The 3D Printing Revolution Continues...

Every now and again, we at Cartridge World like to take a step back from the world of inkjet and laser printers and look to the future; specifically, the future of 3D printing.

We’ve covered 3D printing before on the Cartridge World blog but for those of you who aren’t aware of what it is, here’s a quick breakdown. 3D printing allows you to print out 3D models of just about anything you can imagine. Cars? Check. Dental implants? Check. Food? Check!

Although 3D printing technology for a while, the past few years have seen an explosion in the number of applications 3D printers can be used for. The pace at which weird, wonderful and occasionally worrying new uses for 3D printers are unveiled is incredible and keeping up can be difficult.

Never fear, however, because we at Cartridge World have compiled five of the latest mind-blowing developments in 3D printing. We’re not just good for office supplies, see?

Moon Bases

It’s amazing to think that the human race hasn’t been to the Moon since 1972, when Eugene Cernan became ‘the last man to walk on the moon’. It’s a title he may soon lose, however, thanks to 3D printing.

Fosters and Partners, which may just be the coolest architectural practice ever, have been hard at work designing moon buildings. The buildings will be built by transporting a large inflatable dome to the moon before robots 3D print the outer shell using soil from the Moon, also called Regolith. The robots will be equipped with the very cool sounding MicroGravity Foundry 3D printer, which is being designed specifically for moon construction!

Buildings Based off The Earth’s Landscape

Back down to Earth now where architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars is planning to bypass old time-consuming construction methods and instead 3D print entire buildings. The buildings Janjaap plans to print are based off the Earth’s landscape, as well as the endless Mobius loop,and look, we think, pretty cool! Janjaap wants to print one of the buildings in every single country.

The process of printing the building will involve using an industrial 3D printer built by Enrico Dini. Rather than ink or toner cartridges, the printer uses a mixture of sand and a binding agent to create a material stronger than cement. The building is then printed and constructed with the aid of concrete reinforcements.

Your Face

The uses for 3D printing usually fall into one of three categories; world-changing, awesome or downright worrying. This particular innovation probably falls in the latter category.

You see, artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg has found a way of printing approximate replicas of people’s faces using their DNA. Using cigarette butts, hair or even saliva, Hagborg’s 3D printing software is capable of generating and printing hypothetical faces based off the characteristics of the DNA. While it’s very unlikely that these faces are an exact replica of the face of the person to whom the DNA belongs, the pace at which 3D printing evolves probably means we aren’t far off.

Imagine meeting someone wearing an exact replica of your face after you spat some chewing gum out on the street last week - creepy thought, isn’t it?!

Print Your Own Mobile Phone Case...With Nokia’s Blessing

In comparison to moon bases, entire buildings and human faces, the prospect of printing a simple mobile phone case probably doesn’t seem that exciting. However, the prospect of being provided with all the files you need to print your own case by your phone’s manufacturer? That’s cool.

And it’s exactly what Nokia are planning to do for it’s Lumia phones. Nokia are one of the first major corporations to get on board with 3D printing and it’s leading to some seriously exciting developments, including the prospect of printing your own bespoke phone based off a Nokia template.

A Cheap Way To 3D Print

It had to happen soon, didn’t it? Much like printer ink, the materials required to print 3D models are incredibly expensive, making 3D printing a luxury most people can’t afford.

That could all be about to change with the 3D printing equivalent of refillable ink cartridges, the Filabot. The Filabot is kind of like a plastic recycling plant on your desk; you feed old plastic into the machine and it returns filaments ready to be used for printing. Cost-effective AND environmentally friendly? Filabot is a technology after our own heart...

Of course, it might still be awhile before we actually get to print our own lunar space stations so you might need to hang on to your trusty old inkjet for a while yet. As ever, you can visit your local Cartridge World for cheap refills or shop online for our range of compatible cartridges!