They are slow, often taking hours to build an object, and the results, while impressive to the eye, can be too crude for extremely close-fitting parts.
Other multi-material printers work via "extrusion" technologies, using nozzles that squirt out melted material, that then hardens, to build an object layer-by-layer.
Typically, 3-D printers take a substrate like metal or plastic and add one layer on top of another, following the instructions of a model made with modeling software, to build an object like a chess piece.
Instead of the plastics or powders used in conventional 3-D printers to build an object layer by layer, so-called bioprinters print cells, usually in a liquid or gel.
You could subtract the last two words from the title of Eco's book, because at its best it's a primer in the architectural pleasures of any writing that aspires "to build an object that in principle will serve others".
"The technology allows you to design an object in virtual space and transmit the data to another machine to 'grow' or 'print' that object in 3-D," the industrial designer Marc Newson said of these printers, which can dispense a variety of materials — plastics, metal powder and binders, plaster, animal cells — in very thin slices directed by a laser and build an object in layers.
The motors move the Z axis as little as 0.0002 inches and the X and Y axes 0.0008 inches.; Three axes of motion: To build an object in three dimensions, the printer uses stages, each moving along a different axis.; Coming soon: On Thursday MakerBot plans to release a new model with two compact extruders that print in multiple colors or materials.
3D printing, also referred to as additive manufacturing, is a process that uses a layer-by-layer approach to build an object from a digital file.
Apparently the goal is to build an object so futuristic, it becomes a style icon, starting conversations wherever users go.
