Rewind: 15 mind-blowing machines from 2015

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… that are NOT your typical 3D printer.

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Although 3D printers have received most of the buzz in recent months, these next-gen machines are doing much more than just spitting out ABS and PLA objects. In fact, you can expect to find one of the following 15 gadgets on your workbench, desktop, kitchen counter or inside your man cave in the not too distant future.

Glowforge

A big hit at this year’s World Maker Faire, the Glowforge is a revolutionary 3D laser printer that uses subtractive technology rather than additive methods. With one press of a button, the device cuts and engraves a variety of materials — including wood, fabric, leather, paper, cardboard, food and acrylic — instead of constructing items layer by layer. During its crowdfunding campaign, the team impressively garnered a record-setting $27M in 30 days.

X-Carve

With X-Carve, Inventables offers several new elements to the 3D carving kit concept which they’ve been associated with over the past few years. This customizable piece of equipment is ideal for the workshop, and can create precision parts from plastic, wood and metal. It comes in two sizes, 500mm and 1000mm rails, which provide a 12″ x 12″ and a 31″ x 31″ work area, respectively.

Prometheus

Zippy Robotics’ Prometheus is a milling machine that rapidly produces prototype PCBs from your desk in minutes, so you no longer have to wait weeks for a delivery truck. It works by carving through the copper layer of a standard copper-clad board (FR-4 or FR-1), as well as drilling holes and routing the shape of the board itself if it needs to fit a specific enclosure. Prometheus boasts an extremely low runout error that cuts traces down to .007 inches in diameter, meaning you can design with pretty much any surface mount component.

Voltera V-One

Born out of their own frustrations with traditional fabrication processes, Voltera has come up with a unique way to reduce development time from months to days. Winner of both TechCrunch’s Hardware Battlefield and the 2015 James Dyson Award, the V-One can print out circuit boards, dispense solder paste and reflow.

Voxel8

Voxel8, in partnership with Autodesk, introduced the world’s first 3D printer for electronics ranging from fully-functional drones to hearing aids. Designers and engineers will now be able to actualize three-dimensional parts with embedded circuitry for the first time.

The PancakeBot

A perfect example of an idea that has gone from the ‘MakerSpace to MarketPlace,’ the PanakeBot is exactly what it sounds like: an automated appliance that can whip up pancakes in virtually any shape you can imagine.

G3DP

A team of MIT researchers has opened up a new frontier in 3D printing: the ability to build optically transparent glass objects. The G3DP consists of two heated chambers. The upper chamber is a crucible kiln that operates at a temperature of around 1900°F, and funnels the molten material through an alumina-zircon-silica nozzle, while the bottom chamber works to anneal the structures.

BoXZY

There are 3D printers. There are engravers. There are CNC mills. However, BoXZY is different — it’s all three. Hoping to usher in a new age of ‘modular manufacturing,’ this triple-threat mini FabLab empowers Makers to alternate between the tools with quick-change heads. Oh, and did we mention that Justin and Joel Johnson raised more than $1.1M on Kickstarter?

Pico

Instead of having to run out to your local package store or brewery, Pico allows you to craft fresh, personalized beer right from home. One notable feature of the coffeemaker-sized appliance is its new PicoPak system, which includes conveniently pre-packaged ingredient combinations.

FarmBot

A finalist in this year’s Hackaday Prize, FarmBot is an open source CNC farming machine capable of weeding, seeding, feeding and watering crops. What’s more, its web-based application lets growers graphically design their farm or garden to meet desired specifications. This makes the process as simple as playing a game of FarmVille.

Ripple Maker

The Ripple Maker leverages 3D printing and inkjet technologies to adorn the top of your morning latte with complex artwork that could take the form of someone’s name, their face, or even a personalized message to the customer behind you. The unit itself is rather small, measuring just 8.5″ by 10.5″, and connects via Wi-Fi to a library of designs. Users have the option to choose from a menu of themes and text to stamp onto the milky foam canvas with natural coffee extract.

Bistrobot

Bistrobot wants you to bid farewell to long lines and wrong orders, and say hello to an automated assembly line that can make peanut butter sandwiches on white bread with your choice of honey, blackberry jam, sweet chili, chocolate sauce and Nutella.

Electroloom

What if you could design ready-to-wear garments straight from your desktop? Thanks to Electroloom, you can. The team’s electrospinning process makes it possible for anyone with a small bit of CAD ability to create seamless fabric items on demand.

Circular Knitic

The artist duo of Varvara Guljajeva and Mar Canet has devised an open source, automated circular knitter dubbed Circular Knitic. In true Maker fashion, the idea was brought to life with 3D printing, laser cutting, MakerBeam and Arduino.

Bartesian

Like a Keurig for cocktails, the Bartesian is a capsule-based gadget that enables anyone to expertly fix their favorite alcoholic beverages in a matter of seconds.

Shapeoko 3

The Shapeoko 3 is an affordable, heavy duty, three-axis CNC machine designed to “do real work, out of real materials.”

Evo-One

Geared towards everyone from the DIY community to the industrial-savvy crowd, Evo-One is a sleek desktop CNC mill that can engrave, carve and cut complex shapes with incredible accuracy.

Voxel8 raises $12M to bring the world’s first electronics 3D printer to market

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Voxel8 enables designers and engineers to create freeform, 3D-printed circuits in place of conventional circuit boards.

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Traditionally, electronic circuit boards are manufactured in standard shapes. However, the team behind Voxel8 has unveiled a new 3D printing platform that brings together functional materials, hardware and software to give designers a once inconceivable way to integrate electronics into their projects.

While previous electronics printing efforts have involved either retrofitting existing machines or spitting out PCBs using inkjet printers, the Massachusetts-based company believes it has developed the world’s first 3D electronics printer. Traditionally speaking, most printers are built around FDM technology, which spits out single-material objects. However, as seen earlier this year at CES, Voxel8 will enable users to blend plastic, conductive ink and other embedded components into the same design. In other words, Makers will be able to create fully-functional electronic circuitry right into their gizmos and gadgets, ranging from quadcopters to phones to thumb drives.

And from the looks of things, it will become a reality sooner than you may think. That’s because the startup has raised $12 million to bring these revolutionary devices to the desks of engineers and designers worldwide. Braemar Energy Ventures and ARCH Venture Partners led the Series A round, joined by Autodesk, through its Spark Investment Fund, and In-Q-Tel

“The Voxel8 3D printing platform is disrupting the traditional design and manufacture of electronic devices,” said Clinton Bybee, co-founder and managing director at ARCH Venture Partners. “Not only does the Voxel8 3D printer enable the design of entirely new devices, it also circumvents the need for traditional tooling, inventory and supply chains.”.

The innovative printer, which was founded by Dr. Jennifer A. Lewis in partnership with Autodesk, boasts interchangeable cartridges that can print out objects in both PLA plastic and conductive silver ink. The team reveals that this ink is five thousand times more conductive than other pastes and filaments currently used in 3D printing, and indeed, carries higher currents capable of supplying power to small electric motors and actuators.

The ink is specifically designed so that it can be deposited by a 250 micron nozzle, dried in just five minutes at room temperature and used to reliably interconnect TQFP integrated circuits. In fact, it will enable users to easily wire together chips and other electronic components within their 3D-printed objects, making way for a degree of creative freedom that is simply not possible through standard manufacturing methods.

Embodying a C-shaped design, Voxel8 offers users optimal transparency into the device as their parts are being constructed. On the hardware side, the platform is driven by a RAMBo 1.3 (ATmega2560/ATmega32U2). Beyond that, it is equipped with a 4.3-inch touchscreen, USB and Wi-Fi connectivity, as well as a highly-repeatable kinematically coupled bed that uses magnets to ensure precision as a Maker manually inserts the components of interest, then continues printing the part right where it left off.

The printer has a layer resolution of 200 microns, and can even create objects up to 4” x 6″ x 4” in size. Through its collaboration with Autodesk, Voxel8 paves the way for entirely new form factors with Project Wire, a Spark-powered tool that helps design 3D printable electronic devices. What’s more, its unique software lets the machine know when it’s time to insert a component and will pause to allow the users to manually do so.

Interested in printing your own novel 3D electronic devices? Voxel8 has already received preorders from R&D departments of several large companies throughout the aerospace, automotive, defense, medical and apparel industries. The first batch of units are expected to begin shipping later this year. In the meantime, head on over to Voxel8’s official page to learn more.

Voxel8 is making 3D-printed electronics a reality

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This 3D printer is blending plastics and electronics in the same printed object.

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Traditionally, electronic circuit boards are manufactured in standard shapes. However, Voxel8 has unveiled a new 3D printing platform that brings together functional materials, hardware and software to give designers a once inconceivable way to integrate electronics into their projects.

While previous electronics printing efforts have involved either retrofitting existing machines or spitting out PCBs using inkjet printers, the Massachusetts-based company believes it has developed the world’s first 3D electronics printer. As seen at CES 2015, the Voxel8 is enabling users to blend plastic, conductive ink and electronic components all into the same object. Makers can now create built-in electronic circuitry right into their DIY designs, ranging from quadcopter drones to phones to USB sticks.

The innovative printer, which was founded by Dr. Jennifer A. Lewis in partnership with Autodesk, boasts interchangeable cartridges that can print out objects in both PLA plastic and conductive silver ink. The team reveals that this ink is five thousand times more conductive than other pastes and filaments currently used in 3D printing, and indeed, carries higher currents capable of supplying power to small electric motors and actuators.

The ink is specifically designed so that it can be deposited by a 250 micron nozzle, dried in just five minutes at room temperature and used to reliably interconnect TQFP integrated circuits. In fact, it will enable users to easily wire together chips and other electronic components within their 3D-printed objects, making way for a degree of design freedom that is simply not possible through standard manufacturing methods.

Embodying a C-shaped design, Voxel8 offers users optimal transparency into the device as their parts are being constructed. On the hardware side, the gadget is driven by a RAMBo 1.3 (ATmega2560/ATmega32U2). In addition, it is equipped with a 4.3-inch touchscreen, USB and Wi-Fi connectivity, as well as a highly-repeatable kinematically coupled bed that uses magnets to ensure precision as a Maker manually inserts the components of interest, then continues printing the part right where it left off.

The printer has a layer resolution of 200 microns, and can even create objects up to 4” x 6″ x 4” in size. Thanks to Autodesk’s Project Wire software, the printing process can also be paused to let users manually insert components that will be embedded in the project.

Since its debut back in January, the company has generated quite a bit of buzz in the news. Most recently, Voxel8 announced that it had closed a strategic investment and technology development agreement with In-Q-Tel (IQT), the investment firm that identifies innovative technology solutions to support the missions of the U.S. CIA.

Interested in printing your own novel 3D electronic devices? The machines are expected to begin shipping late 2015. In the meantime, head on over to Voxel8’s official page to learn more.