May 29, 2016
...AND CHEAPER...:
The replicator : Designing in the digital and physical worlds at the same time (The Economist, May 28th 2016)Instead of being created with technical drawings and blueprints, most new products are today conceived in CAD systems in a three-dimensional virtual form. As these systems get cleverer some of the design processes themselves are being automated: algorithms suggest the most efficient shapes to save weight, or to provide strength or flexibility according to the loads and stresses placed upon them. Components and even entire products can be tested in their digital form, often using virtual reality. When something physical is finally built the same software drives the equipment that produces it, whether automated lathes and milling machines that cut and drill material or, in the case of additive manufacturing, 3D printers that build up objects layer-by-layer in a way never before possible.
This digital dimension gives designers a greater level of freedom to create new things (see article). But not all designers are skilled in using CAD systems. Even those who are might want to set aside the computer mouse for a saw, a file or a welding torch to get hands-on with their ideas. The ability to do both is becoming possible. A machine developed at the University of Lancaster in Britain provides a glimpse of a future in which product designers will be able to work in both digital and physical forms--at the same time.
The ReForm is a desktop machine developed by Jason Alexander, Christian Weichel (now at Bosch, a German components group) and John Hardy (now co-founder of HE Inventions, a Manchester startup) to pick up any changes made to a physical model of a product and reflect those changes back into the digital model, or vice versa. "I like to think of it as the closest implementation yet of a Star Trek replicator," says Dr Hardy, referring to the device that could create just about anything in the science-fiction TV series.
Posted by Orrin Judd at May 29, 2016 9:30 AM