A lot of the technical progress within the world of 3D printing sees the know-how being pushed to its max, with super-sized printers churning out everything from houses to boats. One YouTuber has gone in the opposite path, with what appears like an impossibly tiny 3D printer churning out even tinier 3D prints with a surprising level of detail.
We assumed 3D printers couldn’t get a lot smaller than Sean Hodgins’ 3D-printed Christmas ornament, which additionally occurs to double as a fully-functional miniature 3D printer that creates even smaller ornaments. But when there’s a report to be damaged, it’s at all times secure to imagine that there’s one other YouTuber diligently working to interrupt it.
There aren’t too many sensible makes use of for the extremely tiny 3D printer that YouTuber My N Mi has created, however that’s not the purpose: the truth that it even exists at this scale is what’s spectacular. Measuring in at simply 0.67-inches tall, the printer isn’t any taller than a wood matchstick, however is one way or the other nonetheless totally purposeful—though with out all of the bells and whistles you’d discover on even an ordinary dwelling 3D printer.
As a substitute of going the extrusion route, which might require the printer to wrangle significantly extra {hardware} and soften plastic filament (which would most likely be far too thick for this machine to deal with anyway), My N Mi’s machine makes use of the stereolithography method. On this method, a liquid resin is injected right into a small chamber and hardened, layer by layer, by an array of UV LEDs on the backside.
The primary video on this article demonstrates the machine 3D-printing a easy robotic determine, however it’s succesful sufficient to create even smaller objects, together with a model of the Benchy tugboat that’s sufficiently small to take a seat on the top of a matchstick. We are able to’t say we’ve ever had the necessity for a plastic boat sufficiently small to swallow, however these devoted efforts to shrink 3D printing tech hopefully level in the direction of a future the place the know-how is extra reasonably priced and accessible.
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