3Doodler to the Extreme: SHIGO X

One of the biggest winners in 3D printing crowdfunding has been 3Doodler. After a year of experience it seems they’re still finding out what’s possible with their machine. 

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Frame Punk’s 3D Printed Glasses

We spoke with Nicolas Farnir, Co-founder of Frame Punk to find out more about how they use 3D printing to produce custom sunglasses. 

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The Awesome Dremel Devil

Dan Spengler at Make wrote of an incredibly interesting 3D printing project: the Dremel Devil Flying Ring.

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NASA Takes Another 3D Printed Step

We’ve written previously of NASA’s experiments with 3D printed rocket components. It seems they’ve taken another key step forward with 3D printing. 

Military Use of 3D Printing

The July/August 2014 issue of Army Technology’s focus is 3D printing. We took a look through the issue to see what they’re up to. 

Artificial Muscles to be 3D Printed

Industrial 3D printer manufacturer Optomec will be delivering an Aerosol Jet Quad Print Engine to the Factory Automation and Production Systems (FAPS) Institute at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg to print artificial muscles. 

3D Printing Replaces Cadavers

Medical students have learned anatomy and practiced surgery using cadavers for centuries. Now that doesn’t always have to be the case. 

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Made In Space Soon Will Be

This August you’ll see a real 3D printer operating in outer space. The folks at Made In Space announced their space-capable 3D printer will fly on the SpaceX Dragon CRS-4 flight this summer. 

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The FBI’s 3D Printer

The US FBI has acquired an Objet24 commercial 3D printer. What would they be doing with it?

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Shark Material Produced by 3D Printing

Shark skin is quite rough yet allows rapid swimming, for those of you who haven’t been up close with the notorious fish, but now the nature of the skin has been duplicated with 3D printing. 

Rezvani Supercar Uses 3D Printed Components

In the past year a good number of car companies began experimenting with 3D printing, wondering how it could help their performance, manufacturing and design. For automotive startup Rezvani Motors 3D printing was key to saving weight in its BEAST 500 supercar.

Ten 3D Printed Sustainable Homes Produced in 24 Hours

An experimental revolution is underway in China to use 3D printing techniques to build houses. This rapid construction process was demonstrated to build ten small houses in 24 hours predominantly from recycled materials. The company behind it is Suzhou-based construction materials firm Winsun.

Woman Receives 3D Printed Cranial Implant

For the past few years 3D printing has been making news in the world of medicine. From bioprinting sample organs for drug testing to creating custom prosthetics, additive manufacturing and 3D scanning are revolutionizing medicine.

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Harvard Researchers Print Functional Heart Tissue

In a report delivered to the American Chemical Society, Harvard researchers state they’ve created a printed tissue that mimics natural heart muscle – working in a petri dish and when implanted in animals.

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3D Printed National Gifts

British PM David Cameron knows a bit more about 3D printing than we imagined: He’s just presented a 3D printed gift to Israeli President Shimon Peres. 

Oh, Just a 3D Printed Boat

Jim Smith has made a habit of building massive 3D printers, but now he’s used them to create an even larger project: a 3D printed kayak.  Several years ago Smith created a homebuilt extrusion-based 3D printer with a build volume of 403 x 403 x 322 mm. He’s been tuning and modifying it since, most… Continue reading Oh, Just a 3D Printed Boat

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Local Motors to Debut 3D Printed Car in September

Local Motors recently announced that it has agreed to produce a 3D printed vehicle for the Association For Manufacturing Technology (AMT), which will debut at the International Manufacturing Show (IMS) this coming September.

Laser Sintering Moves Into the Bike Market

As metal additive manufacturing techniques continue to increase the fidelity of the parts they produce, more industries are beginning to experiment with the technology.  

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Bow & Drape’s 3D Printing Venture

According to a report in the Wall St. Journal, New York startup Bow & Drape has raised USD$1.2M in new investment, specifically for developing new lines of customized fashion accessories using 3D printing. 

Low Cost, 3D Printed UAV Test Bed

3D Printing firm Solid Concepts has partnered with aerospace engineering firm Area-I to create a scale model of a 737 used to simulate real-world aerodynamics.   Named the Prototype-Technology Evaluation and Research Aircraft (PTERA), the model craft serves as an inexpensive and safe bridge between wind tunnel evaluations and manned flight tests. During each flight… Continue reading Low Cost, 3D Printed UAV Test Bed

Rehabilitating Lame Horses With 3D Printing

Readers may recall a story we did late last year in which custom titanium horseshoes were 3D printed for race horses in Australia. It turns out that this development was noted by Australian veterinarians treating horses afflicted with Laminitis, an inflammation in the area between the horse’s hoof and bone.    The idea was to… Continue reading Rehabilitating Lame Horses With 3D Printing

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Africa’s Octo-Choco-Printer

We’ve heard about chocolate 3D printers before, but never one like this. Fouche Chocolates of South Africa, and specifically its engineer Hans Fouche has developed an eight-nozzle chocolate printer for producing custom delicacies.    A detailed report on htxt.africa takes you through Fouche’s development process, which explains how the printer is used to create “edible… Continue reading Africa’s Octo-Choco-Printer

Continuum Fashion Speaks

Mary Huang, co-founder of Continuum Fashion recently spoke at a LeWeb event, where she described some of their work to produce ready-to-wear 3D printed shoes.    Ms. Huang explained the basics of 3D printing, which is still new to many. It seems that 3D printing with desktop equipment is actually quite suitable for the production… Continue reading Continuum Fashion Speaks

3D Printing Pre-Formed, Expandable Structures

In what could be a preview of the future of architectural design, Los Angeles-based architecture office ID4A has created a method for creating pliable, reconfigurable 3D prints.   According to Rania Hoteit and Malek Idriss, principles at ID4A, their new method for architectural “hyper-prototyping” employs a “rigorous exchange between computational design, physical prototyping and additive… Continue reading 3D Printing Pre-Formed, Expandable Structures

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A 3D Printed Movie Character Collection

At this year’s 3D Printshow we were excited to visit the large display of 3D prints by Legacy Effects. If you don’t know about Legacy Effects, they are one of the premier special effects shops in Hollywood, and have produced numerous famous characters for motion pictures you’ve no doubt seen.    While much of Legacy… Continue reading A 3D Printed Movie Character Collection

3D Printed Coral Reefs

Forbes published more information on the 3D printed reef produced by concrete 3D printer D-Shape, whom we met with earlier this year.    Why 3D print a reef when you can simply drop concrete blocks or sink redundant ships at the correct locations? The answer lies in the shape of the reef.    Evidently artificial… Continue reading 3D Printed Coral Reefs

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3D Printed Robotic Futures

Michael Overstreet has written his thoughts on the future of robotics as affected by 3D printing on i.Materialise. He believes that 3D printing should encourage rapid creation of new forms of robotics over the next few years.    Clearly, the first and most obvious point is that robotic models and associated ideas are accessible via… Continue reading 3D Printed Robotic Futures

ESA’s Launch into Metal 3D Printing

The European Space Agency has launched an initiative to develop complex metal 3D printing techniques for space missions. The Amaze initiative (standing for “Additive Manufacturing Aiming Towards Zero Waste and Efficient Production of High-Tech Metal Products”, somehow) brings together 28 different organizations that have a stake in the process, either by research (Universities) or industry… Continue reading ESA’s Launch into Metal 3D Printing

3D Printed Robotic Arm

Over the last week the London Science Museum has been showcasing 600 objects created by 3D printers. While every piece in the show highlights the strength of the technology, one object, a transparent robotic prosthetic, is unique in that it offers a forecast of where 3D printing is headed.   Created by researchers at the… Continue reading 3D Printed Robotic Arm

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3D Printing Brings an Ancient Camera to Life

Photographer Aaron Foat had a serious problem: he had obtained a classic No. 1a Pocket Kodak camera, circa 1905, in perfect condition. It was is such good shape that it could take pictures.    If only he could buy the long-unavailable Kodak 116 film for it.    Determined to succeed, Foat contacted his local makerspace,… Continue reading 3D Printing Brings an Ancient Camera to Life

Stratasys Tech Flys UAVs

One of Stratasys’ clients is UAV Solutions of Maryland, who, obviously, manufacture UAVs. But they now do this with 3D printing.    Their journey is similar to many manufacturers who encounter 3D printing: at first it’s a novelty, then it becomes something used for unusual situations and finally:    3D printing has now “crept” into… Continue reading Stratasys Tech Flys UAVs

D-Shape Prototypes 3D Printed Lunar Bricks

D-Shape, makers of a massive 3D printing solution capable of printing large, building-sized structures, has apparently been working with the European Space Agency on lunar building experiment.    The idea is to use on site materials (lunar regolith, which is simply a mix of sand, dust and other particles) as the 3D print materials. In… Continue reading D-Shape Prototypes 3D Printed Lunar Bricks

3D Printing the One Hundred Year Starship

Not too long ago DARPA and NASA began hosting symposiums to discuss the possibility of interstellar travel. The brightest minds in the fields of technology, science, philosophy, sociology and economics all gathered to determine what it would take to build a 100 Year Starship.   While some proposed massive spaceships reminiscent of the Starship Enterprise,… Continue reading 3D Printing the One Hundred Year Starship

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