It’s no secret by now that 3D printers get this writer excited, considering they were the original inspiration that got this column started. With this being said, there has been a new development in this futuristic technology niche.

The company Carbon3D has revolutionized the way we 3D print things. With their new improvements, 3D printing can be performed faster than ever before.

The first thing to know is how a 3D printer works. In general, a 3D printer takes an image or an object that you wish to produce and it takes a material and makes it layer by layer. The material can be plastic, metal or even chocolate. The layers it prints are extremely thin. Because of this, printing something with a 3D printer, while very cool, can take hours at a time. For this reason, 3D printing companies can charge so much for their 3D printed products.

Their revolutionized printer is named CLIP. This printer takes a resin that can range from the springy plastic that makes up the bottom of a tennis shoe to strong consistent metals that comprise automotive parts. They take their resin and use oxygen and UV light to manipulate it to their desires. Oddly enough, the whole process was actually inspired by the Terminator movies.

Once they have their design they can plug it into their sophisticated software and it will print the design. Watching it work is mesmerizing. It looks like someone is pulling a rabbit out of a hat, as it were. If you watched it in reverse it would look as if the item were being melted which is much more believable than what it actually is.

One of the great advantages of this product is the speed of production. With a normal 3D printer it takes an average of six hours to print one item. With CLIP it takes only six minutes. It is 100 times faster than the traditional 3D printer. This means that we can print things on a commercial scale. CLIP is taking the 3D printer from the world of novelty to the world of progress.

Another advantage of CLIP is the quality of products. The materials and methods used to print traditionally makes for an inconsistent product. It’s basically like putting a bunch of pieces of paper on top of one another and expecting there to be no wrinkles or spaces in between. Because of their process, the products they produce are more consistent and of a higher quality.

This is a giant step into the future. Once this printer is released to the mass market, there is no limit to what we can accomplish.