The Month of April in 3D printing
Without a doubt it was a busy month in the world of 3D printing. Big companies started spending their money again. This continues to enforce the trend that we’re on a road towards a future of a handful of big 3D printing players.
We also saw the continued rise of crowd funding projects in the world of 3D printing and as often happens… more new 3D printers for us to get our hands on. Let’s have a look at the news items in detail…
First, the business news… It seems that 3D Systems got back into its spending habit of last year by acquiring My Robot Nation and Paramount Industries. Could it be the beginning of another spending spree this year? Only time will tell… On the other hand, they also got to present the new Z Printer 850. It promises higher print volume, greater productivity and vibrant full color that empowers designers, engineers, and architects to create more and larger parts faster.
At the same time we can’t really say that the other 3D Printing giant calle
i.materialise student discount
UPDATE: This post is from 2012. Click here for the latest promo code for students!
Worldwide, students 3D print concept cars, architectural models, functional models, prototypes, and all sorts of other things with us. We really love working on those projects. So, if you’re a student at a College or University and want to use 3D printing for a school related project, we’re giving you a 10% discount if you 3D print with us. We’re especially interested in Design Academy students, engineering students, product design graduates, and fashion students. Nevertheless, feel free to surprise us with your work from any other discipline.
However, there are some rules and remarks to get the 10% STUDENT DISCOUNT.
- You have to be enrolled at a College, University or Technical school.
- You must contact us using an .edu or other university/school email address to verify this (sorry about this but someone always will play unfair even though virtually all are fair). In case you didn’t
3D print your mom something special
Mother’s Day is just around the corner in a great numbers of countries. How cool would it be to get your mom a customizable 3D printed Lamp or some nice 3D printed jewelry? We’ve made a list of polyamide based 3D printed gifts that you might want to look at as a starting point. Alternatively you might want to tell your mother a special something through our Appear Lamp? I’d say, have a browse through our options and make sure to select that perfect gift for that special mother of yours. Below you’ll find two examples from our Mother’s Day Selection.
The Top 20 from the Hats off to 3D Printing in all their glory
Last week we brought you our pictures, stories and a wonderful interview with Mark Bloomfield from the Materialise World Conference. Today, we proudly bring you the video of the actual Top 20 Designs on the runway. Enjoy!
Of course you can also view the video in 720p on our Vimeo account.
Our lasers are cutting your prices in half
Are you the type of designer that likes to work in small sizes and large numbers? Or maybe a student that wants to try out 3D printing on a smaller scale? Then you’re at the right place, at the right time because we’ve just launched a new temporary pricing model for pieces that undergo laser sintering (This affects the polyamide and alumide materials).
So what are the facts?
- For any design that fits within a bounding box of 125cm3, you will always pay a standard price of 12 euros
- If you decide to 3D print multiples of that same design, you simply add 4 euros per copy on top of the start-up price of 12 euros (this means that if you want your design 3D printed four times, you’ll pay the following: 12+4+4+4=24 euros for 4 copies)
- This is a temporary action that lasts until the end of May
- All of the above does NOT include VAT
What’s the difference with before?
Well with the traditional laser sintering pricing model a bounding box of 125cm3 would have cost you around 24 e
Meet Mark Bloomfield – A Man with a Winning Spirit
As promised yesterday, we present you with the winner of the Hats off to 3D Printing Design Challenge… Mr. Mark Bloomfield. Below you’ll find the interview we took with him after the 3D printed fashion show of the Materialise World Conference.
And for those of you that like pictures… here are some of Mark Bloomfield’s winning masterpiece: Daisy.
Stories from the Materialise World Conference
The Materialise World Conference has kicked off with a bang and we’re here to tell you our stories. As you might have seen on our constant tweets, yesterday on April 18th, the Materialise World Conference finally opened the doors to its many guests. Amongst them were European President Herman Van Rompuy, countless world famous 3D printing companies and fashion icons like the master milliner Elvis Pompilio himself.
Together with its many successful clients, Materialise CEO Wilfried Vancraen showcased the current state of 3D Printing technology and did this through an extensive program that touches many different industries.
Of course we at i.materialise were also present and had the wonderful opportunity to be accompanied by some of our most dearest friends and designers. Amongst them were also some of the participants of the Hats off to 3D Printing Design Challenge. It was a grand pleasure to see them arrive from places as far as Australia as was the case for design c
Because we love to touch fluffy things
Recently we gave you the possibility to add some color to your polyamide designs. We loved the results and saw it was good. Today we bring you something that looks just as great and feels even better. It’s the ability to turn your polyamide designs into colorful fluffy works of art by adding colored fibers onto your model (we call it adding velvet fur). We tried it out, took some pictures and again… we saw it was good. Considering this will be offered as a trial during a period of about two months, we look forward to your feedback to turn our good results into great ones.
So, how can you add fluffiness to your polyamide you might ask? By simply selecting it in the finishing tab in the 3D print lab as shown below.
Ok… so now that you know how that works, let’s take a look at some of the facts about adding velvet fur at i.materialise:
- The ability to fur up your polyamide designs will be launched as a trial that ends on June 17th
- The minimum bounding
Getting Ready for the Materialise World Conference
As mentioned on our blog before… this year will see the rise of another Materialise World Conference. As it’s just around the corner we thought it would be a great idea to remind you guys of the awesomeness that it will bring. Are you curious to know who will win the Hats off to 3D Printing Design Challenge? Then definitely stay tuned on our twitter account on Wednesday April 18th as we will be announcing it through there as soon as it’s revealed to us. We also plan to tweet some pictures of the event as the day progresses to keep you up to date on the latest 3D Printing news.
The following day we’ll finally showcase all the Top 20 3D printed hats on our blog and on our flickr account + if possible provide you guys with inside information from some of the participants who will be present at the event themselves.
We’ll keep you updated so stay tuned!
Meet the Designer: Ulrich Schwanitz
Today I’d like to introduce you to our beloved friend and designer Ulrich Schwanitz. A man that continued a vision of his son through 3D printing and managed to bring adorable stainless steel characters to life in the name of love. He also just started an interesting funding campaign on Indiegogo (see video below) where you too can play a part in the realization of 3D printed love.
So for this lovely occasion we thought it would be interesting for our readers to get to know Dr. Ulrich Schwanitz a bit more ans the ideas and thoughts behind his latest project, The Scrappies. Here’s his story…
Tell us a bit about yourself… Who is Ulrich Schwanitz?
I am everything but a typical designer. I grew up as a scientist in the 1970’s and 80’s, and I still remember the times when computers were controlled by punch cards, typewriters and without undo buttons. I have worked in the IT departments of multinational manufacturing companies in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. During that
