海角大神

3D printing is coming, and it will change the way that automakers do business. (It will also shake up the聽,听, and the entire field of聽, but those are subjects for another time.)

We've already seen the way that聽聽uses 3D printing聽. We've also read about car fans like聽, who use 3D printers to create parts for vintage rides -- something made even easier by filesharing sites like聽, which now has a special section dedicated to blueprints for auto parts. For collectors,听聽for a pint-sized Cayman, and more recently, Honda did the same for聽.听

So far, one of the big downsides of 3D printing has been the limited range of materials available. Not only are most 3D printers limited to using one material at a time (though聽), but most of those materials aren't the sort of thing you'd want to use when building a bona fide car.

Until now.听

A Boston startup called MarkForged has unveiled a new聽, and one of the many materials it can employ is carbon fiber. In fact, the Mark One makes use of many composite materials, including nylon and fiberglass. According to聽:

Designed to overcome the strength limitations of traditional 3D printed materials, the revolutionary Mark One 3D printer is the world鈥檚 first 3D printer designed聽to print continuous carbon fiber. Now you can print parts, tooling, and fixtures with a higher strength-to-weight ratio than 6061-T6 Aluminum.

Of course, as awesome as it sounds, the Mark One still won't be big enough to print a full-grown car -- but it's one step closer to the dream.

The Mark One is available for pre-order at a price of $4,999. It's expected to ship in the second half of 2014.