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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sun Tzu who wrote (37552)	9/28/2000 5:41:52 PM
From: mitch-c	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 70976

OT - It's already here - or at least it was a completed research project five years ago. It's called Rapid Prototyping. Right now, it uses a wax or paraffin liquid that gets scanned with intersecting lasers. At the intersection, the liquid cures to a solid. So, you can scan repeated X-Y grids while translating along a Z-axis to produce your part. Drain the liquid, remove your part, and bingo - you've got a highly accurate 3-d model with the structural integrity of a candle. It's not to the point that you can directly use the output, but it's neat nontheless. However, such a model can be used to create a mold for mass production. The software that drives this can also create a negative image of your part, saving a step in mold production. One non-industrial application could be instant sculpture; just scan your head in a holo tank, record the data, and "print" a full-size bust. I'd figure that some sort of fixative could make the result as robust as plaster. - Mitch PS - ignore the incidental innuendo in that last paragraph ... <g>