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3D printing is slow….?

Well, experience shows that it can be a bit of a wait if you are printing anything sizeable however there is nothing to prevent what gets printed from going somewhat faster; for example this week the team currently building the latest rocket powered 1000mph land speed record attempting vehicle, named ‘Bloodhound’, have announced that the steering wheel prototype has been prototyped to perfection using 3D printers and will, eventually be made from titanium powder in the same way.

If that’s not fast enough for you NASA have commissioned a 3D printer for deployment on the ISS, hopefully delivery being made on the next cargo mission later this year, for installation within the space station’s Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG). Its first job will be to print some test parts and tools that will subsequently be sent back to Earth for analysis and to ensure final qualification of the process in its intended environment. If this final testing proves successful a permanent 3D printer will be installed in-situ aboard the space station.

Meanwhile back at Paralogic H-Headquarters-Q we have been running some comparison tests of our own on the CUBEX Trio and Makerbot Mini, to see how they handle a range of educational models being evaluated for use in schools as part of our 3D Printing Teacher Packs. Not quite rocket science but we did print a rocketship and some glow in the dark stars!