#1739: ModelMould

One of the things holding 3-D printing back in the domestic marketplace is the cost of the material. One of the things holding the famous Sugru substance back is that it’s very hard to make regular shapes that don’t look like an amateur potter’s first attempt to make a garden gnome.

Today’s invention seeks to help out both these great ideas.

A 3-D printer is used to make a thin mould (grey) of some common object which is known to fail (say a plastic switch from a Dyson vacuum cleaner). This single mould can then be reused many times by being press-filled with Sugru (blue).

The result is one way to create repair or enhancement parts which have the same surface and geometrical regularity as mass produced items.