Bronze: only offline price request available
We’re the only online 3D printing service offering bronze, but we want to ensure the quality for this material. Because we can’t currently guarantee this, we will -temporarily- only offer an offline price request. By doing this we can take a closer look at your design and make sure you’ve got an optimal print! So stay tuned, because our bronze story isn’t finished yet!
The i.materialise team
Parametric Parts: Making customization a piece of cake
Are you looking for a specific model; but can’t find the right size? Dave Cowden, a mechanical engineer with a passion for 3D printing, came up with the solution: Parametric Parts. An interview!
What’s your background?
David: «I was educated as a Mechanical Engineer, but I’ve always enjoyed ‘making things’. I moved into the IT industry about 15 years ago, and managed an e-commerce team for 10 years during the dot-com boom. Today, I count software engineering, agile software development, and programming as my trade, but I still make things at home as a hobby. Home projects include making CNC machines and 3D printers. I first worked on 3D printers back in 1992, when they cost > $250,000-at that time at Pratt and Whitney Aircraft. I’ve followed them ever since. 3D printing has always been fascinating to me, along with all other technologies used to make things.»
Why did you start Parametric Parts?
David: «I had the idea while working with my 3D printer at home. I was frustrat
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day everyone!
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day everyone! It’s time to go green today..
We’ve just introduced our new green dye finish for polyamide; perfect to create a shamrock for Saint Patrick’s Day. Enjoy!
Don’t forget: Order some samples! It’s the best way to get a good sense of the materials. You can buy a basic sample kit or seperate samples.
Prepare yourself for Saint Patrick’s Day…With our green dye finish!
Our range of finishes is continuously growing and today we’re happy to introduce our green dye finish for polyamide. Just in time for Saint Patrick’s Day!
We’re expanding our family of color finishes more and more. On Valentine’s day we introduced pink to you, today we’re adding green to our range. Try it out for free now, until the 3rd of April!
- Dimensions max 200 x 200 x 180 mm
- Pricing: 0,25€ per cm³ on top of the natural white color price + a start up of 1€ per type of model with a maximum of 20€.
Do you want to see the finish yourself? Order some samples! It’s the best way to get a good sense of the materials. You can buy a basic sample kit or seperate samples.
With 16 materials and over 70 finishes, i.materialise offers one of the widest material ranges in the world to 3D print in. We’re always making sure our designers get the best quality offer and with our design guides on the material pages, we lead you to the finish of your design.
Accessory Challenge- Be inspired by birds
Did you ever dream of an international platform to show off your design skills? Then prepare for our next challenge! i.materialise, in cooperation with Materialise Malaysia, challenges you to make the most unique, breath taking 3D printed accessory inspired by birds.
Do you want to be the star of a fashion show? Then we have great news! On the 14th of June, Materialise organizes an international 3D design fashion show in Malaysia. As a participant your creation can earn a spot at this event! The event will be attended by national and international media houses.
This is the perfect opportunity for you to try out and explore the 3D printing technology and experiment with design.
THE CHALLENGE
For this competition, your challenge is to use 3D printing to create a fashion/lifestyle accessory around the theme of “birds” (Yes, birds who have the freedom to soar high into the clear blue skies!). This accessory can be anything: jewelry (such as bracelets, rings, necklaces, …), belts,
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.”
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 #2: How to propose with the help of 3D printing
Hywel Vaughan and his girlfriend Sarah had been together for just over three years. As his New Years resolution of 2012, he decided to ask her to marry him. Being an industrial designer though, Hywel figured he could do something much better than just buying a ring from a shop.
Hywel has been so nice to post photos and instructions of how to make the ring on Instructables. It includes everything from buying the gem stone to the actual proposal! In December of 2012, he surprised Sarah with a trip to Bruges in Belgium. Sarah had no idea they were going anywhere until Hywel came down the stairs with packed bags and directed her to the taxi waiting outside! A brief Eurostar trip later, the couple was in Bruges walking next to the canals in the moonlight. At a quiet spot next to the ‘lovers lake’, he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him. She said yes, with the biggest smile he had ever known her to have.
“The finish on the ring was fantastic, and the accuracy of the product
