3D Printer

Science Fiction-style replications, as seen in TV shows like Star Trek 1, might be a step nearer to becoming reality. Digital technology means it's now possible to make 3D objects from downloaded designs.

Our reporter Li Dong has the details.

 These funky 2, scruffy-looking boxes don't look like much - but they could represent the future of manufacturing.

One small American group of inventors has come up with a digital device that will produce rigid 3 objects, layer by layer, with extreme accuracy.

Brooklyn-based company MakerBot's prized invention, the Thing-O-Matic, "prints" objects in 3D. Once you have a design you want to copy, the process is simple, but ingenious, Chief Executive of MakerBot Industries, Bre Pettis explains:

"You put the design on an SD card or hook it up to your computer and then you press go on this interface 4 board and then the material is here. This is ABS the same material Lego is made out of, so it's really strong. It goes down into the machine and gets heated up to 220 degrees Celsius 5. It comes out like super, super fine angel hair spaghetti kind of like a glue gun, and it draws with it. When it's done drawing one layer, it lifts up and draws another layer. And just like that, layer-by-layer, your object begins to emerge until it's all done."

MakerBot creates objects that can measure up to 5 inches in width and diameter, with a hollow or solid interior depending on the design.

Bre Pettis says this high-tech 6 gizmo allows users to print out anything from shower curtain rings or chess pieces or even busts 7 of themselves.

"When people get a MakerBot, it's because they want to make something or they want to be part of the future where instead of buying things, you download them and so they print out a mix of practical objects, like coat hooks to wonderful things that give them satisfaction like puzzles and contraptions, gifts and busts of themselves. So it's a mix of practical and fanciful things."

The designer has taken some of his aspiring 8 inventors and added them to the team. Marty McGuire is one of them. He used his computer skills to design the Thing-i-Verse, a site where users can share and download digital designs for their MakerBot.

"Thing-i-Verse is an online community where people from all over make digital designs for everything from 3D printable objects like bottle openers and my shower curtain rings up there all the way to laser-cut parts like book shelves and laptop stands and even to electronics. As these tools get better and as the community gets better with using them, we're seeing folks take things like, for instance when I uploaded my shower curtain rings within two days someone had taken that design and added spikes 9 to it and said here is a spiky 10 shower curtain ring - it looks really cool. But even beyond that, you know, one of the things that we've seen I think was a model uploaded that was called the 'Gangsta."

Some of the applications are playful, but McGuire says some companies use the technology to create prototypes - even NASA has a MakerBot.

The full potential of MakerBot lies in the future, as increasingly captivated clients devise new and previously 11 unimagined ways to use the device.

Pettis hopes that a new generation will use MakerBots to open their minds to the future.

For CRI, I am Li Dong.