Photokina 2006 Cool Technology

[Shane Drew]

Love the 3D stuff!

[Robert Lambie]

i actually have one of those crystal cubes with a 3d picture of Audrey, Jodie and i, in it. i had it done at Alton Towers a couple of years ago. Phill Fenton has one also, if i remember right.

thanks for the link dave. 😀

[Phill Fenton]

Rob’s right – I’ve got a 3d laser engraving of my two children Sally and Michael. I was fascinated seeing it get made and posted a question about it on these boards at the time.

The video also showed the process for creating 3d models made from layers of plastic. Apparently Nasa are interested in this technology for long distance space missions to Mars. The idea is to have one of these machines on board that is able to create spare parts for the space ship. Mission control would simply radio up a template for the broken part and the crew would make a replacement. Brilliant don’t you think 😀

[David Rowland]

it is.. i just spent some time looking at Lightroom and new Creative suite bits in the associated vids… this show is actually in Germany so I understand but certainly interesting

[Rodney Gold]

I cant see the vid (I’m at the Hilton , California atm, their on line facilities are less than stellar) but the 3d laser thing is the result of 2 laser beams intersecting and micro fracturing the substrate where it does so. The 3d modeling is called stereo lithography and there are many systems that can be used , powdered metals , resins, UV sensitive resins , plastics etc. Really only good for prototyping or building masters for molding. Very expensive machines at the moment. They slice the object or 3d drawing and build up the thing in layers ,Its been around for some time tho.
We looked at both systems, I thought the 3d glass thing was pretty much a fad and the big problem was that for volume production , the stuff coming from china would make the whole thing ultra uncompetitive. The stereo lithography is very limited in terms of materials and applications and the models don’t tend to be smooth at all , unless you build a zillion layers which take a ton of time.

[Robert Lambie]

the crystal cubes were sold at a theme park called Alton towers Rodney.
a very busy place indeed… i agree to sell these sorta thing the volume would have to be high, but i recon this place is spot on because i passed it a few times and room it was being done in was constantly busy. i cannot really remember cost but "i think" it was about £35 per cube. from 3d scan/picture to completion was about 10-15 minutes.

graphtec offer 3d printers also… i don’t know anything about them, but they do look like they are for prototype stuff but affordable considering what they can do.

[Steve Morgan]

Apparently at least one of the Formula 1 teams has been using the printer technology for over 6 months. It must be a fantastically quick way to produce moulds for small carbon fibre components without the need for CNC machines in a workshop and all working in a comparatively tiny space.
Steve

[Carlos Cavanagh]

At a trade show last year I saw one of the prototyping machine make a ball bearing that actually worked, all in one shot, not separate parts – amazing!

[Shane Drew]

quote Robert Lambie:

the crystal cubes were sold at a theme park called Alton towers Rodney.
a very busy place indeed… i agree to sell these sorta thing the volume would have to be high, but i recon this place is spot on because i passed it a few times and room it was being done in was constantly busy. i cannot really remember cost but “i think” it was about £35 per cube. from 3d scan/picture to completion was about 10-15 minutes.
.

Never heard of this until this post, but I walked past a shop on the weekend on the gold coast and saw these machines doing a roaring trade. Trouble is most of the sales people were Chinese and spoke very little English. They knew how to count money though :lol1: