Pt2: 3-D Printing: Printing the Future, Olaf Diegel

Olaf Diegel discusses 3-D printing at Café Scientifique,hosted by the Auckland Museum Institute, Friends of the Auckland Museum on Wednesday, September 29th, 2010.

See Part 1 here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf9gHzoKV20

3D printing is coming of age. It is now at the cusp of becoming a rapid manufacturing technology that will have a great deal of influence on how we live in the future.

In the not too distant future we will, for example, be able to select a product from an online catalogue and, after customizing it to our preferences, our home 3D printer will manufacture it for us on the spot. Your mechanic needing to carry spare parts (or needing 6 weeks to order them) will be a thing of the past, as he will simply print out new parts as he needs them. Tired of waiting six months for your house to be built? Why not print one out in 6 days? Need a new bladder or hip joint? It's now possible to print you out a replacement that is completely compatible with your body.

In this talk, we review the state of the art of 3D printing technologies and examine some of their current and future applications in the fields of art, engineering and health. We also discuss some of the implications these technologies will have on design and on how we live.

Professor Olaf Diegel was born in Dunedin, New Zealand, but has spent much of his life in countries such as the USA, Canada, South Africa, and Japan. Professor Olaf Diegel is both an educator and a practitioner of engineering product development with an excellent track record of developing innovative solutions to engineering problems.
In his role at AUT, he is Associate Dean, Strategic Development, Faculty of Design & Creative Technologies, Auckland University of Technology where he is director of the Creative Industries Research Institute, an interdisciplinary institute that crosses over between Engineering, Art & Design, Computers and Communications. He is widely published in the areas of product development, project management, 3D printing, smart house technologies, mechatronics and predictive health systems.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• 3d
• 3-d
• printing
• materials
• processes
• CAD
• autodesk
• mechanical
• model
• modelling
• rapid
• prototype
• polymer
• manufacture
• manufacturing
• maker
• diy
• educational

[goreadore]

Great insight into 3D printing, thanks Olaf! I plan to buy a printer in the near future.

[murrchops]

everyone will print handguns and bongs obviously.