Innovations go on. New possibilities of 3D printing.

The first prototypes of 3Doodler were sold by the end of March 2013 on the Internet for less than 250 pln in a package of ten 30 cm pieces of plastic, allowing to design structures of dimensions up to 336 cm.

The world haven’t enjoyed yet the possibilities of the 3D printing and Skylar Tibbits, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) laboratory, had announced the coming of 4D printing. Technology of the future is supposed to combine the additive manufacturing with a "moving" design. According to the researcher, objects printed in 3D will be able to change the form in contact with the external factors, such as heat, light, water and sound. The key to 4D print is the use of materials which reactions in contact with external agents can be provided, programmed (e.g. by using Autodesk) and manipulated. Possibilities of this technology can be used i.e. in space or under water to create a "self-assembling" research stations.

Light as a feather

Connected to the individual pieces made of ABS or PLA allows engineers to design robust and durable design, as "normal" printer. 3Doodler weighs less than 7 g and looks and works very alike as hot glue gun (180 x 244mm). Maxwell Bogue and Peter Dilworth, WobbleWork founders, have been working with the battery-powered version and are encouraging designers to start printing accordingly to the template provided on www.the3doodler.com. It turns out that printing in the air is a quite complicated process which requires the ability to use this unusual pen and control the rate of extrusion molds with two buttons on the device. Until the end of March 2013 the company collected funding for mass production of pens using www.kickstarter.com portal, a creative financing projects platform, and anyone who wanted to support the project could buy the first version of 3Doodler for less than 250 pln ($75).

Skylar Tibbits demonstrated recently at the MIT how a simple piece of cloth printed in 3D gradually deposited in lumpy form while being in touch with water. The latest 4D technology is designed to enable researchers to predict and program responses of printed in 3D pieces of joined together materials for responding to the selected catalyst energy.