For your car

*The semi-cheap home fab is a perennial rumor in consumer tech, but you never know; this one could be real. Hewlett Packard doesn’t kid around all that much about their printers.

Http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/01/hp-3d-printers/

“Printers equipped for 3-D are poised to go mainstream, now that Hewlett-Packard plans to start selling them. The company’s inkjet and laser printers are staples in offices and homes.

“The devices, which can crank out three-dimensional plastic models through a process similar to printing text on sheets of paper, have until recently been available only to high-end industrial designers. HP’s devices will be targeted at a broader market of mechanical-design professionals, and will probably cost less than $15,000.

“This is the boldest step we have seen so far in 3-D printing,” says Scott Summit, chief technology officer for Bespoke Innovations, a company that creates 3-D artifacts for medical use. “A lot of people want to do 3-D printing but it is a mysterious world. With HP embracing it, it is likely to demystify the idea to many consumers.”

HP’s printers will be manufactured by Stratasys, a company that specializes in 3-D printers.

The printers have long been used by designers and architects in computer aided design (CAD) to create prototypes before finalizing on the design for large-scale production. But these printers cost many thousands of dollars and have been popular with only a select group of specialists.

Over the last three years, hobbyists have found a way to make inexpensive 3-D printers, bringing the technology to do-it-yourselfers. The Makerbot, a 3-D printer that started shipping last April, costs $750 for a basic kit that includes, among other things, three NEMA 17 motors to drive the machine; nuts, bolts, bearings, belts and pulleys to assemble it; an electronics motherboard; and a pinch-wheel extruder to shape objects. A premium version of the Makerbot printer costs $950.

Read more...