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3D printing is everywhere these days. People use it to make everything from product prototypes to jet engines, and everything in between — but how do 3D printers work, exactly? How do these magical machines make three-dimensional objects — of virtually any shape — in a matter of hours? Well, if you’ve ever been curious about these things, you’re in luck. Here’s a dead-simple rundown of the four most common 3D-printing technologies in use today. FDM Filament deposition modeling, also known as fused filament fabrication, is the most common type of 3D printing — at least on the consumer side of things. If you’ve seen a 3D printer in person before, chances are pretty good that it was an FDM printer. Functionally speaking, your average FDM machine works a lot like a hot glue gun that’s being operated by a robot (interestingly enough, that’s actually how FDM was invented back in the 1980s!). Solid material goes in one end, gets pushed through a hot nozzle, melts, and is … [Read more...] about How Do 3D Printers Work? Here’s the Lowdown On Additive Manufacturing | Digital Trends

Winner Maker Select Mini To be totally and completely honest, Monoprice’s Select Mini isn’t the best 3D printer we tested this year. In fact, when it comes to print quality, we’re not even sure it’d make our top five. So why are we calling it one of the best products of 2016? The answer is simple: value. What’s remarkable about the Select Mini is not only the fact that it costs just $200 (which is pretty remarkable in and of itself) – it’s that in addition to being one of the cheapest 3D printers that’s ever hit the market, it’s also one of the most feature-rich 3D printers you can get for less than $1,000. Get a load of these specs: It has a heated bed (which helps prevent prints from warping), an adjustable temperature hot end (which allows you to print with a variety of different materials), and a full color LCD screen to help you navigate settings – all of which are features that are usually reserved for printers that cost five times as much. The fact that Monoprice … [Read more...] about 3D printers, vaporizers, and drones grew up this year, and these were the finest

Most people reading this will be familiar with four-legged robots such as the dog-inspired Spot robot developed by Boston Dynamics or Swiss robotics company ANYbotics’ ANYmal . But while there’s no doubt that such robots are supremely impressive, they’re also expensive — which could limit their application in certain domains. That’s a problem that a new collaboration between robotics company Ghost Robotics and pioneering 3D printing company Origin hopes to help solve. The two companies have teamed up to develop a new line of robots, called the Spirit Series, which offer impressively capable four-legged robots, but which can be printed using additive manufacturing at a fraction of the cost and speed of traditional manufacturing approaches. This isn’t just 3D-printed prototyping, either: The finished pieces are comparable in quality to their CNC machined predecessors, although they can be printed for just one-quarter the cost. “Together, Origin and Ghost Robotics have … [Read more...] about 3D Printing Helps Reduce Cost Of Four-legged Spot-style Robots | Digital Trends

A comfortable place to sit when you play video games is not a luxury but a necessity. Poor support during long gaming sessions can lead to serious problems, and no one likes an aching back. Luckily, there’s no shortage of seating options for gaming. We’ve put together a list of the best gaming chairs with comfortable, ergonomic designs, top-notch support, and adjustable features. Contents BestOffice Ergonomic Office Chair DJ·Wang Office Chair High Back VON RACER Massage Gaming Chair Zeanus Recliner Computer Chair From those with excellent ergonomic designs to durable cover materials, there are a lot of great gaming chairs on the market. Before you decide on exactly which one to get, be sure you know how comfortable the chair is and the lumbar support it provides. Our team of seasoned experts has gone through all the options, and with our top picks, you are one step away from choosing your best gaming chair. BestOffice Ergonomic Office Chair Best … [Read more...] about Best Gaming Chairs | Digital Trends

In multiple interview sessions on Thursday, AMD director of technical marketing Robert Hallock answered many questions from journalists and tech enthusiasts. One such interview, part of the 2.5 Geeks series from Hot Hardware , is embedded below for your convenience. For us, the highlights from this hour-long technical discussion were Hallock's confirmations of launch core-counts (53:21), that there are new Threadrippers coming (7:59), and the heavy hint of Ryzen 7000's support for AVX-512 instructions (46:38). AMD's communications regarding its 5nm Zen 4 'Raphael' Ryzen 7000 processors and AM5 socket motherboards didn't get off to the clearest of starts. However, we have now pretty much ironed out all the wrinkles from the announcement. Two of the biggest areas of uncertainty after the Computex keynote were concerning Ryzen 7000 power specs , and CPU performance vs IPC . They are addressed in the above video at 28:00 and 55:27, respectively. Honing in on the Hot … [Read more...] about AMD Ryzen 7000: Up to 16 Cores, AVX-512 Support at Launch