It was only a matter of time before someone began producing “clone” plastic materials for high-end 3D printers. That’s the business of Swiss-based ISQUARED, who produce “high quality FDM filament at fair prices”. They say: “Our products are 100% compatible with OEM parts.” Currently, ISQUARED offers material evidently compatible with the following devices: … Continue reading Save Some Cash With ISQUARED Consumables
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Sculpteo Lowers Prices
3D print service Sculpteo has abruptly lowered their pricing for 3D models. Evidently their print volume must have increased sufficiently to permit more effective plastic purchases from their suppliers. This change affects only their plastic price. They say: Thanks to this success, we can now lower the price of your 3D prints made… Continue reading Sculpteo Lowers Prices
The iScan 3D App
A new app promises to enable generation of instant 3D models right from your iPhone. iScan3D by Digiteyezer works using a combination of images and a cloud service. Here’s how it works: your subject remains still while you move about taking between 5 and 30 images. Presumably it would help if there wasn’t much… Continue reading The iScan 3D App
The PandaBot
Yet another 3D printer startup company is launching. Panda Robotics of Seattle/Toronto is developing the eyponomously named “PandaBot”. PandaBot is focused as a consumer-oriented product and thus includes a number of features to make it robust and visually attractive. They say: Our printer’s materials and aesthetics were chosen to ensure that our end product… Continue reading The PandaBot
Design of the Week: The Bloom Table Lamp
This week’s selected design is Patrick Jouin’s incredible Bloom table lamp. What makes it so interesting? It’s based on the mechanics of an actual flower: to emit more light, the lampshade opens as a flower does when exposed to light. The piece is actually 3D printed as a single unit, including hinges for the… Continue reading Design of the Week: The Bloom Table Lamp
Quantum International Invests in 3D House Printing?
An interesting press release came from Quantum International the other day. Quantum appears to be an investment firm specializing in various robotic technology. In their press release they talk of USC Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis’s work in developing large-scale concrete 3D printers capable of 3D printing whole houses. They say: Quantum International Corp. (OTCBB: QUAN)… Continue reading Quantum International Invests in 3D House Printing?
Answer Those 3D Printing Questions!
If you’re like us, you’ve often fielded many questions about 3D printing technology. And they’re the same questions almost every time. It would certainly be nice to simplify the questioning – and that’s exactly what Thingiverse user Shawn Grover of Calgary, Canada did. He produced a pre-made “brochure” that answers the most commonly observed 3D… Continue reading Answer Those 3D Printing Questions!
The Eventorbot 3D Printer
Yet another innovative 3D printer has been announced: The Eventorbot Open Source 3D Printer by maker Duy Dang. Be warned, though, this is not an assembled unit; it is not even a kit but instead is a complete blueprint and parts list, including 3D models of all the parts you can print on your… Continue reading The Eventorbot 3D Printer
Rapid Prototyping Reveals Evolutionary Clues
Over at Scientific American’s Observations blog, Kate Wong has an interesting piece about paleoanthropologists using 3D printers to help recreate the skeleton of one of humanity’s ancestors. Australopithecus sediba, a “nearly two million-year-old” member of Homo Sapien’s evolutionary lineage was discovered at the Malapa Fossil Site in South Africa. Like most fossils, the bones… Continue reading Rapid Prototyping Reveals Evolutionary Clues
Afinia’s Low Cost 3D Printer Filament
3D printer manufacturer Afinia has suddenly introduced a new line of plastic filament that has a very attractive feature: low cost. Their “Value-Line” is comprised of 1.8 or 1.75mm ABS filament sold in 1kg (2.2 lb) spools. Prices are only USD$31.99 per kg, one of the lowest we’ve seen recently. Afinia offers two… Continue reading Afinia’s Low Cost 3D Printer Filament
Hands On With Skanect
There’s quite a few free tools to make good use of your XBox Kinect 3D sensor. We’ve already tested ReconstructMe, a wonderful tool for scanning 3D objects. Today we’re taking a look at Skanect, another 3D scanning tool. Skanect, by Manctl, is available for OSX and Windows XP+ (32 or 64 bit versions). If… Continue reading Hands On With Skanect
The Lunavast XG2 3D Printer Kit
The Lunavast XG2 is a kit to build a resin-based personal 3D printer. The XG2 uses DLP technology to project a pattern onto the surface of a vat of resin to progressively solidify each layer. The XG2 kit does not include the critical DLP projector, which can easily be obtained almost anywhere at low… Continue reading The Lunavast XG2 3D Printer Kit
3D Photografting Introduced
Scientists at the Vienna Institute of Technology have developed a new technique they call “Photografting”, which promises to enable significant advances in bioprinting. The new technique involves starting with a hydrogel, a porous material in which other molecules can be placed. Lasers then focus on specific spots within the 3D hydrogel and break apart… Continue reading 3D Photografting Introduced
A 3D Printed Racing Car
While it isn’t the world’s first 3D printed car, it may be the first 3D printed Racing Car. The Areion was designed by 16 engineers from “Group T” as their entry in the Formula Student 2012 Challenge. Obviously, the entire car was not 3D printed – only the body, which was then attached… Continue reading A 3D Printed Racing Car
Blended Color 3D Printing
It’s been a dream of 3D printing hobbyists to be able to print in glorious color. That dream still is developing, but maker RichRap has taken a big step in that direction by developing a 3-way extruder for RepRap-style 3D printers. It’s not exactly a full color 3D printer, although RichRap’s initial intentions were… Continue reading Blended Color 3D Printing
MIB 3’s 3D Printed Weaponry
Did you ever wonder where the amazing weapons in the MIB movies come from? They are prototyped using 3D printing by Moddler, a custom 3D printing service based in San Francisco using an Objet Eden 550V. The Objet device is a good choice for this application, since it’s PolyJet technology permits the creation… Continue reading MIB 3’s 3D Printed Weaponry
Design of the Week: RD Time Extrusion
This week’s selection is the RD Time Extrusion. What is it? We’re not sure, but the designers, Nervous System believe it could serve as a pencil holder, as depicted here. You’re free to figure out other uses for this unusual item. The item was designed mathematically, like many Nervous System products, and is freely… Continue reading Design of the Week: RD Time Extrusion
Cubify Introduces Bracelets
Well, that didn’t take long! Mere days after introducing web applications capable of dynamically generating rings and earrings to your specifications, 3D Systems has fired up another similar application: Bracelets. It’s very easy to use and offers just the right amount of customization for most people. The Bracelet app works in a fashion similar… Continue reading Cubify Introduces Bracelets
3D Systems Announces the ProJet 5000
There’s another big dog on the corner and its name is the ProJet 5000. It’s the latest production 3D printer from 3D Systems, offering “maximum productivity in the factory or office”, with a “typical accuracy of 0.025-0.050mm (0.001-0.002 inch) per inch of part dimension “. This device doesn’t just look big on the outside;… Continue reading 3D Systems Announces the ProJet 5000
Legends of Kalidasia Pioneers A New Approach
Jason Rutherford of Kalidesia contacted us to talk about a new approach he’s taken in his gaming business. Rutherford makes the Legends of Kalidasia game, played with traditional resin and pewter figures. His company manufactures and markets these figures, but he’s concerned about the future. You know, the future where people print out their own… Continue reading Legends of Kalidasia Pioneers A New Approach
3D Systems Brings LAIKA’s ParaNorman to Life
3D Systems Corporation’s ZPrinter 650 is the first ever full-color 3D printer used in a stop-motion animated film, ParaNorman, produced by Portland, Oregon based animation studio LAIKA. Known for integrating innovation with the hand-created artistry of the stop motion technique, LAIKA utilized 3D printing to create over 31,000 individual, color facial parts for production. … Continue reading 3D Systems Brings LAIKA’s ParaNorman to Life
The ShapeWright Experiment
Artist Dolf Veenvliet is experimenting with user-designed custom 3D printed metal jewelry. His new experimental site, ShapeWright, allows anyone to pick and shape components into a unique jewelry item that can be immediately sent for 3D printing in precious metal! The service is incredibly easy to use. The experiment is to customize a “Variable… Continue reading The ShapeWright Experiment
Easy 3D Printing with File2Part
Preparing 3D models for 3D printing is often problematic. They’re in the wrong orientation, wrong size, etc. While most 3D printer-specific operation software can do rudimentary orientation and sizing, you’ll still have to use other programs to fix errors in the model and slice it into printable form. That will change with the introduction of… Continue reading Easy 3D Printing with File2Part
Cirque Du Soleil 3D Prints?
Fabbaloo has learned that international dance company Cirque Du Soleil uses both 3D scanning and 3D printing technology. Evidently most of Cirque Du Soleil’s acrobats are 3D scanned and the models are held in a repository. Custom masks and other personal-fitting equipment are 3D printed for each member of the troupe for use in… Continue reading Cirque Du Soleil 3D Prints?
Neri Oxman Exhibition Video
Oh, you DIDN’T manage to get to Paris to view Neri Oxman’s astonishing display of multicolor 3D prints at Centre Pompidou? We managed to do so and reported it here. But just in case you didn’t see it, there is a very interesting video of the event produced by Objet, the sponsors of… Continue reading Neri Oxman Exhibition Video
Shapeways Gets A New Engine
Did you visit Shapeways recently? It’s different – but not different visually. Instead the techs at Shapeways have replaced the software engines running behind their website to provide various improvements, specifically in the Order Placement and Order Fulfillment functions. Some of the improvements include: An ability to consolidate all your Shapeways coupons into… Continue reading Shapeways Gets A New Engine
3D Print Your Escher
Everyone has seen those perplexing drawings by M.C. Escher and marveled at their paradoxical nature. Confusing images that could never be real. Until now. Gershon Elber of the Computer Science Department of Technion, Israel Institute of Technology has done just that. He has designed 3D shapes that, when 3D printed and viewed from specific… Continue reading 3D Print Your Escher
More 3D Printed Shoes
There’s more cool stuff from the folks at Continuum Fashion, who have previously produced a 3D printed Bikini. They’ve now released the “strvct” 3D printed shoes, a mesh-like design printed in nylon. Don’t worry, they are indeed wearable as they include a “patent leather inner sole, and coated with a synthetic rubber on the bottom… Continue reading More 3D Printed Shoes
Design of the Week: For All Mankind
There is but one choice for this week’s Design of the Week: For All Mankind, by Thingiverse maker Doug Keenan. We selected this design in honor of the passing of Astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first person to step onto another world. The model depicts an Apollo astronaut taking that giant step off the Lunar… Continue reading Design of the Week: For All Mankind
3D Printing Titanium Bike Parts
There’s a detailed story on Road.cc describing the process of producing a metal dropout bike part using DMLS – Direct Metal Laser Sintering. Producing bike parts is much like any other product; prototypes must be tested and final versions become mass produced. The problem is that producing prototypes has been time consuming and wasteful… Continue reading 3D Printing Titanium Bike Parts
Ponoko’s Badass Black
Ceramic 3D printing services are not exactly new, but there are limits to the colors offered by popular 3D printing services. Ponoko has announced the availability of black ceramic material. Previously Ponoko offered a variety of pastel-ish colors, including Green, Pale Blue, Peach, Periwinkle, Teal, White and Yellow. The new colors include a choice… Continue reading Ponoko’s Badass Black
Cubify’s Rings and Earrings
Cubify has been very busy lately. They’ve introduced a way to “design and personalize your own rings” very soon after launching a similar method for producing customized earrings. Both cubify “apps” work similarly: select various physical features of rings or earrings. The apps include a very wide variety of preselected shapes and icons, as… Continue reading Cubify’s Rings and Earrings
Additive Manufacturing File Format Allows for Volumetric Specifications
In a recent post on “The End of Polygons,” Aaron Trocola correctly points out that the STL file format is becoming a major barrier to production of objects with high volumetric complexity, such as internal lattices and graded materials – essentially reaching a point where STL files make certain advanced applications difficult or impossible. … Continue reading Additive Manufacturing File Format Allows for Volumetric Specifications
Battlefield 3D Printing
In Afghanistan the US Army has deployed the first of several USD$2.8M mobile prototyping labs. These container-sized labs house 3D printers and CNC machines capable of rapidly producing spare or replacement parts that would otherwise take months to order and be delivered using conventional approaches. The Army has a special unit known as the… Continue reading Battlefield 3D Printing
Articulate Your Own Mesh!
The other week we wrote about Moritz Bächer’s amazing software that is able to read a 3D model of a figurine and automatically determine where the joints occur. If that wasn’t enough, the software goes as far as to generate a new 3D models of all the limbs including movable joints. In other words, it… Continue reading Articulate Your Own Mesh!
Modern Meadow’s Meats’ Organovo Roots
A new bioprinting startup suddenly appeared: Modern Meadow, courtesy of a small investment by Internet billionaire Peter Thiel. It’s goal is to develop lab-grown “food grade animal protein”, also known as “meat”. The idea is to produce the protein without the massive environmental cost of actual cows, pigs and other meat-laden critters. Their one-line pitch… Continue reading Modern Meadow’s Meats’ Organovo Roots
Is That A MakerBot? Or a TangiBot?
You have to look closely to tell the difference, because the TangiBot is very similar to a MakerBot Replicator. Extremely similar. In fact, it’s literally a clone. Wait, what? How could the fine Replicator be cloned? It’s a project by Mechanical Engineer Matt Strong of Utah that’s currently on Kickstarter. Strong seeks USD$500,000 to… Continue reading Is That A MakerBot? Or a TangiBot?
Four Reasons Why Stratasys Won’t Announce a Personal 3D Printer
There are two massive corporations that currently dominate the 3D printing market. One is 3D Systems, whom most have heard of, and the other similarly sized corporation is Stratasys, who recently merged with Objet. As of today Stratasys does not manufacture a personal 3D printer designed for consumer use, whereas 3D Systems offers several.… Continue reading Four Reasons Why Stratasys Won’t Announce a Personal 3D Printer
The Series 1 From Type A Machines
Type “A” personalities are known to be leaders, sometimes with an aggressive approach to life. San Francisco-based Type A Machines may take a bit of that attitude with their new product, the Series 1. It’s a personal 3D printer whose design takes it to another level. The Series 1 is a fully assembled unit,… Continue reading The Series 1 From Type A Machines
Design of the Week: The Dragonbite Grip
This week’s chosen design is the Dragonbite grip pencil holder, which was recently chosen by i.Materialise as the winner of their Metal Accessories Challenge. The Dragonbite grip is both artistic and functional, as it securely holds your pencil in a way that offers comfortable writing. And it’s a dragon, too! Created by the… Continue reading Design of the Week: The Dragonbite Grip
3D Printing Tops Gartner’s List
Every year Gartner, one of the leading technology analyst firms, produces what they call “The Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies”. It’s a chart plotting the position of various technologies on the Hype Cycle curve. The Hype Cycle is a theory proposing that technologies follow a series of stages in their lifecycle: Technology Trigger (the… Continue reading 3D Printing Tops Gartner’s List
The Second Generation Imagine 3D Printer
Essential Dynamics has announced a new version of their non-plastic 3D printer to replace their first model. The Imagine 3D printer is a little different from most commonly available personal 3D printers. It’s an extrusion based device that doesn’t use melted plastic as its material. Instead the Imagine uses any extrudable substance by mechanically… Continue reading The Second Generation Imagine 3D Printer
Google’s 3D Pasta Printer
Incredible as it might seem, Google apparently has a 3D printer in its kitchen – and it produces pasta, according to a report on WebProNews. In a video interview Google chef Bernard Faucher admits they operate some type of 3D printer in their kitchen to produce unique pasta shapes for hungry Google staffers. Faucher… Continue reading Google’s 3D Pasta Printer
3D Printers: How to Unlock Their Potential
With the explosive growth in affordable, office-oriented 3D printers, there is a flood of new users and a huge pool of prospective users. Being new to the technology, or perhaps distanced from it through service bureaus or centralized machines, the freshman class may not be tuned into all that 3D printers can do for them.… Continue reading 3D Printers: How to Unlock Their Potential
3D Systems Announces 2Q2012 Results
3D printing giant 3D Systems has announced their financial results for the second quarter of 2012, and it appears they’re doing just fine. Compared to this quarter last year, their revenues are up a huge 52%, growing to USD$83.6 million. Evidently all their businesses report growth in this quarter, indicating a very strong operation.… Continue reading 3D Systems Announces 2Q2012 Results
MakerBot’s New Colors
3D printer manufacturer MakerBot has announced the availability of no less than nine new colors of plastic filament, suitable for use in not only their 3D printers, but any others that use the same diameter of plastic filament. The new colors are pretty awesome: Slate Gray Stone Helsinki Sky (a very light blue)… Continue reading MakerBot’s New Colors
3D Printing Price Check
You’ve got a terrific model you want printed at high resolution in a great material. What do you do? You spend some of your valuable time checking out the prices at each of the 3D print services by tediously entering the specifications of your model into their price calculators. Or, you use 3D printing… Continue reading 3D Printing Price Check
i.Materialise Introduces Ceramics
3D print service i.Materialise has announced the availability of ceramics as a print material. They aren’t the first to introduce commercial ceramics print capability, but it’s an excellent capability improvement for them. Ceramics offers a few key advantages over other materials: Heat resistant up to 600C (1112F) Ultra-smooth finish with no visible… Continue reading i.Materialise Introduces Ceramics
The zSpace System
There’s something inherently difficult trying to do 3D modeling on a 2D display. We usually have the ability to spin models around and your mind has to do the “3Ding” of the subject, depending on the software you’re using. But is there a better way to do this? Apparently so, according to JF… Continue reading The zSpace System
Emma’s Story… And More
A wonderful story emerged last week when Stratasys published the story of Emma, a young girl with congenital biomechanical problems. She was unable to raise food to her mouth, among other issues. The story told how Emma’s doctors used 3D printing technology (from Stratasys) to produce a custom-fit armature that fits around Emma’s upper… Continue reading Emma’s Story… And More
Design Of The WeeK: Julia Vase #001 Aqua
This week’s selected design is Julia Vase #001 – Aqua by Virtox, also known as the Dutch artist Stijn van der Linden. Virtox has released this amazing design on Shapeways, where you can purchase a 3D printed version in a variety of materials, and also on Thingiverse and GrabCAD where you are free… Continue reading Design Of The WeeK: Julia Vase #001 Aqua
A 3D Printing Matrix
We’ve received a very cool chart from Tuan Tranpham containing most of the current 3D printing ecosystem, including all the related functions (Scanning, Printing, Software, etc) mapped into different categories of consumer and various levels of industrial. Yes, the chart is a bit hard to read here, but click on the image to see… Continue reading A 3D Printing Matrix
A 3D Printing Infographic
Sharing site Hightable offers a new infographic showing many details of the current state of 3D printing, including process overview, growth and industry usage. Here you see only a small extract; click the link below for the full version. Via Hightable
Cubify’s Robots
3D Systems now has robots! Well, not actual robots, but instead a system of 3D models that can be assembled into a huge variety of robot shapes. The robot pieces include arms, legs, torsos, etc., but also accessories such as ray guns and backpacks. The pieces are intended to be assembled and fit together… Continue reading Cubify’s Robots
How to Pick a 3D Printer Material
I’ve written two blog posts about the importance of materials to the future of 3D printing. The bottom line is that without a material that performs as needed, speed, cost and quality are irrelevant. Read More at Engineering.com
Hot Pop Factory
Two Toronto architects have used 3D printing technology to start a new business in their own home: designing and manufacturing jewelry. Matthew Compeau and Biying Miao have launched Hot Pop Factory, producer of striking 3D printed jewelry designs. Hot Pop Factory offers inexpensive necklace, earrings and rings based on a consistent design theme. But… Continue reading Hot Pop Factory
The Stone Spray 3D Printer
This is interesting: a sand-powered 3D printer called The Stone Spray Project. Created by Anna Kulik, Inder Shergill and Petr Novikov of the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, this robotic-arm device mixes plain old sand with a liquid binder to gradually create arbitrary shapes out of sand, like the sand stool pictured above. … Continue reading The Stone Spray 3D Printer
Master’s Degree in Direct Manufacturing Offered
We’ve learned that the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and ELISAVA School of Design and Engineering of Barcelona now offer a Master’s Degree in Direct Manufacturing and New Materials for product design. The new spanish-language program begins this October, when study in “New Materials” begins. This is followed by study in “New Production Processes” in… Continue reading Master’s Degree in Direct Manufacturing Offered
Automated Mesh Articulation
When we write “Automated Mesh Articulation” you might be wondering what we’re on about. It’s an advanced technique developed by Harvard’s Moritz Baecher that inspects a 3D model to automatically identifies where “joints” should appear and outputs a new model with said joints. This means one could take any 3D model of a figurine… Continue reading Automated Mesh Articulation
Introducing Mak3D
Opening in “late August 2012”, Mak3D is billed as the “World’s first 3D printing co-working environment”. Located on London’s Brick Lane across from the notable Brick Lane Bakery, Mak3D will provide workspace and access to 3D equipment for makers. For £200 per month (USD$312), you’ll have access to the following: A 1000 sq ft.… Continue reading Introducing Mak3D
Pwdr: An Open Source Powder-Based 3D Printer
While the first open source personal 3D printers were plastic extrusion-based and recently we’ve seen several resin-based open source 3D printers emerge, we now see yet another 3D printing process appear in open source form: powder-based 3D printing. The open source Pwdr project includes design for hardware and software to build and operate a… Continue reading Pwdr: An Open Source Powder-Based 3D Printer
Saving The Past With The Future
Peter at RepRap Central tells a story some of us have lived through, although not nearly as dramatic. The story involves Malcolm Messiter, whose decades-old Robert Goble Harpsichord required some maintenance. Specifically, the string-plucking jacks, made of Delrin, were cracking and needed to be replaced. Worse, there were some 183 such jacks in the harpsichord. … Continue reading Saving The Past With The Future
3D Printed Weapons: The Aftermath
Inevitably, controversy erupted upon the revelation that 3D printing weapons is actually feasible. Let’s have a look at the implications. First, what changes with this discovery? It proves that 3D printer owners in their own homes (and we’d guess there must be at least 20,000 of you out there, with many, many more arriving… Continue reading 3D Printed Weapons: The Aftermath
Design of the Week: The Teeth Tea Cup
Artist Lily Su has produced a rather unusual tea cup. What makes it unusual? Two things. First, and most prominently, is the teethy edge along the rim of the cup. We’re certain you’ll agree that the teeth produce feelings when you see them. Would you drink from this cup? Su says: Why is… Continue reading Design of the Week: The Teeth Tea Cup
What’s Down With Organovo?
A few short weeks ago we wrote a piece entitled, “What’s With Organovo?”, in which we pondered why the stock price of this bioprinting startup soared beyond belief. It seemed at the time there was no reasonable explanation for the stock price’s stratospheric behavior. This week the answer has appeared: there really was no… Continue reading What’s Down With Organovo?
One More Designer: Dizingof
After publishing Chris Waldo’s terrific “Showcase of Influential 3D Print Artists” the other week, we received a suggestion of another artist who might have been missed: Dizingof. Under his real name, Tel Aviv-based Asher Nahmias, specializes in mathematically-generated 3D models, or “math art”. Dizingof’s creations are typically complex, flowing and invariably beautiful. Browsing through… Continue reading One More Designer: Dizingof
Leapfrog’s 3D Printers
Leapfrog offers not one, but two different low-cost 3D printers: the Creatr and the Xeed. First, let’s check out the Creatr. It’s a USD$1500 entry level personal 3D printer that is fully assembled out of beautiful laser-cut aluminum panels. It comes with a single extruder, but an alternate dual-extruder version is available for USD$1850.… Continue reading Leapfrog’s 3D Printers
Global 3D Printing Market to Reach $2.99 Billion by 2018
According to a new report by Global Industry Analysts, Inc. (GIA), the global market for 3D printing is projected to reach US$2.99 billion by the year 2018, driven by the advent of newer technologies, approaches and applications. Expanding use of the technology in manufacturing final products, declining cost of printers and increasing use of 3D… Continue reading Global 3D Printing Market to Reach $2.99 Billion by 2018
The Afinia H-Series 3D Printer
Yet another low-cost 3D printer has suddenly appeared on the market: the Afinia H-Series 3D Printer, produced by Afina, which appears to be a division of Minnesota-based Microboards LLC, who specialize in printing solutions of various kinds. Located in Chanhassen, Minnesota, they are only a few short miles from Stratasys headquarters. Coincidence? The relevant… Continue reading The Afinia H-Series 3D Printer
HP and Stratasys Divorce
Somehow this wasn’t a complete surprise, as we’d been hearing rumors of difficulties in the relationship between IT Giant HP and 3D Printing leader Stratasys. Now it’s come to a close, with Stratasys announcing that the two companies have “have agreed to discontinue their manufacturing and distribution agreement for 3D printers, effective at the end… Continue reading HP and Stratasys Divorce
The Monolith 3D Printer
With a name like “Monolith”, you’d expect this 3D printer to be big – and you won’t be disappointed. The Monolith, developed by Acme Design Co., is one of the largest low-cost 3D printers we’ve seen. It also seems to be one of the shiniest. How big is it? What material does it consume?… Continue reading The Monolith 3D Printer
Ubiquitous 3D Printing On Campus
The University of Nevada, Reno has done something we haven’t seen before: place advanced 3D equipment in their academic library providing access to all. Before the days of color inkjet printers at home and Kinko’s, some used to go to the local library to run off copies of documents. Now the DeLaMare Science and… Continue reading Ubiquitous 3D Printing On Campus
The Pirate Bay’s Physibles Phizzles
Some time ago the big news was the provocative announcement by the nefarious Pirate Bay torrent sharing site that they’d created a new category specifically for sharing (presumably copyrighted) 3D models. Months later we thought we’d check it out and see what kind of objects were available. We were underwhelmed by the rather short… Continue reading The Pirate Bay’s Physibles Phizzles
Sculpteo’s iPhone Case Design Challenge
We’re reviewing the winning entries to Sculpteo’s iPhone Case Design Challenge and we like what we see. There are some very interesting designs, including the winner above: The String Case by FCPRS. It’s quite startling to see how inventive designers can be given the constraints of an iPhone case. Strangely, the winning entry… Continue reading Sculpteo’s iPhone Case Design Challenge
NASA Testing 3D Printers For Space Use
NASA is taking their Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication (EBF3) technology to the next level, according to a report in The Daily Mail. EBF3 is a type of 3D printing that uses a high-power electron beam to instantaneously melt metallic wire. The fluid metal is then positioned incrementally to build up arbitrary solid metal objects.… Continue reading NASA Testing 3D Printers For Space Use
Design Of The Week: The Love Bone
This week we turn to i.Materialise where we found the beautiful “Love Bone” by Studio Mango, selected as Design of the Week. This smoothly shaped item is intended as a necklace by attaching a chain: For our loved ones Studio Mango designed the Lovebone necklace, the last missing bone in the human body.… Continue reading Design Of The Week: The Love Bone
A Counterpoint to the Pragmatist
We’ve been reading Todd Grimm’s provocative post, Standing up to Hype: A Pragmatist’s View, in which he describes his position on the capability of 3D printing. Todd is frustrated with mainstream media who all-too-often wildly extrapolate the idea of 3D printing into an unrealistic science fiction future of Star Trek replicators in every kitchen. He frequently plays… Continue reading A Counterpoint to the Pragmatist
Cubify Invent 3D Modeling Software Available
3D Systems has announced a new software tool to accompany their consumer-oriented Cube 3D printer: Cubify Invent. One of the major issues with a 3D printer is getting great content to print. While 3D Systems has Cubify.com to provide pre-made models, there is also the possibility of Cube owners making their own models. However,… Continue reading Cubify Invent 3D Modeling Software Available
3D Printed Weaponry Now Functional
Another first for 3D printing: A pistol constructed from 3D printed parts has been successfully fired. The gun design was an AR-15, a “a lightweight, 5.56 mm, air-cooled, gas-operated, magazine-fed, semi-automatic rifle”, according to Wikipedia. Gun enthusiast HaveBlue selected this configuration due to its small caliber and the uncertainty of whether the 3D printed parts would withstand… Continue reading 3D Printed Weaponry Now Functional
Solidscape Launches Next Generation 3D Printing System
Solidscape, Inc. announced the launch of the 3ZPRO 3D printer for direct manufacturing of wax patterns. With one-touch simplicity, the fully automated 3ZPRO printer brings the power of high-precision 3D printing to the office desktop and retail environments. Read More at Engineering.com
Learn How To Build Your Own 3D Printer
We know you’re interested in building a 3D printer from kit parts, but perhaps you’re a bit apprehensive taking on such a complex assembly job? Not everyone is an electronics wizard and we suspect more than one interested party has been scared off by the daunting task of hundreds of assembly steps enroute to completing… Continue reading Learn How To Build Your Own 3D Printer
HeadBobble!
Yet another use for 3D printing: Printing Your Head. Yes, this has been done before quite a few times, but HeadBobble seems to have simplified the process and produces great 3D prints in full color. And you get a Bobblehead! How does it work? At their website you go through a selection process, where… Continue reading HeadBobble!
WOOF’s 3D Printed Boat
The University of Washington’s WOOF group (Washington Open Object Fabricators) did something we haven’t seen yet: they produced a 3D printed boat that didn’t sink. In fact, it worked well enough to be entered into “Denny’s Seafair Milk Carton Derby”, a boat race. Hold on, how do milk cartons fit into this scenario? It… Continue reading WOOF’s 3D Printed Boat
Water Cooled Extruder?
RepRap researchers have been experimenting with a unique water cooled extruder design. Cooling your extruder is important to ensure that the heat from the hot end that melts the plastic printing material doesn’t creep up into the rest of the mechanism, where you risk frozen plastic in the wrong places that gum up the works. … Continue reading Water Cooled Extruder?
Crack Open Those Handcuffs With Your 3D Printer
A report on Forbes describes the feat of a “German hacker and security consultant who goes by the name ‘Ray’”, who was able to reproduce master keys for a couple of models of handcuffs. In fact, the keys were produced both on an inexpensive 3D printer as well as on a laser cutter, which,… Continue reading Crack Open Those Handcuffs With Your 3D Printer
A Pair of 3D Print Fashion Designers
Mashable interviews a pair of fashion designers with a twist: they use 21st century techniques to create their items, including web-based fitting, embedded electronics, computational design generation and of course 3D printing. Mary Huang and Jenna Fizel own Continuum Fashion where they explore the possibilities of applying new technology and techniques to the fashion… Continue reading A Pair of 3D Print Fashion Designers
AirBus Envisions Gigantic 3D Printer?
The designers at Airbus propose creating a giant 80m x 80m 3D printer to produce entire aircraft. Whoa, that’s a near-outrageous statement, but it appears in an article published in Forbes, where Airbus seems to have a rationalization for such a project: their future visions cannot be easily made with conventional manufacturing approaches, as you… Continue reading AirBus Envisions Gigantic 3D Printer?
Design Of The Week: Turk’s Head Knot
Thingiverse maker jtbowden created the beautiful “Turk’s Head Knot”. This design caught our eye not only because it’s visually attractive, but also for two other reasons. First, this design should be very easy to 3D print even on the most basic 3D printers. Some designs can be quite aggressive and require particular resolutions or… Continue reading Design Of The Week: Turk’s Head Knot
Ponoko’s Color Ceramics
Ponoko has announced the availability of seven different colors for their glazed ceramic 3D printing material. They previously offered four colors, but now add Yellow, Green and Pale Blue. Even better, they’re offering a discount of 10% off any orders using glazed ceramic until July 29th. Now you can make that coffee cup… Continue reading Ponoko’s Color Ceramics
3D Printing in the USA
It’s interesting to read about 3D printing, but sometimes it’s just a whole lot better to visualize things. That’s precisely what 3DP blogger Nadra Angerman did when she produced this fascinating infographic that attempts to show many of the 3D printing establishments across the USA. Check out the full infographic at the link below. … Continue reading 3D Printing in the USA
Are 3D Printing Materials a Weakness?
For as long as I can remember, users, and potential users, have been clamoring for more and better materials for their 3D printers. It is reasonable to state the to do more with 3D printing, industry wants more in terms of material properties. Read More at Engineering.com
Controlling Microorganisms to Fabricate Products
Designers and scientists in California are exploring the idea of using microorganisms to create consumer products. This can be thought of as a natural way of 3D printing. E. coli bacteria are being studied to ‘re-program’ them and build the product. This idea has tons of potential and in my opinion should have been looked into much… Continue reading Controlling Microorganisms to Fabricate Products
A Showcase of Influential 3D Print Artists
Editor’s note: This guest post comes from 3D printing aficionado Chris Waldo, who has compiled a very impressive list of some very impressive folks pushing the envelope on 3D printing every week. [Update: All images below are thumbnails; please click on them to see larger views] Throughout all emerging markets & technologies, there… Continue reading A Showcase of Influential 3D Print Artists
3D Printing A Canadian Cabinet Minister
During an official visit to the AssentWorks Makerspace in Winnipeg, Canadian Federal Cabinet Minister Tony Clement had his picture taken numerous times, as typically happens on such public events – but one of those images was a 3D scan. Readers all know what happens when someone is 3D scanned: a 3D print emerges shortly… Continue reading 3D Printing A Canadian Cabinet Minister
3D Printed Design Awards In Barcelona
Barcelona’s Association of Industrial Design has selected several student projects for Student Industrial Design Awards at the Barcelona School of Design and Engineering and we had to show them to you because, well they’re amazing! The winning entry was designed by student Marion Frei, who came up with a unique “Vinculum” system for identifying… Continue reading 3D Printed Design Awards In Barcelona