3d printing factory

[fredreload]

So I got some ideas about ways to use 3D printing. To being with, let it 3D print a computer with all the available circuits and working structures like mother board and graphics card. Next, 3D print a factory of a large scale, it could be any factories and Chinese has a good example of 3D printing a house, just need some mechanical parts for the factory. You could also 3D print a 3D printing machine, the more the merrier. Lastly, 3D print a nanoscale factory for nanomachines.

[DrP]

They aren't StarTrek replicators yet. They use polymers. You won't have enough of the exotic raw materials in the polymer mix to make a computer.... you need most of the elements on the periodic table.

[fredreload]

They aren't StarTrek replicators yet. They use polymers. You won't have enough of the exotic raw materials in the polymer mix to make a computer.... you need most of the elements on the periodic table.

I was reading this article where they 3D print a circuit board, but a circuit board is still far from a computer. The future computers are most likely carbon nanotube or graphene based, well it's still faster then assembling one right? For some reason I kept picturing earth quakes messing the 3D printing process up = =

[CharonY]

The components such as microchips still required to be produced traditionally. 3D printing has the possibility to get away with soldering. Messing up the process is fairly simple, you do not need something major for that (depending on instrument). But yeh, what you are thinking about to achieve is more in the realm of sci-fi.

[swansont]

What's the resolution for 3D printing? Now compare that with nanoscale fabrication (including microprocessors), to show that your idea is feasible.

[fredreload]

What's the resolution for 3D printing? Now compare that with nanoscale fabrication (including microprocessors), to show that your idea is feasible.

Good call, I'll look into it

[CharonY]

Also look into the method and therefore material limitations that can be used to get a given resolution (the highest resolution possible today is based on a very specific approach).

[Ken Fabian]

I suspect a complex construction like a 3D manufacturing facility require a lot of components that can't be made using 3D manufacturing. As will many products such a factory might be set up to produce. And will that type of manufacturing successfully compete with other production methods for the components that it can make? Injection moulding and extrusion for example, will probably be able to deliver parts cheaper for some time yet - and those techniques are still open to innovative improvements that could still outpace improvements in 3D printing.

 

One application that I do find promising is in some kinds of building construction in concrete - which may be able to use less of it and without steel reinforcement by employing clever, internally strong "honeycomb" structures.

Edited December 2, 2016 by Ken Fabian

[EdEarl]

3D printers are a menagerie of tools, some huge, to print houses, and some small to print things at nano scale.

 

The original 3D printers made plastic parts from spools of mono filament. Now 3D printers make things from all sorts of material, but none print with all materials. Moreover, you couldn't 3D print a watch with a printer designed to make houses. The first 3D printers added layer upon layer of plastic to make things. Now some 3D printers remove material, such as an NC mill, which existed before the term 3D printing was coined. There are many ways to add or remove material, often depending on the type of material being used to make the 3D thing, for example metal, plastic and ceramic. Consequently, there are many kinds of 3D printers, and one might call a fully automated mega factories a 3D printer. Although, the term 3D printer tends to be used for things smaller than a factory.

Edited December 2, 2016 by EdEarl

[swansont]

3D printers are a menagerie of tools, some huge, to print houses, and some small to print things at nano scale.

 

Lithography is not 3D printing. It's lithography.

 

3D printed houses incorporate 3D printing. Framework, plumbing, etc. are needed, and not printed.

[CharonY]

Well, stereolithography is often counted as 3d printing (though in the strictest sense it is kinda misleading as there is no printing per se) and using 2-photon approaches we can approach nanoscale. That being said, it is entirely different to what some, including OP may think it is or can. Especially due to the limitations of the substrate.

Edited December 2, 2016 by CharonY

[swansont]

Well, stereolithography is often counted as 3d printing (though in the strictest sense it is kinda misleading as there is no printing per se) and using 2-photon approaches we can approach nanoscale. That being said, it is entirely different to what some, including OP may think it is or can. Especially due to the limitations of the substrate.

The link wasn't describing that.

[EdEarl]

3D printer is a term with an evolving definition, I think. To me it a mechanism that produces 3D things from CAD drawings, the process or processes used are not important. 3D printers are being developed for a variety of materials. I know mine is a very broad definition, other people have different ideas, and a consensus may be different.