3D printing of the 2012 Olympic Stadium.

Designed on a compact island site, with seating for 80,000 and the flexibility to transform into a 25,000 seated arena post the 2012 games, the 2012 Olympic stadium pays homage to the quality of engineering and architectural ability within the UK. Forming part of East London’s regeneration programme the Olympic stadium has taken just over three years to complete.

Demonstrating the speed and accuracy of Rapid Prototyping technology, a lecturer at Ravensbourne college London, has created a scale model of the Stadium in just 6 hours.

Using satellite imagery and 3d modelling software Jon Fidler created detailed 3D CAD data of the 2012 Olympic Stadium. Once completed this 3D CAD file was then sent to an FDM printer allowing a physical model of the stadium to be printed within hours. In addition to developing the model in just 6 hours Fidler created a time-lapse video showing the various stages involved including design and build.

This cool 3D printing video can be seen below.

“Print” your own pet!

A small Californian company, the Gene Duplication Corporation, is set to push additive manufacturing technology to its limits with the company announcing plans to use 3D printing for the creation of bespoke pets.

3D printing of organs is not a new concept with several years research into the printing of organs such as kidneys for transplant. Organs such as kidneys consist of eight cell types,  cultures of each individual cell type are grown separately and then sprayed out layer by layer with a binding agent to build up the correct shape. The difficulty in directly translating this technology to the printing of household animals lies in the complex nature of correctly laying down the 220 cell types required to produce a living creature.

To overcome this challenge the team at Gene Duplication Corporation rely on a precise form of CT scanning known as nontomography, which records to a resolution of 500 nanometres. This scanning technique analyses the position and nature of each cell and used across a wide variety of animals and breeds allows existing breeds to be re-created. New combinations of form, colour and behaviour can also be created to create custom made pets for customers.

The adjustment of colour and temperament requires laying down the correct layer and mixture of melanocyte cells and nerve cells respectively. According to Dr. Fril, Manager at Gene Duplication Corporation the leading challenge has been the creation of nerve cells  which may stretch from the animals spinal cord to the tops of its toes. To over come this the printer “PrintaPet” leaves a hole in each layer of cells at the exact point through which a nerve cell is supposed to pass. A nerve-growth factor is then added before the next layer is printed allowing the nerve cell to to the correct destinations once the main body of the nerve cell is printed.

Once final technical difficulties are overcome you will be able to order a customised pet, with behaviour characteristics colour and form fined tuned to meet your specification. With marking behaviour modified your pet can even be supplied pre-wired to use the company’s proprietary “DoggieLoos”