Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by bcohen5055 4140 days ago
All they have done here is produce a head that can produce a new support structure pattern, but I don't see the advantage of this pattern. The build layers are isolated by the support so you are left with only thin spider web type filament designs. Furthermore these designs can already be accomplished with other styles of support structures in filament style 3D printers. I think what they have done is a cool innovation but I don't see any novel application for it.

I will say that putting a print head on a robotic arm could lead to more industrialized FDM machines though.

1 comments

We often can't see the uses of new innovations, but that rarely means they have no use. What I noticed that was interesting was that the machine can print structures in mid air. Though they're only demonstrating the basic capabilities right now, I'd be surprised if we didn't see something very useful come out of their lab in the next few months.