Battle at EuroMold

EuroMold is a massive trade conference held in Frankfurt each year, billed as "World Fair for Moldmaking and Tooling, Design and Application Development". According to European Plastics News, this year poses to be a showdown among low-cost 3D Printer manufacturers. We add that it's actually just the *commercial* 3D printer manufacturers, as we could not find any of the hobbyist makers on the absolutely monstrous exhibitor list. 

 

Neverthless, the usual suspects will apparently be in attendance with their low cost commercial 3D printers, including:

 

• Objet - Alaris 30
• ZCorp - ZPrinter 150 and 250
• 3D Systems - BfB3000
• Solido - SD300
• Stratasys - uPrint Plus
• EnvisionTEC - Aureus

 

We suspect they'll be exhibiting the larger siblings as well. EuroMold runs from December 1-4, and we hope you'll make it. When will PP2P, MakerBot and RepRap attend?

  

Via European Plastics News and EuroMold

The Future of Objects Exhibition

Two contrasting exhibitions open in Pasadena California this month: a historical examination of "The Curious World of Patent Models", and the more contemporary "Future of Objects". The former looks at physical models constructed for patent application, as was the custom before 1880. Fortunately for inventors, this is no longer a requirement - but imagine if we still had to present physical models built to apply for a patent! The exhibition covers such items as an electric motor, paper cutting machine and the like. 

 

Contrasting the historical view is the smaller "Future of Objects" exhibition, in which various 3D printed objects created by local fabbing companies are on display. 

 

The best part of the joint exhibition: 

 

To bring the two exhibits closer together, Nowlin commissioned a 3D printed replica of an improved boot patent model from the 1800s. The two are displayed side-by-side, companions spanning the past and future.

The exhibitions can be seen at the Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery, Art Center College of Design in Pasadena until August 15th. 

 

Via Pasadena Star News

Materialise Replicates King Tut!

The Discovery Times Square Exposition in New York City has a unique addition to its display of Tutankhamen artifacts: King Tutankhamen himself! Or at least a very precise replica of his mummy. 

 

Artist Gary Staab was commissioned to prepare the replica, and he turned to 3D service Materialise for assistance. Using their sophisticated Mimics 3D modelling software, Materialise managed to convert a 3D CT scans of the actual mummy into a printable 3D model. 

 

The model was then printed on one of Materialise's "mammoth" stereolithography printers. After trimming off the support material, artist Gary Staab received the model and went to work developing color and texture to precisely match the true mummy's appearance. Paint and other materials gradually were added to the originally monochrome model, eventually making it extremely realistic. Be sure to watch the video, which takes you through the entire process. 

 

Via Materialise (Hat tip to Griet)

The Parallellipipeda Exhibition

The Singularity Hub reports on an exhibition taking place at the M Museum in Leuven, Belgium, where the Parallellipipeda Project attempts to leverage the Parallelepiped geometric shape. 

 

Amazing sculptures, plates, light fixtures and even furniture are being shown until 25 April. They've even included a 3D scanning booth, courtesy of EyeTronics, in which you can get your own face scanned - but only on the 7th and 11th of February. 

 

Many of the exhibits are sourced from iMaterialise's .MGX collection, but these are only displayed until 11 February. More on the .MGX collection in a future post. 

 

Via Singularity Hub, Leuven.be, iMaterialise and YouTube

Bios in San Jose!

The ZER01 Art and Technology Network is preparing for what promises to be a spectacular event in September 2010 in San Jose, California. The event is an art exhibition held every two years, and this year's theme is "Build Your Own World". Now that's the a theme Fabbaloo readers would like to hear more about.

One of the exhibitors will be the BIOS Collective: "BIOS collective is a working group of academic and professional designers exploring the application of biological patterns to architecture."

We've written about their interesting work before.

According to Charles Lee, Co-Founder & President of the Bios Design Collective:

We are hoping for a close relationship with the 3d community to try to help realize our project. The installation is entitled Coloniatechne and it is our hope that when complete it would be the largest collection of 3d printed panels yet assembled. We have budgeted for the purchase of at least three Reprap machines and hope to have them continuously run in a musuem or gallery setting for most of the next year for the final installation in September. Since we have only won the concept design phase of the project the specifics of the where has not been resolved yet. We want to make the production of the panels open to the whole 3d community in the hopes we can achieve the production of all the "Polyps" we need.

The ColoniaTechne project is uses the principles of agent-based self organization to form the structures. While these principles are found in many places within not only nature but also human society, Bios have chosen Coral as the inspiration of the ColoniaTechne project.

Our project proposes an interpretation of the qualities shared between complex biological systems – like coral – and the collaborative distributed networks found in 21st century human electronic culture. To create our project, we will draw from two open-source communities: one centered around the development of the “Replicating Rapid Prototyper” (RepRap) and one centered around the development of software for an open-source microcontroller (Arduino). With the help of these two communities, and SJ Zero-One, we will create a self-organized, interactive sculpture who’s behavior runs on crowd-sourced algorithms.

Bios plans to build a "Pavilion" at a point of high traffic and waiting area for convention commuters, where they will be astonished by the displays. Inside the pavilion unique "polyps" will use genetic algorithm-equipped "Grasshopper" software to develop the objects. However:

Grasshopper, and its companion program Rhino, are both down-loadable as fully functional trial versions, and so are available to anybody with a computer to run them. We will post a base algorithm on our blog, asking people to download and modify it to create their own versions. We will print their designs on our machines, or encourage them to print their own when possible, and drop them off. As our collection of polyps grows throughout the summer, we will add them to the base structure.

They're still in the early stages of this enormous project, but we thought there are many willing participants in the Fabbaloo sphere that might want to contact Bios to participate. "The project is still in concept design and will definitely develop in the coming months. We are looking for new members to help participate on the project so please feel free to contact Charles, Chris or Jess about possible opportunities and contributions."

Via Bios and ZER01

MCOR Exhibits in the UK

MCOR, who market a unique 3D printer based on paper media, have been doing significant marketing lately. This time they are participating at the 100% Design Exhibition in London, taking place at Earl's Court between Sept 24th and 27th. This "world-class interiors show" apparently draws more than 25,000 attendees.

According to MCOR's press release, they've been invited to produce 3D objects for two parties:

• Hector Serrano (objects to reduce carbon footprint)
  
• Redesign's Doing It for the Kids (sustainable toys and other play resources)
  

If you have wondered what quality a 3D paper printer can produce, we'd encourage you to drop by this exhibition.

By the way, MCOR's flagship product, the MCOR Matrix, is "currently available for sale in Ireland and the UK and will be rolled out globally commencing in Q1 2010".

Via MCOR and 100% Design (Hat tip to Deirdre)

Chicago: A Modeled City

 

The Chicago Architecture Foundation is presenting "Chicago Model City" from now until November of this year. It's a gigantic and highly detailed three-dimensional model of the windy city's downtown towers. Note the relative size of the individuals in the image above.

City models are not a new phenomenon - but in the past their construction involved dozens, perhaps hundreds of craftsmen toiling over teeny building parts for years. The results were impressive, but Chicago's approach was quite different. Due to budget difficulties, they were led towards 3D Printing, and that's how the buildings were made, more quickly and with less expense.

The results are amazing: 1000 buildings, 400 blocks of downtown Chicago, home of many of the world's most amazing skyscrapers. The scene will be illuminated just as the actual city is by our sun. Check out this video with scenes from the exhibit.

Via Chicago Architecture Foundation and Chicago Sun-Times

Metropolitan Works Exhibits

 

They've just recently opened, and now the new Metropolitan Works has an interesting exhibition going on. According to dezeen:

An exhibition featuring work by designers including Tord Boontje, Timorous Beasties and Antony Gormley opens at creative industry centre Metropolitan Works in London on Monday.

(That would be Monday, February 9th, 2009)

Judging by the photos (including the fascinating speakers pictured above, which are adorned with 3D printed insects), we're pretty certain there will be some interesting exhibits to examine if you happened to be nearby in the next few weeks.

Via dezeen Magazine and designboom