Interesting and Fun Information About 3D Printers and Robots

Aren't 3D Printers Just Toys?

If someone asks you what good is a 3D printer, tell them about Little Emma and her "Magic Arms." A girl born without the ability to use her arms had her life transformed with prosthetics manufactured by a 3D printer. Or tell them about Kaiba Gionfriddo who, almost every day as a baby, stopped breathing and sometimes had his heart stop because his airway kept collapsing due to a birth defect. Doctors used a 3D printer to make an airway splint for him. This is the first time this device was implanted into a human. At 19 months old, Kaiba is a happy, healthy, active little boy.

These devices are being innovatively used in a myriad of applications in the medical field. For example, they can be used by dentists to create a porcelain crown while you wait. 3D printers are being used to rapidly advance the hot new field of tissue regeneration (regrowing all kinds of body parts). Scientists at Cornell University are in the process of developing a procedure to grow an ear, complete with cartilage, for children born with malformed ones or adults who lose an ear due to an accident or disease.

Astronauts, on their long journey to Mars and back may not have to eat "Meals Ready to Eat" for that entire time. NASA has engaged researchers to work on a method of using a 3D printer to print food which looks like and has the texture and odor of real food. The input will be powdered ingredients, mixed with oil and water. They hope to be able to print, for example, a pizza, complete with layers of crust, sauce and toppings.

A team of students from the University of Washington won a $100,000 grant to develop a system using giant 3D printers to make composting toilets out of all those empty water bottles we produce. These lightweight latrines can be used in developing countries where sanitation is often lacking.

3D printers have even been used to manufacturer a new beak for a bald eagle found starving in the wild because his beak had been shot off.

New uses for the 3D printer are being developed in many different fields. A Minnesota contractor named Andrey Rudenko has built the world's first building using a 3D printer. In his own back yard he built an amazing castle. Made of concrete designed to look like natural layers of sandstone, it is truly an amazing structure.

Watch this video of Mick Ebeling "NOT impossible PROJECT DANIEL" to use a 3D printer to make prosthetic arms for children in war torn South Sudan.

Out of the Mouth of Babes

I was explaining to my five year old what I was planning to make and at the point which he understood what it was, he responded, "So I could have endless toys...." LOL

Sean

Juggling Delta Robot

This is a fun video to watch about a Delta robot juggling two ping pong balls at the same time. It's pretty good at it.

Spelling Bee Anyone?

This robot can spell. It made of makeshift parts - straw from McDonald's, rubber bands, ice cream sticks, solenoids from old tape drives, valves from an bicycle tubes, old aquarium pump.