The number one issue that people have with 3D printers today, is the speed at which they print at. People now-a-days want things quickly, at the touch of a button. Over the years, many of our everyday jobs, chores, and desires have reached a point of almost becoming instant. For example, when you want to print a document from your computer or tablet, its done in approximately 5-10 seconds. When you want to bring up a website on your smartphone, it’s up in a matter of 1-2 seconds. Just about every aspect of our lives, when compared to that of the technology we used a few decades ago, has moved into a new realm where everything seems to be running in “fast forward”. 3D printing, however, when it comes to speed, is still chipping at the ice in the Ice Age.
This can be expected. 3D printing is a relatively new technology, especially when you focus solely on consumer level, at-home 3D printers. It can take a full day to print objects the size of a basketball. It can take several hours to print something as small as a Rubik’s Cube. Speeds have improved slightly in the few years since consumer level 3D printers have been made available to the general public. However, we’ve hardly seen any noticeable improvements. One little boy and his company CarrotCorp, plans on changing this.
Thomas Suarez, a 15-year-old little boy, made headlines several years ago when he created a Justin Bieber whack-a-mole game called Bustin Jieber. Since then he has given a TED talk on technology, was featured on BBC, and had the chance to meet a lot of important and famous people.
Now Suarez has a relatively new interest, and that interest is 3D printing. He had the chance to meet Bre Pettis back in 2012, and tour the MakerBot ‘Botfarm’.
“I told my dad [about 3D printing], and he said, ‘oh that’s not real!’,” explained Suarez back in 2012. “He didn’t believe it.”
Soon after, Suarez decided to prove to his dad that 3D printing was very real, by setting up a tour of the MakerBot botfarm. Nevertheless, his father became a believer, and Thomas himself became even more enamored by the technology; so much so that he decided to set out to push the technology even further.
“Recently I applied for a patent on 3D printing,” Suarez told BBC in an interview. “I’m trying to make 3D printing faster and more reliable. The key there is speed, and we’re trying to [get] ten times faster than current generation 3D printers.”
Thomas is completely self taught when it comes to his technology insight, and his revolutionary new ideas. It should be interesting to see more details on what this patented super 3D printer includes. If Thomas can legitimately create a 3D printer capable of speeds that are ten times faster than today’s current technology, you may just be reading about a future billionaire. Just yesterday, CarrotCorp announced that they are working on creating a 3D printer that is “the most advanced, the most reliable, and the fastest 3D printer ever created”.
Discuss Thomas Suarez’s potential technology in the CarrotCorp 3D Printer forum thread on 3DPB.com. Check out the video interview that Thomas had with BBC below:
