It was co-created by a math professor called Henry Segerman , who also once made a working tesseract house in Second Life, but that's another story . (He made the gear with his colleague Saul Schleimer.) This is probably the coolest doodad you could put on your desk, but it's also quite innovative, and help proves that 3D printing can produce complex mechanisms. But let me let Professor Segerman explain:

This is a powered triple gear, which was created in a 3D printer, and it works just great, watch:

"Most 3D printed gears I've seen are planar," says Segerman, "or maybe bevel gears. Oskar van Deventer has done this kind of thing with two linked geared rings, but nobody has done it with three before.

"The motor itself isn't 3D printed," he allows, "we aren't quite at that level. But yes, you can make very complex mechanisms with it." Also, he adds, "[y]ou don't get the precision fitting of traditionally machined metal parts, but you can get things that work straight out of the printer with no assembly required. Also it lets you make things that you wouldn't be able to assemble, like the linked rings of the triple gear." So again, a possible innovation with great potential, or at the very least, a kickass tchotchkes for a geek's desk.

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