3D Print Meat With Your Imagine 3D Printer

We spoke with Essential Dynamics Sales Manager, Stevie Green regarding their new personal 3D printer, the Imagine 3D Printer. As we reported earlier, this printer is unique among ready-to-go assembled personal 3D printers as it uses syringes instead of the more common hot plastic extruders. This means it is capable of printing room-temperature gooey substances, including food! 

  

Fabbaloo: Is the device actually available for purchase today? 

 

Stevie Green: Yes. We have not gone all out, in marketing our product, only because we've had a large pre-order list that we are working through, right now. Thus, any overt marketing only tests our production limits. We are working around the clock to fix both these situations.

  

Fabbaloo: What examples of food printing have you managed to do with it?  

 

Stevie Green: We have used all meats (chicken, fish, turkey, beef, pork) that have been brought to a soluble state in a blender and then printed into customized shapes. Some of the more extravagant ones have been star shaped sushi's.  Until Imagine, sushi only came in two shapes, oblong and circular.  We have completely redefined these shape.  From now on, sushi will no longer come in only 2 shapes.  It will come in any shape you desire.

 

Since Imagine is a dual syringe system this opens up the opportunity to do fusion foods like never before. You can make salmon shots infused with red wine. This is the ultimate health food. All your omegas, vitamins, and resveratrol, all rolled up into one awesome shot!! New and healthy combinations, new fusions, unusual shapes, it is going to be an explosion of creativity. 

  

Our community website, Mongasso.com, (currently in Beta) is going to be the new center for this creative designing. Here you can engage in creating your own designs, sharing designs, collaborating with others in designing, getting others to design for you. It is the home for all forms of expressions of creativity. By creating a free account on Mongasso, users will have access to the whole world and the talents of people from around the world. 

Fabbaloo: What software is used to prepare food models? Is it the same approach as used for plastic 3D printing, or are there other considerations and software?   

 

Stevie Green: Food models are prepped in the same manner as any other cad file.  We use Google Sketchup.

  

Fabbaloo: How do you handle the foodsafe aspects?  

 

Stevie Green: There are actually only two points on the machine that come in contact with food: The syringes and the build tray. We use a food safe build tray and the syringes, we currently discard after usage. We will be providing washable glass syringes shortly.

  

Fabbaloo: What are your plans for the future? 

 

Stevie Green: Our future consists of many phases but primarily to get people acclimated to the technology.  We want to open up their minds as to the possibilities.  What excites us the most, is what creative things people will make with Imagine.  Once you can Imagine, you can redefine your world.   

 

For more information, check out the USD$2,995 Imagine 3D Printer at their site below. 

 

Via Essential Dynamics

Wohlers On 3D Printing Futures

At a recent seminar we were able to meet with 3D printing consultant Terry Wohlers. Terry has been a leading 3D printing and additive manufacturing industry consultant and prolific speaker for over 25 years. Each year he publishes the definitive report on the industry, available from his website. We asked his opinion on 3D printing futures: 

 

Fabbaloo: 3D printing is a growth technology, but have you observed differences in interest level in different areas of the world? Where is 3D printing really "hot"?

 

Terry Wohlers: 3D printing, also referred to as additive manufacturing, is capturing the interest of many around the world. All developed regions have embraced it on several levels. According to our research, the countries that are leading in its adoption are the U.S., Germany, China, and Japan, with the U.S. well out in front of everyone else. 

 

It has been interesting to watch the adoption of 3D printing take off in many countries such as Brazil, South Africa, and Turkey. Many years ago, they were slow to accept the technology, but now growth is strong. 

 

Fabbaloo: As you've suggested, there's a growing trend for personal 3D printers. How do you see the personal market evolve vs. the commercial market? Will the personal market ever surpass the commercial market?

 

Terry Wohlers: It's a little early to know exactly how the personal systems market will unfold. Machines that sell for $700 - $4,000 have developed over the past four years and the market for them has been strong in the past two. It may be that after the "low hanging fruit" disappears, the market will soften. Another scenario is that this market segment is in its infancy and will strengthen, especially as educational institutions adopt them in significant numbers. I expect that this will be the more likely development.

 

Fabbaloo: You've stated that one of the barriers to consumer adoption of 3D printing is access to 3D content. How could that issue be resolved? 

 

Terry Wohlers: 3D content is indeed the "gating" factor to widespread growth in both the professional and consumer markets. For casual or inexperienced designers, a number of products and services are becoming available. 3DTin and Tinkercad are web-based CAD systems targeted at amateurs. 3DVIA Shape from Dassault and 123D from Autodesk are free CAD software products with interesting capabilities for non-professionals. Meanwhile, a number of websites have developed that offer 3D models that you can download and use. Some of the models can be modified and personalized, to some extent. All of these tools and websites will contribute favorably to the creation of 3D content.

 

Fabbaloo: HP has sorta-kinda entered the 3D printing space with their partnership with Stratasys. Do you see any other non-3D printing vendors entering the space? 

 

Terry Wohlers: I anticipate that a number of companies, large and small, will enter the business. I would not be surprised if companies such as Apple, Amazon, Epson, FedEx Office, and Google were to somehow get into the 3D printing business. I do not have any insight into these companies, so this is purely speculation on my part. However, these and other corporations will quite possibly consider new business models in 3D printing, if they haven't already.

More on the 3D Systems' BotMill Acquisition

We were a tiny bit surprised last week when we learned that up and coming 3D printer manufacturer and marketer BotMill was snapped up by industry giant 3D Systems. At the time there was not a lot of information available about this move, so we contacted 3D Systems VP of Global Marketing to clarify the situation. 

 

Fabbaloo: Can you describe the nature of the acquisition? When did it occur, and what  exactly was acquired? 

 

Cathy Lewis: We acquired essentially all of the BotMill assets and brought the team on board at 3D Systems under the leadership of Gil Mayron last week.

  

Fabbaloo: What attracted 3D Systems to BotMill? Why acquire them? 

 

Cathy Lewis: BotMill addresses a growing customer desire for affordable, fully assembled 3D Printer Kits.  

 

Fabbaloo: Will BotMill continue to exist in its present form, or are there plans to merge it with your existing hobbyist line of 3D printers? What happens to BotMill's staff? Are changes expected at BFB? 

 

Cathy Lewis: We do not anticipate changes at this time – our goal is to expand the BotMill operation in response to customer requirements and build on the successful groundwork of Gil and his team.  

 

Fabbaloo: Does this acquisition suggest that 3D Systems is focusing more energy on home 3D printing? 

 

Cathy Lewis: 3D Systems has stated that we intend to democratize access and accelerate adoption of 3D printing solutions for professionals and consumers alike. The addition of BotMill is another step in that strategic direction.

 

Fabbaloo: BotMill uses the open source RepRap design, but we're wondering if this will change as a result of the acquisition? Will BotMill's products incorporate propreitary features from 3D Systems' other operations? 

 

Cathy Lewis: We plan no specific changes at this time but, as always, we will listen to our customers and insure that they receive the best 3D printing experience possible.

 

So it seems that 3D Systems is simply expanding their reach by acquiring another leading 3D printing company, this time in the personal 3D printing space. 3D Systems has a technical strategy of providing a variety of 3D printing approaches that enable them to address many different client needs, and their corporate expansion strategy appears quite similar: Cover All The Bases. 

What's Next for RapCAD?

Some months ago we wrote about a new 3D modeling software venture, RapCAD. We hadn't heard too much about it recently, so we thought we'd have a chat with RapCAD chief Giles Bathgate: 

 

Fabbaloo: How did you come to be interested in CAD and 3D modeling? 

 

Giles Bathgate: From an early age I was fascinated by things such as BigTrak and the Turtle in the Logo programming language. Later as school work experience I was introduced to AutoCAD. One of the nice things about AutoCAD was its interpreter based interface. Fast forward 20 years or so having used various CAD packages through College and University, and I find myself in a job writing business computer software, a departure from by Graphics and Design based roots. I do like the GUI based CAD packages, but one of the things that you often do when using AutoCAD for example is to create temporary construction lines that you either delete or put on a layer that is never used or seen. From another persons perspective its not always obvious how you arrived at your final design. Having worked in the software industry and seeing the vital role of version control, I realise that what is missing from CAD is the transcript of decisions made during the design process. When I came across OpenSCAD I saw that solves some of these problems when used in conjunction with version control.

 

FB: Tell us the goals and intentions of RapCAD. Why yet another 3D software tool?

 

GB: As I started to use OpenSCAD, I found that some areas of the software were a bit inconsistent and limiting, furthermore at the time there were long gaps between short bursts of development, as the transition of maintenance was being transferred from Clifford Wolf to Marius Kintel. On the whole however, it's a great piece of software and provided a sound basis for developing RapCAD. Another piece of software that I was not completely satisfied with at the time was the official Reprap host software. Its a pioneering piece of software that's main focus is perfecting slice and dice algorithms rather than providing the end user with a pleasant UI experience. My favourite piece of software at the time was Repsnapper, which provided a better UI, but I found the slice and dice algorithms although much faster were not producing very reliable results.

 

The Goal of RapCAD is to combine these two key areas of software into a complete solution. To provide an open source design and prototyping tool that has all the advantages of a script based model description, as well as the ability to turn the design directly into GCODE instructions to control a rapid prototyping 3D printer.

 

FB: RapCAD was announced late last year - what's happened since then?

 

GB: The development of RapCAD thus far has mostly been a learning process for me. I have been using the OpenSCAD source as a reference. I must confess I am not a big fan of the way OpenSCAD has been written, and some of the design choices made (e.g. variables that don't vary, and the intersection_for kludge). I felt that I could learn a lot more by starting from scratch than trying to modify the existing code base to make it do what I wanted. I am now at a point where I have started making monthly binary releases. So far can do about 90% of what OpenSCAD is also capable of doing, having said that though I think that most of the things that are implemented are largely improvements over the way OpenSCAD does things.

 

FB: You've indicated RapCAD will address RepRap and MakerBot machines - but what about other machines that are becoming popular, like BFB, Ultimaker, Up!, BotMill or others?

 

GB: Not only do I intend to support all the additive machines mentioned above, I also want to make the software flexible enough for controlling subtractive machines such as CNC routers. The idea is to use a special type of RapCAD script called an .rcam script that will perform the slicing dicing and generate paths that will be used by the GCODE generation code. More about this can be found on my recent blog post.  

 

FB: What is the development roadmap for the next year? What are the key capabilities that will emerge?

 

GB: The key features that I want to work on now are GCODE generation and after that integrating printer control. I am very pleased to see that libreprap development coming along and I think this will be a crucial library for providing the latter of these features. I think my main milestone for announcing a 1.0.0 version would be: to be able to think of a reasonably feature full design, create a script to describe that design, and then have RapCAD produce the commands to turn that design into a 3D print on my Reprap Mendel. 

    

Version 2.0.0 might see the addition of integration with git to make version control quick and easy, as well as completing the integration of native ThingDoc to produce documentation and images from the script.

 

FB: Is there anything you'd request of our readers? Do you need particular kinds of assistance?

 

GB: I would love if your readers could test out my (alpha) releases, which I am doing monthly. The latest is 0.2.0, and is available for Ubuntu, Windows and Mac OS X. I need people who are early adopters and understand that it is still very much a work in progress. If there are any coders out there that feel like looking at the code and pointing out potential problems or pitfalls that would be very much appreciated. As always feature suggestions and patches will be welcomed.

 

You can check out the evolving RapCAD at the link below. 

 

Via RapCAD

Gartner's Jackie Fenn on 3D Printing

Fabbaloo interviewed Gartner Analyst Jackie Fenn, VP and Gartner Fellow covering Emerging Trends. Jackie writes on a variety of new technologies and approaches, one of which has been 3D printing. 

 

Jackie is the originator of Gartner's famous Hype Cycle, which proposes that every technology follows a consistent pattern of interest through its lifecycle. Jackie's team tracks various technologies by placing them on the Hype Cycle. You can listen to Jackie explain how it works right here. 

 

Let's find out what Gartner thinks of our favorite technology:

 

How long has Gartner had their eye on 3D Printing?

Our manufacturing analysts have been watching the area of rapid prototyping technology for many years, of course, but we noticed something was changing after seeing a couple of 3D printers at the 2006 SIGGRAPH exhibition. The price points and small-business appeal were radically different from what had gone before. At that time we said in a report that “the quality has increased, and the cost has decreased to the level that is likely to broaden its appeal within five years”, which was probably about right.

Which commercial vendors does Gartner follow? Does Gartner follow the open source projects and inexpensive kit manufacturers?

We are keeping our eye on the various techniques and vendors, including open source and initiatives like RepRap that aims to build a machine that can print its own parts to replicate itself (remind me to hire Schwarzenegger as a bodyguard once they get that one working).

Does Gartner still view 3D Printing as an emerging technology? What would transform 3D Printing into a mainstream technology? How do you see Gartner's coverage of this area evolving over the next few years? 

We are still featuring it as an emerging technology due to the general lack of awareness about its capabilities and its potential. However most of the detailed coverage is happening out of our printing practice area, by my colleague Pete Basiliere. We expect that coverage to grow over time as more of our clients become interested in what it can do for them and how to integrate it into their IT and business processes.

We've observed many unique innovative uses of 3D printing in recent months, including a variety of medical, industrial and artistic applications. Where do you anticipate seeing future opportunities for innovation? 

The potential is limitless – just about every client I explain the technology to starts brainstorming on what they could do with it. A couple of the most common themes seem to be aesthetic modeling and medical/dental.

Who should be buying a 3D printer today, and who should be using 3D print services?

Buying a 3D printer would make sense for small (or even large) business who sell short run/one-off models or who make money off their designs (like architects). But I can see a growing number of hobbyists being interested in buying. The key factor is how much time you want to invest in learning how the machine works and how to use 3D modeling languages. 

Is the futuristic vision of average consumers printing their own items really going to happen? Or will home usage forever remain a niche activity? What missing elements are required to truly break open the 3D printing space to the general public? Is it simply a matter of awareness or education, or are there technical challenges to overcome? 

I can imagine that the ability to download a design and print it at home will be available within 10 years at a price point that is suitable for early mainstream consumers. It may become the “must-have” holiday present at some point during that time frame. I can also imagine that there will be easy-to use software that allows kids to tweak the designs to create an infinite number of small plastic toys (help!). For the technology to become mainstream we’ll also need an IP ecosystem for the designs that people will buy, download and modify. This probably won’t happen until after an initial period of confusion and free-for-all, as happened with music. Real maturity will need an iTunes equivalent (iPrint? iDesign?) 

Let's advance the calendar to 2015. What should we expect to see in the 3D printing space that's different from today?

In five years I think that the printers themselves will be cheap enough that many people could buy them, but that the design software will still be a little tricky for many users. So it will still be mainly businesses of all sizes, hobbyists and early adopters. This is definitely one of those areas where Paul Saffo’s comment applies – that people tend to overestimate the speed that a new technology will arrive, but underestimate the long term impact.

Puzzling BitTorrent and 3D Printing

 

There's a fascinating interview of Bram Cohen on the Shapeways Blog. That name sounds familiar? It should, because he's the inventor of BitTorrent, that famous or infamous highly efficient network transfer protocol that swept the world and changed how big media companies operator forever.

But what's this got to do with 3D printing? Turns out that Bram is a puzzle fiend, designing highly complex 3D puzzles using sophisticated software and a lot of imagination. And now he's using Shapeways as the service platform to build and sell his creative 3D puzzles in physical form.

It's ironic, you might figure, that someone who invented something that dramatically affected intellectual property rights is now selling his own intellectual property on Shapeways. But Bram doesn't see it that way. From Shapeways Blog:

I have a lot less interesting in the subject of intellectual property than most people seem to expect. I have an interest in networking protocols, and also one in puzzles, both of which happen to bring up intellectual property issues, but I deal with such issues of necessity, not because I particularly care about them. There is the interesting question of how to get puzzles produced, and also how to try to make money off of their production, which ideally I'd like to do, but that's a secondary issue, since obviously it's impossible to make money off a puzzle which people aren't very interested in even if it's free.

And:

In some sense that already exists and I post my own stuff to it - the 'Puzzle will be played' burr site has a huge collection of burr puzzles, and most of my experience with burr puzzles comes from rebuilding most of the puzzles from that site in Burrtools. Only a tiny fraction of all puzzles have any commercial value whatsoever, so piracy isn't really an issue for them. Among the puzzles with a little bit of commercial value, the few people and companies who make them are generally quite strict about only producing things with permission, because the community is small enough that there's little gain and a lot of potential ostracism from doing otherwise. For the rare puzzle which has so much commercial potential that it might attract real knockoffs, the two approaches are to either make a brand-based premium version, as the Rubik's Cube does these days, or to ramp up supply ahead of the knockoffs while the fad moves along, as the Rubik's Cube completely failed to do when it was first introduced. Patents don't in practice help all that much. All of that is in the 'good problem to have' category though - most mechanical puzzles simply fail commercially, and it's unusual for one to succeed enough for knockoffs to be a concern.

And that's the truth: Bram is simply an inquisitive person who solves puzzles, like the one about transferring data efficiently. He didn't take on the music and movie industries; it was those who used his technology who did.

And that brings us back to 3D Printing. It's a technology, just like BitTorrent, and can be used for good or evil. It's up to us, the users and pioneers of the technology to see what we can make of it.

Via Shapeways

An Interview with Sculptor Bathsheba Grossman

We've noticed Grossman before and been very impressed with her work. Now we find a full-length interview with the sculptor from Desktop Engineering Online, in which she explains how she came to use 3D print tech. Highlights we observed:

• Grossman feels that she was “backed into” working with 3D printing as a way to accomplish her sculptures, because her designs aren’t moldable.
• I needed a production method that's able to produce quantities of unmoldable designs, and there really is only this one
• Grossman uses ProMetal, an Ex One LLC company and service bureau, to execute her 3D models. The material used is a composite metal (not an alloy) of about 60 percent steel, 40 percent bronze
• Once she has a model whether it’s actually physical or mental, she designs it in CAD software, usually Rhinoceros software, or other software and freeware
• For Grossman, the learning curve for 3D modeling was initially steep, and it still remains a time consuming, technical process
• scanning technology can't (yet) handle the undercutting and interlacing found in her pieces
• It's easier to do this in metal than in plastic; art buyers like metal
• Grossman feels she has demonstrated that a broad-based consumer market exists for 3D printed products

We can't agree more; with the emergence of numerous popular consumer-oriented 3D services, the field of 3D printing is now growing rapidly.

Via Desktop Engineering

Desktop Factory is Ponoko'd

Our friends at the revolutionary manufacturing service Ponoko recently interviewed Cathy Lewis, CEO of Desktop Factory, the company attempting to market a quality 3D printer for less than US$5,000. We've interviewed Ms. Lewis here, but Ponoko covered different areas. Some highlights we noticed:

• Desktop Factory believes their big opportunity lies in providing 3D technology to the education segment, which as a side effect will assist in the generation of new engineers.
• They also were surprised by the interest in printing avatars from virtual worlds. We've seen several different services emerge that can perform this feat.
  
• They forsee a future reduction in transportation-generated carbon footprint, as some items can be printed directly at home instead of being shipped half-way across the planet.
• They expect to see the initial users of 3D printing tech to be early adopters, capable of handling the associated technology issues, but later expect to see development of more mainstream services built on top of the home printing infrastructure.
• They anticipate a gradual transition from 3D print services to a more distributed approach, including home 3D printers and "Over time I can see Kinko’s having 3D printers available to their customers".

Via Ponoko Blog and again