
Solar Sinter: Solar-powered 3D printer that sinters sand into 3D objects (2011) - ph0rque
http://www.markuskayser.com/work/solar-sinter/
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jlebrech
I'd like a device like this to create a moon base

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ccozan
Here is an interesting project :

[http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2008/lunar...](http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2008/lunar_telescopes.html)

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Intermernet
Somewhat related: Cory Doctorow's shortish story "The Man Who Sold The Moon".
[http://boingboing.net/2015/05/22/the-man-who-sold-the-
moon.h...](http://boingboing.net/2015/05/22/the-man-who-sold-the-moon.html)

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Someone
Nice story. I guess the title is a reference to Heinlein's version
([https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Sold_the_Moon](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Sold_the_Moon)),
which has greed/capitalism conquer the moon.

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OldSchoolJohnny
All that time in the video and all but zero seconds showing the finished
product which is surely the point?

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michaelbuckbee
Not sure why the posted link went to that page instead of the overview (with
separate pictures).

Here:
[http://www.markuskayser.com/work/solarsinter/](http://www.markuskayser.com/work/solarsinter/)

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agumonkey
There was a news about metal sintering used for an actual market (sorry,
memory failing). That reminded me of this video and got me wondering how
complicated it was to control the beam focus and energy. To allow for finer
and leaner shapes.

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phunge
You're probably thinking of
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_laser_sintering](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_laser_sintering)
which is pretty widespread -- for example you can order metal parts straight
off ShapeWays that are SLS!

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fudged71
I wonder if a solar sintering machine could be made nearly as precise as an
SLS machine. Maybe if you could focus the beam into a fibre optic cable and
measure the intensity of light to control the path planning.

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hidroto
i can think of a few obvious improvements but the first thing i would add
would be a shutter.when he was setting it up i was worried he would burn his
back or something in the beam.

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ChuckMcM
This is an older article, but still interesting. I used my scavenged fresnel
lens from an old projection TV to try and melt sand. It works (kind of) but
control is a challenge.

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alex_duf
this needs a tag [2011]

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dang
Added.

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wiz21
The only point this raises is : are they serious ? This looks quite akin to
the Solar Impulse project. It makes us dream of something that looks like a
very bad way to treat the actual problem.

This guy's energy would be better spend at tackling the economical and
political problems we have to solve to actually improve the situation... And
we need more than a dream...

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Zikes
He's an engineer, not a politician. You don't get to vote on what he works on
or decide what is important to him.

Sintering is an emerging 3D printing tech now that the patent has expired. We
can't predict what all the potential applications are or what impact it will
have on society.

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50CNT
That's an interesting point on patents isn't it. Things become emerging tech
once the patents on it expire.

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matthewmacleod
That's not really an inference you can make. In this case, that's happened –
but there are plenty of recent, popular technologies that are also patented.
Look at any modern smartphone, for example!

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50CNT
Yeah, but it does seem like interesting tech that was kept under wraps gets a
comeback tour once patent protections run out.

Consumer 3D printing is an interesting case, because the wealth of extrusion
deposition products came after the patents ran out. Same thing now with
interesting developments in SLS. Patent runs out, some enthusiasts rig up
their own, exchange knowledge over the web, and turn industrial technology
into open hardware products.

I think the thing here is that companies owning these patents just never
thought about the consumer and hobbyist markets. But their patents prevented
people selling and innovating in these spaces, thus letting these markets lie
fallow. What happens to markets when the legal monopoly stops selling?

Now consumer electronics is a field where there's a lot of motion. But imagine
the Smartphone(tm) was patented, and the owner of the patent decided to do
industrial PDAs instead and abandon the consumer market. They still prevent
others from selling to the consumer market, even they don't loose anything
from that except some vacuous "potential revenue".

Trademarks elapse when they're not used, and names can be used in different
markets when there's no chance of confusion (Nissan Motors vs. Nissan
Computers). Patents (outside of I think 2 renewal dates) don't quite work that
way. The question is, do they prevent technology from jumping into different
markets by virtue of their broadness?

