THE industrial revolution of the late 18th century made possible the mass production of goods, thereby creating economies of scale which changed the economy—and society—in ways that nobody could have imagined at the time. Now a new manufacturing technology has emerged which does the opposite. Three-dimensional printing makes it as cheap to create single items as it is to produce thousands and thus undermines economies of scale. It may have as profound an impact on the world as the coming of the factory did.It works like this. First you call up a blueprint on your computer screen and tinker with its shape and colour where necessary. Then you press print. A machine nearby whirrs into life and builds up the object gradually, either by depositing material from a nozzle, or by selectively solidifying a thin layer of plastic or metal dust using tiny drops of glue or a tightly focused beam. Products are thus built up by progressively adding material, one layer at a time: hence the technology’s other name, additive manufacturing. Eventually the object in question—a spare part for your car, a lampshade, a violin—pops out. The beauty of the technology is that it does not need to happen in a factory. Small items can be made by a machine like a desktop printer, in the corner of an office, a shop or even a house; big items—bicycle frames, panels for cars, aircraft parts—need a larger machine, and a bit more space.
Via www.economist.com
Archives for January 2012
Print me a Stradivarius
Five tech industry predictions for 2012
The really big Internet IPO returned and the massive venture capital funding bubble inflated, which seems difficult considering that the venture capital industry is far smaller than it was three years ago. But look at some of the crazy valuations on revenue-less photo-sharing startups like Color and Path. And there is clearly another bubble inflating in the cloud computing sector, with every company that uses a distributed architecture now calling itself a “cloud company.” So what does 2012 have in store? Here are my predictions.
Via venturebeat.com
Virtual Combat IED Simulation
The Raytheon team of Reston Virginia along with other technology giants involved in Virtual Combat Simulation, successfully designed a portable, fully immersive, IED training platform using commercially available, off-the-shelf components. The Virtual IED Combat Simulator provides accurate, real-time, live-Soldier simulations for training exercises. Their configuration is flexible. Due to this, individuals, teams and full units are able to be trained simultaneously. As part of the IED Defeat Task Force, Raytheon Chairman and CEO William H. Swanson stated, “The task force’s goal is to identify and field technology and training solutions designed to defeat IEDs.. The task force’s goal is to identify and field technology and training solutions designed to defeat IEDs.”
Via www.examiner.com
NASA spacecraft enters moon’s orbit
A NASA spacecraft fired its engine and slipped into orbit around the moon Saturday in the first of two back-to-back arrivals over the New Year’s weekend.Ground controllers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory erupted in cheers and applause after receiving a signal that the probe was healthy and circling the moon. An engineer was seen on closed-circuit television blowing a noisemaker to herald the New Year’s Eve arrival.”This is great, a big relief,” deputy project scientist Sami Asmar told a roomful of family and friends who gathered at the NASA center to watch the drama unfold.
Via www.cbc.ca
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