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The Sweet Sound of 3-D Printed Violins
KALI9/GETTY IMAGES (VIOLINISTS); SHAWN PETERS (MARY-ELIZABETH BROWN)
MAKING MUSIC: Violins are a common instrument in school orchestras. (inset) AFFORDABLE FIDDLE: Mary-Elizabeth Brown plays a 3-D printed violin.
Traditional wooden violins are expensive. They can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. That high price tag prevents many people from learning to play the instruments. Concert violinist Mary-Elizabeth Brown wants to get more violins into the hands of young people by 3-D printing them at a much lower cost.
Brown is the director of the AVIVA Young Artists Program in Montreal, Canada. She’s working on a violin design made from plastic that anyone can create using a personal 3-D printer—a device that builds up layers of material to make solid objects. The instruments cost only $7 to make. “That means more people can try them and make music,” says Brown.
Personal 3-D printers can be used to print everything from spare parts and toys to violins. The diagram shows how these machines work.
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
DESIGN: A 3-D model of the object is uploaded onto a computer. The computer sends the file to the printer.
PLASTIC FEED: A spool of plastic filament feeds into the machine.
PRINTER HEAD: The plastic is heated. The melted material is squeezed out of a nozzle that moves up, down, left, and right, while the platform moves forward and back.
FINAL PRODUCT: The melted plastic is laid down in a particular pattern layer by layer. These cross sections build up to make a solid 3-D object.