Hardware

The Photon 3D Scanner

Tired of designing your own 3D CAD models? Worn out from endless searching 3D repositories for that specific 3D design? If so, why not scan your own physical objects and replicate them? Usually you can’t because 3D scanning is frequently an expensive proposition.    But that could change with the introduction of the Photon 3D… Continue reading The Photon 3D Scanner

3D Captured Tattoos

We’re looking at an unusual 3D scanning project on Kickstarter: the “3d tattoo body art scanner” by UK artist Lee Wagstaff. Wagstaff is notable as he was the first person to use his own body art as presentation material during his Master’s degree defense.    Having such an incredible array of intricate tattoos poses a… Continue reading 3D Captured Tattoos

Materialise Announces Flexible Material

Materialise, the industrial 3D print service, has announced a rather interesting material: TPU 92A-1. Despite the awkward and mysterious nomenclature, TPU 92A-1 offers a legendary feature: flexibility.    The video above shows the amazing flex provided by TPU 92A-1. Not only is this material flexible, but it also is resistant to tearing, temperature and abrasion,… Continue reading Materialise Announces Flexible Material

Another 3D Printer Shop

3D Makers is one of several new sites we’ve seen recently that provide services, at a small level, to the 3D printing community. Spokesperson Michael Triana pointed out their site, which provides sales of 3D printer plastic filament as well as a  personal 3D printer, the Lulzbot AO-101.    More than likely 3D Makers will… Continue reading Another 3D Printer Shop

Mod Your Un-Moddable 3D Printer

Some 3D printers are made for modification, such as the RepRap kits or early MakerBots. But some 3D printers were specifically designed to be used “out of the box” without modification. These 3D printers were not designed for modification by ingenious owners.    However, in spite of such design constraints, we see continuing effort by… Continue reading Mod Your Un-Moddable 3D Printer

The MakerBot Digitizer Desktop 3D Scanner

MakerBot announced, but did not release, a personal 3D scanner at SXSW yesterday that could dramatically change how personal 3D printers are used and accepted by the general public.   Perhaps the biggest problem facing home 3D printer owners today is finding the right 3D models to print. Unless one is a designer equipped with… Continue reading The MakerBot Digitizer Desktop 3D Scanner

Point And Shoot 3D Scanning

The folks at Lynx Lab have launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the initial units of their “Lynx A Camera”. It’s  designed to be a point and shoot 3D camera, capable of capturing 3D shapes as well as motion.    The Lynx A tries to put all the elements of 3D scanning in… Continue reading Point And Shoot 3D Scanning

Formlabs Forms Form 1’s

True to their pledge, Formlabs has begun production of their resin-based personal 3D printer, the Form 1. In an astonishing Kickstarter campaign last fall, Formlabs busted their speedometer in raising almost USD$3M.    Now they have to deliver on those and other subsequent device orders.    It’s obviously extremely challenging for a startup to begin… Continue reading Formlabs Forms Form 1’s

FormFutura Sells Wood Filament

Most personal 3D printers require plastic filament of some kind or another. Recently some manufacturers have moved to use factory-certified cartridges, but many devices still can use “any filament” that meets the necessary dimensions.    There are several online stores ready to sell you such filament, some trying to distinguish themselves by offering wider varieties… Continue reading FormFutura Sells Wood Filament

Metal 3D Printing Everywhere

In addition to the major plastic 3D printer manufacturers appearing at Euromold 2012, quite a few metal 3D printer manufacturers also exhibited. Metal printing might be unfamiliar to many of our readers who focus on more inexpensive plastic machines.    Metal-capable machines are typically quite expensive and are varied in features and abilities. At Euromold… Continue reading Metal 3D Printing Everywhere

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Do You Carbomorph?

Carbomorph is a new, experimental material for 3D printing that promises to add a whole new range of capabilities with its ability to embed sensors within 3D printed items.    Carbomorph was invented by researchers at the University of Warwick in the UK in their quest to develop a method of 3D printing electronic circuits.… Continue reading Do You Carbomorph?

3D Printed Electronics Demonstration

Optomec and Stratasys are set to demonstrate their hybrid technology that permits a type of 3D printed electronics. We’ve written about this before, but now they intend on demonstrating the process to the public.     The process does not involve a mutant plastic-and-metal 3D printer. Instead it simply is a way for the two companies… Continue reading 3D Printed Electronics Demonstration

Objet Adds to its List of Materials

3D Printer maker Objet Geometries announced new additions to its now massive selection of materials available to its 3D printers. The new additions include a “rigid black” material and no less than sixteen different “rubber-like” materials that offer varying degrees of hardness (or flexibility, if you prefer).    This brings their current complement of materials… Continue reading Objet Adds to its List of Materials

MakerBot’s Photo Booth

It doesn’t exactly print photos, however. It prints sculptures! Of you! It can be found at MakerBot’s retail store in Brooklyn, NY.   Team MakerBot has combined their Replicator 3D printing technology with ShapeShot 3D capture software into a booth setup to provide a true 3D printing “photo booth”. The ShapeShot involves several fixed cameras… Continue reading MakerBot’s Photo Booth

Objet’s Flexy Materials

An interesting video from Objet shows off many of their latest materials. While many Fabbaloo readers have 3D printers capable of printing in hard plastic, the items in this video demonstrate what can be achieved when you are able to print in flexible material.    Oh, did we say that Objet has an almost perfectly… Continue reading Objet’s Flexy Materials

3D Systems Donates to Singularity U

Singularity University is a specialized institution dedicated to leveraging “the power of exponential technologies to solve humanity’s grand challenges”, and created by forward-looking entrepreneurs Peter Diamandis and Ray Kurzweil. The grand challenges include research in very diverse areas, including energy, security, poverty and space exploration. The institution attracts top level students to work on these… Continue reading 3D Systems Donates to Singularity U

Gigantic Titanium Printing: Aeroswift

A brief press release from CSIR, South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research announced a three-way partnership to develop “titanium powder-based additive layer manufacturing for fabrication of large and complex aerospace components.”   The other partners in this venture are Aerosud, a South African-based aerospace manufacturer and the more well-known Airbus.    CSIR provides… Continue reading Gigantic Titanium Printing: Aeroswift

The B9Creator Creator Speaks

Core77 published a detailed interview with Michael Joyce (of Deadwood, South Dakota), the creator of the B9Creator.    The B9Creator was a hugely successful Kickstarter project to fund the development of a resin-based personal 3D printer. How successful? Over USD$500,000 was raised, enabling Joyce to get production going.     We encourage you to read the… Continue reading The B9Creator Creator Speaks

Fabbster’s Flexy Experiment

We’ve just viewed an interesting video of what appears to be a 3D print of a very flexible material, evidently performed on a Fabbster. You’ll recall Fabbster; the personal 3D printer that accepts pre-made plastic “sticks” of different materials and colors.  Apparently they’ve somehow made sticks out of a flexible plastic material and printed out… Continue reading Fabbster’s Flexy Experiment

Up! Sharpens Its Output

3D printer manufacturer PP3DP improved the resolution on both its Up! Plus and Up! Mini personal 3D printers.    The Up! Plus previously was capable of printing as fine as 200 microns (0.20mm), but with this upgrade it will be improved to 150 microns (0.15mm). Similarly, the Up! Mini 3D printer will be improved from… Continue reading Up! Sharpens Its Output

Canadian Plastic

The pattern seems to be regionalization. Plastic filament supply shops specifically focused on 3D printing are emerging in many countries supplying primarily their local markets. We’ve seen shops open up in the US, UK, Switzerland, Netherlands and other places.    Now there’s one in Canada, based in Montreal: Voxel Factory offers an extensive list of… Continue reading Canadian Plastic

Wooden Filament? Yes!

We’re not kidding. It really is filament made of wood – and you can print actual wooden objects with it.    Developed by Thingiverse user Kaipa, the “LAYWOO-D” filament is a hybrid mix of recycled wood particles and secret binders. You may use this material in RepRap-style 3D printers at a temperature of between 185-200C,… Continue reading Wooden Filament? Yes!

EnvisionTEC Unveils New Materials

EnvisionTEC, Inc. will showcase the company’s expanded range of 3D printing materials at the IMTS exhibition in Chicago. EnvisionTEC announced the launch of its new AB Material resins, with the first two commercially available offerings: ABflex and ABStuff. Both are used with the company’s DLP 3D printers.   Read More at Engineering.com

Save Some Cash With ISQUARED Consumables

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

The RA 3D Printer Controller

It’s not a 3D printer, but you could make one with it. It’s the RA 3D printer controller, now showing on Kickstarter.    The project involves creation of a “cutting edge” 3D printer controller board. This is the electronics portion of your 3D printer, typically used in RepRap-style kit assemblies.    What makes this board… Continue reading The RA 3D Printer Controller

An Interview With The DreamVendor

Actually we’re not interviewing the DreamVendor itself; instead we’re interviewing Dr. Chris Williams, the Director of the DREAMS Lab at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, the organization that produced the DreamVendor. (Wait, what’s a “DreamVendor”??? Read on and you’ll find out.)    Fabbaloo: We’re wondering what the DREAMS lab is all about? Can… Continue reading An Interview With The DreamVendor

3D Printing Electrical Circuit Discovery?

We’re reading about a group of researchers at Stanford who have concocted new gel-like substance that has some very interesting properties. We think the electrically conductive hydrogel created by Stanford Associate Professors Zhenan Bao and Yi Cui could potentially be used in 3D printers, or perhaps a modification of it. At least it’s worth an… Continue reading 3D Printing Electrical Circuit Discovery?

The Met’s 3-D Scanning and Printing Hackathon

An interesting experiment took place at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art recently, in which the Met tag-teamed with MakerBot to produce 3D art models.    A team of folks from MakerBot were invited by the Met to journey through several collections to perform 3D scans of famous artwork. The scans were then converted… Continue reading The Met’s 3-D Scanning and Printing Hackathon

Ice That 3D Cake

The folks at CNCDudez have been experimenting with cakes. Frosting cakes, actually. With a 3D printer. Spokesman Sean says:    We have seen videos showing chocolate being extruded out of a syringe and also cake dough being extruded to make cookies. But we wanted to see if we could Ice a cakes, buns etc etc.… Continue reading Ice That 3D Cake

Objet Hits 107!

3D printer manufacturer Objet is well known for their extensive list of different materials that you can use in their line of 3D printers. But this week they announced something perhaps significant: they now offer over 100 different materials (107 to be precise). With their recent announcement of a set of 39 new materials, they’ve… Continue reading Objet Hits 107!

A $34 Extruder?

Remember buying third-party parts for your car? They might have been less expensive, or better in some way and were fun to install and brag about. Now you can do the same on your 3D printer with QU-BD, who are launching a fundraising campaign for their new product: a replacement extruder that costs only USD$34. … Continue reading A $34 Extruder?

3D Scanning by UAVs

What’s that buzzing noise? It’s the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) hovering over your home, and now it could be taking a 3D scan of your house!    According to a report in PhysOrg, that scenario is now a possibility as researchers from the University of Granada in Spain have developed a way to combine 3D… Continue reading 3D Scanning by UAVs

Multicolor RepRap Printing Progresses

After the initial thrill of 3D printing wears off, one begins to look for possible improvements. One of the most sought-after improvements is the ability to print color objects. We don’t mean “a” color, we mean “many” colors. Since plastic filament comes in only one color (except for that elusive Tartan filament we were looking… Continue reading Multicolor RepRap Printing Progresses

Haptic A-Go-Go

Anarkik3D has opened a crowd funding initiative at IndieGoGO to raise money for enhancements to their Cloud9 haptic 3D modeling software. The project’s goal is sufficient funding for two full time programmers to develop the improvements, which means USD$120,000 by June 27th.    We think this is important, because, as Anarkik3D’s CEO Ann Marie Shillito… Continue reading Haptic A-Go-Go

Print The Eiffel

A post on Objet’s blog shows off a totally amazing 3D print of Paris’ Eiffel Tower. This 20+ cm version is highly detailed and is made with Objet’s clear material. We’re particularly impressed with the lack of “stringies” that are so often found on prints from extruded plastic personal 3D printers.    The problem is… Continue reading Print The Eiffel

Heated Chamber For Personal 3D Printers

This idea is hot – literally. Instructables member UglyBuddha created and posted a design for a Heated Build Chamber for his RapMan personal 3D printer. No, he doesn’t install a heated chamber into his RapMan. Instead he builds a heated chamber around the 3D printer!   Wait a moment. Why would one require a heated… Continue reading Heated Chamber For Personal 3D Printers

Microscopic 3D Printer

Numerous readers pointed us to a post by the Vienna University of Technology who recently made a very significant breakthrough in microscopic 3D printing. What is this breakthrough? They were able to successfully perform actual 3D printing operations at a microscopic scale, building the racing car you see in the image here.    How “microscopic”… Continue reading Microscopic 3D Printer

Resin-Based 3D Printer Developments

We’ve observed a few developments in resin-based 3D printing recently. While most personal 3D printers today use the fused deposition modeling approach (melted plastic squirted in a precise path, layer by layer), the resin approach is very different and in many ways offers advantages.    The resin approach involves light-curable liquid resin. Simply illuminate the… Continue reading Resin-Based 3D Printer Developments

Homemade Stereolithography?

Dissatisfied with your plastic extrusion-based home 3D printer? Looking for a mechanical build challenge? Perhaps you’d be interested in checking out the Laser 3D Printer on Instructables.    This project describes how to build a stereolithography (SLA) machine. You should know, however, that the SLA build process is quite different from typical RepRap-style 3D printers… Continue reading Homemade Stereolithography?

Stratasys 3D Printers For Less?

There’s those low-cost personal 3D printers we often write about and there’s those really expensive commercial 3D printers that you’d never be able to afford. Or at least that’s how it used to be.  Stratasys announced something they call a “3D Print Pack”, composed of their small uPrint 3D printer, a cleaning system and startup… Continue reading Stratasys 3D Printers For Less?

Keeping Up! Up

After a series of incremental hardware upgrades, PP3DP recognizes their existing customers might be feeling left out. Therefore they’ve announced an upgrade kit for older PP3DP owners. Had they not done this, owners of older PP3DPs would eventually have had to re-purchase a new model to get the improved features. What’s in the upgrade? Much: … Continue reading Keeping Up! Up

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Imagined Shopping For 3D Printer Materials

Objet just announced another amazing material for their Connex and Eden 3D printers. This new material, called “High Temperature Material”, not surprisingly provides 3D prints that can withstand high temperature exposure.    It can withstand a temperature of +65C (149F) right out of the printer, but if you post-process the object with a “short oven-based,… Continue reading Imagined Shopping For 3D Printer Materials

Up! Is Up!Graded!

The busy technical folks at PP3DP have just released an upgraded Up! 3D printer. The popular personal 3D printer is one of the favorites for home users due to its ease of use and very high-quality output. But what’s new on the upgraded machine?    They’ve changed quite a few things, but these caught our… Continue reading Up! Is Up!Graded!

3D Printing’s Great Divide

We’ve been observing some of the fantastic features offered by the major 3D printer manufacturers and realized there could be a growing problem.   While all 3D printers can produce objects, some manufacturers use unique (and patented) approaches to getting that done. They also offer some great features:    ZCorp’s printers can print in full… Continue reading 3D Printing’s Great Divide

Up!’s Platform Suit

PP3DP has introduced a possible solution to the scourge of all home 3D printer operators: ABS warping.    As most 3D printer operators discover (usually catastrophically) certain shapes and sizes of ABS plastic prints tend to curl as the print proceeds. Usually thin edges are the worst. This problem actually severely limits the size of… Continue reading Up!’s Platform Suit

The Global Village Construction Set

Want to build a civilization? Sure, we all do. But now you can with the Global Village Construction Kit. It’s a set of tools you’ll need to produce and maintain an modern, industrial civilization. From their wiki:    The Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) is a modular, DIY, low-cost, high-performance platform that enables fabrication of… Continue reading The Global Village Construction Set

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Objet’s Clear Bio-Material

Commercial 3D printer manufacturer Objet has released a new very interesting print material: MED610, which is a transparent bio-compatible substance. You might think that making a clear, safe substance would be easy, but it’s not. In order to qualify for such a designation numerous tests and certifications are required, and that’s the tough work that… Continue reading Objet’s Clear Bio-Material

DAVID Laser Scanner Updated

The inexpensive DAVID Laser Scanner has been updated to version 3.0 with some interesting improvements. This device can be used to capture complete digital 3D models of physical objects – which you can then print, of course.    For some time the scanner has supported laser scanning, but now version 3.0 adds the ability to… Continue reading DAVID Laser Scanner Updated

RepRap Price Points

Neil Underwood posted a great summary of pricing options for getting your own RepRap 3D printer. His analysis shows three different price levels, ranging from a full-on everything-you’d-possibly-want version for USD$850 to a very basic, just-enough-to-say-you-did-it USD$350 version. There’s also a more practical level at USD$550 for a “realistically cheap prusa model”.    Be sure… Continue reading RepRap Price Points

Homemade Stereo Lithography

Maker Rob Hopeless developed a primitive stereo lithography 3D printer. For those unfamiliar with “SLA”, it’s a 3D printing technique involving shooting a laser beam at a vat of liquid plastic resin and gradually solidifying that resin into the desired solid object. While most hobbyists attempt to make thermal plastic extruder-based 3D printers, Rob attempted… Continue reading Homemade Stereo Lithography

Up! Gets A Stepper

PP3DP, makers of the popular Up! personal 3D printer announced they’re upgrading their filament feeder in a significant way. Their original feeder involved a DC motor and mechanical switch, which limits the accuracy of prints as the DC motor takes a while to start up and spin down when electricity is applied. This means you’re… Continue reading Up! Gets A Stepper

The Spinscan

Thingiverse user tbuser has been working on an open source version of a 3D scanning turntable, complete with cross-platform software. While 3D printer owners are amazed at their ability to produce things, it gets a bit more tricky to create models. Scanning is obviously a great way to get great models for printing – or… Continue reading The Spinscan

Faberdashery Sells PLA With a Twist

A new service for 3D printer owners has emerged: Faberdashery. They sell plastic filament that’s suitable for use in several types of popular 3D printers, including MakerBot, Bits From Bytes, Ultimaker and the many variants of RepRap.    The difference at Faberdashery, beyond their broad color selection and exclusive sales of PLA, is that they… Continue reading Faberdashery Sells PLA With a Twist

3D Printed Chocolate That Tastes Good

BBC news reports today on scientists at the University of Exeter in the UK who have developed a new chocolate 3D printer. Instead of extruding tasteless plastic, this printer is capable of extruding liquified chocolate into solid – and edible – objects. The process is similar to other extrusion-based 3D printers: squirt and solidify each… Continue reading 3D Printed Chocolate That Tastes Good

Defeating Warping

If there’s one thing that personal 3D printer operators dislike, it must be the evils of warping. Warping, the phenomenon that occurs when a coincidence of material, temperatures, extruder speed and stretching results in printed models that have curled up corners. Typically warping is much more prevalent with ABS plastic and this may have led… Continue reading Defeating Warping

More Metal Printing Experiments

The RepRap team continue to develop methods of printing electrical conductors. If they succeed, it would be possible for future 3D printers to print objects that include (at least at first) simple electronic circuits embedded directly in their shapes. One can imagine a wide variety of LED lamps or switchboxes emerging quickly once this tech… Continue reading More Metal Printing Experiments

What is OHANDA?

OHANDA is the Open Source Hardware and Design Alliance, an initiative that has developed “Four Freedoms” that can be associated with an open design to ensure proper open source use. Their idea is to create an icon that may be displayed on hardware to indicate the permitted usage, similar to a “CC” license in a… Continue reading What is OHANDA?

The 2Bot ModelMaker

It’s not exactly a 3D printer, but more of a 3D cutter. The 2Bot ModelMaker is intended for architects and students to print 3D representations of landscapes, layouts and terrain.   From what we see, it appears to be a 50lb computer controlled drill that traverses an inexpensive 12″ x 12″ x 2″ foam board,… Continue reading The 2Bot ModelMaker

3D Printed CubeSat

You may have seen a freight train pass by hauling endless standard-sized shipping containers. Those containers make freight economical because the entire transportation system can safely assume their characteristics and adapt appropriately.    There’s a similar standard for space satellites: CubeSat. It’s a one-liter 10 x 10 x 10 cm cube that can weigh no… Continue reading 3D Printed CubeSat

MCOR Establishes US Base

3D Paper printer manufacturer has crossed the ocean to set up an American office for the first time. Up til now the company has operated solely in Europe, but expansion was always their plan. The new office, located in San Jose, Calif, will be the base from which they’ll launch into the US market. Of… Continue reading MCOR Establishes US Base

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Junior Veloso Is Really Hi-Res

We’ve written about Junior Veloso’s fascinating experiment in constructing a homemade resin-based 3D printer, but he’s recently made significant progress in developing the quality of his 3D prints. Just take a look at the image above and we’re sure you’ll agree he’s on the right track. The left side is printed at an incredible “50… Continue reading Junior Veloso Is Really Hi-Res

3D Print Objects In Wood

Amazing? Yes. Inevitable? Probably. A huge step forward? Definitely! Of what do we speak? It’s Freedom of Creation’s latest successful venture into 3D printing using wood as the print material.    Their new “Tree-D Printing” process involves using actual sawdust as print material. Their process is powder-based (or in this case, “sawdust-based”, we suppose) in… Continue reading 3D Print Objects In Wood

Clonedel Review

What’s a Clonedel? It’s the latest craze sweeping the RepRap hobbyist market. The folks at Open3DP figured a way to print molds of the parts required to build a RepRap Prusa 3D printer, and there are many who are trying this approach. Why? Because if you’ve got a mold, you can cast the same parts… Continue reading Clonedel Review

3D Printed Curvilinear Antennae

Researchers at the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory at Illinois have achieved something never before accomplished: printing an electronic antenna onto a curved surface. Why would you want to do this? According to electrical and computer engineering professor Jennifer T. Bernhard:    These antennas are electrically small relative to a wavelength (typically a twelfth of… Continue reading 3D Printed Curvilinear Antennae

BetaSolution Hints At MakerBot’s Next Move?

MakerBot recently wrote on the availability of iFeelbeta’s “BetaSolution”, a chemical solution capable of dissolving PLA plastic. Why would you want to do this? You’d be able to freely use PLA as a support material in your 3D prints and very easily remove that support from your final object with this fluid. This would enable… Continue reading BetaSolution Hints At MakerBot’s Next Move?

MCOR on Golem

MCOR chief Conor MacCormack was interviewed by German IT news site Golem, in which he takes us on a detailed technical tour of their amazing paper-based 3D printer. Here’s the highlights:   Up to 3 full reams of common A4 paper is accepted by the machine Sheets are fed, one-by-one, into the build chamber (or… Continue reading MCOR on Golem

Interview With An Organ Printer

We’ve written about Dr. Gabor Forgacs of the University of Missouri before because his work in developing techniques for 3D printing human organs is making great progress. His company, Organovo, has developed a bioprinter, which could be the only such device available for purchase today. Recently he was interviewed by PopTech.   You can read… Continue reading Interview With An Organ Printer

Wanted: Micro-Robotic Fabrication Swarms

No kidding – the US Navy has put out a small business technology transfer solicitation (or STTR as they acronymize it) for proposals to “Develop a swarm of micro-robotic fabrication machines that will enable the manufacture of new materials and components”. Astonishing!   More details:   This topic focuses on a particular approach of using… Continue reading Wanted: Micro-Robotic Fabrication Swarms