Archive for February, 2012

i.materialise to Japan, and back

By | February 21, 2012 | 3D Printing, designers | No comments

Hi all,

We are happy to announce a new collaboration with our Japanese friends at Inter-Culture to exchange products in our online galleries.

Inter-Culture was founded by INCS, a Japanese company with a rich (+20 years!) history in 3D printing. So these guys definitely know how to design and produce for3D printing. Just as i.materialise, Inter-Culture has an online store where they offer a nice collection of 3D printed products

What does this mean for you?

Well, we’re sure you’ll have some nice advantages by this partnership.

Products of designers who are using the i.materialise gallery will also be offered for sale directly in Japan via the Inter-Culture channel. It generates more selling opportunities for your products,  giving you the chance to make more money.

Also – for people who are searching for original designs – we now offer some beautiful Inter-Culture products in their i.materialise gallery store. These are ‘designed in Japan’ – with a great eye for detail.

More products will be added to the Inter-Culture store, so stay tuned.

SSS-001 iPhone base

Sphere stand - melon

The Week in 3D Printing – Feb 11th to Feb 17th

By | February 17, 2012 | 3D Printing, Exhibitions | 1 Comment

Although not an awful lot happened this week in 3D printing, we did wanted to share a few things with you. There’s an acquisition, an exhibition, an amazing documentary, and General Fabb considers the 10 major barriers to 3D printing in your home. Do let us know in the comments if we missed something major. So, enjoy and have a wonderful weekend.

3D Systems adds Advanced Design Concepts to its ever growing network
I have no idea why but last week, we missed the first acquisition of the year: 3D Systems taking over Advanced Design Concepts, ADC, a leader in full service engineering design services, and an authorized re-seller.

The Man Who Prints Houses
The Man Who Prints Houses is a documentary about Enrico Dini, an Italian robotics expert who build the world’s largest 3D printer. The D-Shape, as the 3D printer is called, is capable of outputting houses. Enrico’s dream is, to one day see houses of any shape and size printed robotically in solid stone.

The 10 Barriers to 3D Printing In Your Home
As Slashgear predicts 3D printing will “explode at a rate incomparable to its 2D predecessor”, General Fabb considered some of the major barriers to mass adoption of personal 3D printing.

© Shira Klasmer

Send to Print – Print to Send
If you currently happen to be in London, and like to have an impression of uses of 3D printing in the design industry today, drop by The Aram Gallery. The exhibition intends to offer visitors an idea of what 3D printing is, and how it is being contemporaneously used. From 13th Jan – 25th Feb 2012.

Create your own pendant lamp

By | February 15, 2012 | 3D Printing, Design | 2 Comments

I have a question for those of you who had a nice Valentine’s dinner last night. Do you know what all of the nice restaurants that you visited had in common?

The answer is lovely lighting.

On the foreground: The leaflet by elke gielen and hans oppeel. On the background: The Cadence.MGX by One & Co

A good light setup always sets the mood and that is why we at i.materialise love to help you set the mood at your homes as well. It worked miracles for one of our customers called Steven.

We first offered you the ability to create your own table lamp and now we’re also offering you the ability to create your own pendant lamp.

Nothing sets the mood like a nicely lit living room that’s equipped with a beautiful hanging pendant lamp. What makes it even better is that you can have your own custom-made pendant lamp, made by you.

As with the table lamp, we provide you with the start-up files, a detailed guide to follow and the basic components. All you have to do is create your design around it. You could go as far as creating your own chandelier!

Need some inspiration to get your started? Have a look at what some of our creative designers have done already.

The Mars Lamp by Pieter-Jan Debuyst & Laurens Dekeyser

The Global Warming Lamp by Studio Mango

So there you have it ladies and gentlemen… no more having to settle for what someone else designed for you. It’s your turn to show yourself and the world how good you can be at setting the mood in your own home.

Watch us push the envelope at the Materialise World Conference

By | February 14, 2012 | 3D Printing, Events | No comments

This year Materialise will be holding the bi-yearly grand conference in our hometown Leuven, Belgium called the Materialise World Conference. Unfortunately the event won’t be open to the public but in return we will make sure to bring the event as much as possible to your screen.

It takes place from the 18th until the 20th of April with an extensive program for all who love 3D printing. What we at i.materialise will be doing is covering all the biggest (non-confidential) stories from the event and present them to you through our blog. This could come in the form of a written blog post or in some case through a nice video. Either ways, you will be well updated on the latest achievements of our company.

At the same time, we will broadcast the fashion show on our website that will highlight our top 20 from the Hats off to 3D Printing Contest. I strongly doubt that this will be a live broadcast, but nevertheless you will most likely receive the footage within hours of it actually happening.

So definitely stay tuned during these days of April as lots of 3D printing goodies will be heading your way.

The Week in 3D Printing – Feb 4th to Feb 10th

By | February 10, 2012 | 3D Printing | No comments

Happy Friday everyone,

Everyone loves Friday because after Friday comes Saturday and Saturday = Maximum Awesomeness! But before you go into your lovely weekends, let me update you with what has been going on in the world of 3D printing this week. To be honest with you, it was quite a calm week. For real this time… because I actually said this last week as well and we ended up with more items than I thought we would. So, to get the ball rolling I’ll start with…

83-Year-Old Woman Gets the World’s First 3-D Printed Jaw Transplant
We did actually cover this last week, but because we only had the footage in Dutch, I thought it would be fair enough to share this again for the rest of the world. It discusses how 3D printing company Layerwise made this medical procedure possible.

The 3D printed jaw from Layerwise

Back to the future: 3D printing in 1989
As we highlighted on our blog this week, we found a nice blast from the past on the web. It was lovely to see how 3D printing started and what their visions were for the future.

Tech and the movies: 3D printing brings new angle to animation
This news item might be from a week or two back, but as often happens… not all news reaches everyone as fast. It’s still amazing to see how 3D printing is being used in the movie industry. The article comes from Fox News and was also recently covered by Fabbaloo.

And that honestly seems about it for this week. I did say that it was a bit calm so it was a bit expected, but if you think we overlooked something… Feel free to add it in our comments so that the rest of the community can enjoy what else happened.

Aside from that, we all wish our lovely community an amazing weekend and we’ll obviously be back next week for some more 3D printed news.

Back to the future: 3D printing in 1989

By | February 7, 2012 | 3D Printers, 3D Printing | No comments

Described on Engineering.com as the first mass-media exposure of 3D Printing, here’s a segment about stereolithography on Good Morning America. People back then must have been equally amazed by this, as they are today about a 3D printed wrench. Let’s go back to the future!

Found via Mark Bloomfield.

Calling out all designers to create Runway Magic

By | February 6, 2012 | 3D Printing, Community, Events | 2 Comments

The 15th of February is only 11 days away, which is still enough time to create that decisive entry for the Hats off to 3D Printing Challenge. Today I would simply like to remind all of you lovely designers out there of the great rewards the top 20 designs will get:

  • The winner will receive an i.materialise voucher worth €500 and will also be on display in the MGX flagship store in Brussels
  • The two runner ups will receive an i.materialise voucher worth €250
  • The top 20 designs will make their runway debut at the Materialise World Conference and receive exposure on the Materialise and i.materialise website
  • The top 20 designs will also receive a copy of their 3D printed designs

Are you curious to know what kind of entries we’ve received already? Have a look some examples below.

Some examples of the entries we have received so far

The next question is… Do you have what it takes to stand up against these designs and take a shot at getting your work 3D printed and showcased? Do you feel that you have got it in you to create that winning design?

If so, don’t hesitate to join the challenge and take your shot at 3D printed fashionable fame. And if you can, why not design more than one item? Why not an entire collection and raise your chances to win?

As you work your next grand designs, we’ll be right here, waiting for your fascinating entries…

The Week in 3D Printing – Jan 28th to Feb 3rd

By | February 3, 2012 | 3D Printing, Community | No comments

As yet another week comes to an end, we provide you (as usual) with the latest 3D printing goodies of the past 7 days. So let’s get to it and see what this week had in store for us.

Designer Schreer Delights 3D prints a working gramophone for his iPhone
When a power outlet is out of reach and you’re in need of some loud jams, the iPhone speakers don’t often cut it. Sigh no more. Schreer Design has created an analog amplifier for the iPhone called the iVictrola Gramophone, based on the old Gramophones of the late 19th and 20th centuries.

The Imagine 3D Printer from Essential Dynamics is now for sale
The Imagine 3D Printer made her big debut at the International Consumer Electronics Show 2012 in Las Vegas, NV. Imagine was very well received and made a big splash. Now she is ready to make a big splash in your life! From Essential Dynamics.

3D Printing Company Layerwise is features on Belgian TV Show
This is one for those of you that understand Dutch. It’s basically an interview with the company Layerwise about the world of 3D printing and its production methods. Materialise also gets mentioned towards the end of the movie.

i.materialise jumps on the color train to dye its polyamide prints
At i.materialise we all love the polyamide material. We love it so much that we couldn’t wait any longer to give it some extra colors, four extra colors to be exact. From now on you can get your models dyed in red, blue, gray and black. Do you prefer to spray paint them? No problem, we can do that for you in either black or white as well.

Tinkercad gets a makeover and impresses us with it
Tinkercad is an impressive browser based 3D printing modeling tool that has brought happiness and joy to many creative minds. Its intuitive interface and its powerful tools have made it possible for countless 3D print hungry individuals to bring their creations to life. Now they have made that experience a whole lot better!

The new Tinkercad

The i.materialise website also gets a sleek makeover
It’s only the first step within a long process where you’ll see what else our web wizard Franky has in store for you. The website looks even cleaner and is more accessible to the public. Have a look for yourself and let us know what you think.

CNN covers the making of a 3D printed violin
Ok, we know that the whole “print me a Stradivarius” is nothing new, but this video on CNN did start becoming popular around this week so we thought we’d share it with you anyways.

MGX offers you the opportunity to win a burgundy 3D printed Lotus.MGX
In honor of Valentine’s Day, .MGX is giving away a Lotus.MGX lamp and Krizant.MGX necklaces.  Simply send us a photo of your favorite kiss and you will automatically be entered to win. A picture of the main prize can be seen below.

The lovely Lotus in all its glory by designer Janne Kyttanen

So there you have it ladies and gentlemen. We hope you enjoy the news and wish you all a lovely weekend!

Anyone in the mood for some colored polyamide?

By | February 1, 2012 | 3D Printing, Community | 2 Comments

At i.materialise we all love the polyamide material. We love it so much that we couldn’t wait any longer to give it some extra colors, four extra colors to be exact. From now on you can get your models dyed in red, blue, gray and black. Do you prefer to spray paint them? No problem, we can do that for you in either black or white as well.

The dyed polyamide samples in white, gray, blue, black and red

So what are the facts? First of all, you’ll find that the color pigment infiltrates your models when we dye it. This makes it more difficult to scratch the paint away which is something that is easier to do when you spray paint it. It’s also important to know that we offer this service for models that are within the following dimensions: 150x150x150mm.

As for the price, we start off with your standard natural white polyamide price and add an additional 0,25€ per cm3 on top of it + a startup of 1€ per type of model.

Are you curious about the way it looks? Here are some examples of what some of our designs that were dyed in our available colors.

The Krizant by designer Michaella Janse van Vuuren dyed in our available colors

The Tendril earrings by design Dan Yeffet also dyed in our available colors

The clover flower by designer Michaella Janse van Vuuren in dyed polyamide. Note that the one furthest to the left is in alumide and not dyed polyamide.

Is this what you were waiting for? Finally some color for that awesome design that you had in mind? Don’t hesitate a second longer and start bringing it into your creations! We’ll be here ready to help you bring your colored awesomeness to life.

And if you need help on how to get started with polyamide…  No worries, the most important tips & tricks on working with the material can be found right here.