Usually, 3D printers available for the average consumer come in a box. But Core 77 reports that entrepreneur Zaib Husain and engineer Azam Shahani have come up with a prototype called Makerarm that goes against the boxed expectation.
Their device has an arm with a 180-degree sweep and 10 inches of Z-travel, cantilevered on a column that mounts to a work surface. The arm can reach up to 16 inches.
But calling the device a desktop 3D printer will be an understatement. In the project’s Kickstarter video, we learn that Makerarm can solder, level, carve, etch, cut sheets, engrave plastic and leather, carve wood, and even feed your fish, to name a few. Perhaps the icing on the cake is Makerarm’s ability to, well, put icing on cake.
The plethora of activities is thanks to changeable tool heads that can be fastened to the arm, such as a screw fastening head, laser engraving head, 3D printing head, and foam cutting head.
The creators argue that Makerarm can be a solution to creators that don’t have a lot of access to every tool, machine, or material that is too expensive, and instead have them all in one desktop robotic arm.
So far, the project has raised $197,229 of its $349,750 goal with the help of 181 backers, and it has 22 days to go.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Wisconsin becomes the first state to require BIM on public projects
As of July 1, the Wisconsin Division of State Facilities will require all state projects with a total budget of $5 million or more and all new construction with a budget of $2.5 million or more to have their designs begin with a Building Information Model. The new guidelines and standards require A/E services in a design-bid-build project delivery format to use BIM and 3D software from initial ...
| Aug 11, 2010
News Briefs: GBCI begins testing for new LEED professional credentials... Architects rank durability over 'green' in product attributes... ABI falls slightly in April, but shows market improvement
News Briefs: GBCI begins testing for new LEED professional credentials... Architects rank durability over 'green' in product attributes... ABI falls slightly in April, but shows market improvement
| Aug 11, 2010
Luxury Hotel required faceted design
Goettsch Partners, Chicago, designed a new five-star, 214-room hotel for the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The design-build project, with Saudi Oger Ltd. as contractor and Rayadah Investment Co. as developer, has a three-story podium supporting a 17-story glass tower with a nine-story opening that allows light to penetrate the mass of the building.
| Aug 11, 2010
Architectural Visualization Rendering the Future
Three-dimensional design tools have revolutionized the way architects and engineers design buildings; in recent years, parametric modeling has enabled Building Teams to impart weight tolerances and other intelligent information to a finished design. Yet many designers say they use 3D most in the conceptual design stage, when detailed building information is not necessary and can actually encumb...
| Aug 11, 2010
Big-time BIM
As the need for new state, county, and municipal facilities keeps growing and funding for public building construction continues to shrink, state and local officials are left with two basic options: renovate dilapidated older buildings and hope for the best, or build new facilities on anemic budgets.
| Aug 11, 2010
Dotting the I in IPD
Collaboration software is going beyond just sharing files. It is being used to enable full building information modeling early in design. Two programs are enabling Building Teams to more easily share the information in BIM and use it for integrated project delivery: Bluebeam Software, which just released the newest version of its AEC-specific PDF collaboration tool; and eBuilder Enterprise, a W...
| Aug 11, 2010
Great Solutions: Business Management
22. Commercial Properties Repositioned for University USE Tocci Building Companies is finding success in repositioning commercial properties for university use, and it expects the trend to continue. The firm's Capital Cove project in Providence, R.I., for instance, was originally designed by Elkus Manfredi (with design continued by HDS Architects) to be a mixed-use complex with private, market-...
| Aug 11, 2010
BIM adoption tops 80% among the nation's largest AEC firms, according to BD+C's Giants 300 survey
The nation's largest architecture, engineering, and construction companies are on the BIM bandwagon in a big way, according to Building Design+Construction's premier Top 50 BIM Adopters ranking, published as part of the 2009 Giants 300 survey. Of the 320 AEC firms that participated in Giants survey, 83% report having at least one BIM seat license in house, half have more than 30 seats, and near...
| Aug 11, 2010
Thrown For a Loop in China
While the Bird's Nest and Water Cube captured all the TV coverage during the Beijing Olympics in August, the Rem Koolhaas-designed CCTV Headquarters in Beijing—known as the “Drunken Towers” or “Big Shorts,” for its unusual shape—is certain to steal the show when it opens next year.
