i.materialise Machine Man Human Augmentation Design Challenge
The i.materialise Machine Man Human Augmentation Design Challenge is inspired by Sci Fi author Max Barry”s book Machine Man. Max, together with other judges, Fab@Home founder and Cornell bio-robotics professor Hod Lipson and 3D printed prosthetics designer Scott Summit will be looking for a design that urges us to look at the future of 3D printing humans.
We’re challenging to design a 3D printed titanium implant or augmentation for the human body. Something that will improve the functionality of the body or improve it aesthetically.
If we can make anything using 3D printing, how will we change ourselves? What will the piercings of the future look like? Will many people use elective implants? What kind of implants will they use? What would be some titanium implants that would make you happy? Some examples could be an earring that attaches to an iPhone to improve reception by turning the person into an antenna, an implant that holds the nose open from the inside to increase ai
Droog at Salone 3D printed by i.materialise
Droog unveiled its Design for Download platform at Salone this year. The concept of Design for Download is that designers can offer customizable designs online. Some could be free, others paid. A person can then select a design, download it and 3D print or lasercut out the design. A timely, rather future proof idea from the folks at Droog. We think the platform has a great future and we”re proud to have been chosen to do the 3D printing for Droog”s Salone show. One item (an electrivity outlet) was 3D printed at a FabLab and the rest of the 3D printed items were done by us.
This flatpack lasercut furniture by  Minale-Maeda has 3D printed connectors and adornments all over it. You can see a thoughtful interview with Mario Minale here.
And here are some Vanity Charms by Minale Maeda.
These are some lovely polyamide flowers for Minale Maeda”s Virtual Florist.
Watch the video here. There is more information on the Droog site here.
The i.materialise Jewelry Design Challenge
Today we have an exciting Design Challenge for jewelry designers. We’re reaching out to you in order to find jewelry design talent. We’re looking for new concepts, techniques and ideas in jewelry design.
We want this challenge to help us discover you so that we can then encourage and promote you and your work.
3D printed jewelry is very new and affords designers with an immense freedom to design. But, very few pieces have really managed to elevate 3D printing pieces to the level of high end jewelry. Can you do this?
Can you design a jewelry piece that elevates 3D printed jewelry? Can you make something that is beautiful, practical and above all “works” as a 3D printed jewel?
What you can win
Ten winners will be selected and their pieces will be offered for sale in the .MGX Store in Sablon Brussels. The jewelry design will always remain your property and you will receive a 5% royalty on every sold item. Due to questions below in the comments we have updated the royal
Interview with Viridis3D President Will Shambley
Will Shambley is a true 3D printing pioneer. He spent eight years directing the 3D printing materials Research and Development effort at Zcorp, the full color 3D printing company. He is now at Viridis3D, a company that sells 3D printers and 3D printing materials used for casting metal and ceramics. He is Viridis3D’s CEO & President. We interviewed Will in order to find out more about Viridis3D and his significant expertise in the 3D printing industry.
Joris Peels: What is Viridis3D?
Will Shambley: Viridis3D, at it’s heart, is a materials development company that focuses on commercializing new solutions for the additive manufacturing community. Our current primary focus is on making molds for metal casting, however we are dabbling in a range of refractory / ceramic applications. We are developing products that we believe have unmet market demand, and we actively solicit projects from universities or individuals who have something unique to bring to market.
A Viridis3
The new 3D print lab
The 3D model workspace is where you can upload your 3D model. Unlike the former 3D print lab, we now ask you if you created your model in mm or inches. This enables us to process your model in the correct dimensional units and prevents potential mix-ups. Material selection
Instead of providing you with a dropdown list full of material names, we made a visual overview of the available materials. By doing so, you get an instant impress
.MGX at Salone: new lamps by Batsheba, Xavier Lust and Wertell Oberfell Platform
Our colleagues from .MGX attended Salone. They were at Euroluce and introduced 4 new 3D printed lamps. 2 lamps, the Quinn & the Gamete, were new versions of designs already in the .MGX collection. The two other lamps are completely new.
First off we have the dodecahedron, Quinn floor lamp by 3D printing pioneer Bathsheba Grossman.
“Tree seeds blowing in the wind” was the inspiration for Xavier Lust”s Gamete lamp.
The Diatom by Wertel Oberfell Platform.
And a last surprise addition, the otherworldly Algue lamp by Xavier Lust. “Algue, an ornamental lamp, seems to ondulate following the streams and moving fluids that surround us… Algue is a lit evocation of the abyssal deapth of the oceans.”
Affordable Stainless Steel 3D prints, new pricing scheme
You can now check you Stainless Steel upload prices directly on our site. Stainless Steel was launched in January with the relatively simple pricing scheme based on volume of the model. Today you don’t need to get your calculator out anymore, just upload your design and you get your price automatically.
The pricing
Up to 5 cm3 model volume : 35$
For every extra cm3 above 5 cm3 till 40 cm3 : 8 $
For every extra cm3 above 40cm3 : 7.5$
Our pricing scheme is meant to encourage models of 5cm3 and larger because we want to encourage you to make bigger things. There is now also extra discount for compact models. The more material you have within the imaginary box around your model, the bigger your discount becomes for the same model volume. So the pricing scheme is the maximum price you will pay. To know the real (discounted) price, upload your design.
Here are 2 examples :
The dice of 20x20x20 mm, has a 7.1 cm3 model volume would cost 26.6 euro/ 37 dollar.
Our be
Hugo Arcier”s Mutation 1, 3D printed Ikea hack sculpture
We”re thrilled that we 3D printed Hugo Arcier”s Mutation 1. This is a limited edition sculpture consisting of 15 pieces. The work is meant to fit in an Ikea Expedit bookcase.
Hugo is a French artist who originally got started in doing special effect for feature films working for such directors as Roman Polanski and Francois Ozon. He began working in 3D animation and graphics and expanded into 3D printing. His work skirts both science and art and he is most interested in exploring new technologies to create new art. We asked Hugo some questions about his work.
Joris Peels: Was Mutation 1 meant to be an Ikea hack?
Hugo Arcier: Yes it was part of the idea from the beginning. I thought it was funny to have a luxury, and limited edition objet made for Ikea which is known for low prices and very big production. And I love the hacking culture. Nevertheless the object also works well alone as a sculpture.
Joris Peels: Why did you design this?
Hugo Arcier: My work is
3Dtin & Tinkercad, the answer to 3D printing”s prayers?
At i.materialise we”re working hard to lower the barriers to design. We want 3D printing and by extension manufacturing to be available to as many people as possible. We”d like to let you make whatever you want to make. This is why we”ve partnered with GrabCAD to turn your drawings into 3D prints with Sketch to 3D.
3D printers can already make many things, and even though the technology does need to be improved as well as become cheaper the one thing that is holding 3D printing back is the inability of the vast majority of people to design. The greatest benefit to 3D printing will occur when easy to use creation tools let anyone create. This will shift the demand curve for the entire industry upward and add millions of new potential users for the technology.
Luckily there are people working on solutions to turn your thoughts into products. A very easy to use 3D modeling tool is Jayesh Salvi”s free 3Dtin. 3Dtin is very simple and lets you save and share the designs you m
David Friedman”s Inventor Portraits
David Friedman”s Inventor Portraits are an intimate and engaging look at inventors. In the series of photographs and videos of inventor”s telling their own story. They show and explain their inventions ranging from the convertible pizza box to the digital camera. This is by far the most fun and inspiring thing I”ve seen in a while.
Steven Sasson is the inventor of the digital camera and this was the one I saw over on SwissMiss. I didn”t know that Mr. Sasson had invented the digital camera and liked his congenial explanation of the process behind it and how the first digital camera worked (tape!).
I loved listening to Brent Farley explain his madcap ideas while I ogled his off the wall interior. Watch as he explains how marketing is his weakness.
Inventor Portrait: Brent Farley from David Friedman on Vimeo.
William Walsh, developed a pizza box that splits up into plates. “I bought 50 or 100 pizza boxes — the guy thought I was out of my mind — and an exacto knife, and a
