User:Gmm5136

From RepRap
Revision as of 13:51, 20 September 2012 by Gmm5136 (talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search

Greg Mann's Blog

Hello, my name is Gregory Mann. I am a Mechanical Engineering at Penn State University taking REPRAP as a elective and to grow my knowledge in the 3D printing field.

Blog Week 3

This is hard to say with what direction 3D printing will take and what limitations or restrictions will be placed on 3D printing. I personally think it will be very hard to control what people will print and nearly impossible to see what everyone prints. I think copyright infringement will definitely be an issue, however I think a lot of people may take an idea or object and change it to what works best for them. I think that there has to be a limit on 3D printing to "try and protect patents" but will only do as good as the music limitations did. I feel that any big operation just replicating iPhone's will be shut down but to the personal every day user who replicates an iPhone case will go undetected.

I have my passion in engineering. I know typical of an engineer to say, but I really enjoy building, creating, and designing things. I have been at it since middle school repairing my motocross bikes in prep for racing. I designed and built a bedroom set throughout high school. I assisted in a full restoration on an '83 GT mustang convertible, and rebuilding a '84 GT mustang T-top. In my spare time I find broken things on craigslist whether its iPhone's, computers, or dirtbikes; repair them; and resell them. I have always been involved in some project and really enjoy it. I am currently designing my own house, wood shop, and garage that one day I will build myself (and some help of friends of course). I think this is an attractive characteristic to have as a male, and will one day bring me money in a job, or at least save money.

I disagree with professor Bowyer when he says it will completely erase intellectual property. I think it may be easier to obtain this and definitely will have some effect on the manufacturing processes, and companies. People have the capabilities of growing their own food right now, I can grow a garden, raise cattle, and supply my family with food at a fraction of the cost as it would be to shop for that food. But I am too lazy to do it. I think that will be the same case in this way. You will have your crowd of people who will abuse the system as always but I feel that most people will not go on a rampage of copyright and patent infringement. Anyone can go out and get a simple download music and listen to it for free, but iTunes is a huge money maker because of honest people. If the 3D printer does grow drastically it will definitely have an small impact on the manufacturing and intellectual property of companies, but no where to a scale of Bowyer was saying.



Blog Week 2

I do think the goal of a self replicating machine is feasible to an extent with the parts he mentioned not needing to be replicated. I think it will be very hard to replicate a part such as the threaded guides for the axis'. This would be hard to do because they need to be very precise and when you start replicating parts from machines built by other machines you will end up with different dimensions. This would be hard to keep very precise in the long term of the machine. Think of cutting out a piece of paper with a stencil then using the new stencil as a stencil for the next. After about 5, you can start to notice a change from the original machine. If we reproduce special parts, such as threaded axis guides then it will not be feasible.

I agree with the motto "Wealth without money" it follows the saying that people have been saying lately with the economy "invest in bricks." With a REPRAP machine a lot can be done. As it was said in the article if you need a part for a vacuum you can simply print it out. This printer has a very usefulness to it. It just needs to get out in everyone's hands. With the power of open sourcing, people could get a hold of models and print whatever they desire, which is what thinkiverse is.

I can see the REPRAP printer advancing to a simple design such as a regular printer. Plug and play type feature for every consumer. Right now you have to be pretty tech savy in building a REPRAP and maintaining it. However, just like the regular printer one day they were very confusing for the average user, in the next years I feel this machine will become a plug and play machine like any other printer. If someone can introduce a simple program for modeling, and incorporate the G-code in the same program where a user can just click print and see their printer work. This would allow anyone to print anything whether they design it, or get it from the internet.

Blog Week 1

   1) Pixar Lamp
   2) Flame Light Shade
   3) Washer
   4) Piano Necktie 
   5) Octopus

Due to my lack of experience thus far with REPRAP I chose this light (1) to be the must useful thing. This a good way to bring a 3D model to life and see what you designed in working condition. Everyone can use and understand the excitement in seeing something transform from computer screen to 3D model. I chose the flame light shade (2) as my artistic thing because of the fact at how it was modeled and shaped. It turned out to be a nice decorative piece. The washer (3) was chosen as the useless thing because there it cannot be used in a real world application due to the fact of it being plastic, it will not be able to replace a metal washer. The fact the washers are pennies, why would it be necessary to waste time and plastic on making this washer. I chose the piano necktie (4) as a funny thing because it would be a cool thing to wear around, however I could see it being pretty heavy having to wear it around your neck. I think it would bring laughs to any event if you come in wearing a plastic tie. Last but not least is the weird category. I am not sure if octopus is a theme of REPRAPs, but they seem to be a trending topic on thingverse. That is why I chose the octopus earring (5) as the weird category. It is off the normal route of 3d printing and I am not sure why.