Over the last 100 years or so, the Ford Motor Company has gotten really good at stamping sheet metal parts. Sadly, stamping can take up to 6-8 weeks from the time the design leaves the CAD station, so it’s not great for prototyping. To speed up prototyping, Ford has created a rapid process they… Continue reading Rapid Sheet Metal Prototyping at Ford
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Withings New Scale Rescued By 3D Printing
For those accustomed to digital manufacturing using 3D printing, it’s becoming hard to imagine how companies designed products in the past. Today’s leading companies use a digital process to create their offerings, and that’s precisely what Withings did to develop their latest smart scale. Withings, if you don’t know, produce an amazing personal weight… Continue reading Withings New Scale Rescued By 3D Printing
GIANT 3D PRINTED BUGS!
The Australian National Insect Collection could be a creepy place if you’re adverse to meeting bugs. But now it’s enormously MORE creepy because they’ve used advanced technology to create GIANT 3D PRINTED BUGS! They’ve carefully 3D scanned specimens of several species and reproduced them up to forty times life size. Yes, FORTY. And they’re… Continue reading GIANT 3D PRINTED BUGS!
3D Printed Car Wins Pilkington Design Award
Nir Siegel, a vehicle design student at the Royal College of Art has recently been awarded the Pilkington prize’s Best Design Interpretation for his Genesis car. The Genesis, which is built to be completely customizable can be 3D printed and self-assembled. According to Siegel the idea behind the Genesis is “to evolve products and… Continue reading 3D Printed Car Wins Pilkington Design Award
Enabling Octopod Propulsion
Squids, octopi and similar marine animals propel themselves through water by means of a water jet. While this has been known for years, building a mechanism to duplicate it has been challenging – until now, as Germany-based Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA developed a 3D printed design that does exactly that. … Continue reading Enabling Octopod Propulsion
Joy Division’s Famous Cover is 3D Printed
The iconic cover for Joy Division’s 1979 hit album Unknown Pleasures has been 3D printed. German designer Michael Zoellner wanted to print Peter Saville’s design, which was based on an extra-terrestrial pulsar signal. Unfortunately, he ran into trouble right away: I could not find a single vector graphic or 3D model anywhere. There are… Continue reading Joy Division’s Famous Cover is 3D Printed
The Perfect Cast is 3D Printed
Designer Jake Evill has done something good. Something truly amazing that could change the future. He’s produced a custom-fit 3D printed exoskeleton piece that can be used as a cast for broken limbs. The “Cortex” cast is a sparse model that perfectly fits the exterior shape of the limb, while providing adequate support for… Continue reading The Perfect Cast is 3D Printed
12,000 Swarovski Crystals On a 3D Printed Dress
The unlikely team of costume designer Michael Schmidt of Los Angeles and architect Francis Bitonti of Brooklyn collaborated to create the world’s “first fully articulated garment made using 3-D printing”, according to a report in the New York Times. Bitonti created a detailed scan of burlesque performer Dita Von Teese, while Schmidt used the… Continue reading 12,000 Swarovski Crystals On a 3D Printed Dress
3D Printed Ponies!
Across the world today many people have 3D printers, but what do they make with them? We’re seeing inventive folks focus on very specific categories and styles of objects, each trying to eke out a business by servicing the needs of others. Student and artist Nyasu decided to make cute ponies with his 3D printer. … Continue reading 3D Printed Ponies!
The Budget That Was Saved By 3D Printing
South east of Huntsville, Alabama is the small city of Boaz, where something very interesting happened. The Boaz City School System discovered they had to replace all the switch mounts for their network upgrade. The 364 switches were to cost USD$2000, but Wayne Caudle, Director of Technologies for the School System had a better… Continue reading The Budget That Was Saved By 3D Printing
I Will Not Print You A Gun!
The headline is not exactly what is said on a piece now appearing on Thingiverse. The “guns are bad” 3D model by Gecko is a desktop sign that actually says: NO! I will not print you a f***ing gun 3D printed guns are obviously controversial, so much so that the mandarins at Thingiverse… Continue reading I Will Not Print You A Gun!
There’s Something About 3D Printed Shoes
One of the most interesting items to 3D print on a high-power color 3D printer turns out to be shoes. We were blown away when we first encountered a color 3D printed shoe last year – the visual realism is only broken when you pick up the shoe and realize its made of sandstone. … Continue reading There’s Something About 3D Printed Shoes
Digital Grotesque: A 3D Printed Room
In July of this year Digital Grotesque will launch. It’s a project to produce “an elaborate, fully-enclosed room that is entirely 3D printed.” Computational architects Benjamin Dillenburger and Michael Hansmeyer designed Digital Grotesque and exhibited a 1:3 scale prototype at the recent 2013 Swiss Art Awards in Basel. They hope to produce a full… Continue reading Digital Grotesque: A 3D Printed Room
3D Printing to Change the Shoe Industry?
James Shorrock writes on Hypebeast his thoughts on how 3D printing could change the future of the shoe manufacturing industry. He proposes that while shoe prototyping has already led to much more rapid shoe design, eventually shoes could be 3D printed directly, based on current experiments with different materials. Once the correct cushioning and… Continue reading 3D Printing to Change the Shoe Industry?
More Fashion Designers Moving to 3D Printing
We may be past the pioneering stage in 3D printed fashion. While there have been several experimental forays into 3D printed clothing and accessories, we’re now seeing more fashion designers join the 3D printing movement. Today we’re reading of designer Catherine Wales, who previously worked on projects for Yves Saint Laurent, has developed an… Continue reading More Fashion Designers Moving to 3D Printing
A Collectable Rubber Duck in Hong Kong
Eddie Tsai of Hong Kong’s Fung Academy researched the adoption of 3D printing by consumers and came up with the concept of “hyperlocal promotions, the ability to respond to events around the world with meaningful relevant products quickly.” An interesting concept certainly, but it quickly became reality for Tsai, who was contacted mere days… Continue reading A Collectable Rubber Duck in Hong Kong
Organovo 3D Prints a Human Liver
In a video report on CBC, Organovo CEO Keith Murphy describes his company’s latest achievement: 3D bioprinting portions of a human liver. Even more amazing is that the liver cells actually exhibit partial function. Murphy says: “Today we can print tiny parts of these organs… About half a millimeter to a millimeter thick”.… Continue reading Organovo 3D Prints a Human Liver
Ford Predicts 3D Printed Spare Parts
A recent Wall Street Journal article describes Ford and General Electric’s experiments in 3D printed prototypes and production parts. While that’s not new, we observed an interesting quote: The auto maker sees a future where customers will be able to print their own replacement parts. Theoretically, a customer could log onto the Web, scan… Continue reading Ford Predicts 3D Printed Spare Parts
Free 3D Scans Of Famous Sculptures?
Cosmo Wenman is well-known for his incredibly realistic and large-size 3D prints of ancient sculptures. How does he do it? He visits museums to capture 3D scans later offered online at no charge. Now he’s taking the concept to a much higher level: a Kickstarter project hopes to raise funds for him to scan numerous… Continue reading Free 3D Scans Of Famous Sculptures?
Human Faces 3D Printed From Stray DNA
In another truly science fiction moment, PhD student Heather Dewey-Hagborg has developed a technique for transforming found DNA into a 3D model of the DNA owner’s face. This, of course, can be 3D printed. Studying Information art at Troy, NY’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Dewey-Hagborg has been involved in a wide variety of similarly unusual… Continue reading Human Faces 3D Printed From Stray DNA
The Sugar Lab’s Sweet Prints
A pair of graduate students from Los Angeles created The Sugar Lab, a new business producing highly creative 3D printed sugar cake toppers. The two, Kyle and Liz, embarked on their journey by attempting to 3D print a cake for a friend. After much experimentation, they produced a cake topper made from 3D printed… Continue reading The Sugar Lab’s Sweet Prints
Orange County Choppers 3D Prints A Dragoncycle
The gentlemen at Orange County Choppers (yes, those guys) happen to own a Stratasys Fortus 400mc large commercial 3D printer and they’ve been using it to create some very unique motorcycles. A Chinese client requested a dragon-themed bike from OCC team, who designed and built the magnificent vehicle you see above. The 3D printed… Continue reading Orange County Choppers 3D Prints A Dragoncycle
Sad Keanu: A 3D Printed Meme
In 2010 paparazzi snapped a pic of actor Keanu Reeves sitting on a bench and looking a bit dejected. The image quickly exploded into an internet meme, generating thousands of images, captions and sites dedicated to the concept. The meme continues. Shapeways creator neuralfirings developed a 3D model of the Keanu pose and offered… Continue reading Sad Keanu: A 3D Printed Meme
X-Box One Prototyped with 3D Printer
At its Redmond, Washington, headquarters, Microsoft unveiled its next generation video game console the X-Box One. The console, which will feature 15 exclusive titles, Skype video calling, and a voice and gesture command feature, came with one other surprise; it was prototyped using 3D printers. Admittedly, Microsoft isn’t a new comer to the world… Continue reading X-Box One Prototyped with 3D Printer
3D Printed Walls Offer Unique Designs
Paris-based In-Flexions has produced one-of-a-kind residential room designs using 3D printing. The “Printed Habitat”, created by designers François Brument and Sonia Laugier, used parametric design to develop a complete set of 3D printed blocks that, when assembled, create a complete set of interior walls. The blocks are individually designed, each generated using a parametric… Continue reading 3D Printed Walls Offer Unique Designs
3D Printed Fireworks? Yes, Please!
No, you can’t 3D print gunpowder, as far as we know, but you can actually make fireworks. Christophe Hermanns of Belgian-based Vigo Universal used 3D printing to create several devices used to hold live fireworks in Les Orryflammes’ pyrotechnic shows. The artistic troupe employs handheld fireworks apparatus to produce a highly animated stage show,… Continue reading 3D Printed Fireworks? Yes, Please!
Made In Space To Really Go To Space
They made the 3D printer, now they send it into space. Made In Space, the startup who have designed a compact 3D printer suitable for use in the weightless environment in space, now have a flight date for their machine. In August 2014 their 3D printer will be carried aloft to the International Space Station… Continue reading Made In Space To Really Go To Space
Platige Image’s Astonishing 3D Printed Sculpture: Biostagog
A collaboration of artists and technicians has created one of the most amazing 3D printed sculptures ever attempted. Polish company Platige Image required a “statement” for their headquarters in Warsaw and we believe this massive sculpture delivers. They say: The installation was supposed to be an interactive, “living” element in the building, a phenomenon… Continue reading Platige Image’s Astonishing 3D Printed Sculpture: Biostagog
3D Printed Bullets?
A new video has surfaced of experiments with 3D printed bullets. The video, produced by popular gun video enthusiasts Taofledermaus, shows three actual firings of said bullets. One firing involves 1/10 of an ounce (3g) of powder, another is 1/2 an ounce (14g) and the third shows a very unusual shape, which fails miserably.… Continue reading 3D Printed Bullets?
3D Printers: Banned?
That could be the outcome of a proposal from California state senator Leland Yee of San Francisco. Upon reviewing recent reports of 3D printable weapons, Yee became concerned about the possible outcomes and has proposed that the technology must be regulated. He says: Terrorists can make these guns and do some horrible things to… Continue reading 3D Printers: Banned?
NASA Developing a 3D Food Printer
According to a report in New Scientist, NASA is funding research that could lead to 3D printed food technology. Texas-based Anjan Contractor of Systems and Materials Research Corporation obtained funding from NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research Program to develop a “fully functional” 3D food printer. The goal of this program is to creat te… Continue reading NASA Developing a 3D Food Printer
Princeton Scientists Create Bionic Ear
One of the most difficult parts of integrating electronics with biological tissue is getting the numerous tissues and materials to meld. At a lab in Princeton, New Jersey scientists are making progress on this effort using 3D printing. According to Michael McAlpine, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton, “In general,… Continue reading Princeton Scientists Create Bionic Ear
Breaking: DEFCAD’s 3D Printable Gun Files Held by US Government
An announcement suddenly appearing on Defense Distributed’s DEFCAD.org notifies visitors that the files containing 3D models of gun parts will no longer be available. The announcement says: DEFCAD files are being removed from public access at the request of the US Department of Defense Trade Controls. Until further notice, the United States government… Continue reading Breaking: DEFCAD’s 3D Printable Gun Files Held by US Government
3D Printing The Radioactive Bomber Cam
Fabbaloo friend Patrick Letourneau recently completed a unique photography project enabled by 3D printing. The Bomber Cam is a hybrid camera made from an actual (and radioactive) World War II bomber camera lens and a modern GH2 digital camera. Somehow Letourneau obtained the ancient camera, which was originally strapped to the bottom of World… Continue reading 3D Printing The Radioactive Bomber Cam
Defense Distributed’s 3D Printed Handgun
Defense Distributed’s Cody Wilson wasn’t kidding when he said last week their team was working diligently on developing a design for a 3D printed handgun. In an exclusive from Forbes, the design of the handgun, named “The Liberator”, has been shown for the first time. During Wilson’s appearance the other week at a New… Continue reading Defense Distributed’s 3D Printed Handgun
GE’s Making 3D Printed Jets
The prestigious MIT Technology Review has named General Electric’s work on 3D printing as one of its “10 Breakthrough Technologies 2013”. Specifically, GE is developing a metal nozzle for its LEAP jet engine. They will use 3D metal printers to produce the nozzles, which will be lighter in weight due to an advanced design… Continue reading GE’s Making 3D Printed Jets
Organovo 3D Prints A Human Liver
Correction: Organovo printed human liver TISSUE – but that’s a major step along the way to printing an entire functioning liver. Organovo has been developing 3D bioprinting technology for some time now, focusing on producing functional tissue for experimentation. Keith Murphy, Chairman and CEO of Organovo said: We have achieved excellent function in a… Continue reading Organovo 3D Prints A Human Liver
D-Shape’s Plans
Enrico Dini is the founder of D-Shape, pioneers in large-scale 3D printing using concrete-like materials. They’ve developed a technique for solidifying sand into a kind of sandstone using a chlorine-based fluid. The 3D printer is truly massive and must be erected on the building site – or else you’d better hire trucks and cranes… Continue reading D-Shape’s Plans
Get Ready For Real Chocolate 3D Printing
At a recent conference 3D Systems President and CEO Avi Reichental spoke of his company’s efforts to produce a true chocolate 3D printer. While the project was classed as “Not Soon”, it does indicate significant interest in 3D food printing. We also understand that 3D Systems’ main competitor, Stratasys, has applied for a couple of… Continue reading Get Ready For Real Chocolate 3D Printing
D-Shape Reshapes NYC
Concrete 3D printer D-Shape has been awarded first place in NYC’s “Change the Course” Waterfront construction competition. The USD$50,000 prize is intended to generate unique ideas and approaches for redeveloping the 565 miles of NYC shoreline, particularly after damages incurred by Hurricane Sandy. D-Shape’s technology will be used to restore damaged seawalls other other… Continue reading D-Shape Reshapes NYC
An Update from Defense Distributed
During our visit to New York City this week we heard directly from Cody Wilson, founder of Defense Distributed on the latest progress they’ve had developing 3D models of functioning firearms. During his talk at Inside 3D Printing, Wilson described some significant breakthroughs: Defense Distributed has been able to produce an ABS barrel… Continue reading An Update from Defense Distributed
World’s First 3D Printed Sailboard
Startup company MADE BOARDS has devised a process to create surf, paddle and sailboards using 3D printing. They don’t simply design a board and print it out – they customize the design for each individual. The process involves capturing data about “your body, your style, and the conditions in which you ride”, and then… Continue reading World’s First 3D Printed Sailboard
Midas Touch Helps Blind “See”
A group at Harvard is hoping their Midas Touch project will enable blind people to appreciate art. The project will convert 2D artwork, such as a painting, into a 3D shape. The 3D shape can then be explored with touch by the blind to gain an understanding of that piece. At this point the… Continue reading Midas Touch Helps Blind “See”
NASA’s SpaceShop
No, we’re not referring to the identically-named giftshop at Kennedy Space Centre where you can buy all the freeze-dried ice cream you’d care to eat; we are instead referring to NASA’s Advanced Digital Materials and Manufacturing for Space initiative at their Ames Research Center. It’s basically a FabLab for NASA makers. The SpaceShop includes… Continue reading NASA’s SpaceShop
3D Printed Steadicam
Have an idle 3D printer and a GoPro action cam? Why not build yourself your very own GoPro steadicam mount? An Instructables by member haqnmaq shows you all the necessary steps, including 3D printing several parts for the key mechanism. The Instructable includes the STL 3D models for the Fork and Gimbal pieces, which… Continue reading 3D Printed Steadicam
“Print Me a Cruiser” : The Future of the US Fleet
According to the Navy publication Proceedings Magazine, “The 3D printing revolution will radically change naval construction.” In the magazine’s most recent issue, Lt. Cheney-Peters and Lt. Hipple argue that the future of naval design and manufacturing could be based on a 3D printing paradigm. In an interview with MakerBot’s Peter Schmehl, Cheney-Peters learned that… Continue reading “Print Me a Cruiser” : The Future of the US Fleet
How 3D Printing Saved His Face
Eric Moger of the UK recovered from surgery to remove a tennis ball-sized tumor from under this skin of the left side of his face. Unfortunately, a large portion of his face had to be removed during the surgery, rendering him significantly disfigured. All was not lost for Moger, as technicians were able to… Continue reading How 3D Printing Saved His Face
3D Printed Nudes
There are endless applications for 3D printing technology. One can create replacement appliance parts, build a machine, equip a UAV and much more. Everyone focuses on some specific use of 3D printing, and today we’ve bumped into a new one we hadn’t seen before: 3D Printed Nudes. It’s not quite what you think. 3D… Continue reading 3D Printed Nudes
3D Printed Tonearm; Vinyl Not Dead!
A report on AnalogPlanet details and experimental 3D printed “tonearm”. That’s the piece that holds the “needle” that “reads” a vinyl record on a turntable. For those of you who have lived beyond the era of CD’s, a previous era involved “vinyl records”, played by these turntable things. It turns out they’re still… Continue reading 3D Printed Tonearm; Vinyl Not Dead!
3D Print Your OUYA!
Maybe you haven’t heard of OUYA? If not, it’s an ultra-low cost game console designed for open development. Taking a cue from Nokia’s user-3D printed case program, OUYA has partnered with MakerBot to release design files that permit you to develop your own unique case for your OUYA. Customizing your own objects is the… Continue reading 3D Print Your OUYA!
Point. Click. Gun.
A fascinating video detailing Cody Wilson’s Defense Distributed initiative has been published by Motherboard: “Point. Click. Gun.” In the 24 minute video Wilson takes you on a tour of his operations and deep into his philosophy on gun making. You’ll see his own workshop containing the very Objet Connex 3D printer used to print… Continue reading Point. Click. Gun.
A 3D Printed Snowblower
Supermaker Kris Kortright has been building a “Snow Droid”. The project involved adding robotic capability to a standard Snapper 24″ Snow Blower using electronics from Adafruit. While winter is now officially over, the project began last fall, and as far as we can tell, is still in progress. The Snow Droid’s key feature is… Continue reading A 3D Printed Snowblower
3D Printed Goldeneye Remote Mine
We were contacted by Shane Blomberg who was excited to show us his project to create a Goldeneye Remote Mine replica prop from the 007 game from the 90’s. The project originally manifested as an “Instructable”, but it required you to somehow find a now-prehistoric PC Commander Joystick base. Given that such things are… Continue reading 3D Printed Goldeneye Remote Mine
SinterHab: A 3D Printed Lunar Module
A new proposal for 3D printing lunar habitats has been unveiled by Tomas Rousek, Katarina Eriksson and Dr. Ondrej Doule of the International Space University, and this one looks like it just might work. Previous proposals involved shipping 3D supplies from Mother Earth, but that obviously requires more energy and expense. The SinterHab proposal… Continue reading SinterHab: A 3D Printed Lunar Module
World’s First 3D Printed Snowboard
Every Third Thursday has published a video of their most recent experiment: a 3D printed snowboard. The experiment, as you’ll see, was a success. Printing a snowboard poses two immediate challenges: a snowboard is larger than most 3D printers’ build chambers. The second challenge is strength. 3D printers can produce objects but they often… Continue reading World’s First 3D Printed Snowboard
3D Printed Business Figures
Everyone hands out business cards – it’s been the standard method of exchanging business information for a very long time. But now Nanning de Jong of 3Dwergen in The Netherlands has created an alternative approach using 3D printing: Business Figurines. 3DWergen’s client, Resoluut, a web and software firm, already had several cartoons used as… Continue reading 3D Printed Business Figures
Tacori Rings Expands 3D Printing Capability
Ring manufacturer Tacori has just acquired a brand new 3D Systems Projet 3500 CPX Max 3D printer, a device specifically designed for production of jewelry. The new machine permits a much more rapid ring development process at Tacori, changing how they create and deliver products. Tacori’s President of Sales and Marketing, Paul Tacorian, says: … Continue reading Tacori Rings Expands 3D Printing Capability
Multi-Armed Bioprinting
Researchers at the University of Iowa College of Engineering’s Center for Computer Aided Design have developed a rather interesting prototype bioprinter, capable of printing living tissue. The device, made by Ibrahim Ozbolat, assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering and doctoral student Howard Chen, does something no other 3D printer can do, whether for bioprinting… Continue reading Multi-Armed Bioprinting
Nike’s 3D Printed Talons
Nike’s new Vapor Laser Talon football shoe wouldn’t exist without 3D printing technology. The shoe manufacturer used metal 3D printing technology to prototype a special plate and traction system for the new footwear. According to Nike’s MJP Performance Director, Lance Walker: Nike’s new 3D printed plate is contoured to allow football athletes to… Continue reading Nike’s 3D Printed Talons
3D Printed Solar Cells? Maybe Not
A report on Knovel proposes that solar cells could be made much more efficiently with 3D printing techniques. It seems that the cost of producing solar panels stays high as new design approaches squeeze more watts out of each square inch. One highly efficient design involves producing a solar “cube” rather than a solar… Continue reading 3D Printed Solar Cells? Maybe Not
3D Printed Mammoth Steaks?!
Modern Meadow is 3D bioprinting startup developing a method of 3D printing “meat and leather” ultimately for human consumption. They combine advances in biotech with 3D printing to eliminate the need for real animal food production, which is hugely energy intensive. Recently Modern Meadow’s Andras Forgacs performed a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything). The… Continue reading 3D Printed Mammoth Steaks?!
3D Printed Gun: Mission Accomplished?
Ars Technica spent some time with Defense Distributed’s Cody Wilson examining the latest version of DefDist’s 3D printed gun. Actually the gun is not 3D printed; one key part, the lower receiver, is 3D printed. The rest of the weapon is made of conventional (and less complex) metal and plastic parts. Previous attempts… Continue reading 3D Printed Gun: Mission Accomplished?
Perfectly Smooth Your 3D Prints – But Be Careful!
After the initial thrill of seeing a 3D print emerge from thin air, 3D print newbies often notice the layering effect. This is, of course, caused by the gradual deposition of plastic layers during the build process. Depending on the layer resolution selected for print, these layers could be very visible, or not. The… Continue reading Perfectly Smooth Your 3D Prints – But Be Careful!
Zayger Watches
An interesting Kickstarter project involves 3D printing: Zayger Watches are limited run, unique wristwatches. They’re offered in a wide variety of colors, straps and shapes. The maker, one Shlomo Mockin of Brooklyn, NY, discovered how 3D printing could enable inexpensive production of limited run pieces that could be made into unique wristwatch designs. He… Continue reading Zayger Watches
Nissan’s Delta Wing Testbed Utilizes Additive Manufacturing
Efficiency is the name of the game when it comes to car design, and Nissan isn’t taking any prisoners with their Deltawing racer. According to Nissan, the concept behind the Deltawing is “to half the aerodynamic drag, half the power, half the mass, half the fuel consumption, and half the tire consumption [while]… Continue reading Nissan’s Delta Wing Testbed Utilizes Additive Manufacturing
Real 3D Printed Ears. No, Really!
It’s always a thrill to see an object emerge from a 3D printer. The object, previously visible only as an intangible digital model displayed poorly on a 2D screen is suddenly in your hand. But imagine the thrill if that object being printed was intended to literally be part of you. That’s precisely… Continue reading Real 3D Printed Ears. No, Really!
Wirelessly Tag Your 3D Prints
Shapeways announced a very cool feature offered by their 3D print service: NFC tagging. If you haven’t heard of it, NFC stands for “Near Field Communication“, a short-range wireless technology. NFC is used in key fobs or other security devices. It simply receives a signal and responds with its own unique digital number. With… Continue reading Wirelessly Tag Your 3D Prints
NASA Gets Serious About 3D Printing
A post on Mashable describes the goings-on at NASA where they’re deeply investigating the possibility of using 3D printing technology on future space missions. As we’ve said before, 3D printing in space could be massively beneficial, as you’d need only bring the printer and some print media with you into space, where you’d simply… Continue reading NASA Gets Serious About 3D Printing
Feet As Big As You Want
The University of Washington’s Solheim Additive Manufacturing Laboratory has long experimented in radical approaches to 3D printing and now they’ve shown us another example technique for your 3D printing toolkit: Scaling. They were approached by the VA Center of Excellence for Limb Loss Prevention and Prosthetic Engineering to assist in the production of a… Continue reading Feet As Big As You Want
A Whale of a 3D Print
It was near the end of a South American expedition for Smithsonian Natural History Museum’s Nicholas D. Pyenson, when he learned fossil whales had been uncovered nearby. Examining the fossils, which had been uncovered by a road crew constructing a new highway across the Atacama Desert, Pyenson discovered the fossils were of a dozen… Continue reading A Whale of a 3D Print
3D Print A Car In 2500 Hours
You might recall the Urbee – the world’s first 3D printed car, developed in 2011 by Kor EcoLogic? The design of this amazing car pioneered several important 3D printing techniques. Now Kor EcoLogic is pursuing a second version of the Urbee, with intentions of going into production. Evidently they’ve “worked out the bugs since… Continue reading 3D Print A Car In 2500 Hours
3D Printed Business Cards. Er, Cubes
CallingCube’s new product serves the same function as a business card: to get you noticed and remembered by a contact. Like a calling card, the CallingCube can contain information and logos. But it’s a cube. A 3D printed cube. To get your own, you simply specify characters and images to be placed on… Continue reading 3D Printed Business Cards. Er, Cubes
Necessity Causes Invention: A GoPro Scuba Mount
If you’ve never used a GoPro, perhaps you should. It’s an inexpensive but very specialized camera designed to be used outdoors in action situations. It’s the camera on the skydiver’s helmet or hanging from bike handlebars giving us those heart-stopping videos. As you might imagine, there are an infinite number of possible mounting… Continue reading Necessity Causes Invention: A GoPro Scuba Mount
3D Printer Starves Astronauts
A science-fictiony proposal in Wired suggests future astro-colonists could feast on dishes prepared by 3D food printers. The concept seems like a good one; current astronauts are subjected to freeze-dried packets of former food, brought back from the dead by injection of lubricating water. While astros put on a brave face when describing their… Continue reading 3D Printer Starves Astronauts
3D Printed Fish Tags
Perhaps you might not need tags for your fish, but the folks at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) do. They’ve developed a way to 3D print titanium tags for tracking larger fish including Marlin and Tuna. Titanium was chosen as it does not react to salty ocean water and can withstand… Continue reading 3D Printed Fish Tags
3D Printed Valentine Chocolates
The Shibuya Fabcafe in Tokyo is offering a very special service for two days in February: they’ll enable you to produce chocolates with your face on them! Wait, how does this work? You first get your face scanned by the FabCafe’s scanner. After some 3D model fixing, they 3D print a prototype of the… Continue reading 3D Printed Valentine Chocolates
3D Printed Fashion In Paris Show
\As part of Paris Fashion Week, 3D printing giants Stratasys and Materialise collaborated with noted 3D fashion artist Iris van Herpen on her “VOLTAGE” haute couture show. van Herpen has previously produced fascinating 3D printed fashions and this show continued with some startling and revealing designs. Two of the eleven pieces made by van… Continue reading 3D Printed Fashion In Paris Show
Just An Engine Block, Printed
Peter from RepRapCentral advises us of a very cool 3D print recently done on one of their MakerBot Replicators: a Ford Engine Block. No, you can’t actually run this engine, but printed in blue translucent PLA it looks pretty good. Check out the high-precision detail of this print in the close view above. … Continue reading Just An Engine Block, Printed
Thoughts On That 3D Printed Building
Widespread media reports describe a project by Dutch architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars, who plans to build a home using 3D printing. He’s actually going to 3D print a house. The project will use the D-Shape 3D printing technology from Enrico Dino, who previously used this approach to produce a huge sculpture. The D-Shape 3D printer… Continue reading Thoughts On That 3D Printed Building
Open3DP Gets Gummi
Those researchers at the University of Washington took a break from casting ceramics, glass and other inedible substances to experiment instead with more tasty material using “food friendly molds”. Unfortunately their choice for shape was, um, themselves! They carefully captured full-body scans using a Microsoft Kinect and designed a negative mold and 3D printed… Continue reading Open3DP Gets Gummi
3D Printing For the Hearing Impaired
One of 3D printings greatest strengths is its ability to make customized, one-off products on the fly. In a traditional manufacturing paradigm, creating customizable products is an expensive if not impossible affair. So it should come as no surprise that the medical industry has been dramatically impacted by 3D printing. While not technically a… Continue reading 3D Printing For the Hearing Impaired
Augmented 3D Printing
Architects have long used 3D printing as a means to better visualize their design ideas. By 3D printing a building you can “see” it much better than through a 2D screen and thus gain insight you’d otherwise miss. But the problem is that the 3D model is, well, static. It just sits there. It… Continue reading Augmented 3D Printing
3D Printed LPs? Yes, But not for the Audiophile
With the resolution of 3D printers increasing every year, the accuracy and detail of prints are now becoming very fine. In fact, a few printers these days are able to produce objects that have a 16 micron resolution. That type of resolution led Amanda Ghassaei, assistant editor at Instructables, to see if she could print… Continue reading 3D Printed LPs? Yes, But not for the Audiophile
The Form 1 Forms Molds, Too
We’ve seen some incredibly fine 3D prints emerge from the Form 1 resin-based 3D printer and now Formlabs has shown another use of their fascinating device: mold making. We think the Form 1 would be a tremendous machine for mold making. Why? Because its fine detail provides a big advantage over traditional plastic extrusion… Continue reading The Form 1 Forms Molds, Too
King’s Resting Place Recreated by 3D Printing
By all accounts, King Richard III’s reign was relatively unproductive. Modern historians believe that this was mostly due to the dynastic struggle that we now know as the Wars of the Roses, of which Richard III’s house came out on the losing end. As is always true, the victors are afforded the opportunity to… Continue reading King’s Resting Place Recreated by 3D Printing
3D Printed Christmas Cookies
It is Christmas today and courtesy of Ralf Holleis we have 3D printed cookies for readers. Holleis’ team used an UNFOLD Plastruder to 3D print several styles of Rhino-modeled holiday cookies directly onto wax paper. The wax paper allowed the fragile extrusions to be easily moved into an oven for finishing, erm, cooking. … Continue reading 3D Printed Christmas Cookies
Ford Equips Engineers With MakerBots
It’s no surprise that engineers at Ford make use of high-power commercial 3D printers; the technology has been in use at major industrial design operations for, well, decades. What is surprising is the revelation that Ford intends to “put the smaller Makerbot replicators at every engineer’s desk in the coming months”, according to a report… Continue reading Ford Equips Engineers With MakerBots
The Most Dangerous Person in 3D Printing
Wired has named their list of the “15 Most Dangerous People In The World”. The list includes some certainly dangerous types, such as Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, Mexican drug kingpin of Ciudad Juarez, but also includes some persons of questionable dangerousness, such as the scandalous former Army intelligence officer Paula Broadwell. One name we… Continue reading The Most Dangerous Person in 3D Printing
Would You 3D Print Your Foetus?
We all know what happens to 3D data: a 3D print emerges soon afterwards. Now a Japanese company has taken 3D information from a medical scanner to enable the production of 3D prints of an unborn foetus. The process involves a 3D scan of the pregnant customer to capture the required 3D information, including… Continue reading Would You 3D Print Your Foetus?
Recreating the Ancient Past at Harvard
Museum curators at Harvard’s Semitic Museum are using 3D modeling to undo a part of the destruction of the ancient Iraqi city of Nuzi that was sacked by the Assyrians nearly 3,300 years ago. Read More at Engineering.com
Rapid Ceramic Engineering
Ben Becker of HotEnd Works described to us the process his company uses to produce industrial-grade ceramic prototypes. Ceramic prototypes have been around for a very long time, but there’s only so much you can do using conventional prototyping tools. Some geometries simply cannot be produced. However, 3D printed ceramics can replicate any geometry.… Continue reading Rapid Ceramic Engineering
Fashion Design For 3D Printers
If you’re looking for fashion accessories produced on your own 3D printer you may have difficulty finding 3D models in public repositories. Instead you might consider designing 3D fashion accessories yourself – and there’s an Instructables guide to show you how. Instructables user kaadee404 produced a lengthy set of instructions for producing a Lip… Continue reading Fashion Design For 3D Printers
007’s 3D Printed Cars
Not one, but three 3D printed cars were created for secret agent 007 James Bond for his recent film, Skyfall. No, they weren’t full size, but instead were one third of original size. The three Aston Martin DB5’s were used for used rather destructively in the film to avoid the expense (and tragedy) of… Continue reading 007’s 3D Printed Cars
Softkill’s Protohouse
We’ve previously written about experiments in 3D printing for building construction and while these experiments have experienced varying degrees of success, there remains the question of “what do you print” if you can build house-sized objects. That was the question answered by design firm Softkill, whose exhibit at the recent 3D Printshow displayed a… Continue reading Softkill’s Protohouse
NASA’s Space Launch System is 3D Printed
Yes, the venerable Space Shuttle is now retired and host to gawking tourists across the United States, but that doesn’t mean NASA is sitting idle. In fact they’ve embarked on the development of a massive new rocket to take on the task of heavy lifting to outer space: The Space Launch System or “SLS”. … Continue reading NASA’s Space Launch System is 3D Printed