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Printder — Amazing New System Promises to Turn Your 2D Printer into a 3D Printer
Those who play video games are familiar with the concept of backward compatibility, hardware or software systems that can successfully use interfaces and data from earlier versions of the system or with other systems. This type of capability allows you to play classic games on new consoles, extending the life of older games and awarding players with a fantastically nostalgic experience.
What would this concept look like if it were applied to additive manufacturing? It may come in the form of 3D printers creating 2D prints, such as the 3D printed ball point pen mount that can be attached to printers to create beautifully drawn images. Or, it may look like 2D printers being able to make 3D printed creations. Wait…. What??? One company has recently emerged claiming to be working on that very idea.
Printder claims to be able to print 3D objects using any one of several common 2D printers. Just load your printer with their special paper and ink cartridges and your machine is ready to start 3D printing. Once your CAD file is ready, Printder’s software will slice it into layers, save it as a PDF, and then print it like any other file. Once the file is printed, place the papers in the Printder-provided paper tray and bake them in the oven. The baking process melts the ink and bonds the pages together. The final step is to place your print in water to dissolve the remaining paper and reveal the high quality 3D printed object. The site claims that objects with sizes up to 8.5″ x 11″ x 6′ are ale to be fabricated.
This concept is not a brand new one. Five years ago, Andrew Maurer, an engineer and inventor, had also attempted to bring the 2D 3D print concept to life, and a company called Mcor Technologies actually uses a somewhat similar process, minus the baking in the oven, and on a much larger scale.
Maurer’s Conversion Software Mock-up
Maurer, who has created other 3D printing gadgets such as the Smoke Signal, also tried to perfect this process by printing several cross-sections of the desired 3D object on paper. However, unlike Printder’s special paper tray, he wanted to use a heated clamp to press the sheets together once printed. Then, rather than dissolve the excess paper away, the paper would become brittle in the heating process and could be knocked off the 3D printed object. He experimented with dissolving the paper in water as well, but found that heating the paper affected its water solubility.
Maurer tried several iterations of this process and had difficulty finding paper or the proper ink that would print and bond correctly, as well as break away cleanly from the object once the heating process was complete. He brought the idea close to the patent application stage, but ultimately abandoned it due to an inability to find materials that met the required technical specifications.
3D printing from a 2D printer is a fascinating concept and would be an interesting development in the world of additive manufacturing. Although a viable process remains to be seen, hopefully Printder can prove to be the real deal.
What do you think? Is this a legitimate process? Could it work? Discuss in the Printder forumthread on 3DPB.com.
Source: http://3dprint.com/55991/printder-2d-printer-3d/
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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