14 DAY TRIAL // I know what you’re about to say: personal computers, really all sorts of computers, are too complex to be made via 3D printing technology. I beg to differ. While it’s not possible now, it will be more than possible in a few years.
Well, okay, “a few” years might be pushing it, but half a decade or a full decade should be enough for what I’m thinking about. After all, we’ve already seen 3D printed electronics, so it’s just a matter of time before the really cool stuff becomes 3D printable.
Sure, there’s only been a PCB here and there, but I’m pretty certain there are a fair few people out there who’ve at least fiddled with 3D printed circuits a few times without shouting on internet forums about it.
And those that have shared their achievements have found themselves the recipients of much awe, or at least impressed eyebrow tilts, on the part of the media and the rest of the public. Given all this, I can’t, in good conscience, not think about what this could lead to a few years down the line.
What we’ve seen so far
Before we go further, we may as well point out that it’s not just the mystery of 3D printed circuits that had to be cracked before 3D printed PCs became feasible. Other things like the frame and part assembly had to be figured out as well.
Beheld that way, there’s actually a lot to see, like the €600 3D Printer that can make things from metal (and which is not the only one of its kind). There are sophisticated mechanical items, like cheap prosthetics better than things which cost tens of thousands of dollars instead of fifty bucks.
Honestly, even having the ability to 3D print whole car frames shows how far the technique has come. I’ll admit, however, that they’re not enough to suggest that we’re heading fast towards 3D printed PCs.
So why am I so optimistic? Well, there was the 3D printed self-assembling lamp that the folks at Harvard revealed the other day. There was also that nifty little robotic arm that can remove prints and allow your printer to resume its work without you having to be there.
Still, the most important advancement must be the Firepick Delta 3D printer, which comes with various extra mechanical parts that can add capacitors and other elements to a printed circuit board while it’s being printed. Yes, there already is a PCB 3D printer.
A leap of faith?
Honestly, it’s not necessary for such a leap in order to reach the conclusion that we’ll soon be seeing 3D printed full PCs. They’re already making the building blocks, and while it will take time to apply the technology to important bits like batteries, most everything else can already be done.
Crudely, it must be said, but that’s how everything is at first. And if we can already make PCBs, it won’t be long before the leap is made to small computers like the Alienware Alpha Mini PC. Peripherals are another possibility. They may precede PCs in fact.
This time in 2017-2018, you may see items like the Gamdias Erebos mouse and the incredible, flexible SlimTouch 222 keyboard being done via fused deposition modeling (you know, that 3D printing technique where one or more extruders build something drop by drop).
If it pans out, then someone will probably 3D print a full PC by 2020 or so. Even if it’s weak and handicapped, one person or a group of people will make it happen just to show they can, and, of course, that I was right.
