3D Printing News Unpeeled: Tails, Wasteful 3D Prints & Salmonella

A photo on Reddit of a user making a color 3D printed model and getting 15 times the amount of waste has sparked a mini debate. But, with a 1000 layer 44 hour print for a few inch model with single nozzle purging on many layers it seems like this is a model no one would normally print. Probably it has been made on purpose to get clicks. A blog fell for it and posted a story talking about 3D Printing waste. Another user on Reddit says,

¨This guy is an idiot posting ragebait, I have the same exact printer and I couldn’t get that much waste if I tried, for multicolour printing the average waste is 30-40% of the weight of the model, which can be reduced all the way to 0 if the conditions are right. Multicolour printing at 0.05 layer height, with colour change on each layer, flush volumes not tuned and a single small model is like going on the highway in first gear at max rpm and complaining that fuel mileage is poor,¨

Research at the University of Alberta is using the heating of the nozzle to make 3D printed food safer. Julia Barsukova looked at how heating the nozzle could kill Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. 

Chandler Cheng has made an Augmented Limb that is meant to be an aid for zero gravity maneuvers for astronauts.