So a bunch of scientists from a company called Carbon 3d just introduced a totally new kind
of 3d printing.
They were actually inspired to make it from the movie Terminator 2.
Conventional 3d printing involves a printing head that passes over and over across a platform,
depositing a thin layer of material each time.
And this 3d printing, forms an object continuously out of a liquid resin.
So what's happening here is you have a bath of liquid resin that solidifies when light
hits it.
The platform dips into this resin, and as it rises up, you have a projector underneath
the resin pool that's projecting a series of cross sectional images that are in the
exact shape of the object you want to make.
So as the platform slowly moves upwards, the projector moves through the different images,
the different cross-sections, and that causes the object to form in the shape you want.
Wherever there's ultra-violet light hitting it, that's where the plastic solidifies.
So this could be a big deal because it's a lot faster than conventional 3d printers.
It works in minutes instead of hours.
Right now 3d printing is still kind of a niche industry.
People use it to make models or prototypes, but if this new 3d printer can be perfected,
it could be possible for it to be used to make mass produced goods.