing. Just like the old 2D models you may have seen around, you can't get a 2 foot wide sheet of paper through one that's only 1' wide.

So, you'd have to make parts, and assemble them. You'll never make a space ship in the garage, because it won't fit. I sense fantasies of Jetsons cars capable of making the trip, but just the fuel to lift it will take more volume than your house, yard, and probably both neighbors stacked on top. (Just the fuel to take off vertically, and fly the same distance as the average car's range will leave you with a seat, and the rest mostly tank after the engines powerful enough to lift, and stabilize it.) You're basically talking about either a Warehouse/hanger, or Vertical Assembly building like the Space Shuttles'.

We need to get on the Advanced materials, though, right now we're at the Polymer stage, and anything that has to handle the forces/temperatures of spaceflight has to be molded from the prototype. ironically, the resins they use are "Advanced Materials" compared to the metals, and alloys rated to that performance envelope. What we really need are Ceramics and Ceramic/Polymer alloys that can mimic the physical strength of metals at a fraction of the mass.

The old fashioned way is still in use, and I doubt will ever be eliminated. Stock Removal is starting with a block of material, and removing the bits you don't want to leave the part inside. The new Paradigm will be when we can do this bottom-up, building from materials into the shape without wasting energy gathering the waste material, reforming it into billets, and carving more parts out of it, only hopefully with the end materials instead of molding from Rapid Prototypes in a workable substrate, which is the stage we're at now.