Solar-Powered 3D Printer that Prints Glass from Sand

I'm running a startup that 3D prints custom eyewear. When I explain 3D printing to somebody who isn't familiar with it, I usually show them this video of a wrench being made: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW0NZgcq9yA" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW0NZgcq9yA</a><p>Goodbye, wrench video. I'm going to start showing everybody Markus Kayser's SunCutter instead. Not only is it cooler, but I actually think the video of him printing the bowl in the desert helps you see what's happening more clearly.<p>His SunCutter is a demonstration of SLS (selective laser sintering) which traditionally uses a laser (or in the above example, focused sun beams) to fuse small particles together.<p>We're using SLA (Stereolithography) to print the glasses, which uses a UV laser to cure a liquid resin which turns it into a solid. For a good demonstration of SLA in action, check out this video of one of the printers we use: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTWFWh1x-yo&#38;t=1m46s" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTWFWh1x-yo&#38;t=1m46s</a><p>Finally, some shameless self-promotion... we're about to launch the private beta for our startup and we're actively seeking beta testers to kick the tires on our eyewear-designing software. If you're interested you can sign up at <a href="http://www.oyoglasses.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.oyoglasses.com</a>

This seems like a great way to build structures on the Moon.<p>Imagine if we landed robots on the Moon to gather up moon dust into piles, and then satellites orbiting the moon could capture sunlight and direct that energy in the form of laser beams pointed at the moon dust. The robots would periodically brush away the excess dust, or add more to the pile.<p>This idea might sound far fetched, but back in 2005 some guy actually sintered moon dust in a microwave oven. ( <a href="http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2005/09nov_lawnmower/" rel="nofollow">http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2005/09...</a> ) This, combined with the op's article form a good proof of concept for 3D printed lunar homes.

That was a great use of a huge magnifying glass. If he can somehow mass produce this, it would bring the cost of making planting pots to almost nothing.<p>One problem with this design is that the light would deflect off the center particle and melt other sand around it. In the video, pretty much everything in 1cm radius gets melted. Unless he can somehow make it print in greater details, I can't think of a better use for this other than producing planting pots.

That is all nice, amazing and innovative.<p>Yet I think it is time to stop calling devices which create something and connected to a PC via USB a "Printer".<p>Printer, print a material which you read. Anything else, is a robot which does X or Y.