The first metal 3D printer, a cheap thing that can work with steel, came out pretty recently, but there are already plans for commercializing another, one whose potential for change is likened to that of Isaac Newton.
That's a pretty tall order, but it's what Esteban Schunemann, PhD student at Brunel University in London, said.
When he revealed the Newton 3D Home Metal Printer, he said that “Just like Isaac Newton whose scientific discoveries lead to the industrial revolution, Newton 3D innovates in bringing metal 3D printing to the desktop environment.” That's actually the publicity tag.
Esteban is working on a project titled “3D Deposition of Silicone and Metals: An Exploration into Real World Applications.”
The project studies 3D printing techniques and found that it ultimately falls to the process to determine what can or cannot be manufactured based on their limitations.
The 3D printer he invented overcomes many of the caveats of others released so far, allowing for creation of jewelry and mechanical objects from various metals.
Rigid polymers, elastic polymers, and ceramics can also be used instead metals (or, rather, the metal clays).
For those who want the technical details, the Newton 3D Printer holds the metal in the form of clay and has a build volume of 5 x 5 x 2 inches / 127 x 127 x 50 mm.
This build volume is still more than enough for the jewelry and small contraptions we mentioned though. Also, the standard resolution is of up to 400 microns.
iMakr.vc, the UK’s current largest independent 3D printing specialist venture capital course, is backing the Newton, no doubt because it's likely to become a large source of money in the future, even though it's an open source invention. Or maybe because of that, since the approach is bound to draw designers like moths to a flame.