3D Printing

A 3D printer saved the life of a baby boy with a rare disease that kept him from breathing properly, doctors are reporting in the New England Journal of Medicine. The boy, Kaiba Gionfriddo of Ohio, had been diagnosed with severe tracheobronchomalacia, a rare respiratory condition that caused his airways to collapse, blocking the flow Continue Reading →

Anjan Contractor’s 3D food printer might evoke visions of the “replicator” popularized in Star Trek, from which Captain Picard was constantly interrupting himself to order tea. And indeed Contractor’s company, Systems & Materials Research Corporation, just got a six month, $125,000 grant from NASA to create a prototype of his universal food synthesizer. But Contractor, Continue Reading →

Four years ago, a British man named Eric Moger had a tennis-ball sized tumor removed from the left side of his face, along with most of his face itself. Because of the surgery, Moger had to eat and drink through tubes inserted into his stomach. But Moger’s life changed recently, as doctors used CT and Continue Reading →

From clothes and shoes to smartphone cases and even guns, there seems to be no limits to what 3D printers can create. And now, you can add prosthetic hands and fingers to the mix. Robohand is a mechanical 3D-printed hand that can be created using a MakerBot 3D printer. Richard Van As, a South Africa-based Continue Reading →

Ever the publicity hound, Sen. Chuck Schumer, who obviously has no idea what additive manufacturing actually is, came out big and strong against “stomach-churning” 3D printed plastic guns last week. “Everyone’s seen the movie ‘In The Line of Fire,’ where one of the great bad guys, [played by] John Malkovich, labored at making a gun Continue Reading →

Cody Wilson set out to create the world’s first entirely 3D-printable handgun.  Now he has.  Wilson, a 25-year-old University of Texas law student and founder of the non-profit group Defense Distributed, plans to release the 3D-printable CAD files for a gun he calls “the Liberator”.  All sixteen pieces of the Liberator prototype were printed in Continue Reading →

Staples just became a little more cutting edge. The office supply chain announced Friday that it is now selling 3D printers through its website and will start selling 3D printers in select stores by the end of next month. Staples is touting itself as the first “major U.S. retailer” to sell the product. Staples, which Continue Reading →

The OUYA was one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns of all-time. A new video game console for your TV, the OUYA is powered by Android and meant to be an open and hackable platform. With the campaign’s backers already getting their consoles and units set to hit store shelves in the near future, what’s Continue Reading →

While doctors have experimented with 3D-printed prosthetics in the past, none has been quite as prominent or incredibly detailed as Eric Moger’s newest addition: a prosthetic, 3D-printed face. Four years ago, Eric underwent surgery to remove a tennis-ball-sized tumor in the left side of his face—along with almost the entire face itself. Left with what Continue Reading →

OUYA, the Kickstarter-funded indie gaming console, has teamed up with Makerbot to release the 3D design files for the console’s case. With the template and specs for the device revealed, anyone with access to a 3D printer will be able to customize the $99 console. The files, which are packaged as the “OUYA MakerBot 3D Continue Reading →