Technology Often Leads Design – Conductive 3D Printing

Need to update….

Don’t you just love when a new technology leads and moves design forward in leaps and bounds. Well a recent group of students through Kickstarter have invented a printing head for an open source printer that enables 3D objects to be printed that are fully functional electrically with electrical circuitry enclosed!

“A group of Stanford University graduate students have created an 3D printer attachment that lays down functioning circuitry right alongside the thermoplastic extruder head of an existing machine, enabling it to make functioning electronic prototypes.”

Alongside this is a less technical innovation in one way – that of 3D conductive paint which means you paint a line and it immediatly can become part of a circuit – just think of the possibilities!

“Bare Conductive’s ‘paintable wire’ has many applications – from light switch walls to playable posters and ‘humanthesizers'”

“At the time the tutors were saying ‘you are doing interesting work but what is it for?’ and we kept saying that we know it is interesting so we feel we should keep doing it, but we were also not sure that we are the best people for deciding what it is for exactly,” said Johnson.”

“It is unsurprising that in the meeting room of Bare Conductive’s east London office, there is a light switch on the lefthand side of the door. What is surprising is that the switch is painted onto the wall. More surprising still is that the company says the button does not need to be there at all: you could in theory tap anywhere on the wall and a light would come on.”