Extreme Redesign Contest Winners for 2011

The winners in Dimension's Extreme Redesign contest for this year have been announced! As is the case every year, the contest has three major categories: College, Art & Architecture, Middle/High School. Buildings & Bridges and Puzzles & Games. 

 

You can check out all the winners at the link below, but a couple of items caught our eye as being especially interesting. 

 

The third place winner of the College category was a pair of students from Toronto, David Di Giuseppe and Arash Nouraee, who developed a solution to the problem of using a laptop on your lap. (Aside: shouldn't that have been a design requirement of all laptops from the start? Hmm.) Their solution is a specialized laptop case that doubles as a safe-to-use desk upon which you may use the laptop. This item even has a great name: Desk2go!

 

Elliot Wilm of Illinois won the Middle/High School category with something we've always needed but were too dumb to think of it ourselves: A doorstop embedded within the door itself! The doorstop acts like a vertical dead bolt that drops down and stabilizes door swing. This not only holds the door open for you when you are hauling in groceries, but also protects the door from scuffs feet kicking and holding open the door while your hands are full. 

 

Great designs from all the winners!  

 

Via Dimension

A Visit to the ITC

You're looking at a picture of Stephen McKendry-Smith of Manitoba's Industrial Technology Centre. This organization is a government-funded operation dedicated to economic development, particularly in the use of new technologies such as 3D printing. 

 

The ITC now has a Dimension SST1200es onsite that they use to demonstrate 3D printing concepts and technology to interested small businesses. They'll even print a model for the business to show them how it can work for them. Businesses can see, touch and understand exactly what it can do. 

 

We think this approach is quite appropriate, as there are many businesses who are still unaware of 3D printing and the numerous advantages it may hold for them. If businesses everywhere had access to this type of advisory center, we think a lot more progress could be made. 

 

Via ITC (PDF) and ITC

Extreme Redesign Challenge Winners 2011

The winners of this year's Extreme Redesign Challenge have been announced by Dimension Printing. The annual contest permits students from several levels to enter their designs in five categories: College Engineering; Art and Architecture; Middle School/High School Engineering; Puzzle and Game Design; Building or Bridge Redesign. 

 

This year's winners include: 

 

• College Engineering: Jeremy Prince of Tennessee, who designed a "prone stander", a device enabling children with cerebral palsy to assist in developing muscles. 
• Art and Architecture: Dov Feinmesser & Aaron Hendershott of Toronto, who produced a children's chair that has several different operating modes. 
• Middle/High School Engineering: Elliot Wilm of Illinois designed a doorstop. But it's a very special doorstop that is embedded within the door itself, providing many advantages. 
• Building or Bridge Redesign: Jeevan Farias of New Jersey, who redesigned the Beijing National Stadium to reduce the amount of electricity required and add clean energy sources such as wind turbines. 
• Puzzle or Game Design: Kyle Wilkinson of Indiana, who made a kind of spherical Rubik's cube, complete with a hidden chamber. 

 

Congratulations to all the winners!

 

Via Dimension Printing

Enter The Extreme Redesign Contest Now

Every year Dimension Printing sponsors a design contest for students, in which entrants try to redesign something they use every day in a unique way. Winning entries will be awarded scholarships and of course have their designs actually printed on Dimension 3D printing equipment. 

 

Who can enter? There are three categories:

 

• Middle / high school level engineering challenge (In Europe: School/College Engineering, 16-18 years old)
• College level engineering challenge (In Europe: University Engineering, 18+ years old)
• Art & architectural challenge open to students of all grade levels

 

This contest always generates some truly interesting inventions, and we're anxiously awaiting the judging.  

 

And did we way the contest closes at the end of the month? You'd better get your entry in soon!

 

Via Dimension Printing

Racing Prototypes

MCD Racing produces radio-controlled racing cars, 1/5 the size of real vehicles. These are not toys - they are highly sophisticated machines capable of winning world championships. These cars are capable of world record speeds of an unbelievable 260Kph (161mph)! Obviously they must be very carefully designed, perhaps with 1/5 the effort that goes into Formula One full size equipment. 

 

The 1,000+ parts involved in such vehicles are typically produced using injection molding at a cost of USD$20-40K, with a month of turnaround time. However, MCD invested in a Dimension 3D printer and has used it to develop over 200 prototypes at far lower cost and much faster turnaround time (days). 

 

But note - the parts produced on the 3D printer are not actually used in the final vehicles. While parts are pretty strong, they simply won't withstand the extreme environment at ultra-high speeds. Instead, the 3D printed parts are used in lower-speed testing to validate their function before full-on aluminum injection molding is attempted.  

 

Via Dimension Printing and MCD Racing

3D Printed Bridge Holds 146X Its Own Weight

Students at the Rochester Institute of Technology Statics Lab were challenged to build a truss out of any non-metallic material, with the winning design being the one holding up the most weight.

 

While other students opted for traditional materials such as bamboo or wood, student Kyle Manchester remembered there was a Dimension 3D printer on campus from previous work he'd done. He decided what any of us would do: print the truss components on the Dimension 3D printer. 

 

By carefully designing the components to match the predicted static loads, Kyle printed out the dozens of required objects and assembled them into the bridge you see in the image above. You'll also perhaps notice the more than 40 bricks supported by the not-so-fragile 1.3 pound truss. The truss also held up a team member weighing 190 pounds, meaning it held up 146.15 times its own weight. 

 

Hat tip to Jessica

Dimension's STARBASE

3D printer manufacturer Dimension is contributing back to the community by working with STARBASE Minnesota on a way to deeply involve students in the process of 3D manufacturing. The students, from Minneapolis area public schools, are shown problems, data and techniques and they work out solutions. 

 

One of their projects has been to design a mission to the Planet Mars. They design the rocket parts using 3D modelling tools, which are then actually produced on a Dimension printer. The rockets are then launched (if they work) and the students learn what works and what doesn't. Experimentation is the path to the truth. 

 

Via StarbaseMN and YouTube (Hat tip to Jessica)

Which Desktop 3D Printer Do I Buy? Part Two

Editor: This is a guest post courtesy of well-known 3D Printing blogger Joris Peels. Most recently Joris was the Community Manager for Shapeways, but these days he's blogging at VoxelFab. This is part two of a two-part post. You may read part one here. 

   

The Dimension uPrint Plus (a.k.a. HP Designjet)

 

Don't get the entry level uPrint, it only has one material color. The Dimension 3D printers work on FDM (Fused Depostion Modeling) technology that takes a thin strand of ABS plastic and builds up your models layer by layer. The support material is dissolved in a soda bath. FDM usually does not make for very pretty 3D printed parts. However the technology does have the highest dimensional accuracy & strength. The Dimension systems are the easiest to operate in an office environment & support material removal is also comparatively easy.   

 

The Plus costs $16,000 & the HP Designjet, which is the same printer, is around that price. 

 

The Good

• Ease of use
• Strong parts in ABS
• Highest dimensional accuracy
• Easy support material removal
• No post processing needed

 

The Bad

• Parts are not pretty
• Separate soda bath station required

 

Recommendation

 

This would be less suited for elaborate client pitches. It would be eminently suited for internal testing of functional parts and more engineering focused firms.   

 

Also look at:

 

The Dimension Elite. Although larger and more expensive at $22,000 this is the tried and trusted Dimension printer with a larger build volume & more detail.  

 

Dream Customer: Foster + Partners 

 

Objet Alaris 30

 

The Objet Alaris 30 is relatively expensive at around $40,000. Objet systems use a photopolymer that is hardened by UV light. Support material has the consistency of hard hair gel and can be removed by water jet. The technology is very accurate with very fine layers and the parts made with is look very arty. The parts are however not very strong and begin to melt at 58 Celsius.  

 

The Good

• Highest detail
• Pretty looking parts

 

The Bad

• Parts not strong
• Material is proprietary technology so least understood
• I'm meltinggggg 
• Support removal can be very tricky with some interior spaces
• Separate water jet station required.  

 

Recommendation  

 

This would be the system I would re commend to a creative "space & form" focused architectural firm. Art and design objects look good coming from Objet machines and the level of detail makes a lot of people go "wow." The parts are however not very strong so less suitable for shipping around the world. 

 

Dream Customer: OMA 

 

I hope I've begun to illustrate that there really isn't a "best" 3D printing technology out there. It all depends what kind of parts you need and what you want to do with them. When buying a system make sure you understand and have the capability to master every production step. For this investment to make sense you need people in house that know how to design for 3D printing, know how to repair and nest designs & now how to remove support material from parts. Understand the total time it will take you to get a model. Things such as "build speed" are quite irrelevant if one model must cool off for 24 hours and the other must not for example. Also look into service bureaus and compare the total costs of ordering from them & time to get your part versus owning your own printer. Many people forget to factor in labor, an important cost factor. From the outset look at the total price of the system and all the parts you need. Some systems need curing & post processing units that increase the cost by half or more. Most important of all get your hands on as many parts as you can from the different technologies you are evaluating. Touch them, play with them, test them, break them, leave them on your desk and ask everyone for feedback & print out the actual parts you would need for your business. If you do these things the best 3D printer for you should become clear. 

 

You can follow Joris Peels on Twitter here or read his 3D printing blog VoxelFab here.