A media and technology company; Vocativ introduces new 3D printing machine that uses a new technique called “Computational Thermoforming”. A group of researchers, ETH Zurich and Disney Research Zurich, developed this 3D printer which you can print high quality details in limitless colors. You can print realistic 3D printed objects by this new tool. The process is quite simple. First, the printer reads a digital 3D model then prints the model’s color on a flat plastic sheet. Second, the plastic sheet formed into the 3D object by the heat after the computer analyzes the geometric shape from the digital model. That’s it all. The printing time is fast; therefore, you don’t need to wait long time like using an old 3D printer anymore.
In the research paper titled Computational Thermoforming by Disney researchers, the author mentions, “We believe computational thermoforming will have a significant impact in the fabrication community thanks to its low cost, low hardware requirements, high fabrication speed and quality, and that it has the potential to be a valuable tool for industries to quickly experiment with different thermoformed product designs.”
You can check the video of “Computational Thermoforming” from below link that shows the process of the printing with the new 3D printer technology. It’s cool, isn’t it?
“New Disney Technology Takes 3D-Printing Up A Notch” by Vocativ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bevAWCUDJpY
Source:
(PDF) Computational Thermoforming by Christian Schluller, Daniele Panozzo, Anselm Grundhofer, Henning Zimmer, Evgeni Sorkine, Olga Sorkine-Hornung, ETH Zurich, and Disney Research
http://igl.ethz.ch/projects/thermoforming/computational-thermoforming-2016.pdf
