Club Meeting Recap--October 12, 2015
Posted
on Oct 14, 2015
Phil Briski, President of Zion Technologies,
Spoke to the Club
Honorary Member Art Decio was in attendance.
The Sergeant at Arms was Peter Norton, who covered for Merritt Dilts, and did an outstanding job collecting fines. The money the Sergeant’s committee raises over the year is pooled into a fund and then disbursed annually to area non-profit organizations.
The speaker was Phil Briski, President of Zion Technologies. Phil introduced the group to 3D printing technology. 3D printing or additive manufacturing is a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital file. The creation of a 3D printed object is achieved using additive processes. In an additive process an object is created by laying down successive layers of material until the entire object is created. Each of these layers can be seen as a thinly sliced horizontal cross-section of the eventual object. It all starts with making a virtual design of the object you want to create. This virtual design is made in a CAD (Computer Aided Design) file using a 3D modeling program (for the creation of a totally new object) or with the use of a 3D scanner (to copy an existing object). A 3D scanner makes a 3D digital copy of an object.
3d scanners use different technologies to generate a 3d model, such as time-of-flight, structured /modulated light, volumetric scanning and many more.
Recently, many IT companies like Microsoft and Google enabled their hardware to perform 3d scanning, a great example is Microsoft’s Kinect. This is a clear sign that future hand-held devices like smartphones will have integrated 3d scanners. Digitizing real objects into 3d models will become as easy as taking a picture. Prices of 3d scanners range from very expensive professional industrial devices to 30 USD DIY devices anyone can make at home.
For more information visit: www.ziontechs.com and www.themakerhive.com