P3D Re: one more use of stereo

[Larry Berlin <lberlin@xxxxxxxxx>]

>Date: 24 Jan 99 
>From: DAN VINT <dvint@xxxxxxx>
>.........
>There has been another use of stereo that hasn't been mentioned yet and that
>is "stereo lithography". This was a process that used 3D CAD (computer-aided
>design/drafting) models built as "solid models" within the design tool and
>then printed out in a vat of plastic that I believe solidifed
>photo-chemically. What they did was to have a tank of this liquid plastic
>(about a 12 inch cube) and inside this was a platform that stepped in very
>fine stages (hundredhs of an inch or so) and a laser beam was directed at this
>platform, as the beam interacted with the plastic liquid it became solid. The
>system would finish that slice of the object and then step down again. Then
>the system would draw the next slice on the platform because now a new layer
>of liquid was ontop of the previous layer.
>
>Pretty cool idea for doing rapid prototypes of parts and castings. Now this
>was truely 3D printing because is gave me an object I could hold in m hands
>and look at from any angle. 
>
>

*****  I await the day I can plug in a stereo slide pair, or digital image,
and hold it in solid form a few minutes later... for 3 cents per...  ;-)

Larry Berlin

Email: lberlin@xxxxxxxxx
http://www.sonic.net/~lberlin/
http://3dzine.simplenet.com/


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