3D printing
has had loads of media attention, with advances in the technology producing
ambitious - even lethal - things. But 3D pens have a way to go. And the first
may yet come from Europe.
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| Objects drawn with David Paskevic's 3D pen, the 3Dsimo (Photo: Rob Cameron) |
We've all
marveled at the things 3D printers can make. We've even been shocked - with some
calling for controls on what you can and cannot make after a Texan man 3D
printed a handgun. It's as if we cannot escape a future that has already
arrived.
But one
area of the 3D printing revolution is still very much in its infancy - 3D pens.
That's pens
that "write" on a surface or even in the air using molten plastic
instead of ink.
Those of us
who spent hours as children gluing together plastic model airplanes or racing
cars - getting more glue on our fingers than on the models - will be happy to know
there is an alternative.
Why not
just draw your model in the air?
"If
you want to have some fun, if you want to draw a model for fun, for pleasure,
then that's what the 3Dsimo is all about," says David Paskevic, a young
Czech electronics student who's developed the first 3D pen to be designed in
Europe.
"The
only limit is your imagination," he told DW.
 |
| David Paskevic, a fourth-year student in electronics, could be about to become a first for Europe |
So the
sky's the limit - and some amount of artistic skill and talent, as this
reporter soon found out.
Attempts to
"draw" a frog in green plastic were less than impressive, but let's
just put that down to experience.
It's called
3Dsimo, and it's only the third 3D pen ever to have been developed.
So how does
it work?
The size
and weight of a small hand-held fan, 3Dsimo draws in what look like thin pieces
of raw, brightly-colored spaghetti. It melts them into a liquid "ink"
that dries upon contact with the air. So you can draw plastic models - most
easily on a flat surface, but also in the air.
An industry
in its infancy
David
Paskevic says at present there are three 3D pens in existence.
The world's
first - 3Doodler - created by US developers in Boston, a Chinese-made spin-off,
and now his 3Dsimo, which he claims is the most versatile 3D pen yet.
"The
big advantage of our pen is that it writes in the air with both bioplastics
such as PLA (polylactic acid) and thermoplastics such as ABS (acrylonitrile
butadiene styrene), and indeed any other plastic material."
"The
other 3D pens being developed can only handle ABS plastics," says
Paskevic, "because they work at a fixed temperature and at a fixed speed.
With our pen you can set the temperature anywhere from 0 to 260 degrees
Celsius, and that's important because each plastic has a different melting
point."
 |
| Reporter Rob Cameron's portrait drawn with the 3Dsimo |
The pens
are barely commercially available, so new is the technology.
The
American 3Doodler is being sold via the main crowdfunding site Kickstarter,
while the 3Dsimo is available via the smaller site, Indiegogo.
In each
case there's a four month waiting period for the pens to arrive, so they won't
quite be in the shops for Christmas.
Both pens
have sparked a hum of media interest, however, so intriguing is their
potential.
In a
gleaming white room at Prague's high-tech National Technical Library, Paskevic
unwraps a number of models kept in a very low-tech shoe box - a pair of
glasses, a little tree, a dinosaur, a poppy, a monoplane, a copy of the Eiffel
Tower and the piece de resistance - this reporter's portrait with the DW logo.
All of
them, he says, were hand "drawn."
Not
protected by patent
Perhaps one
of the most interesting aspects to this story is that the 3Dsimo is not
protected by patent - as patenting an industrial design involves freezing all
development and promotion activity for seven months while the patent can be
registered.
In the
fast-moving world of 3D printing, Paskevic says, a wait like that could be
fatal.
"3D
printing is developing incredibly fast. Each month you wait can cost you your
idea," says Paskevic.
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| David Paskevic says waiting for a patent in Europe can kill your design |
"If we
had to wait another seven months, it's possible another product would appear on
the market that would resemble this one. And then it would be impossible to get
this one into the shops."
More pens
could appear in the future, so embryonic is the technology.
At present
they are very much toys for budding artists and children.
But in the
future, as the "ink" is stabilized and the technology improved, it's
not hard to imagine designers "drawing" a new car in front of company
bosses, or an architect "drawing" the outlines of a new house.
The future,
it seems, is plastic. And fantastic.
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