Triton 47

Triton 47 › Making & hardware › The maker turn

A machine to make any gadget?

· 354 words · 2 min read

Index note 3D printer limits; coconut bottle grown vs made

Feeling of having the 3d printer is good, but it can only print limited materials, mostly plastics and polymers ( for those available on consumer level), while our world is surrounded by all kinds of elements, materials, different forms. Having restricted to 3d printer restricts the imagination to modelling and plastics world, which is mostly toys, unsustainable, and is driven mostly by the idea of having something 3d printed. But future requires more, it requires the machine that is capable of complex materials and geometries and complex assembling and making of it, not just in lines or layers, although they seem to do for some objects that exists. For example, a machine that would print an working electronic gadget with battery, electronic circuit, and its working structure, would be to ideate. So the imagination would only not run within the limited realm of this very new concept being getting realized, but vast complex reach which compels the daily experience in the moment in present. For now such 3d print is just assembly lines of factories which make the device, etc. but you get the idea, in a future world. For now my mind feels away from that magical realm of thinking and most things are restricted by what is presently achievable.

Currently, only specialized processes have control over nanoscale level, to be able to engineer only certain material, into certain structures. For future tech to evolve, the control must deepen, and evolve.

Stuff is made with design and materials, assembled. For example, a water bottle. The body and cap made of metal with some plastic parts, but also rubber to seal it tight, and also a strap made of resilient fabric to hold the bottle, and with color and design choices for aesthetics. But bottle can also be grown, for example, on a tree. A shell made out of coconut, and a wooden cork can serve as a nature made bottle, which used cell division and growth to achieve it contrasting to the monomaterial parts used in typical made bottle. So ‘3d printing’ or making is another way to bring such things in existence.

Original: https://triton7777.wordpress.com/2024/12/07/a-machine-to-make-any-gadget/