A factory in miniature. A gimmick that creates objects and can be placed on the desk of its size: a box 50x60x50 cm. A device to be placed next to the keyboard and the screen as if it were a simple printer. With one difference: it is capable of turning bits into atoms. What looks like a Promethean dream - to pull out of the computer object itself - is now a reality at hand. The race to enter the market for the consumer 3D printer seems close to the finish. To win the futuristic race, as reported by The New York Times, should be the Desktop Factory, a company created by the Idea Lab, a technology incubator that has successfully given birth to City Search and less successful at eToys. The three-dimensional printer should come to market within this year and the retail price will be $ 4,995. But how does this "desktop factory"? Spreads a plastic compound powder in a roll that is heated to a temperature slightly lower than that necessary to melt the plastic. After that, a light beam is aimed in particular the points needed to give shape to the object and heats them to dissolve. Next, the powder is dissolved and the roller is wiped out files the plastic melted into a kind of shape. The process, the newspaper said the United States, is repeated until the object is not complete from top to bottom. To date, the Desktop Factory objects can produce up to a size of 12.5 cm.
The printers three dimensions have long been used in the field of industrial design for creating models and prototypes. But I am apparecchiatture whose costs are much higher ($ 15,000). And the number of buyers is very limited. The aim of companies is now only one: to bring this subject in a market of very different sizes, that of consumers. Desktop Factory to think that the first to buy the printer will be professionals who can not afford the more expensive machines. A wheel schools where teaching industrial design. The other companies involved in this market segment are the 3D Systems, Z Corporation and Fabjectory . 3D Systems has announced that by the end of this year will launch a printer on the market in three dimensions at a price, however, double ($ 9,999) compared to that of Desktop Factory. The Desktop Factory is also looking to develop a material lighter and more suitable for domestic purposes. Soldiers, toothbrushes, game characters, plastic forks or whatever. No one is yet able to predict with precision but who may be applications of such an object. The only certainty is that the "toner" this gimmick certainly will not cost a few dollars.
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