Friday, March 16, 2007
Vex
http://www.vexlabs.com/
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
interesting patent s
http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT6966960&id=63wVAAAAEBAJ&dq=rapid+prototyping+inkjet
http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT6202734&id=n-wEAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4&dq=rapid+prototyping+inkjet#PPP1,M1
http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT6558753&id=Nb0NAAAAEBAJ&dq=rapid+prototyping+inkjet
we can definitally make one...
Ink-jet technology is very well developed for the document printing market. Commercial ink-jets can Ink jet tools require very carefully filtered materials to prevent clogging of the very fine jet orifices. The materials must have very well controlled (and low) viscosity to form tiny droplets which can be ejected cleanly from the orifice.
Add your ink-jet tool information here, or on a page linked to from here
Standard Ink-jet technology (printer heads) are currently being used for 3d fabrication for example Z-Corps (http://www.zcorp.com/products/printersdetail.asp?ID=1) uses standard HP Ink-jet cartridges to spray an image a slice at a time onto a layer of powder once a slice has been printed a thin layer of powder is deposited the printer then prints another 2d slice the process is repeated until a 3D physical object has been created. The loose powder is vacuumed out leaving the physical object to be removed.
The problem I see with homebrew systems using this technology is that the printer head firmware is tied up (i.e. closed to HP and affiliates) meaning it is very difficult / impossible to code for it. To go down this route one would probably need to create there own print head controller as in : http://www.spritesmods.com/?art=inker
I decided to take another approach and to use the existing HP firmware. I dismantled an old HP Inkjet and cobbled together a crude X axis controlled by a PIC 4455 the trick is to move the X axis position the same distance as a piece of paper would move and to monitor position of the X axis so as home the X axis back to its original location so as to be able to print the next layer over the top of the first and so on. Note before the X axis home(s)it is necessary to lower the base by the amount of the slice height the X axis then drags / scrapes a new thin layer of powder across the last slice printed then the printer continues printing the next slice.
With regards to deposition material (binder) for the inkjet cartridge I mixed together sugar water using distilled water the idea being sugar dissolves and solidifies acting as a glue to bind the powder. I could successfully print though the ink jet cartridges were quite old i.e. it had been refilled with ink at least twice in the past.
One benefit of using this method is that the unused powder also acts as a support material for overhangs etc.
we can use this ink jet
http://www.parallax.com/detail.asp?product_id=30014
A simple nozzle-firing interface allows for simple integration into your printing device. Integration is further simplified with the available print carriage assemblies and technical design documentation available directly from HP
there is a market for our business idea
so our angle just has to be providing good quality hard to make stuff fast to fitzimonds to support the other startup medical stuff
http://www.protogenic.com/
like these guys also in colorado
http://www.rapidtoolinc.com/
but higher end, harder to make and stuff,
precious metal clay ?
metalclay.com
it says after its fired its 99% pure gold...$357 1/4 troy ounce, way expensive but thats how they ( the post below) propose to use their machine to make metal parts,
3d engraving inside a glass block
milky way:
3d star map:
DNA:
they sell portable lasers that do this and are billing it to make 3d portraits of people, i've seen it in every gift shop in manhattan but its cool to be able to do anything, lots of possibilities.
http://www.vitro.de/cms/front_content.php?idcat=70
Posted by IM at 3:13 PM 0 comments
cool scanning systems that are probibly cheap...
its pretty amazing, you can use it like a 3d mouse to edit 3d models in the cad software along with digitizing things
to file away for later...
http://www.immersion.com/digitizer/products/
this looks like a good machine for wax and plastic...
gotta see how much it is, it was totally my idea, use photo-sensitive polymers to to rapid prototyping, its real real accurate. but some of that super small intricate stuff you just couldn't cast it as well as that machine would print it, I don't think atleast
http://www.envisiontec.com/21hdesca.htm
amazing stuff done with prometal's metal printing process
So the cool parts in the R1 brocure, here is the guys website:
http://www.bathsheba.com/
and here is his site on how he does it...
http://www.bathsheba.com/sculpt/process/
he just contracts time on prometals machine to do his sculptures and sell them ! and they are steel!
it works by gluing together metal powder, then heating it up vaporizing the glue and sintering the metal powder together, leaving 60% dense metal parts and then you dip it in bronze if its the steel and I guess for the gold you dip it in gold, I guess this is the thing that is their big intellectual property, so I think in the end you'd have solid gold
what about something like this with pearls...
another perfect company to model after and direct gold printing
so this is what we wanna do
http://www.prometal.com/
and direct to gold rapid prototyping !
http://www.prometal.com/pdf/R1.pdf
but I think there is definitally room for 2 machines in the area, especially with the supposed 4.000 person workforce in medical startups at fitz.
but maybe we can use it co convince the money guys that its a viable business, so this is pretty much what we want to do, but any parts, not just medical
click here
Arcam has competition...
http://www.optomec.com/site/index
Cheap Homemade 3d scanning
These guys wrote software that can figure out the 3d shape of an object just using a camera and a shadow moving across the part. We could totally make this, they make their code public, we could make one of these for less than a grand and it would be pretty damn accurate, we just need the time...
http://www.vision.caltech.edu/bouguetj/ICCV98/index.html
C;ybaman, The best mill ever
we need one of these . Check out the Case studies on their site, lots of cool jewelery stuff , it can machine a full 3d part complete in one pass, so it can do the outside and inside of a ring without changing the position of the ring, amazing...
video 1 - signet ring
video 2 - turbo blade
brocure
their site:
http://www.cybamantech.co.uk/cyba/?page=home
Another easy to start company that would be big
Brandi and I saw this on "It takes a thief" on the Discovery Channel, its like lowjack but better, if your car is stolen you can just go to this website and see a map of where your car is and disable the starter remotely and then call the cops and tell them where your car is. Well the thing uses a cell phone with a modem and you have to have a modem at home to talk to it and a separate phone line and all that jazz if you want to use it all the time. Well I found this thing that just came out that is a cell phone/gps module combination that has a built in microcontroller so you can just send it commands over the internet or from a cell phone and it will return the current location and stuff like that, you can also interface it to other stuff, like a camera that points at the driver... unlocking the doors...etc..and its cheap and you could provide the service for cheap too...another thing that we could do way better with the new technology/tools coming out. I was also thinking about putting this module in a solar powered small plane and it could fly from here and land in my parents backyard in Colorado by itself, that would be cool, electronic carrier pigeons...
the cybertrack:
http://www.spooktech.com/trackingeqmt/cybertrack2.shtml
the module I wanna use:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=7917
Helicopters...
So this guy built the smallest helicopter in the world and it didn't cost him much. He is also the guy who came up with the design for the micro mosquito. This one is the same kinda thing but smaller. Ii'm gonna build one that can land on a quarter, I know I can do it. I can use the propeller to control the motors directly and want to put that accelerometer I have on it and a Gyro and make it totally fly by wire. It's possible because the whole control circuitry for it could be like 5 surface mount chips. First gotta make one that flys on a tether...
The Guy's site
http://www.proxflyer.com/
where he got the stuff
http://www.didel.com/microkit/pricelist/
http://www.cstsales.com/aramid.html
Laser etching business plan
This guy started a company in Manhattan that laser etches notebooks or ipods or whatever, and he is doing it 'open source' so he is sharing his whole business plan and everything. He charges $30 for small stuff like ipods and $100 for notebooks. It would be a great business, the laser is only $15,000 and you would have more business than you could handle. It is interesting because the guys other company makes cool little electronic kits. I should try and get a job from him...
Here is the cnet Article
here is the guys laser etching site
and here is the guys overallvsite
and here is the laser he uses, epilog laser
Worlds Smallest Linux Computer
Its Barely bigger than the RJ Ethernet Connector is Has! (35mm×19mm×19mm) and it can even be set up to get its power from the ethernet network.
tech data is here
I think this one, the gumstix, is way better, its a bit bigger but much much more powerful.
Craftsman CompuCarve CNC Wood Router, Carver, Cutter...
If This Guy Got Rich Making This, We Can Too
give me a break, its a stick with a bolt on the end,
http://www.quikpod.com/
Firgelli Linear Actuators
Weird name, amazing new type of linear actuator, we could use this with the propeller micro -controller to make just about anything, including tiny cnc anything...
http://www.firgelli.com/products.htm
Basically the company I wanna start, so we can then make whatever we want
http://www.synergeering.com/index.php
Tiny Motors
Amazing Tiny Motors...just need to build the helicopter to put 'em in...
http://www.faulhaber-group.com/n164058/n.html
So I was looking at rapid prototyping machines online, and I came across this..
watch the video: Arcam full
and here is the website:
http://www.arcam.com/index.asp
it can make parts like this, directly from the cad files ! No CAM software needed. You can make things not even possible before.
Like this <---