Fascinating! At the same time I'm thinking... no bloody knuckles or burn marks when you slip with the soldering iron on rare occasions? The technology is wonderful and sad all at the same time. Print the idea and see if it works but, like me, never fully understand it or smile big when you do something silly and simple (with a bloody knuckle or two) after turning an altoid mint can into a mere flashlight and be able to sit back with your 'war wounds' with satisfaction and say, "I managed to do that with stuff that was lying around that most people throw away!". So mixed feelings from me in the midst of my limited knowledge. Reminds me of something Sting (the liberal that he is) sang once which I totally agree with:

"I never saw no miracle of science that didn't go from a blessing to a curse."

Edit by moderator: removed political comment

 

Fascinating! At the same time I'm thinking...

...what will the cost of such a device be?

 

...what will the cost of such a device be?

Pertinent question... apart from monetary shelf price.

 

$8999

 

$8999

Quite expensive but considering what it does I imagine that it is a bargain. Remember when a mere calculator cost over 100 dollars? Back then I used pencil and paper or my tiny abacus!

 

Autodesk is really doing some interesting stuff. They bought instructables and have really increased the quality. They have built the ultimate "maker" shop on a pier in San Francisco with everything you could ever want in tools and parts. Look it up, seems like a dream place to play.

 

$8999 is far..FAR to expensive for that product IMO..
That doomed it to fail IMO.. Nothing like pricing yourself right out.. Sure they might be the first to market but all others that follow behind will do it at half the price or less and shove voxel out into the cold..
You could EASILY convert a sub $3000 3d printer with dual heads to do that..

I think this is product is better suited for the market.. I like how it can lay down "non-conductive" bridging material to have traces go over each other..
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/voltera/voltera-your-circuit-board-prototyping-machine

 

That silver ink has been out for a few years (JACS 2012, 134(3), 1419-1421). It is a clever modification of the very old Tollens reagent that can be used for silvering all sorts of things, including telescope mirrors. The key change is the use of ammonium formate(NH4CO2) and an acetate salt so all of the non-silver products of the reaction are volatile. I believe it can be soldered. Its electrical conductivity is close to that of silver.

Right now, I think Professor Lewis is looking for ways to use it other than for repairs, silvering heat sensitive things, and as a novelty. While it is neat that you can build an electronic circuit inside an object with 3D printing, the commercial value of that compared to competitive methods may be hard to demonstrate, at least for the example shown, and particularly for high-volume production and very fine traces

John