3D printing and Lego bricks

[mobi]

Within next few years, 3D printing will become a mainstream technology.

Does it mean we shall be able to just print missing bricks?

Joking aside, 3D printing will revolutionize small scale manufacturing.

[KEvron]

no doubt, that technoliogy will soon be quite commonplace. not just within industrial manufacturing, but with hobbyists, as well. i've got a couple of custom elements in mind which 3D printing could accomodate, if i could just get beyond my purist streak....

KEvron

[Jan]

I guess this has been discussed a few times before here on the forum, but I doubt what you state:

- you need knowledge of cad-cam software to let these printers operate (it's not exactly a digital camera or a color printer like device)

- you need knowledge of the material you work with

- you need to be creative

- you have to spend a lot of time preparing / tweaking the design

- Lego pieces need a lot of precision, to have proper clutch and such. Nowadays "cheap" 3D printers often lack that kind of precision needed.

- you need to have the printer, or at remote but then the tweaking takes a lot of time.

So I think you are right when you say you would be able to print your missing bricks at proper quality, but I guess wrong when you say it will be mainstream very soon (like digital camera / color printer). My guess is that it will become cheaper and more widely available as online service, just as digital printing is now, but still only used by a certain group of people. (prototype design, predesigned personalised objects, ...).

Just my idea.

[Sam42]

Having done a bit of 3d printing rapid prototyping as part of my degree work I'd have to say there are systems that can handle the definition needed for Lego, they would however be out of reach price wise atm, in the future though who knows! The cad skills required aren't that demanding, though it depends what you want to make!.. you could probably port over files from one of the Lego cad solutions....

While we're at it Lego themselves rapid proto parts before production, I think I saw some photos of 8110 with rapid prototyped parts.

[KEvron]

The cad skills required aren't that demanding

imagine the market that will grow for 3rd-party apps.

I think I saw some photos of 8110 with rapid prototyped parts.

i'll do you one better!

KEvron

Edited March 8, 2012 by KEvron

[dhc6twinotter]

RepRap is an interesting product that allows for fairly cheap 3D printing.

http://reprap.org/wiki/RepRap

A friend of mine built one, and he has made some pretty nifty gadgets. The precision isn't as great as a high-dollar machine, but it's fun to watch. I doubt it would be precise enough for LEGO parts though, but I think it does show that economical, high precision 3D printers aren't too far off in our future.

[roamingstop]

A month back I had posted this thread about something very similar which is being made commercially.

[Steamrunner]

I guess this has been discussed a few times before here on the forum, but I doubt what you state:

- you need knowledge of cad-cam software to let these printers operate (it's not exactly a digital camera or a color printer like device)

- you need knowledge of the material you work with

- you need to be creative

- you have to spend a lot of time preparing / tweaking the design

- Lego pieces need a lot of precision, to have proper clutch and such. Nowadays "cheap" 3D printers often lack that kind of precision needed.

- you need to have the printer, or at remote but then the tweaking takes a lot of time.

So I think you are right when you say you would be able to print your missing bricks at proper quality, but I guess wrong when you say it will be mainstream very soon (like digital camera / color printer). My guess is that it will become cheaper and more widely available as online service, just as digital printing is now, but still only used by a certain group of people. (prototype design, predesigned personalised objects, ...).

Just my idea.

Actually, all but your last two points aren't entirely accurate. You do need a 3D printer, and the current resolution of home 3D printers is around .125mm - .3mm, which may not be accurate enough for bricks to clutch properly. But otherwise, it should be pretty easy to start printing your own bricks. You don't really need to know CAD/CAM - a simple 3D app like Google Sketchup can be used, or you can download other people's designs. 3D printers use ABS so there's not much to know - you're not going to be milling or melting it yourself. As for being creative or tweaking designs - well, one could argue that if you're into Lego you've got that sorted - this is also not required; there's already a thriving community of people out there sharing 3D models. I fully expect there to be a "black market" of 3D models in much the same way that movies and music are shared now - I'd guess that in a few years, as soon as Lego release a new part, someone will have knocked out a Sketchup model of it later that day. I'm not saying that's a good thing, just being realistic (same goes for anything that is purely plastic).

Home 3D printers are already available, and there's another very user-friendly one due out any time now (Cubify). The main barrier is really going to be cost, for the time being - the printers aren't cheap right now, nor is the plastic (and colours are limited). These costs will fall, though, and I expect 3D printers to cost the same as a decent inkjet/laser in about five years.

[mobi]

This new technology might even be a death knell for Lego unless they can bring out something which can't be copied. Don't forget what happened to Kodak.

You are correct when you mentioned there will be obviously pirated market for blueprints.

But it all depends how reliable and mainstream 3D printing becomes in next few years.

With affordable and quality printers, people will be manufacturing sets at home.

[Steamrunner]

This new technology might even be a death knell for Lego unless they can bring out something which can't be copied. Don't forget what happened to Kodak.

You are correct when you mentioned there will be obviously pirated market for blueprints.

But it all depends how reliable and mainstream 3D printing becomes in next few years.

With affordable and quality printers, people will be manufacturing sets at home.

Well, it might not be so much about stuff which can't be copied, as stuff which can - perhaps the future lies in selling patterns so you can print your own sets? I suspect there'll be the same reluctance from manufacturers as record labels had when digital music came along, and publishers did/do to ebooks, but this is the 21st century... Yeah, I could download dodgyd000d1987's sketchup file of the latest Technic set, but I'd rather buy the official pattern from Lego, safe in the knowledge that it's checked and I can contact them if I have issues. Don't forget, there are already copies of the Lego technique (Hasbro being the latest) so it's not about that.

Kodak rested on their laurels and thought digital photography would never take off; they still own the key patents for digital sensors and so on, but they didn't bother to capitalise on what they'd invented. To be fair, who would have expected that Canon (previously known for their printing equipment) would have become a leader in the digital photography marketplace? But they did, and Kodak missed out by not moving with the times. They tried to get in by slapping their name on overpriced memory cards and mediocre cameras, but by then any brand loyalty they could have relied on had been nicked by Canon, Nikon, Samsung, Sony and so on - better equipment at cheaper prices.

This sin't goign to be a purely Lego problem, either - any manufacturer of toys, homewares, stationary etc is going to find that a growing number of people would rather print stuff at home than wait for a delivery... And once you can print with a wider range of material, the sky will be the limit. I suspect that before I die I may even have the chance to say "Tea, English Breakfast, hot"!

[Lipko]

I wouldn't be surprised at all, if 3D printed Lego pieces would be much more expensive than buying those pieces (even without the shipping prize).

Lego pieces are produced in high precision, I don't know when 3D printing will get to that point. If so, it would maybe take a day to produce a Lego piece... I don't know if it's at all possible to 3D print smooth surfaces without additional manufacturing procedures (arbitrary angled and curved surfaces). I'm not sure about the strength and other physical properties of the pieces either (I guess 3D printing produces anisotropic pieces). Die-casting is too different from 3D printing technologies.

I think (based only on assumptions and some old and incomplete knowledge I had of the matter in the university) that 3D printing is only really usable (and will be for long) for rapid prototyping and some hobby applications (modelling)

As for printing anything: well, not for some centuries. And even if we will have the technology to print anything, it will be waaaaay too expensive and time-consuming than waiting for any ships coming from anywhere.

Materials have very specific any very important micro-structures. The same pieces with the same chemical properties can be totally different. There is a whole field of science only for heat treating steel to produce the desired properties. So no, "bzzzz bzzzzz, Enjoy your donut!" isn't going to happen for a very long time EDIT: and even then, it won't worth it for sure.

Edited March 9, 2012 by Lipko

[bb15080]

I wouldn't be surprised at all, if 3D printed Lego pieces would be much more expensive than buying those pieces (even without the shipping prize).

Lego pieces are produced in high precision, I don't know when 3D printing will get to that point. If so, it would maybe take a day to produce a Lego piece... I don't know if it's at all possible to 3D print smooth surfaces without additional manufacturing procedures (arbitrary angled and curved surfaces). I'm not sure about the strength and other physical properties of the pieces either (I guess 3D printing produces anisotropic pieces). Die-casting is too different from 3D printing technologies.

I think (based only on assumptions and some old and incomplete knowledge I had of the matter in the university) that 3D printing is only really usable (and will be for long) for rapid prototyping and some hobby applications (modelling)

I have exactly the same thought

[mobi]

here are already copies of the Lego technique (Hasbro being the latest)[/Quote]

I never knew about it - but you learn something every day

I looked Hasbro Transformer on Google and it seems very well compatible with Lego bricks. How did they perform in real life?

Edited March 9, 2012 by mobi

[dr_spock]

3D printing will be good for making your own customized parts. I think it will be cheaper and quicker to run out and buy a Lego set than to print your own for the next while.