Hi All,
The state of 3D printing is rapidly changing, seems like every week something new is coming up in mechanics, resolution or material types.
- Plastic to aluminum. Casting from 3D printed plastic parts to aluminum.
http://3dtopo.com/lostPLA/
- Disney has released some information into 3D printed optics.This is pretty amazing, opens the door to optical computers, circuits and specialty lenses.
http://www.3ders.org/articles/20121003-3d-printed-optics-from-disney-research.html
- A new XY platform. This is the easiest X,Y platform I have seen.
http://corexy.com/index.html
It can be scaled to any size. If you need a Z axis just add a up/down moving base or use a spindle to create a 3D lathe.
Now how may it relate to our research? An idea is to place a hall sensor for the head. Then run it over a magnet/caduceus coils recording strength at each location. Once you have all the data points feed it into an open source program like Voreen to get a true mapping of the magnetic field. Something that would be very valuable for research.
http://www.voreen.org/