10 Ridiculously Illegal Things You Can Make With A 3-D Printer

10. A Bicycle Helmet

This has already been done, perfectly legally you object, notably by Crux Product Design who have designed and made some sterling examples for Team GB, the all-conquering Olympic cycling people. Not yet available for the daily commute, these are items created by 3-D printing to demonstrate the massive advantages of the technology. Those of you that use cycle helmets are aware of there being good fits, bad fits and all sizes in between among the multitude of brands out there. That problem was never going to surface with these, since each individual athlete's head was scanned using a 3-D laser device. Next, a CAD file was extracted from the measurements and during just one night a prototype was produced. It doesn't take a top quality cycling coach to lecture us on the advantages of tailor-made, aerodynamically efficient helmets in competition. The benefits of printing at home for the average road user are undeniably huge in terms of manufacturing costs and goodness of fit, so what am I whining about? Well, this is just one example of a general pattern that could make manufacture of even the most mundane object ridiculously illegal. It's all about the litigation €“ setting out a clear framework of responsibility and liability when things go wrong with 3D printed items. I've chosen cycle helmets, but the same problem covers everything manufactured. It could apply to the fire retardant properties of chairs at sporting venues. It might concern the quality of, say, 3-D printed poles someone might dream up so that athletes can fly over a horizontal bar 6.14 m (20ft 1.73 in) in the air. It could be anything that has critical public safety implications that can be printed at home. Crux Product Design is a top quality design stable that wouldn't dream of sending anything to market without a rigorous testing regime in place, but can you imagine what would happen if any old Joe began knocking cycle helmets out on his desktop and flogging them off down the local market? It is a major headache for legislators, but as I say it's not the item that's illegal - just the person carrying the can when things go wrong.