3D Printing News Unpeeled: A Barbie Toilet, Rolls Royce and Sawdust Formwork

After her successful movie there’s more good news for Barbie, as a tiny 3D printed Barbie-sized toilet uses much less water. Yike Li of Huazhong University of Science and Technology developed a slippery toilet surface that stays slippery with extended use. It’s made of polymer combined with hydrophobic sand grains and then fused with a laser. That structure is later infiltrated by silicon oil. The solution may work for toilets and reduce a lot of water use. At the same time, similar architected materials could replace forever chemicals.

The BioMatters team of the University of Michigan has come up with a fully biodegradable, reusable and recyclable material for formwork. This material is made of sawdust and has been created by Muhammad Dayyem Khan, Mania Aghaei Meibodi, Tharanesh Varadharajan and Zachary Keller.

The new custom Rolls Royce Droptail is a true coach built car where everything can be customized. Limited to four vehicles it costs $25 million or so. Unveiled at Pebble Beach, the first one, La Rose Noire, has custom veneer, a custom Audemars Piguet clock and is pure madness really. It also has a 3D printed lower intake manifold which could point to more customization using 3D printing.