Hello again, here is a selection of what I was looking at this week.

This is currently the largest contained 3D printer available, it works the same as any other printer on a larger scale. Even given it's size it is still only a prototyping machine. The technology still has many limitations that preclude it from becoming a viable manufacturing tool. From the materials used, the finished texture of the objects and the time taken to print them 3D printers will remain a tool for hobbyists and prototyping until those issues are solved. This may take a decade.

This image is of cutlery that has been printed using steel and then electroplated in silver. The cutlery needs to be plated to make the objects food safe as the unplated steel has many imperfections in the surfaces that hang on to bacteria and may leach into foods when being used. Being plain steel the objects would be susceptible to rust as well reducing the lifespan of the object.

This is an image of synthetic human cell tissue that has been printed. Medical 3D printing technology is a branch that has developed quite rapidly and could play a major role in the future providing new organs, bones and tissue for treatment of various problems.

This device is one of the first examples of a printer that can create food by printing. This is pretty much a novelty at the moment. The most successful ingredient to use is chocolate so far. As far as convenience or ease of use is concerned, these machines are not. The refills would be expensive and the range of foods you can create is quite limited. I imagine the future of food creation would involve a machine that uses a special substance that can be manipulated into certain formulations as well as being able to cook the food.

This image is of a structure that is smaller than the width of a human hair. This opens up possibilities to combine with nanotechnology to create nanobots and other structures and materials that could be useful the future, including the possibility of self replicating nanobots that can live inside humans to repair damage and destroy viruses.