This week’s selection is the fascinating and practical Eco-Water and Water Supply Storage by Baptiste Godard.
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Shapeways Preps For School Business
It’s the beginning of school season in many parts of the world, and Shapeways announced special deals for the education market.
How To Quickly Model and 3D Print Small Household Objects
New 3D printer owners might be having fun printing pre-designed 3D models, but what if you need to produce a custom object on demand? Here’s how to do it.
MakerBot Continues To Probe Professional 3D Printing Applications
When MakerBot was born some years ago, the focus was entirely on personal 3D printing; now that’s changed.
Design of the Week: Raspberry Pie Case
This week’s selection is the tasty-looking Raspberry Pie Case by designer Marco Valenzuela.
NASA’s Ever-Increasing Library of 3D Models
Did you know that US space agency NASA offers a formidable set of 3D models available for 3D printing?
Biomimetics 3D Printing Challenge Now Open
Crowdsourced innovation service Innonatives has posted a challenge seeking “radical ideas” on how to combine biomimetics and 3D printing for sustainability.
Zare Reduces Manufacturing Costs by Implementing Fortus Additive Manufacturing System
Stratasys recently announced that Zare, a manufacturing service bureau based in Italy, cut its manufacturing costs by 50 percent in the aerospace and automotive industries by implementing a series of Stratasys Fortus 3D production systems.
The Beast: A 3D Printer That Really Is One
A soon-to-be-launched on Kickstarter project promises to produce a truly massive desktop 3D printer.
More On Gartner’s 3D Printing Predictions
Gartner 3D printing analyst Pete Basiliere pointed us at their company’s latest detailed report on 3D printing and it shows some interesting predictions.
FABtotum Combines Two 3D Printing Processes – and More!
FABTotum launched a new making option, the PRISM, which enables their Personal Fabricator to include multiple 3D printing processes.
Microsoft Developing Mobile 3D Scanning Technology – For Any Smartphone!
A paper from Oxford and Microsoft researchers details an experimental workflow enabling capture of 3D models using only a smartphone’s camera.
The LumiPocket LT: More Than Just a 3D Printer
Lumi Industries has launched a new inexpensive 3D printer that can do more than 3D printing: the LumiPocket LT.
Should You Purchase a 3D Printer From A Reseller?
There are multiple ways to purchase a 3D printer these days, and often at low cost. One way is to use a reseller, particularly for unusual makes and models.
Design of the Week: VOXEL Chair
This week’s selection is the very unusual VOXEL chair by designer Joshua Sellini.
MIT’s 3D Glass Printer Raises Questions
Researchers at MIT unveiled an incredible new 3D printing process that uses glass as the print material. We’re asking some questions about its capabilities.
UK’s Gary Miller Resurfaces With New 3D Print Service
Longtime Fabbaloo friend Gary Miller has emerged with a new company: 3D Print Bureau.
Carbon3D Scores USD$100M To Make 3D Manufacturing a “Reality”. But It Already Is!
Startup Carbon3D, inventors of the CLIP 3D printing process, just received no less than USD$100M in investment, leading TechCrunch to declare this will make 3D manufacturing a reality. This is misleading.
3DOM’s New Coffee-Flavored 3D Printer Filament Opens Up Possibilities For Unusual Materials
3DOM announced a new 3D printer filament made from coffee grounds. Yes, really, and it actually makes sense. But there’s likely a lot more interesting things to come.
Jazz Musician Needs 3D Printing Assistance
Musician Paul Hirsch has been developing a new type of “wholetone-tuned panpipe”, but now requires assistance to determine how to 3D print them in production form.
Another MeshMixer Update For You To Download
Autodesk has released another update to their increasingly useful (and free) MeshMixer 3D utility.
Full-Size Tyrannosaurus Rex Repaired by 3D Printing
Leiden, Netherlands will be the new home for a full-sized Tyrannosaurus rex in 2016, with the assistance of 3D printing technology.
Dicing Up The Inside of a 3D Model With MeshMixer
We’ve been experimenting with some of MeshMixer’s lesser-known but highly powerful capabilities to create a hidden internal mesh for solid models.
Talk With Your 3D Clients With talk3D
Another business-oriented 3D cloud service is preparing for launch: talk3D.
Cubify Now Sells Nylon 3D Print Material
3D Systems announced the availability of nylon material cartridges for use in their CubePro line of professional desktop 3D printers.
TNT Germany Teams with trinckle 3D
Delivery services giant TNT has partnered with Berlin-based trinckle 3D to provide 3D print services to their clients.
Gartner’s 2015 Predictions on 3D Printing
We’ve examined Gartner’s annual Hype Cycle chart with respect to 3D printing and found some very promising news.
The Renishaw AM250 Additive Manufacturing System
Utilizing a high-powered fiber laser to print 20µm- to 100µm-thick layers of fully dense metal directly from 3D CAD data, the Renishaw AM250’s fine metal powder melting process offers fast additive manufacturing for metal parts.
3D Printing Community To Print Many Hands
e-NABLE has launched a new project to produce as many 3D printed hand kits for amputees as possible during the next month.
Design of the Week: Curiosity Rover
This week’s selection is NASA’s amazingly detailed 3D model of their distant Curiosity Rover.
BigBox’s Big Blastoff
A few weeks ago we wrote on the launch of BigBox, an incredibly powerful desktop 3D printer; Now it seems they’ve smashed their funding targets to smithereens.
Sorkin Joins Formlabs, Leaves iGo3D and Much More
Michael Sorkin, one of the founders of the European-based iGo3D retail 3D print chain, has joined Formlabs. What does this mean?
Biodegradable ABS 3D Printer Filament?
We’re looking at an offering from 3DPrintLife, who now sell a peculiar bio-friendly version of ABS plastic they call “Enviro”.
Astroprint Adds Connectivity
Cloud 3D print management service Astroprint has been busy adding capabilities to their already-popular service.
3devo Launches the NEXT 1.0 Filament Recycler
Utrecht-based 3devo’s new filament extruder is now available on their crowdfunding page, but will it be practical?
WillowFlex: Flexible, Friendly Filament
Berlin-based BioInspiration has produced a new flexible 3D printer filament that has an unusual property: it’s compostable.
Xometry Seeks Low Volume 3D Prints
We’ve been looking at a new 3D print service that has been running for only 1.5 years: Xometry.
Binder Jetting for Investment Casting: AM Is Transforming an Age-Old Industrial Process
Investment casting is one of humanity’s oldest manufacturing technologies.
A 2D Reseller in a 3D World
At a recent training session at the MakerBot headquarters in Brooklyn, NY, I happen to sit next to Vincent Colaianni, the Director of Sales Development at TGI Office Automation, a leading office technology provider that has been in business over 50 years.
Solidscape’s Massive China Deal
Solidscape is well known as a maker of high-resolution 3D printing gear that’s focused on the jewelry market. Now they’ve struck a massive deal in China to expand.
The Formaker Combines Four Making Technologies, But Who Is It For?
A new Kickstarter campaign launched the other day: the Formaker “4-in-1” device combines a CNC Mill, Laser Etcher, PCB Maker and 3D Printer all in a single machine.
Made In Space’s New In-Vacuum 3D Printer
You’ve probably heard of Made In Space, the company that recently installed a real 3D printer on the International Space Station. Now they’ve developed a new method of 3D printing in a vacuum!
Solido: The Zombie 3D Printer Company?
We recently encountered an object that had been apparently 3D printed on a Solido 3D printer. Wait, haven’t they been out of business for years?
3D Print Flexible Objects With Solid Plastic? Disney Can!
New research from scientists at Disney have described ways to 3D print objects with components of varying flexibility using only solid plastic.
China Devalues Yuan: Cheaper 3D Printers On The Way?
China shocked the world today by suddenly devaluing their currency. What does this mean for those purchasing 3D printers?
Something Interesting Is Going Down At MakerBot
We’ve noticed a couple of things happening at MakerBot this past week that caught our attention: it could be a signal that new equipment is coming.
WonderLuk’s Popup Experiment Illustrates 3D Print Venture Challenges
WonderLuk plans to exhibit their innovative 3D printed jewelry at a London popup store this week, but we think this demonstrates the challenges facing many 3D print-using startups.
Design of the Week: The Tank
This week’s selection is “The Tank” by a Mr. Park from Korea.
A Barrier To 3D Printing: It’s The Design, Not The Making
As the technology of 3D printing increases in capability and reliability, where does one’s workload land? We think it’s in the design.
Matter and Form’s Bevel Nails Funding For 3D Scanning Clip
The folks from Matter and Form, makers of a powerful tabletop 3D scanner, launched a new product: the Bevel clip, a smartphone attachment that performs mobile 3D scanning.
Don’t Forget To Count The Eight Other Costs Of 3D Printing
When shopping for a 3D printer, the price of the unit is of prime importance. But really, that isn’t the whole story on cost.
Man Preserves His Lost Brother With A 3D Print
Maker Christopher Hoffman did something quite amazing with his 3D printer: he was able to print a replica bust of his deceased brother.
Q3D’s Wide Spectrum of 3D Printers
Q3D offers a very wide spectrum of desktop 3D printers in any price range you require.
The Morpheus 3D Printer Breaks Through Resin 3D Printing Barriers
There have been many announcements of resin-based 3D printers recently, but this one is a bit different: the Morpheus 3D printer smashes two major problems.
YouBionic’s Fascinating 3D Printed Bionic Hand
An Italian company is developing a highly capable 3D printing replacement prosthetic hand.
Stratasys Releases Mixed Financial Results for 2015Q2
3D printing industry giant Stratasys posted their second quarter results for the year, and there’s some good news and bad news.
XYZprinting’s 3D Printers Now Available at Walmart
Taiwan-based 3D printer manufacturer XYZprinting announced the availability of their products at Walmart, the world’s biggest retailer.
3Diligent’s Professional 3D Print Service Service
We’re checking out 3Diligent, a service that helps connect industry to professional 3D part printing services.
3D Print And A Lot More With The GAIA Multitool
We’re looking at a new product launch, the GAIA Multitool, which is far more than just a 3D printer.
Alternative Method of 3D Printing Electronics Developed
Researchers at UC Berkeley and National Chiao Tung University have developed a simple alternative method of 3D printing electrical traces within printed objects.
BEEVERYCREATIVE’s Quental Steps Down
Desktop 3D printer manufacturer BEEVERYCREATIVE announced the departure of Diogo Quental, their CEO.
A Profile of Hybrid Additive Manufacturing Technology
Hybrid additive manufacturing (AM) has been gaining a lot of traction over the past four-to-five years, but it’s still a technology with a lot of unknowns.
3D Hubs Now Covers The World, Almost
3D Hubs issued its latest monthly trends report today, and the biggest thing we noted in the report is the incredibly wide geographic coverage by their network.
3DP Unlimited’s Whole-Person 3D Print
3DP Unlimited manufactures some very large 3D printers, and now they’ve demonstrated exactly how large by 3D printing their own staff!
Bitoni Says 3D Printing Is Stagnant?
World-famous 3D designer Francis Bitoni declared in an interview with Dezeen that he believes the current state of 3D printing is stagnant. Is this true?
STL Hive’s 3D Models Focus on RC, Robotics
A small startup called STL Hive hopes to become the hub for 3D models for “students, hobbyists and inventors”. But we found a lot of RC and Robotics models.
Report: Desktop 3D Printer Shipments Grow By 114% But Which Vendors Lead?
We’re looking at a summary of an industry report from CONTEXT that calculates the growth in desktop 3D printer shipments was 114%, comparing 1Q14 to 1Q15.
3D Printed Trucks Initiative Needs Your Help
Arin Panait is a Romanian hobbyist with an affection for 1960’s trucks that’s so deep he’s developed several incredible 3D models of them. And he needs your help.
Senvol Explains Where to Locate Your 3D Printer Farm
Annie Wang and Zach Simkin of Senvol presented some interesting logic regarding how companies should consider organizing their 3D printing infrastructure for optimum efficiency.
Do We Need Ultra-Large 3D Printer Filament Spools?
At this time, most sellers offer 3D printer plastic filament in spools weighing 500g to 1kg. But perhaps these sizes are too small.
The Desktop 3D Printer Toolkit
Those who own a personal 3D printer likely have a suite of instruments ready to be used with their printer. What instruments are essential?
A Printathalon To Take Place in Albany; Why Not One In Your Town, Too?
In the city of Albany, NY, there will be something called a “Printathalon” taking place soon. But we think this is something that should happen everywhere.
Copyright Controversy Erupts Over Site’s Use of 3D Model
Recently we wrote of a newly encountered 3D model repository, dayin.la, which holds plenty of interesting 3D content, but now it seems the site has used some models without permission.
3D Scans of Lost Michelangelo Statues to Help in Their Preservation
Faculty from the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) and the Warwick Medical School at the University of Warwick in the UK are working in collaboration with art historians from the University of Cambridge.
One & Only 3D Printed Jewelry
A Toronto-based startup hopes to capture some of the 3D printed jewelry market.
3D Hubs Hits Key Milestone: 20,000 3D Printers
Yesterday community 3D printing network 3D Hubs apparently hit the incredible milestone of 20,000 participants.
Ultimaker: Cura is Rebuilt
Ultimaker announced a major upgrade to their 3D printing software, Cura.
Choc Edge Introduces the Choc Creator 2.0 Plus
3D printer manufacturer launched their new Choc Creator 2.0 Plus desktop chocolate printer.
netfabb Version 6 Released With Incredible New Features
Popular 3D model utility software netfabb has released version six, which includes several incredibly useful new features for manufacturing.
New Digital DNA-Based 3D Printing Technology Emerges
While 3D printing at human-sized scales remains a busy marketplace, research into 3D printing at microscopic scales also continues.
Polygonica’s Incredible New CAD Model Generation Feature
3D software MachineWorks announced an amazing new feature in their upcoming Polygonica release: the ability to automatically recognize 3D CAD features from a 3D mesh.
Voxel8 Raises USD$12M For Their Electrically Conductive 3D Printer Technology
Startup company Voxel8 announced they’ve raised a massive USD$12M in a series A funding round.
Design of the Week: Power Loader
This week’s selection is the incredibly detailed Power Loader by Aaron Hartman.
Are You Overflowing With 3D Models?
To use a 3D printer, you must have 3D models. But wait, exactly how many do you have? Probably far too many to keep track of.
Footprint Footwear is 3D Printed
A new startup hopes to capitalize on the custom-footwear market by 3D printing shoes that precisely fit the wearer.
SKY-TECH’s New SKYPEN: A Dual Color 3D Pen
Taiwan-based SKY-TECH offers a number of 3D products, but now they’re offering a very low-cost, advanced technology 3D printing pen.
A Curious Thing About 3.00 vs 1.75mm 3D Printer Filament
In the beginning it was 3.0mm filament for 3D printers, but then things switched to 1.75mm filament. Was this a good idea?
EOS Partners With GF Machining Creating Interesting Possibilities
Industrial 3D printer manufacturer EOS has partnered with GF Machining Solutions, and we think the results could be quite interesting.
Emendo 3D Repair Software Now Available For Windows and Adds an SDK
Avante Technology’s Emendo 3D model repair software has had a couple of major changes recently.
A Visit to Full Spectrum Laser
We managed to score an onsite tour of Full Spectrum Laser, the makers of the Pegasus and Phoenix Touch high-resolution 3D printers.
3D Is Everywhere In This World!
Years ago, very few people knew much about the world of 3D software, or even the notion of 3D as a concept. That’s clearly changing.
SWISSto12 Produces 3D Printed Antennae
A company uses a combination of 3D printing and electroplating to produce lightweight microwave and millimeter-wave transmission components.
SKY-TECH’s New 3D Scanner
Taiwan-based SKY-TECH has announced a new handheld 3D scanner based on Intel Realsense, the 3D Hermes.
Hands On With Verbatim’s 3D Printer Filaments
We tested samples of several filaments from Verbatim, who have recently entered the market for 3D printer supplies, and were very impressed with the results.
Have You Tried Pinshape?
There’s no shortage of online sources for printable 3D content these days, and another good option is Pinshape.