Lego-like parts that will form the building blocks for Google's Project Ara will be produced on 3D printers and ship in time for the customizable smartphone's release early next year.

With Project Ara, Google is looking to provide a configurable smartphone in which users can add desired hardware features by attaching modular parts. Buyers will get an empty phone frame and insert the hardware components they choose into the back of it. For example, they could swap a camera for an extra battery for longer run time.

3D Systems will manufacture the plastic parts, including the circuitry inside, President and CEO Avi Reichental said during a keynote Thursday at the Inside 3D Printing conference in New York. The company will also be able to print custom designs on the surfaces of the blocks to give buyers the look they want, he said.

Google is working with another company on an app customers will be able to use to design artwork for their phone, according to a Google video shown during Reichental's keynote. The video also showed Google experimenting with a version of Android for the Ara phone. Members of the Ara team were testing Android apps and drivers for the phone, which was attached to a development board that had an application processor.

3D printers have been used to make products as simple as toys and as complex as parts used in aircraft engines. But adding thin layers of metal, which would be necessary to produce the electronics inside the phone parts, has been a challenge. Only a handful of expensive 3D printers can combine plastic and micron-sized metals in the printing process.

Reichental said his company's work with Google will help to overcome the challenges in this type of printing.

By: DocMemory
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