Who would have thought it? Printing guns is frowned upon. Even in the US.
Cody Wilson, a law student at the University of Texas at Austin, found this out last week when Stratasys, the company that made the uPrint SE 3D printer he was leasing, got wind of his plans to design a 3D-printable handgun and took back their equipment.
…
In a letter to Wilson, lawyers for Stratasys cited his lack of a federal firearms manufacturer’s licence as their reason for the repossession, adding that it does not knowingly allow its printers to be used for illegal purposes.
Our first peek at the iron fist (the velvet glove is already making the rounds)?
Can kevlar® be printed? Or is printing specifically about shapes rather than materials?
At the moment the iterative designs of 3D printing models is focusing on developing higher and higher resolutions for additive, one-off, manufacturing. Otoh, they are already using polycarbonite materials in 3D printing.
When we couple high-resolution DIY 3D printing with laminates like nanocellulose – which is stronger than kevlar and made from wood pulp – then it shouldn't be too long before "materials" becomes as innovative as the "shapes".
My recent post Socialism on One Planet