Europe has a Space 3D Printer, Too

With all the buzz surrounding NASA’s experimental 3D printer, currently on the International Space Station, you may not have heard that the Europeans also have a space 3D printer. 

The ECV-One 3D Printer

There’s a new personal 3D printer from French-based e-crew vis: the ECV-One. This printer does offer some unusual features. 

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UK to Invest £15M in 3D Printing Hub Focused on Aerospace Engineering

In a statement earlier this week, the UK’s Finance Minister has announced that the British government will set aside £15M to create a national 3D Printing Hub.   With this massive investment the government plans to open the 3D Printing Hub by 2015, focusing on the development of technologies suited for aerospace engineering.   According… Continue reading UK to Invest £15M in 3D Printing Hub Focused on Aerospace Engineering

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The Be3D DeeOrange 3D Printer

The Be3D DeeOrange is a small personal 3D printer assembled by a Czech company with 20 years of experience in engineering and technology. Available for two years, the device is a solid unit containing some solid features.    Inside the attractive case is a heated plate the makes the machine capable of 3D printing ABS… Continue reading The Be3D DeeOrange 3D Printer

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Finland’s miniFactory 3D Printer

We managed to check out a 3D printer from Finland: the Mini Factory and found it has several interesting features that differentiate it from other 3D printers in its class.    Like many inexpensive 3D printers, the miniFactory uses plastic filament. A problem sometimes observed is that filaments break or bend during printing. The miniFactory… Continue reading Finland’s miniFactory 3D Printer

Off To EuroMold!

This week we’re traveling to Frankfurt, Germany to take in this year’s EuroMold trade show. If you don’t know, EuroMold is the world’s largest event focused on mold-making and prototyping equipment – and that means 3D printers, too.    What do we expect to see? There will be displays from all the large commercial 3D… Continue reading Off To EuroMold!

The WitBox 3D Printer

There’s an explosion of extrusion-based personal 3D printers occurring now, with new entries emerging from all corners. One of them is the WitBox by Spanish company BQ.    Unlike many new entrants, the WitBox comes from an already established company. BQ “is a Spanish company dedicated to the multimedia devices and 3D printers sale.” According… Continue reading The WitBox 3D Printer

Want To Catch Up in London?

It seems we’re in the UK often lately – and the trend continues this week as we visit the 3D Printshow.    While we’re in the UK capital it’s possible we may be able to check out some interesting 3D printing projects. If you happen to have something you’d like us to see, drop us… Continue reading Want To Catch Up in London?

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3D Printshow Nears

For those of you located in or near London, there’s an easy way to get introduced to the magic technology of 3D printing. Simply attend the 3D Printshow taking place from November 7th through the 9th.    The event takes place at the Business Design Centre in Islington. There will be exhibits, talks and much… Continue reading 3D Printshow Nears

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Another 3D Printer Found in a Retail Store

First was MakerBot’s single retail store experiment in downtown NYC, then 3D Systems struck a deal with Staples to offer the Cube 3D printer in all Staples stores. Now we see another retail example: UK electronics retailer Maplin now carries a 3D printer kit, the Velleman K8200.    We’ll look at the Velleman another day,… Continue reading Another 3D Printer Found in a Retail Store

3D Printing Becomes Standard Equipment for UK Schools

UK Education Secretary Michael Gove announced England’s schools will use a new “national curriculum” commencing in September 2014. While the new curriculum contains a variety of improvements, there is a rather interesting inclusion: exposure and basic training on the use of advanced technologies such as robotics and 3D printing.    This implies each UK school… Continue reading 3D Printing Becomes Standard Equipment for UK Schools

Finland Looks to Enter the 3D Printing Market

In a recently announced partnership, the Institute of Photonics at the University of Eastern Finland (UEF) and Dutch company LUXeXceL will partner together to create a photonic 3D printer.   Started only a few shorts days ago, the UEF’s Institute of Phototonics has hit the ground running, grabbing its first large industrial partnership within a… Continue reading Finland Looks to Enter the 3D Printing Market

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A Spanish 3D Print Service

We’ve learned of a 3D print service based in Spain: Fabber.cc. This service provides basic 3D printing services, providing prints in ABS or PLA plastic.    The service doesn’t have an interactive pricing mechanism, but you can send in your 3D model and receive a quote for the work.    This service seems to follow… Continue reading A Spanish 3D Print Service

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Ultra-Lab Sells MakerBots

We’ve just discovered that MakerBot has yet another reseller, this time in Spain. Ultra-Lab sells the full line of MakerBot devices, including the Replicator Dual Extruder, Replicator 2 and the latest model, the Replicator 2X.    In addition to MakerBot products, we understand that Ultra-Lab also sells plastic filament for the printers, electronics kits, e-textiles,… Continue reading Ultra-Lab Sells MakerBots

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Der Spiegel on 3D Printing

We’ve previously seen such mainstream publications as The Economist, Forbes and The Atlantic bring 3D printing to the attention of their readers. Now Der Spiegel has done the same with a new article providing an overview of the 3D printing space.    As one might expect, Der Spiegel provides focus on several German 3D printing… Continue reading Der Spiegel on 3D Printing

Attending Euromold?

Are you visiting Euromold this week? We are! Euromold is the “World Fair for Moldmaking and Tooling, Design and Application Development”, where we’re likely to see the announcement of several new 3D printers from major manufacturers.    If you’re in Frankfurt and would like to show us something interesting or have a chat, feel free… Continue reading Attending Euromold?

UK to Invest an Additional £7 million in A.M.

On the heels of a story we reported last week, the Technology Strategy Board, an advisory group to the UK’s Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, has announced it will invest £7 million to help spur innovation in additive manufacturing.   MP David Willet’s had this to say about the program, “3D printing technologies offer… Continue reading UK to Invest an Additional £7 million in A.M.

MakerBot Expands Retail Presence in Europe

Shortly after opening its own dedicated retail shop in New York, MakerBot announced it’s pursuing retail arrangements in France. They’ve partnered with le FabShop to resell all current MakerBot products, including their most recent device, the Replicator 2.    Le FabShop, a French makerspace based in Brittany, does not have a physical retail store, but… Continue reading MakerBot Expands Retail Presence in Europe

A Swiss 3D Printer Seller

We just noticed a business selling 3D printers in Switzerland. Zurich-based 3D-Model (German: 3D Drucker kaufen) appears to resell a variety of 3D Systems gear, including not only the large commercial units such as the Projet, but also 3D Systems’ personal 3D printer line, Bits From Bytes.    The company also offers 3D print services,… Continue reading A Swiss 3D Printer Seller

3D Printing Event Next Week

Don’t forget to attend the 3D Printing Event in Eindhoven, Netherlands next week if you happen to be nearby. The event now includes over 30 speakers, including representatives from a wide variety of 3D print-related companies, including: Ultimaker, GrabCAD, Shapeways, Makielab, Protospace, DUS Architects, University Medical Center Utrecht, Loughborough Design School, Stone Spray, Faberdashery and… Continue reading 3D Printing Event Next Week

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EuroMold Set For November

The definitive conference for 3D printing seems to be Euromold, a large manufacturing conference held in Frankfurt, Germany each November. It’s called the “World Fair for Moldmaking and Tooling, Design and Application Development”. Yes, it’s the big one.    Euromold has existed for years providing information on manufacturing, but within the over 1000 exhibitors are… Continue reading EuroMold Set For November

Nick Ervnick’s Sculptures

Belgian sculptor Nick Ervnick has been working with Materialise to print several of his works for exhibition.    One of his sculptures is featured in Tongeren, Belgium’s town centre, right in front of the Gallo-Romeins Museum, “one of the most important archaeological museums in Europe”.    That’s not all. Ervnick’s works are being shown in… Continue reading Nick Ervnick’s Sculptures

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

The 3DPrintShow In London

In London this October is the 3DPrintShow, three days of exhibitions and shows all about 3D printing.    Taking place from October 19th through the 21st, this event includes exhibits from all the major 3D print vendors and services, including MakerBot, 3D Systems, EOS, Objet, Shapeways, i.Materialise, Tinkercad, Anarkik3D, Uformia and many others. They’ll be… Continue reading The 3DPrintShow In London

Fashion and Jewelry 3D Printing Workshop

Interested in fashion or jewelry design? Want to do it with 3D printing technology? If so, you may want to attend one of the workshops taking place at ELISAVA, School of Design and Engineering of Barcelona.   There are two five-day workshops scheduled, one from 23-27 July and a second edition from 10-14 September of… Continue reading Fashion and Jewelry 3D Printing Workshop

Fabberworld

Are you in need of supplies for your 3D printer? Do you live in Switzerland? If you answered yes to both questions, you’ll be pleased to learn that there is now a 3D printing supplies operation located in Switzerland: Fabberworld.   Fabberworld sells a selection of 3mm plastic filament, bearings, motors and even kapton tape.… Continue reading Fabberworld

A Visit With IPF

While in London recently we had a rather long lunch meeting with Gary Miller of IPF, a.k.a. Industrial Plastic Fabrications, a growing 3D print service based in the UK just outside of London. Also in attendance was Claire Russell-Jones, a publicist often providing service to Objet, manufacturers of commercial 3D printers.    Miller’s operation uses… Continue reading A Visit With IPF

Fabbaloo Visits London

It’s time for a road trip! As luck would have it, Fabbaloo will be visiting London this coming week. We’ll be hanging around the city looking for 3D printing-related stuff.    If you have something you’d like us to see on either Tuesday May 15th or Wednesday May 16th, please give us a shout right… Continue reading Fabbaloo Visits London

Industrial Revolution 2.0 Held Over

What? You weren’t able to attend the London Design Festival this year and missed out seeing Murray Moss’s “Industrial Revolution 2.0” display? Well, now you can, because this exhibition has been held over at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. Instead of ending now, it’s been extended until early November.    Evidently the exhibition was extremely… Continue reading Industrial Revolution 2.0 Held Over

Industrial Revolution 2.0

Industrial Revolution 2.0 is the name of a special event taking place at this year’s London Design Festival. This event is located at the Victoria and Albert Museum, as are some of the other events. It turns out that most of the items on display at Industrial Revolution 2.0 are 3D printed by 3D print… Continue reading Industrial Revolution 2.0

The V&A Goes 3D

If you’re visiting London soon, we’d recommend you spend some time at the Victoria and Albert Museum, home of incredible deisgns of all kinds. Typically the works are historical, but at times contemporary works are displayed. That’s what’s happening now in a new exhibition called “The Power of Making” taking place at the V&A from… Continue reading The V&A Goes 3D

3D Printing Event Coming Soon!

We’ve learned of an important 3D printing event taking place in Eindhoven, the Netherlands this October 25th. The event is named, not surprisingly, the “3D Printing Event”. If you attend you’ll be able to listen to talks by notable 3D printing personalities and also walk through an exhibition of 3D printing vendors. We’re not sure… Continue reading 3D Printing Event Coming Soon!

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Rethinking Education Through Technology

If you happen to be in the top end of the Italian peninsula this weekend, you might consider attending a seminar put on by the lettera27 Foundation at Festivaletteratura in Mantova entitled, “The disenchanted teacher. Rethinking education through technology”. The seminar:    focuses on how context influences the expression of each person’s potential, and how… Continue reading Rethinking Education Through Technology

Ponoko Arriva in Italia

Distributed manufacturing hub Ponoko continues its invasion of Europe by opening an Italian front. They’ve partnered with a local fabrication shop, Vectorealism, to produce your items locally in Milan.    The Italian operation joins the Ponoko club, which now boasts manufacturing hubs in San Francisco, London, Berlin and the 10,000 Garages of 100KGarages.com.     Oh,… Continue reading Ponoko Arriva in Italia

The Parallellipipeda Exhibition

The Singularity Hub reports on an exhibition taking place at the M Museum in Leuven, Belgium, where the Parallellipipeda Project attempts to leverage the Parallelepiped geometric shape.    Amazing sculptures, plates, light fixtures and even furniture are being shown until 25 April. They’ve even included a 3D scanning booth, courtesy of EyeTronics, in which you… Continue reading The Parallellipipeda Exhibition

EuroPonoko!

As we suspected a short while ago, Ponoko has announced a new build location in Europe. The new hub will be located in Berlin, and joins the existing build hubs in San Francisco and New Zealand. This development means European makers or consumers will have significantly less shipping costs when using Ponoko: For example the… Continue reading EuroPonoko!

Ponoko Mystery?

New Zealand-based personal manufacturing service Ponoko has posed a mystery with an obscure post on their blog. The entire text of the post is: Hello Europe It may be snowing…. but some bright rays are on their way. We know that Ponoko has already set up a satellite manufacturing hubs in the USA (San Francisco… Continue reading Ponoko Mystery?

MCOR Matrix 300

The Irish MCOR scientists still believe they can print 3D objects on paper – and they are correct! This past week they announced their latest 3D paper printer, the MCOR Matrix 300, pictured above. The new model apparently provides some interesting advantages over previous models: Faster turnaround (however, we saw no statistics on this) at… Continue reading MCOR Matrix 300

MCOR Exhibits in the UK

MCOR, who market a unique 3D printer based on paper media, have been doing significant marketing lately. This time they are participating at the 100% Design Exhibition in London, taking place at Earl’s Court between Sept 24th and 27th. This “world-class interiors show” apparently draws more than 25,000 attendees. According to MCOR’s press release, they’ve… Continue reading MCOR Exhibits in the UK

(Un)Limited Design Contest!

  The Dutch FabLabs have organized a design contest that may be of interest to Fabbaloo readers. According to Bas van Abel, Creative Director of the Waag Society: Why put up with existing products when you can make your own? Today, powerful digital fabrication technology lets you design and build almost anything, and we want… Continue reading (Un)Limited Design Contest!

SOLIDO

  We just bumped into another interesting 3D print service, this one based in Rome, Italy: SOLIDO. While they deliver only to Europe, they do indicate they have competitive pricing and offer a full range of services, including Rapid Prototyping, Testing (Functional and Ergonomic), 3D Modeling, 83 micron 3D prints, mechanical analyses, postproduction and more.… Continue reading SOLIDO

Chaos for 3D Printing at 25c3

The annual Chaos Communication Conference takes place in Berlin this December, and the call for papers has been issued. Categories include: Hacking, Socieiy, Culture, Community, Science and Making: The ‘Making’ category is all about making and breaking things and the wonderful stuff you can build in your basement or garage. Most welcome are submissions dealing… Continue reading Chaos for 3D Printing at 25c3

Protospace

A new lab opens today (25 June 2008) in Utrecht, Netherlands: Protospace. They offer lab-space for prototypers and various equipment, including 3D printers (Z Corp). The style of the operation is “based on the FabLab concept of MIT professor Neil Gershenfeld”. Lab managers can provide advice on the state-of-the-art equipment. Via Protospace (Dutch only)

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Tailor-Made Bones… by an AI

The Guardian reports on just-in-time fabbed titanium bone replacements. But that’s not what the story is really about. Siavash Mahdavi faced the problem of producing 3D objects that were both strong and light for robotics applications, where power is limited but robust limbs are also required. Simply making hollow objects was not sufficiently strong, so… Continue reading Tailor-Made Bones… by an AI

Fabbing Fabrics

Technothreads is an exhibition taking place in Dublin, Ireland from 26 April to 25 July 2008. The purpose of the exhibition is to offer a glimpse into the future of fabric, both from a design and technical point of view. From their website: Conceptual Couture concentrates on the use of science by fashion designers at… Continue reading Fabbing Fabrics

Zapped by ZapFab!

A tipster put us onto a new 3D print service: ZapFab. This Manchester, UK-based business is a bit different than your run-of-the-mill “send us your 3D file and we’ll print it” operation. They offer not only the printing process, but also have a highly usable user-generated library of pre-made designs of various types. Fabbaloo readers… Continue reading Zapped by ZapFab!

DesktopFactory Wins Netxplorateur Award

The French Netxplorateur Forum has selected DesktopFactory as the recipient of their Netxplorateur of the Year award. DesktopFactory is one of only 10 of the 100 initiatives to receive the award. Cathy Lewis, CEO of DesktopFactory, said: “It is clear that Desktop Factory will forever change the way we think of ‘printing’ – from an… Continue reading DesktopFactory Wins Netxplorateur Award

3D Printing Assists Cardiac Procedure

As usual, inventive minds are developing innovative uses for 3D printing. This time European medical technicians developed an “anatomically correct 3D rapid prototyping model” of a patient’s heart in an STL file. They then used a 3D printer (Zcorp 510) to punch out the model. Why do this? Because they were then able to easily… Continue reading 3D Printing Assists Cardiac Procedure

Psychological Experiment Uses Fabbing

3D printing is being used to manufacture custom objects for psychological experiments. The shapes are of typical objects, but they are not robust enough for normal use, since most 3D printers today cannot produce objects of sufficient strength. However, the psychological experiment involves subjects merely touching the objects to identify them by shape. This use… Continue reading Psychological Experiment Uses Fabbing

Stratasys Focuses

Stratasys, makers of the interesting FDM 900MC digital manufacturing system, have dropped marketing of the Arcam line of devices. They had been marketing the European-based Arcam products, which apparently specialize in printing 3D metal objects. What does this mean? We think that the strongly increasing demand for non-metallic printing (which appears to be more mature… Continue reading Stratasys Focuses