The Shapeways Blog: 3D Printing News & Innovation
Shapeways Blog
Monday, June 6. 2011
The World’s Smallest 3D Printer
High-quality 3D printing at home has just come one step closer. Researchers at the Vienna University of Technology in Austria have presented the smallest 3D printer to date. At the size of a carton of milk and weighs 1.5 kilograms, it currently costs around €1,200 but the makers expect the price to drop quickly.
The printer uses stereolithography: it hardens layers of synthetic resin by an intense beam of light of only .05mm wide. So not only is this printer small and cheap, but it also prints at a very high resolution!
You can see it in action here:
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I never thought I'd see the day, the day that we'd be able to print with raisins. 
Just kidding, that's cool 
Just kidding, that's cool
It's cool yes - I would like to see the prints, however, and judge the material before I declare ultimate coolness
I doubt that food, in its current form, will ever be printed. However, using a piece protein-rich (or better: edible) material, solidifying the material with such a 3D-printer and using some additives to influence taste will probably be the way to go.
