14 DAY TRIAL // When something is called “desktop personal 3D printer,” you're likely to think about a box-like object that you can always have next to your monitor, or on a short table in your workshop. Not something that the FBI would use to fight terrorism.
Nevertheless, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation has decided that 3D printing technology would be helpful in fighting terrorism, so it has begun to order 3D printers.
We mean Stratasys Objet24 3D Printers. Stratasys created the model a while ago, and demands $19,999 / €19,999 in exchange for each one.
That means that the FBI, the US government, had to approve a few expenses it normally wouldn't have, but keeping the peace is never easy, not when a planet's division into different nations automatically implies international tensions.
Sure, this isn't a case of cold war, since terrorists aren't factions backed by any one country, but ultimately, the US is, officially, standing primarily against extremist organizations from other countries. Continents even.
But we digress. The point is that 3D printing technology can be used to fight terrorism. Although, in what could be a very easy to expect ironic twist, it won't help to neutralize them or, well, defuse a situation.
Instead, the 3D printers will be used to make explosions. Bit explosions. The Stratasys Objet24 will be delivered to the folks from the Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center, to improve their capabilities in exploiting improvised explosive.
In case you're not familiar with the Objet24, the printer is pretty large, with a tray size of 240 x 200 x 150 mm / 9.44 x 7.87 x 5.90 inches. On that note, the build volume is of 234 x 192 x 148.6 mm / 9.21 x 7.55 x 5.85 inches. The layer thickness can be as small as 28 microns, and the accuracy of within 0.1 mm. Furthermore, items are produced from VeroWhitePlus Opaque material.
The FBI will order a bunch of the printers, as well as the Stratasys WaterJet – Small Format, Stratasys Stand for Objet24 Printer, the Objet24/30 Start-Up Toolkit, the support material kit, a VeroWhitePlus Material Kit, an unlimited power supply (APC Smart-UPS 1500VA LCD 120V) and people to install the printers, as well as to train FBI operatives in their use.
Hopefully, these new anti-terrorist preparations are not a sign that that there's some new threat out there, on the level of Al Qaeda, that the common people haven't heard about yet.