But Honda has made five 3D-printable models available from its website for fans to download and make, including 1994's FSR Concept and 2003's Kiwami. Honda concept carsĪdmittedly, not an actual concept car that you can drive.
Nike is one example: it's showing off a training shoe called the Vapor Carbon Elite Cleat for this year's Super Bowl, with a 3D-printed nylon base and cleats – the latter based on the existing Vapor Laser Talon, which was unveiled a year ago. Super Bowl shoe cleatsĮxpect to see a number of big brands launching 3D printing projects this year – part R&D and part PR campaigns. Even so, its website is up and running, offering eight-inch "custom lifesize baby" models for $800 a pop. The theory: why not print them out? One company doing it, 3D Babies, didn't have much luck with a crowdfunding campaign last year, raising $1,225 of its $15,000 goal. This is more an extension of the 4D ultrasound images of babies in the womb that have become more popular in recent years. The models were estimated to be worth £1,000 each. Manchester-based company Hobs' business is based around working with architects, engineers and other creatives to use 3D printing as part of their work, but to show off its capabilities, the company 3D printed models of the city's two football stadia – Old Trafford and the Etihad Stadium – giving them away in a competition for Manchester Evening News readers. Photograph: Not Impossible Photograph: Not Impossible 3. But this is just one of the stories emerging: see also 3Ders' piece on a four-year old called Hannah, with a condition called arthrogryposis that limits her ability to lift her arms unaided, but who now has a Wilmington Robotic Exoskeleton (WREX for short) to help, made using 3D printing.Ī prosthetic arm made for a 16 year-old bomb victim in Sudan. Time's article from earlier this month on the work of Not Impossible Labs makes for powerful reading: a project using 3D printers to make low-cost prosthetic limbs for amputees, including Sudanese bomb-blast victim Daniel Omar. "You can manufacture the products at whatever base you want, providing you can get a machine there." 2.
"You are suddenly not fixed in terms of where you have to manufacture these things," said BAE's Mike Murray. Its engineers are making parts for four squadrons of Tornado GR4 aircraft, with the aim of saving £1.2m of maintenance and service costs over the next four years. RAF Tornado fighter jet partsĮarly this year, BAE Systems said that British fighter jets had flown with the first time with components made using 3D printing technology. All contributions are welcome, but here are 30 things to start the discussion off.
This feature is just a snapshot of some of the products and projects that caught my attention, rather than a definitive roundup.Ī taste of what's happening, but one that's ripe for your comments pointing out better examples in these categories, and other areas that have been left out. There's a growing community – from individual makers to nascent businesses – exploring the potential of 3D printing. But it's the "what can you actually make with them" question that's been pulling me in recently. The ethical and legal questions around 3D printing and firearms are important and complex, but they also tend to hoover up a lot of the mainstream media attention for this area of technology. How does 3D printing even work? What's all this about 3D-printed guns? Can you 3D-print a 3D printer? Why are they so expensive? What can you actually make with them? Apart from guns. Often, those questions are the same ones, too. A s a technology journalist – even one who hasn't written much about 3D printing – I've noticed a big growth in questions from friends about the area in recent months.