A 3D Printed Heart

We were contacted by designer Mat Schwartz, who's been experimenting with jewelry printing. Recently he made something unique for Valentine's Day: a heart. He had been developing jewelry in the form of traditional rings but then was inspired by a Circulation Research report project he'd been working on: 

 

If you have been following the blog you may recall the Circulation Research cover that I did.  Part of that project required me making a 3D Model of a Heart.  After a few sculptures I made from online references, Priscila lent me a medical model of a heart so I could finally make something accurate.  Fast forward to valentines day 2012, I had the idea to convert this model into a pendant.  

 

We think this is both amazing and typical. Typical because as people get involved in 3D printing, they quickly realize their creativity has been unbottled and get exploring fantastic new designs. Amazing because, well, it is! 

  

Via Smart Art

Rapidshape's 3D Printers

Have you heard of Rapidshape's line of 3D printers? The one year old German-based company markets several units that focus on jewelry development, as they have significant experience in the lost wax casting process. 

 

Rapidshare currently offers three different models: the S60 mini, midi and maxi. These printers use a photo-sensitive resin to form solid objects. Externally the S60's appear identical, but internally they differ slightly in build envelope size and print resolution: 

 

• mini: 84mm x 48mm x 200mm, 0.03mm native resolution 
• midi: 122mm x 69mm x 200mm, 0.05mm
• maxi: 150m x 85mm x 200mm, 0.06mm

 

All three units print at a rather snappy speed of 1cm of height every ten minutes, regardless of how many objects are in play. That's one of the fastest print speeds we've seen. 

 

Slicing software for STL 3D models is provided with the printers and it seems that Rapidshape prefers Rhino3D as a 3D modeling solution. 

 

The printers include internal management software capable of storing up to 500 print jobs, so the S60's are clearly production-oriented machines. There's no word on pricing for printers or resin that we can find at this time. 

 

Via Rapidshape

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)