Remote missing? Print a new one....

[allenb1963]

It seems that in the future that the printer will have more to do than print out reports, spreadsheets or nude pictures of whats-her-name....you know, that sexy gal who plays tennis and has a virus named after her.

The idea of printing a light bulb may seem bizarre, but US engineers are now developing an ink-jet printing technology to do just that. The research at the University of California in Berkeley will allow fully assembled electric and electronic gadgets to be printed in one go

Yep, if they manage to get the above technology to a state where it is cost-effective to have one at home, I'll never have to go to "WallyWorld" to pick up lightbulds or universal remote controls again. Now we all know that while it will probably never become a home device, the ability to "print" electronic devices actually COULD revolutionize the manufacturing industry in certain segments. However, I can't help but wonder how many assembly line workers this new tech might displace....could be bad news for a bunch of third world nations.

Original story appears
here.

[tampabay420]

That's way cool... I can't wait until the day i can print out a computer from my computer :-)

Here is a link to a 3D printer that exists now, i think the tech is kinda old, but still neat: http://www.cadinfo.net/editorial/z402.htm
The company is offering free samples: http://www.zcorp.com/zoupon/cadinfo.shtml

How Stereolithography works: http://www.bergen.org/Present/Techno...rrent/SLA.html

[qwerty_smith]

that is absolutely in-freakin-credible.
afterwards, we have to begin development on the edible drinkable printout.
can you print with gin? will i be able to print a glass full of it?
this could turn into the star trek whachamacallit machine.

the machine itself would have to be astronomical, or soon we will have object piracy.
GE suing for sharing pirated lightbulb designs. intel for recreating a processor... this could be very interesting.

[the_JinX]

Kewl find Tampabay..

Now where the hell can I download a cool STL file...