Disney Launches a 3D Printer to Manufacture Plushy Toys with Ease; Uses Fabric
In a move that is bound to affect all the kids around the globe, Disney has announced a new 3D printer which uses fabric for making soft toys for tots. A team at the Disney Research and the Carnegie Mellon University has devised a 3D printer which uses fabric as a raw material.
According to the NBC News, the mechanism involves cutting the fabric into the requisite shape which is then adhered to another layer which would again be cut into the requisite shape. In the end the excess fabric surrounding the object is cut off resulting in the requisite object itself.
Moreover, this would help in manufacturing toys with complex geometries and would facilitate the incorporation of a circuitry to make the toys more interactive for its users. Furthermore, as per the reports by IBN Live, this new device is similar in construction to the laminated object manufacturing machine which uses sheets of paper and metal to form 2D objects which are then stuck together to form 3D objects.
Moreover, this printer was tested to create a two inch bunny and the process took two and half hours for completion. Jim McCann, Associate Research scientist at Disney Research Pittsburgh has remarked that these 3D printers can easily create custom metallic, plastic and rubber objects.
Moreover, this printer is all set to revolutionize the manufacturing process at the largest toy manufacturing industry in the world by increasing the number of output and decreasing the time taken for the same.
This layered fabric printer would be available at the Association for Computing Machinery's annual conference at Seoul from April 18 to April 23.