Intellectual Property and 3D printing
It’s great and exciting to see so many ideas coming alive at i.materialise and to notice more and more people find their way to our online service. To help people in the design process, we want to highlight the issue of Intellectual Property.
Intellectual Property?
Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind for which exclusive rights are granted. The principal categories of IP are patents, trademarks, and copyrights. With respect to 3D printing, there are many interesting and unsettled questions about how current IP laws will be applied to this developing technology.
i.materialise strives to respect the IP rights of all third parties, like you. This is still new territory for everyone and because many of the most interesting legal questions have yet to be answered, we want to caution designers to think about IP when creating and uploading new designs.
We wish you a good time designing, creating and amazing us (like you do every day).
Thanks for passing by the i.materialise booth at Rapid Pro
We saw hundreds of curious faces passing by our booth at Rapid Pro (the annual 3D printing and in rapid prototyping event in the netherlands) and had so many interesting and inspiring conversations.
Heaps of people came to our lectures and were happy with the 10 procent discount cards we handed out. People are still amazed by the possibilaties of 3D printing. From small figurines, iPhone covers and jewelry to the sculptures of Eric van Straaten, 3D printed shoes and lamps. People make, create and design their wildest dreams and we’re happy to showcase those pieces at events.
monomer starts 3D printed earring collection
The German based design brand monomer just started to 3D print their own earring collection in metal.
First they launched their metal ring collection, now it’s time to introduce to you to their matching earrings. They were printed in silver and (gold plated) brass, but any material is possible, really. They can even add a Swarovski stone in the middle, if people ask for it.
Meiko Hecker, monomer: ” The earrings complete our collection. If you take a good look, you can see each designs has two names: all the names are from Greek mythology. The first name stands for the volume and size of the design, the second refers to the surface and the structure. So if you want to match both earrings and ring, you just have to look at the second name.”
Featured Friday: Showing your 3D printed designs!
Happy Friday everyone! It’s time to send our new 3D printed entries into the world. Enjoy!
Designer Gavin Galligan made a brooch consisting of a silver (high gloss) pin and a natural white polyamide part. He made a re-interpretation of the Tara Brooch, a Celtic brooch that’s considered as one of the most inventive one of all the Irish brooches. Galligan: “This interpretation takes its place in current history using modern processes, making it unique of its kind. Each brooch is constructed from your choice of polyamide with a polished silver pin to securely fasten the brooch to your clothing.”
Michael Mueller made another great creation in brass called ‘Gready Fish Pendant‘. He removed the gold layer so it looks more rough.
Don’t hesitate to put your own designs in the gallery to be featured on the blog.
Fixperts: Fixing a sliding window with SketchUp
French journalist Gilbert Kallenborn had a big problem when the lock of his sliding window didn’t function any more. Perfect for a DIY 3D printing project!
Gilberts window dated from the seventies and he was looking for a solution for months. He couldn’t find any spare parts so he asked smithlocks, friends and family, but no one could help him and it would cost 3000 euro to buy a new window. Gilbert Kallenborn: “I heard a lot about additive manufacturing or 3D printing, so I wanted to give it a try. I wrote down all the measurements of the old part and after some research, SketchUp (which you can find in the i.materialise creation corner) seemed the right program to start with.
They have really good tutorial videos and after just 20 minutes I already mastered the basics.”
Gilbert chose i.materialise to 3D print his file: “I checked the prices and, according to me, you are the cheapest to 3D print in stainless steel. I uploaded the file and ordered it through the 3D pr
It’s smooth, it’s soft…it’s polished polyamide! Free finish for a month!
We’re happy to introduce white polished polyamide to take your designs a level higher. To celebrate we’re offering this finish for free until the 21st of March. Read all about it!
It’s a hard knock life, but i.materialise comes to the rescue and softens the edges a little bit…with polished polyamide! It feels smooth in your hands and it looks great since the building layers of the design aren’t that visible any more. Polished polyamide just gives that little extra touch and feel, which brings your design to a whole new level.
Polishing, also referred to as mechanical smoothing, is a special finishing process for polyamide. To achieve a polished finish, your model is put into a tumbler with small stones. While the tumbler vibrates at a high frequency the small stones smooth your model.
Tumbler stones will get your design perfectly polished.
You can clearly see the difference between the unpolished (left) and the polished (right) version.
…and the building layers are
Flexible 3D Printed Fashion Hits the Catwalk with Iris van Herpen, Julia Koerner and Materialise
Recently, on the catwalks of the Spring Fashion Week 2013 in Paris, 3D printing was again a major highlight in Iris van Herpen’s Haute Couture show, ‘VOLTAGE’. Collaborating with 2 pioneers of the 3D printing industry, the Dutch designer presented never-before-seen 3D printed Haute Couture. Van Herpen is without any doubt the leading lady of Haute Couture and 3D printed fashion.
COLLABORATION
Dutch designer Iris van Herpen’s eleven-piece collection featured two 3D printed ensembles, including an elaborate skirt and cape created in collaboration with artist, architect, designer and professor Neri Oxman from MIT’s Media Lab, and 3D printed by Stratasys. An intricate dress was also designed in collaboration with Austrian architect Julia Koerner, currently lecturer at UCLA Los Angeles, and 3D printed by Materialise, marking the second piece created together with Koerner and the ninth with Materialise .
A MATTER OF TIME
“I feel it’s important that fashion can be about much more
Featured Friday: Showing your 3D printed designs
Happy Friday everyone! Enjoy our featured designs.
Peter Donders made a lovely ring called Cloud10 in high gloss silver.
The second design is made by design studio 3D Materialize Ltd. It’s a bowl 3D printed in multicolor. “The essence of a relationship between men and women was a source of inspiration for our ‘Bowl Couple’. Both sides are in equal position and rely on each other like in a real relationship.”
Guido Mandorf made some more train parts in Prime Gray and painted them beautifully afterwards.
Finally, Rob Hocking made a lightning bolt shaped Quaternion Julia set in gold plated brass.
We hope you have an awesome weekend!
Don’t hesitate to put your own designs in the gallery. Maybe your design will be featured the next time?
Polyamide: Now available in pink!
Today on Valentine’s Day, we’re introducing something new to our color/finish range of polyamide: pink! That brings us to a total of 15, which is the amount of different options we offer to finish your favorite material.
Polyamide comes in a natural white color out of the 3D printer. But we know some of you like to bring some color into your designs. So, we’ve added pink to our range of dyed colors. Remember, you can now also dye bigger volumes with a bounding box up to 200 mm x 200 mm x 180 mm (instead of 150 x 150 x 150 mm). What’s even more: order a large (we’re talking over 150 x 150 x 150 mm) polyamide design in a color between February 11th and March 10th and get a 10 % discount on your next order! It’s finally time to print that huge piggy bank you’ve always wanted.
Are you eager to see and feel the pink material? Just buy one of our colored sample kits.
With 16 materials and over 70 finishes, i.materialise offers one of the widest material range
Valentine Story #3: Say it with 3D printed hearts
365 hearts for every day of the year, designer Marc van Megen sure has some love inside him.
We just loved the whole idea of the pendant and the ring from the first moment we saw it. The designer created it in gold plated brass for that special someone in your life. Just perfect for Valentine!
Van Megem: ” They symbolize the love you feel for someone, built up by the many little things you love the person for. The 365 hearts can also represent the 365 days in a year. Love and time merge in harmony in this meaningful design. You can wear eternal love, it has bonded mankind in beautiful ways.”
Tell us a bit about yourself? (Where did you grow up?)
Marc: «I was born in a little village, Blerick, situated in Limburg (The Netherlands), a district known for its friendliness and Burgundian lifestyle. I graduated at the Design Academy of Eindhoven.»
What do you do in your everyday life?
Marc: «I am an industrial designer and self-employed. My company is “Van Megen Product De
