CAT scans can produce 3-D images of biological structures, by combining images from x-rays beamed from all sides. Well, engineers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and UC Berkeley are creating objects in a similar way, using light instead of x-rays. They project images of a rotating object at a synchronized rotating transparent bottle containing a plastic resin that hardens on exposure to light. Lo and behold, a solid object with the desired shape on all sides kind of magically solidifies in the resin, not in layers but all at once. And the remaining non-solidified resin can be poured off and reused. At Berkeley, they informally call it the "replicator", from the Star Trek device that it kind of resembles. More officially it's CAL (which "just happens" to be UCBerkeley's nickname): 'Computed Axial Lithography'. It's much simpler than existing 3-D printers and promises to be more effective for many applications. https://news.berkeley.edu/2019/01/3...ht-to-shape-objects-transform-product-design/ More details here https://www.3dprintingmedia.network...y-llnl-new-cal-volumetric-3d-printing-method/ They have filed for a patent on it and it could turn out to be big. The paper is in Science (behind a pay-wall).
Looks like a great method Here in little ol'back water Darwin we have a 3D printer invention which prints with metal fairly fast and looks like will have lots of applications ***** Darwin 3D metal part technology a world first February 19, 2019 6:07am GARY SHIPWAY NT News SPEE3D, the Darwin company that has invented a world-first commercial 3D metal printer in the Territory, is now a multimillion-dollar success story with its revolutionary technology selling to buyers in key markets in Germany, the US and Singapore. https://amp-ntnews-com-au.cdn.amppr...t/news-story/5550743a95eca2e06b8d9f6b065100eb ***** Sorry rest of article subscription Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Looks like the Replicator is quickly advancing home manufacturing. If that happens then society goes back to pre Industrial days when guilds to cottage industries manufactured everything - at home where family life coexisted with work. the 9-5 routine is a product of the Industrial age and it could die with inventions like the Replicator.
