THE NEWS IN PRINT

We have seen some of the biggest printers and have heard of huge printouts that have made it into the Guinness book. Biggest printout is always relative and depends on others in the fray. Kitchen Budapest hopes to break all records that have existed by making the biggest print; a landprint.

Landprint project involves printing on the ground spread across several thousand square feet. The prints are obtained by combining various species of plants and robotics. Plants and flowers that come in different sizes and colours are planted to obtain desired shades. Programmed robotics are used to delicately cut and shape the vegetation to provide the necessary touches.

Here's an image of a possible finished product when the project reaches its endpoint.

The current status of the project is still in its seedling. Kitchen Budapest has been able to reproduce a HELLO wording into mono-colour grass. It's far from satisfactory. They obviously have a long way to go.

Let's think practically. Most of the things that gets done should have a commercial value. Maybe this one isn't, I don't know. If they are looking to sell the art, it should be surely for Google Maps to capture a few images. I don't think anybody would pay thousands to advertise to those who travel by flights. Maintaining such prints is a huge task and comes with a lot of baggage. Target in the US had targetted free advertising through Google Maps by painting their huge logo on a rooftop.

We have been closely following the rise of 3D printers since the first home 3D printer came out a few months back. Just like any new invention, there seems to be no limit for the things that can be created/printed with this device. We had talked about printing gadget accessories and models from a 3D printer, but Sweet Onion Creations has scaled the heights by importing a 3D image from Google Earth and replicating the same using a 3D printer.

SOC was preparing for a seminar which required them to display a geographical region to explain the work in progress. The ingenuity of making use of items that already existed in different forms to bring together into a new one was demonstrated by them. These are the different steps taken by SOC:

2:36 pm: Download Google Sketchup to my computer. Begin flipping through Google 3D Warehouse for ideas on what is available for topography.

2:48 pm: Bingo! I find a beautiful mountain topography file, complete with a smooth valley floor that looks eerily similar to the Bridger mountain range around Bozeman, Montana.

2:52 pm: Download the 3d model off Google, import it into the software program, Rhino 3d, using a Sketchup plug-in. The model comes in as a surface. This would be like having a towel thrown on the floor"¦great wrinkles but no real thickness. So, we have to make it a "thick surface" using some extrusion tricks in Rhino.

2:53 pm: Grab the Sweet Onion Creations logo in .eps format and slap it on the valley floor and make it a 3-D object using Rhino. This is to show that a firm's logo can be branded on the model.

2:55 pm: The 3-D printer is fired up, fed the file, and is off and running.

3:34 pm: 3-D printer finishes the model and the model is ready for depowdering, hardening, and painting.

After this experiment, model creation can easily reach new heights. Many places around the globe could be modeled conveniently for display and education purposes.

We have seen blood vessels built from an inkjet printer and bones from a 3D printer. A combination of inkjet printing technology along with 3D technology might help researchers build human organs, wonders Paul Calvert, a materials scientist at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

"It's a milestone that we can print all types of cells onto a surface with an ink-jet printer without them dying, even stem cells... Doing this successfully in three dimensions, however, is like going from a black-and-white to a full-color."

Paul picked up a normal inkjet printer from a store and fitted it inside a robot operated by a piece of software. He plans on replacing inks with different cultures of cells (machine controlled) that is fed into the cartridge nozzle. The heat produced during printing wouldn't harm the cells as they are about three-quarters smaller than the opening.

Calvert's team and others are building on the success by depositing cells in a thin layer, covering it with a thin membrane and then printing more cells on top. The membrane, he explained, acts like porous scaffolding on which cell layers are separated, but can still communicate.

I am no expert in the medical field but the organ manufacturing unit sounds interesting and useful for humanity. Printers, both 3D and inkjet have contributed actively in the medical field along with nano technology serving as a foundation for great innovations to come. I am in awe of the person/team that invented inkjet and 3D printers.

via MSNBC

The last time, I reported regarding nano printing technology made possible in the laboratory with an inkjet printer, it was in the range of 250 nano meters. We have news coming in that the latest printing size possible is less than 100 nano meters; that's two and a half times smaller than the former.

A report published in yesterday's issue of ACS' Journal of Organic Chemistry contained a research report - Bio-catalytic Micro-contact Printing which presented a technology that prints with enzymes which is the latest ink replacement.

The technology will enable printing very high resolution pictures. The printing is possible as a result of chemical reaction rather than diffusion which is the current technique.

The new technology, termed biocatalytic microcontact printing, involves coating a nano-"stamp" with an enzyme -- a protein that speeds up chemical reactions.

The enzyme then digests away a layer on the surface, leaving behind an imprint almost like an old-fashioned rubber stamp. Because no diffusion of ink is involved in the process, the resolution of microcontact printed images is about one hundredfold greater than possible with conventional technology.

This latest innovation takes the printing world into a new dimension. It is projected to be much cheaper than the current technique. The quality and scale of nano devices is expected to improve leaps and bounds if the proposed technology takes off commercially.

via Science Daily

Remember the magic slate? It's a piece of board which can be written on by applying pressure. The contents can be erased my moving a slider between the two walls of the slate. A similar erasable paper is being developed by Xerox and the contents can be deleted as needed. It prints using a printer that uses no inks; instead uses light.

The reusable paper is printed on and erased, by exposing to light having a certain wavelength. It needs to be printed using a special printer with UV light source. The printed material doesn't fade, smudge nor smear when touched. Researchers have so far cycled the paper by printing and erasing on it for around 50 times. On the downside, prints degrade after a few hours and eventually return to its blank form.

Here's the technology behind this paper: The paper developed by Xerox apparently includes photochromic compounds (such as spiropyran) which exhibit heliochromic properties. That is, they darken when exposed to U.V. radiation and fade in the absence of U.V. light. Photochromic compounds are used in the manufacturing of certain sunglasses due to their ability to darken and regain their transparency quickly. However, a distinct difference from sunglasses is that Xerox's erasable paper can remain darkened for many hours. The U.V. light source, called a light bar, is integrated into a printer which illuminates specific parts of the erasable paper, creating the desired text or image on the paper. The printer can also erase the paper using a different wavelength"”making the paper reusable.

The reusable paper still has a long way to go. The paper currently prints in black as the targetted usage is for draft copies. The printing resolution is at a low 150 dpi. Other things that would influence the enhancement of this technology would be the cost factors incurred. Unless and until the price of the printer and paper stays close to inkjets, it would be quite impossible for it to make an impact.

via TFOT