Technology: Inside 3D Printing Convention, Javits Convention Center, New York City

We are witness to a new technical revolution: 3D printing. This week I visited the "Inside 3D Printing" convention, which happened at New York`s Javits Convention Center.

They didn`t produce washing machines and bicycles there, the technology is still in an early phase. But you could see the directions 3D printing could go.

There were around a dozen exhibitors, including "3D Printing Systems" (3dprintingsystems), "Solidoodle" (solidoodle) and "MakerBot" (makerbot.com), who displayed their current offers. The devices I saw there looked a bit like microwaves but they are much more complex.

Those 3D printers have a moving part which looks like a kind of sled but is much more complex. Watching those "sleds" do their work reminded me a bit of icing a cake. But I guess, the picture of a spider, who spins its web by emitting silk, is more appropriate (youtube). Anyway the displayed machines used cables of plastics which melted inside.  Then their jets - working like the glands of a spider - produced shapes like chess pieces, coffee cups, jewelry and many other things.

I  plan to visit the convention again when it comes back to New York City in April 2014.