THAT'S not a 3D Printer!

(with apologies to "Crocodile Dundee")

THIS is a 3D Printer!

"3D Concrete Printing (3DCP) project was funded by EPSRC through the Innovative Manufacturing and Construction Research Centre at Loughborough University. 3DCP is a large-scale additive manufacturing process capable of producing full sized building components that gives architects a tremendous degree of design freedom because the components are manufactured directly from the architects’ digital model."

http://www.constructiondigital.com/green_building/3d-printing---the-future-of-concrete

3D Printing & (micro) Formula 1

When I saw this headline on The Register
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/12/3d_printer_speed_nanotechnology

Speedy 3D printer creates 285um Formula-1 speedster

I had to take a look. I have a number of interests, but 3D printing and Formula 1 are high on my list, and anything that is "geeky" attracts my attention too, so a 3D-printed microscopic Formula 1 car is about as cool as it gets for me!

It seems that a team at the Vienna Institute of Technology  has pushed the technology of laser-cured polymers to new limits, both in scale and speed.

"Until now, this technique used to be quite slow," said Professor Jürgen Stampfl from the Institute of Materials Science and Technology in a statement. "The printing speed used to be measured in millimeters per second – our device can do five meters in one second."

OK, so they are only doing this on a microscopic scale (the Formula 1 car is less than a third of a millimetre long!) - but imagine when they can scale up - you could print yourself a full-size car in a  few minutes!