Jan 7, 2013

3-D printers

     Maybe, like me, you've had a hard time imaging a reason anyone might want to own the badly misnamed 3-D printers that are all the rage now.
     An article on the WIRED website provides a perfect, though tiny, example. You can now turn a child's drawing into an actual toy.


   And I have another idea for a 3-D printer on steroids....a somewhat more serious proposal. NASA can put one on every manned spaceship to create replacement parts for every machine on board. And down the line a bit, replacement parts for the crew too.
     Here's the rub: just as the computer printer manufacturers have us all hooked on the terribly overpriced ink cartridges, the 3-D dealers (and I do mean dealers) will require us to buy the raw materials from them. At a slightly inflated price.

[ALSO: Last October, CBS This Morning included a segment on the "printers".]

No comments:

Post a Comment