Xerox Opens First Research Lab In India

By Peter Lavelle
Wednesday 17 March 10:30 GMT

Ink cartridge manufacturer Xerox has opened its first research laboratory in India. Initiated in January last year and housed in Chennai, the lap will develop innovative approaches to document management in developing markets. In conjunction with Indian universities, it aims especially to address managed print services through local concerns. It will develop projects including: multilingual technologies and rural technology initiatives.

The lab’s concern with document management reflects Xerox’s recent move away from printer manufacturing into service provision. Recently Xerox purchased business processing outsourcing company ACS (Affiliated Computer Services) for $6bn for this purpose. In addition, last week Xerox accredited 22 new partners to distribute its managed print services in Europe.

The new Indian research centre will join laboratories already housed in: Canada, France, Palo Alto and Webster. Later this year Xerox plans to show the fruits of its research centres in a new technology showroom. The showroom is intended to assist researchers in India concentrate on ‘pain points’ in emerging markets.

Sources

Anonymous, ‘Xerox India Innovation Hub,’ Xerox.com, 2010.
Katie Hoffmann, ‘Xerox Opens Research Lab In India, Its First In Emerging Market,’ BusinessWeek.com 17 March 2010.

Italian Entrepreneur Plans Printed Buildings

By Peter Lavelle
Tuesday 16 March 11:24 GMT

Imagine a grey cathedral apparently carved from a single rock. The sedimentary stone stretches several hundred metres skyward, looming over the brick and concrete structures below.

The buildings are rectangular, but the cathedral lurches at weird angles. It resembles a Christmas tree, threatening to topple. The cathedral’s windows are oddly shaped mouths agape.

The complete structure is lunar grey, as though carved from the moon and transported to earth.

This might be taken from the imagination of Italian entrepreneur Enrico Dini. A resident of Piza, Dini has spent 7 years labouring to bind sand to chemical solutions. He hoped to create a machine that prints buildings.

Now with help from his mechanical engineer brother Ricardo he has succeeded. The machine housed in his shed in Piza can not only print structures including cathedrals. It can potentially use the moon’s dust to create buildings on the lunar surface.

Dini’s invention can revolutionise architecture. By binding layers of sand with a magnesium solution, the printer creates solid rock. The results are capable of withstanding freezing and boiling temperatures. The million-year process require to create sedimentary rock is reduced to a day.

Even better, the printer forms buildings at a third of the price of concrete construction and several times faster. The organic curves banished from architecture by practical necessity become possible. Building planners need be inhibited by neither vision nor cost.

Dini calls his printer “d-shaped technology.” He is presently finalising a pavilion for a roundabout in Pantedera – a nearby town. The pavilion is a “proof of principle” project intended to impress potential investors.

Already though the Architectural Association has requested a market model of his machine, and Dini is negotiating with the European Space Agency. They are interested in the application of his machine to expand our lunar presence.

In the meantime Dini has ambitions to print a cathedral, and jokes about recreating the Leaning Tower of Piza. Whether this happens though depends on investment – Dini has spoken with several London equity firms seeking financial support. But if his printer gains popularity, it could change the face of building construction.

Sources

Jane McEntegart, ‘3D Printer Could Build A Church (Or Moon Houses),’ TomsGuide.com, 15 March 2010.
John Baichtal, ‘Giant 3D Printer Can Print Buildings (Theoretically),’ MakeZine.com, 12 March 2010.
Tim Abrahams, ‘The World’s First Printed Building,’ BluePrintMagazine.co.uk, 8 March 2010.