The world’s first store for 3D printed goods just opened in Brussels, and while we imagine they’ve already got a fair choice of prototyped merchandise to choose, might we suggest they invest in a few production runs of this fabulous new flute? Amit Zoran of the MIT Media Lab — yes, the same soul who helped dream up a 3D food printer early this year — has now printed a fully-functional concert flute with a minimum of human intervention.
Directing an Objet Connex500 3D printer (which can handle multiple materials at the same time) to spit out his CAD design, dollop by tiny dollop, in a single 15-hour run, he merely had to wash off support material, add springs, and assemble four printed pieces to finish the instrument up.