The tortoise named Cleopatra is probably not impressed with her new coat. But according to Engadget, the new red plastic shell will probably save her life.
Roger Henry, a design student from the Colorado Technical University spent almost 600 hours tweaking the software to make sure that the prototypes of the custom 3D printed shell would perfectly fit the malnourished leopard tortoise.
The shell is made out of a plastic derived from corn.
Cleopatra has been on a protein-heavy diet for years. This resulted in the weakening of her shell with deep valleys and pyramid type peaks. There were holes formed in the shell that threatened the shell's ability to protect her from infections. The custom shell will protect her from other tortoises and also from infections.
The main challenge for Henry, was to adjust the influence of gravity in code. He had to basically make the plastic drape like a piece of cloth over Cleopatra's shell. "It's fantastic to know this tortoise is going to be able to recover from its malnutrition," Henry said.
Debra Wilcox, the person whose team had scanned Cleopatra's shell which then enabled Henry to engineer the tortoise shell, says "Yes, we can change the world."
It is amazing to know that 3D printing can be used for almost anything and everything. From tortoise shells, to cookies and to things that has not been made in almost half a century.
According to The Denver Post, Debra Wilcox says that "Any estimates you've heard about the future for this industry, they are probably low. A lot of industries are using a manufacturing process that is 50 years old, that can and will be both cost-effectively and time-effectively replaced by 3D printing."
Jeff Moe is a person who seems to be taking a huge advantage of 3D printers. Moe's Aleph Objects lab has over 135 3D printers that are running around the clock 5 days a week making printers and their parts.
In his first year, he was able to sell $80,000 worth of parts. This year, he is aiming for $10 million in sales. As of now, Aleph seems to be one of the busiest 3D printing clusters in the world.
