3D Printing Opportunities In Toy Design

A new development in loudspeaker design raises a number of possible 3D Printing Opportunities in the design of toys. We're all familiar with toys that talk or make other sounds. We also know that there is a speaker embedded inside that produces the sound. Because the speaker is inside the toy, the sound produced is muffled.

Disney Research has found a way to make the entire toy itself a loudspeaker through the use of 3D printing. They can also make selected parts of the toy the speaker such as its mouth. This makes the toy sound as if it is talking at you. With a large toy, different parts of it can be independent speakers.

The qualitative sound difference between Disney's design and the conventional embedded speaker is very striking. The fact that this new type of speaker can assume any shape, introduces a number of interesting possibilities in the design of toys.

There are many interesting studies to be made about how the shape of a speaker affects the qualities of its sound. While a cone shape produces directional sound and a sphere produces Omani directional sound, what about the infinity of possible shapes between the two? How does one exploit this new technology in the design of phones and musical instruments?

The principle behind the speaker is through electrostatics. There is an electrode inside the toy that doesn't vibrate and the vibrating speaker part that is the outside (or a part of the outside) surface of the toy. The electrode and the vibrating surface are separated by a small gap. A voltage signal applied to the electrode causes the outside speaker surface to vibrate which produces sound. This is distinctly different from ordinary loudspeakers that use electromagnets. The use of electrostatics in speaker design was first explored in the 1930s.

The toy and the vibrating part of it are 3D printed. A nickel-based paint is then sprayed onto the surfaces that will produce the sound. Currently, there is some sub assembly required but they are working on a design that will enable the 3D printing of the entire toy in one go.

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3D Printing Opportunities In Archaeology

Archaeology

3D printing opportunities are opening up in the field of archaeology. When the public thinks about archaeologists, images of people brushing dust from old artifacts and bones come to mind. In addition to the brush, they will now have to add 3D scanners and printers to the picture.

It turns out that the combined technologies of 3D scanning and 3D printing are the perfect tools for the analysis of artifacts and remains. They are proving useful in the restoration of ancient artifacts as well. Artifacts are also being reproduced via 3D printing for the purposes of study, education, and the benefit of the pubic.

One of the more intriguing uses of the technology, is the printing of the skull of a 2,700 year old Egyptian mummy. The mummy is an exhibit at the Ohio Historical Society. A CT scan made by the Wexner Medical Center of Ohio State University, was used to print the skull. The skull replica will be used for teaching purposes and there are plans for using it to reconstruct the mummy's face, which is that of a woman.
A 3D printed replica of Tutankhamun’s tomb is now on display in Egypt. Tutankhamun’s tomb is the most well known of Egyptian burial sites. Every aspect of the tomb was reproduced including the wall murals. The reproduction was so perfect that several of the experts attending the unveiling broke into tears. The reason for making the reproduction is to protect the original tomb site from further wear and tear from the 1000 tourists who visit it every day.

3,000 Years ago, marauding Assyrians smashed a ceramic lion in a temple located in the city of Nuzi. Now a virtual restoration of the smashed up piece has been made by archaeologists at Harvard's Semitic Museum. The parts were virtually fitted together using 3D CAD software.

A physical restoration was then made using the original parts. 3D printed parts were used as substitutes for any missing pieces. This process of restoration is significant because most archaeological articles are nothing more than pieces of broken objects. There are literally thousands of other smashed and broken items in museums around the world that can be restored using this technique.

Although 3D printing has made possible a number of impressive breakthroughs in archaeology, its usefulness is far from tapped out. Further opportunities for advancing archaeology remain for those using 3d printing technology.

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3D Printing Opportunities in retail

According to a recent article in Forbes, there are tremendous 3D printing opportunities in retail. Just as the technology promises to revolutionize how products are manufactured, it will also change the way that they are sold.

Imagine that a store, instead of having a warehouse filled with inventory, has a number of 3D printers capable of creating a number of products on the spot. These products could be from designs that exist in the “cloud” that can be created when a customer orders them or they can be made to order according to a customer’s specification.

This arrangement has two major advantages.

First, it reduces supply chain and inventory costs. Products sold in a retail store would not exist in a centralized warehouse, to be shipped to stores as needed. Instead they would exist as computer stored designs, to be created as needed at the point of sale.

Second, it expands the number and types of products that can be sold. Mass produced products tend to need a large customer base in order to be profitable. But with 3D printers, smaller customer bases can be serviced with on demand manufacturing.

3D printing technology will not likely entirely replace more conventional manufacturing techniques. The two technologies will likely coexist and even support one another. 3D printing can be used to “prototype” new products at low cost to ascertain what their market appeal is. Customer feedback can be used to refine and improve products on the spot. If there is enough demand for a new product, they can be mass produced and then distributed and sold. Thus both manufacturers and retail stores will save millions in product research.

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3D Printing Opportunities using epoxy resins

One of the fascinating aspects of the emerging technology of 3D printing is how researchers are experimenting with different materials. Thermoplastics and powdered metal are already standard materials for the additive manufacturing process. Gizmag reports that researchers at Harvard are delving into the 3D printing opportunities inherent in using an epoxy resin.

It is a truism in materials science that he stronger a material is, the denser and therefore heavier it tends to be. Conversely lighter materials tend to be weaker. The idea is to find or create materials that are at once strong and lightweight.

Balsa wood is one such material. It tends to be light and, because of a unique cellular structure, strong. It is used for such things as the blades of wind turbines as well as model cars and planes. The problem is that most balsa wood comes from Ecuador.

The Harvard researchers have found a way to create an epoxy resin material that can be used in a 3D printer that has a cellular structure that makes it better than balsa wood. They built the new composite using an epoxy-based resin containing nanoclay platelets to increase viscosity, as well as two types of fillers-- silicon carbide "whiskers" and discrete carbon fibers. What's more, the researchers can play with the density of the material, controlling it as it gets spun out of the 3D printer.

The resulting structures are much stiffer and stronger than the standard thermoplastics currently used in 3D printing. This opens the way to building lightweight but stronger products from the wind turbine blades to lighter but safer cars that increase gas mileage.

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