3D printing pen lets you draw sculptures in thin air | Hacker News Reader

3D printing pen lets you draw sculptures in thin air

newscientist.com

137 pointsColinWright25 comments

Their video says "patent pending technology". I already emailed the EFF's patentbusters with a link to prior art.

It would be such an awesome thing if they weren't trying to take it away from the rest of the world.

Are you completely against patents, or just against some?

The people who produced this have obviously spent a significant amount of time working out how to make this possible. I haven't seen their patents, but I doubt they're as generic as "A device which extrudes plastic in 3D space". Have you read the patents they've submitted and actually found prior art for the exact aspects of the design they've patented?

Patents are designed for this kind of thing. They allow these guys to sell the results of their work without getting ripped off straight away by someone who spent none of the money doing R&D and so just has to cover their costs.

Clearly this 3D printing pen is innovative, but that does not necessarily imply that it includes patentable inventions. The technology used looks like FDM (fused deposition modeling) 3D printing extended to free hand, without support material.

The key technology here that makes this 3D/air printing possible is the gooey material that the pen releases. If this material has properties that other existing materials do not have, then it may be patentable. Also if the pen releases material in a manner that is new and novel, then it too may be patentable.

I more or less did this 2 weeks ago while testing the extruder for my 3d printer (and I'm no pioneer here). I used Kliment's (parent of thread) software to cause filament to extrude from my 3d printer's nozzle (the hot end) while I tried to write letters to test it was working ok.

Now someone is trying to claim this "new technology" is patentable.

I am a reprap core developer and I've seen this exact thing a number of times. There is documented prior art from 2010. Someone I know has had that device on their desk for the past year. There is no part of it that is innovative. They do not deserve a patent. By applying for a patent, they destroy their credibility in the field. Which is all extremely sad and stupid because it's a cool product and they've thought of very creative stuff to make with it. They are wasting effort and money on patenting this stuff when they could just execute better than everyone else and have the market for what is clearly a fad to themselves. The more money they waste on crap like that, the less likely they are to deliver in time.

On that note, hell yeah I am completely against patents. Patents are the biggest threat to open hardware, and open hardware is my life.

You can always post this as a question to http://patents.stackexchange.com and then add the answers you have collected already as an answer.

I encourage you do so since I do not know a better place to document prior are for patents.

Haha - it's a fast/durable glue gun!*

I love when automated tools go manual. Here's a free-hand laser cutter:

http://inventables.blogspot.com/2012/11/free-hand-laser-cutt...

*As was pointed out!

I was just going to say this was another glue gun. I remember in middle school using glue guns to make shapes and "art" in art class.

"free-hand laser cutter"

That sounded way more dangerous than it actually it. Cool.

Kickstarter page:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1351910088/3doodler-the-...

The spatial integrity of the structure could be enhanced, perhaps, by using a ferromagnetic "ink" inside a structure that moves and varies the strengths of magnets to keep the material at the tip of the pen at its centre.

I never thought I'd say this seriously, but, those magnets, how do they work?

It's trivial to create a "magnetic well" with three to four strong magnets balancing against each other at a fixed point, with gravity holding a ferromagnetic object against it. Altering their directions and strengths would allow that single-point "well" to move just behind the pen. If the hardened material could withstand the force one would be able to prevent the drooping witnessed in the video. I'm not sure how one would maintain multiple wells simultaneously from a single plane. That or move the pen slower. Clearly, magnets win.

Even so, this is an amazing invention.

Great example of being original by taking something existing and changing one aspect of it.

I want to see someone use this to print out a 3d structure in the same way a 3d printer does. Not that it would be efficient or sane, but it would look really cool to see the infill and what not.

Reminds me a bit of working with hot glue guns, only quicker drying. I still remember the first time I got hot glue on my hand while making a project in elementary school.

Wow this is awesome! I've never seen something like this, and it seems to work quite well!

I first thought this was going to be about some type of 3D mouse or kinect thingie, but it's the actual physical real deal! :)

Good! But that's not "3D printing" or even printing at all! ;) Maybe you could have a 3D model and a robot could draw the "sculpture". Anyway, we want MORE !

Reminds me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hDdYClgoV8

Just came to say this. I'm glad that there are some people who know the Chinese sugar art. The video you linked is not very clear. Some suggestions YouTube gives have a better perspective, for example this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQlQQDP6hNY

I'd probably buy one if I could think of a practical application for one.

I'm very impressed by this.

It's very prototype-ish but it looks real good!

This is freakin' awesome!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com