Gigabot 3D Printer
3D printing has become a hot topic this year and new technology in this field often appears in the news. But today we have two news stories that are on the opposite sides of the scale. First, a new Kickstarter project is starting called the Gigabot 3D Printing which aims to produce the device pictured above. This new device is not unlike all of the existing 3D printers such as the MakerBot Replicator, but whereas most desktop printers can only print small objects, with those who need larger prints having to pay a lot more money for an industrial printer, now this team wants to create an affordable device that can do slightly larger models.
Nanoscribe Meanwhile, researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology have been working on a much smaller device called the Nanoscribe, a printer that can print 3D models at the tiny scale of just a few nanometers. Their aim is to take technology that has been in use by scientists to print very small parts for science experiments and bring that into an industrial device, a printer that can be sold to businesses and individuals. The key to this success is perfecting the technology used to print such tiny objects, called two-photon polymerization. If they succeed, this could make 3D printers much more precise and able to create much finer objects.
3D printing has been around for a while now but it seems these past few years has seen a lot of improvements in both the technology and the projects we see arrive on the field, attempting to bring this technology to the masses in a cheaper and easier way. Just like original computers and printers, this is something that is quickly entering the mass market.
