Via Gizmodo
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When you walk into the Shapeways
headquarters in a sprawling New York City warehouse building, it
doesn't feel like a factory. It's something different, somehow
unforgettable, inevitably new. As it should be. This is one of the
world's first full service 3D-printing factories, and it's not like any
factory I've ever seen.
Founded
in the Netherlands in 2007 as a spinoff of Philips electronics,
Shapeways is a truly unique and delightfully simple service. If you want
an object 3D-printed, all you have to do is upload the design's CAD
file to Shapeways' website, pay a fee that mostly just covers the cost
of materials, and then wait. In a few days, Shapeways will send the
3D-printed object to you, nicely bubble-wrapped and ready for use. It's
effectively an on-demand manufacturing service, a factory at your
fingertips in a way that's wonderfully futuristic.
Aside from
the windows that look on to the factory floor, Shapeways HQ looks just
like any other start-up office. Colorful chairs surround laptop-littered
desks. Employees drinking seltzer linger around a long lunch table in
the back. It's oddly quiet, and everything is coated in a fine layer of
white dust, the cast-off material that didn't quite make it into an
object of its own.
If
you didn't know any better, you'd think it was some sort of art studio
littered with hulking machines, perhaps for firing pottery or something.
In fact, each of these closet-sized machines costs upwards of $1
million and can 3D print about 100 objects at a time. Shapeways names
all of them after old women because they require lots of care. The
entire cast of Golden Girls is represented.
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There's
actually not much to see inside the machines. A small window offers a
peek into the actual printing area, an unassuming expanse of white
powder that lights up every few seconds. Shapeways uses selective laser
sintering (SLS) printers that enable them to print many objects at once
and product higher quality products than some other additive
manufacturing techniques.
That
white powder lingering everywhere is the raw material for a 3D-printed
object. The box lights up because a series of lasers are actually
sintering the plastic in specific spots, as dictated by the design. An
arm then moves over the surface, adding another layer of powder. Over
the course of several hours, the sintered plastic becomes an object
that's supported by the excess powder. The process look almost surgical
if you're not familiar with the specifics of exactly what's going on.
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But,
the printers don't just spit out objects ready to go. The finished
product is actually a large white cube that's carefully moved from the
machine to a nearby cooling rack. After all, it was just blasted with a
bunch of hot lasers. Eventually, it's up to a human to break apart the
cube and find dozens of newly printed objects in the powder. It's almost
like digging for dinosaur bones. As Shapeways' Savannah Peterson
explained to me, "You feel like an archaeologist even if you're just
watching."
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She's
right. After I made my way around the factory floor, which is roughly
half the size of a basketball court, I got a peek at this process. The
guy doing the digging was wearing a protective jump suit and a large
ventilator to keep from inhaling the powder. And despite the fact that
large plastic curtains contained the breakout room, the powder gets everywhere.
Suddenly, the light coating of dust that covers the whole factory made
even more sense. By the end of the tour, I looked like a baker covered
in flour.
That's
about as messy as it gets, though. The rest of the process is
remarkably clean and streamlined, yielding some pretty incredible
objects made not only out of plastic but also vari. The Shapeways website is full of curiosities, from delicate jewelry that can be printed in sterling silver to physical manifestations of internet memes that are printed in color using a special printer that can handle rainbow hues.