I see a lot of micro-chip designs that are so cool, but they just exist as a design in some software on our computers. If this printer can allow cheap and sustainable printing of chip designs, then the hardware field could take a very interesting turn!
A mechanism that works at scale X doesn't necessarily work at scale Y.
Different forces and material properties are all at relatively different levels.
The one I know offhand that will mess with stuff is the square-cube law. If you double the linear dimensions of something, it's twice as big, linearly, but 4 times the surface area and 8 times as heavy. The strength of anything that depends on area (like friction) won't scale at the same rate as anything that depends on mass or volume or anything.
Not to mention I'm sure this thing can only print a few different materials. Unless those are also _all_ of the materials it's made out of, it couldn't even make itself.
Calling it a RepRap, with full explanation that that means a printer that can print itself, does make it sound like it could be a goal
But even if you could get a positioning system that small, I'm pretty sure you can't scale resin printing down three orders of magnitude smaller than this printer. Maybe a tiny CNC?
Or more likely they refer to eventually printing the mems devices used in the printer
The history of precision machinery is a steady ladder of using old machines to produce new more accurate components, and then new more accurate machines.
But simply making something smaller is not synonymous with it automatically becoming more accurate or capable of achieving higher resolution. If anything, very high precision machines are typically larger in size than the less accurate ones.
I had no idea this kind of precision was possible with parts that are not particularly advanced. Most of my modeling and 3d printing is entirely AI driven these days. With this stuff, I could make even miniature parts and screws and so on. I’m a late adopter, so I’ll have to wait the 10 years or so before it reaches current Prusa/Bambu performance but it’s exciting nonetheless.
I did not expect this would be achievable to such tight tolerances - this is very impressive. Excited to see a new wave of micro-manufacturing in our future
Very cool, and I understand the off the shelf parts ambition, but what are those usb microscopes used for? These are absolute garbage (but light weight).
The op asked because a usb microscope is basically unsuitable for seeing something this small with much clarity. From other replies it sounds like the purpose is for automated positioning which makes more sense.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50140001
And the channel's preceding few videos covering the development of the prerequisite technologies.
inspired by Jeri Ellsworth, who also documented hers on Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5DCEA197C1C07A2D
Different forces and material properties are all at relatively different levels.
The one I know offhand that will mess with stuff is the square-cube law. If you double the linear dimensions of something, it's twice as big, linearly, but 4 times the surface area and 8 times as heavy. The strength of anything that depends on area (like friction) won't scale at the same rate as anything that depends on mass or volume or anything.
Not to mention I'm sure this thing can only print a few different materials. Unless those are also _all_ of the materials it's made out of, it couldn't even make itself.
But even if you could get a positioning system that small, I'm pretty sure you can't scale resin printing down three orders of magnitude smaller than this printer. Maybe a tiny CNC?
Or more likely they refer to eventually printing the mems devices used in the printer
But simply making something smaller is not synonymous with it automatically becoming more accurate or capable of achieving higher resolution. If anything, very high precision machines are typically larger in size than the less accurate ones.
But you can get etched glass scale encoders that will give you 1um accuracy for basically nothing these days (IE <50 bucks).
You'd still be better off just using cheap linear motors with encoders built into the rail though.
Being able to make structures this small could maybe make DIY inkjet printers viable, if you can simplify them enough?
The most exciting are the applications nobody has thought of yet
To look at the output they recommend a separate regular microscope