The Teeniest 3D Printer?

Researchers at the Vienna University of Technology have produced what they believe to be the world's smallest 3D printer. This device is "about the size of a milk carton", and should cost only €1200. The resin-based printer (which solidifies each of the object's layers successively in a vat of plastic resin with LEDs) has a resolution of 0.05mm, which is much higher than many consumer-grade 3D printers. 

 

One issue we foresee with this approach is that the build envelope is quite small. This means the device will be restricted for small objects and parts only. Perhaps this may become a favorite with jewelry designers? Game piece makers? The makers say they intend to "reduce the size of the printer", so uses may become even more constrained in the future.  

 

Via TUWien (Hat tip to Tom)

3D Printing Saves NYC Jeweler

Crain's New York Business reports on the fate of a New York City jewelery prototyping company, Tech-Designs, who produce one-of-a-kind jewelery models for designers far and wide. 

 

Amazingly, Tech-Designs, who have a staff of only three people, also have a fleet of seven 3D printers, which are kept busy printing six days a week. The printers are from Solidscape, who manufacture specialized dental printers. We suppose they also print jewelry equally as well, since Tech-Designs uses typical 3D modelling software to transform designer ideas into 3D models suitable for printing. 

 

While this rapid-prototyping approach may be more common these days, there's an interesting twist. According to Tech-Designs founder Carlos Zamora:

 

There are a lot of jewelry companies outsourcing to China now, and I could not compete with those prices and the labor. If it were not for this, I don't think I'd be in business. It means I can be price-competitive and keep the work here in the United States.

 

So we see robotic labor competing full-on against human labor, in a contest that surely won't be the last of its type. We're wondering if this pattern will spread widely, driven buy competitive forces, leading to a society of creatives masterminding squads of manufacturing robots. Advice to youngsters: brush up your design skills, you many need them. 

 

Via Crain's New York

Image Credit: Buck Ennis

FOC's Jointed Jewels

Freedom of Creation, one of the most dynamic artistic users of 3D printing technology have recently collaborated with Alissia Melka-Teichroew to produce "Jointed Jewels". These artistic jewellery items were made using selective laser sintering, one of the few technologies capable of producing a ball joint in a single operation. 

 

While each jewelry item appears unique, with different shapes, arrangements and colors, they are all in fact the same underlying ball-joint design simply repeated multiple times. Even more interesting is the fact that these items were produced "all in one go" using the 3D printing technology. No assembly required! 

 

As 3D print technology becomes more accessible to all, we predict seeing an increasing number of amazing designs and ideas brought to reality. In blue, too!  

 

Via Freedom of Creation

3D Gem Holders

Scott Elliot of the SD300 blog came up with a great idea: print Gem holders for homemade gemstones. Well, not exactly homemade, but home-etched. You see, he happens to have a C02 laser with which he's able to engrave tiny patterns onto the gemstones. He's discovered the best results are obtained from engraving "lab grown rubies and sapphires (both corundum)". 

 

A unique feature of these holders is a flexible flap on the holder's opening, which both secures the gem for storage and allows it to be pulled out for closer inspection. A flap like this can only be printed on a Solido printer - which is sheet fed. The flap is in fact just a portion of one layer's sheet. It may be very difficult to reproduce that design on other technologies.  

 

Via My SD300 3D Printer

Kick Start Those Earrings

Fluid Forms new golden earrings initiative is a unique approach to personal manufacturing. The idea is to produce individualized earrings based on a geographical location of your choice. The design is actually a street map of that location based on data obtained from open street maps. 

 

Which location should you choose? Perhaps it's a very special place from your past, where you went to school or met your spouse. Maybe it's just a radical intersection. 

 

To participate you must head over to Fluid Forms' KickStarter page, where a donation can get you in on batch number one. You'll be contacted by them to indicate your desired location. They'll whip up 50 unique pieces, etched in an acid bath and then gold plated. 

 

Via Fluid Forms and KickStarter (Hat tip to Steven)

One Blue Ring

The guys at Open3DP seem to have made a breakthrough in their quest to develop glass-based 3D printing. Every week they seem to make progress, and this week we see a "semi translucent blue glass ring". 

 

There's no details on their blog to describe how they managed to create this magical item, but if this is the future of glass printing, we like it a lot. Color 3D printing is wonderful - but translucent glass colored printing is simply stunning. We can imagine a plethora of applications for this, not the least of which will be jewelry. 

 

Well done, Open3DP! (Does it make you invisible?)

 

Via Open3DP (Hat tip to Mark)

Nervous Jewelry

Actually it's not the jewelry that's nervous, it's the creators. Or their company: Nervous System. They produce a line of jewelry (bracelets, rings, necklaces, earrings and brooches) that were generated by sophisticated algorithms in software. The designs are then either 3D printed, or in some cases 3D printed moulds are used to create the final objects.

Nervous System uses three different algorithms for much of their product lines: diffusion limited aggregation (which produces eerie coral-ish branching structures); Distortion meshes using a physics simulator (which produces weird twisty meshes that look strangely natural) and Catmull-Clark subdivision surfaces (which produce similar stretchy meshes, but they're a lot smoother).

Here's the best part: you can actually play with these algorithms yourself using three handy applets on their Tools page.

We're very pleased to see a few things going on here:

• 3D Printing technology is being used to create highly unique objects for a new business that might not have existed otherwise
• Advanced mathematical algorithms that emulate natural designs join 3D printing technology to produce something fantastic

Will small designers who employ these advanced techniques demonstrate the future of 21st century businesses? Will this approach grow and overtake conventional techniques? We're watching closely.

Via Nervous System (Hat tip to Jessica)

Romantic 3D Printing

You gotta believe we're all a serious bunch, always talking about Z-axis resolution, printing chemicals, trade shows, power requirements, NURBS and other tech stuff. But sometimes things just bump into reality. That's what happened to fynflood when he reached a moment in his life when technology changes life forever. Caught without funds to purchase a traditional engagement ring, he made one on a friend's MakerBot. Then:

I was waiting for this awesome romantic moment with the Northern Lights, stars, Moon and that sort of thing. It didn’t happen though. It was pretty cloudy most of the time we were there. On our last day, I was running out of time. While waiting for our bus to the airport, I handed her the little wooden box (I totally should have printed a box, didn’t think about that damnit) my friend got for me top-secret style. I told her I made it, then she says “You didn’t’ make this…” to which I replied “Not the box.. what’s inside”. She sure has a beautiful smile. Before she could get it on, I let her know that she couldn’t wear it unless she would marry me. She put it on.

Technology changes; life changes with it.

Via ObscureReality