3D-printed material is stronger than steel?

Vixremento

Vixremento

New member
Okay so I like that it is 'sometimes' stronger than steel...that's progress. Of course I'd really ask 'is it as soft as flesh?'. Right, let's move on from my perv fantasies.

Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) has leveraged a new type of nanoscale 3D printing to push the limits of material science forward. Using a process developed by a German company called Nanoscribe, Jens Bauer and his team developed a new material that is less dense than water, but as strong as some forms of steel. This is the first evidence that these theorized materials can actually exist.
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Right, so two things to take from that...items stronger than 'some forms of steel' and 'nanoscale'. So cool but only on a very tiny scale. Let's move on though...

Every material is characterized by its range of strength and density. In most instances, things get stronger as the become more dense, which has led to materials scientists searching for ways to buck the trend. Something that is very strong and not very dense is great for building anything where overall weight is a factor. In the graph below, the middle density line at 1000kg/m^3 is water. So the best material designed by Bauer and colleagues is toward the upper left, indicated by the pink dots.
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Okay so I'm to lazy to post an image of the graph but if you REALLY want to see it you can go here...or you could watch this youtube clip which kinda bored me:

Do you reckon we'll eventually be able to craft out own [pseudo-strike-through]porn[/pseudo-strike-through] friends in the future?
 
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Will never cease to amaze me how new and amazing technologies always cycle back to how things are done in nature.
 
3D printing really is incredible... I was reading an article on the us army in Afghanistan, and apparently instead of taking spare parts for vehicles or weapons, they now take a printer and anything they need, they get a file emailed to them with the part design, and they just print it and use it.... done....

I thought that was incredible...
 
Yeah, 3D printing seems like it's going to be a big part of the future. I went to a talk on it and there's a team that is attempting to 3D print new organs for people by using stem cells and organic matter and building it up layer by layer. Imagine no more donor lists and no more replacement organs being rejected because they're tailor-made to work in your body!
 
Its going to be awesome when we can get to nano level printing, we all know nano tubes but imagine serious nano scale construction.
When we can get to that level imagine the strength and lightness in vehicle construction for example.

I just loving seeing these stories, thanks for the link
 
addam said:
Yeah, 3D printing seems like it's going to be a big part of the future. I went to a talk on it and there's a team that is attempting to 3D print new organs for people by using stem cells and organic matter and building it up layer by layer. Imagine no more donor lists and no more replacement organs being rejected because they're tailor-made to work in your body!
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damn that would be amazing.
 
addam said:
Yeah, 3D printing seems like it's going to be a big part of the future. I went to a talk on it and there's a team that is attempting to 3D print new organs for people by using stem cells and organic matter and building it up layer by layer. Imagine no more donor lists and no more replacement organs being rejected because they're tailor-made to work in your body!
Click to expand...

Thats the coolest thing iv heard regarding 3D printing... If this becomes a reality it will change our lives considerably! But jeez where does it end? Could you then "print" a new limb for someone and attach it? Not referring to prosthetic's here...
 
It's important to note that the reported strength is only in compression. I know that the compressive strength is important in civil engineering, but in the other disiplines we mostly worry about tensile strength. It's also the high tensile strength/mass that is the wonder in carbon nanotubes.

That said, being able to "construct" materials relatively easily is an important step in materials research, which will speed up development greatly, and with the advent of printers capable of larger structures, like homes, it is very exciting news.
 
Avatar said:
That said, being able to "construct" materials relatively easily is an important step in materials research, which will speed up development greatly, and with the advent of printers capable of larger structures, like homes, it is very exciting news.
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Iv seen the 3D printing of cars and the like, but haven't heard of anything as large as a house... I suppose the possibilities are endless... Building materials is in no way far fetched, and yet a few years ago if someone had of mentioned "printing" full on objects people would have laughed...
 
the main issue i have with the whole 3D printing fad is that the underlying material is still the stumbling block. For example, take that Afghan military operation mentioned above. So they take a printer to make their spare parts. What happens if the one day, they need fanbelt (rubber) and the next day they need a flywheel (steel). Doesnt the printer produce all its stuff from that lego-esque plastic ?
 
Tom said:
Thats the coolest thing iv heard regarding 3D printing... If this becomes a reality it will change our lives considerably! But jeez where does it end? Could you then "print" a new limb for someone and attach it? Not referring to prosthetic's here...
Click to expand...

So far they have printed ears and bladders but it's still in it's infancy with what they can do.
 
Tom said:
Iv seen the 3D printing of cars and the like, but haven't heard of anything as large as a house... I suppose the possibilities are endless... Building materials is in no way far fetched, and yet a few years ago if someone had of mentioned "printing" full on objects people would have laughed...
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http://www.businessinsider.com/3d-printer-builds-house-in-24-hours-2014-1
http://gadgets.ndtv.com/laptops/news/new-giant-3d-printer-can-build-a-house-in-24-hours-470564
http://themindunleashed.org/2013/11/3d-printing-2500-ft-house-printed-in-20.html




Hiro said:
the main issue i have with the whole 3D printing fad is that the underlying material is still the stumbling block. For example, take that Afghan military operation mentioned above. So they take a printer to make their spare parts. What happens if the one day, they need fanbelt (rubber) and the next day they need a flywheel (steel). Doesnt the printer produce all its stuff from that lego-esque plastic ?
Click to expand...

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/...ge-the-face-of-additive-manufacturing-forever

Anything that has a gel-like of liquid phase can be 3d-printed, even steel.. However, you'd need stonking big heaters to get the steel plyable enough to print, and the heat treatment might be an issue, but it's certainly do-able. It's just much easier to do subtractive machining when you get to that scale of complexity.
 
Ya was going to say, the more advanced and expensive the 3D printer, the less the limitations... So the really expensive ones can print in all kinds of different metals... I know a sculptor who is looking at one to replicate his bronze work...
 
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