3D Systems buys Bits from Bytes
3D Systems was built on Stereolithography technology. The technology was invented by 3D Systems CTO Chuck Hull in 1986. Right now 3D Systems still is the leading player on the Stereolithography field. But, 3D Systems did not just keep to Sterolithography but rather expanded into SLS (Selective Laser Sintering) machines also. Last year it was 3D Systems that bought the assets of the defunct Desktop Factory. I”m still unsure what 3D Systems wants to do with this technology but former Desktop Factory CEO Cathy Lewis is turning out to be quite an asset in making the company more accessible and well known.
3D Systems has spent the last year acquiring 3D printing service bureaus the world over from specialised ones that do investment casting such as Mqast to regular service bureaus. It is cobbling them together in order to develop a network with one web based 3D printing service called ProParts. With lower material costs than other service bureaus and nice deals on the machines I’
Federico Diaz: Geometric Death Frequency 141 & lacrimAu
Frederico Diaz is a gift artist and designer and his newest work Geometric Death Frequency is simply astounding. It will be made up of 420,000 black spheres and completely assembled by machine not touched by human hands. This installation for the MASS MoCA is based on a photograph, “by the artist, which the artist then transforms into pure data, and modulates using analytical and fluid dynamic modeling techniques, finally rendering the data stream into a three-dimensional sculpture using state-of-the-art computer-aided manufacturing methodologies. The new work thus combines elements of photographic manipulation, data analysis, and computer programming, utilizing new techniques to produce a sculpture completely untouched by human hands.” There is much more on DesignBoom.
Frederico Diaz, has another exhibition on right now for the EXPO Shanghai. With lacrimAU he lets visitors enter a glass chamber and then with a pipette collect their own unique fragrance capturing their unique en
3D printing spare parts using Alumide
You might have heard the expression “eat your own dogfood” that refers to having companies consume their own products in some way. At i.materialise we have an expensive camera tripod. A lever that you use to adjust the height of the camera broke off. We were unable to obtain a replacement and so we asked a colleague Staf if he would be so kind enough as to 3D model a replacement lever. We 3D printed it using an EOS p700 machine 3D printing Alumide and were able to replace the part at very low cost without leaving the building. The lever is functional and although the Alumide material, a combination of aluminum and thermoplastic powder, can be brittle the part is strong enough to do service as a lever. You can see some wear but the lever thingy has now been functioning for two years.
3D Printing Foam
Have you seen this video clip yet? Yes, apparently it is possible to print foam now! Take a look at below’s video to see the world’s first foam 3D printer in action. Make sure to scroll down to learn more about other astonishing 3D printing materials such as gold or ceramics.
Want to learn more about other 3D printing materials?
- Check out this article about 3D printing gold!
- And take a look at this blog post about 3D printing ceramics.
- Want to get a HQ 3D Print? Upload it here and choose from 100+ materials & finishes!
Beastie Boys Time to get Ill 3D printed
Andy Berlin, an engineer at Zcorp wrote a software tool that transforms soundwaves into an 3D printable file. The file can then be 3D printed on a Zcorp machine and the resulting 3D print actually can be heard on a record player. I think this is a wonderfully literal way to turn music into an object and adore it. Andy says, “the program created a monochrome .STL file. The outer edge of each groove is smooth, to provide a surface for the tracking needle to ride along. The inner edge contains peaks and valleys which correspond to the audio data.” He also had to hack a turntable to get it to work, “A pin replaced the needle to provide mechanical tracking, and an LED and optical sensor, …, provided the playback signal.” Very amazing stuff. I love the combination of old and new technology. And I also love that the song he chose to make this way was Time to get Ill by the Beastie Boys! More images on the Zcorp blog.
3D printed moveable toy dog Oh Dog
Brazillian students Pedro Figueiredo and Bruna Milam needed to do a graduation project for their Industrial Design course at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. They opted to make a toy 3D print using i.materialise. The duo used functional mechanisms and customization possibilities on the toy to increase its effectiveness and value. The toy’s name is Oh Dog! and he is a sad dog with an absurd cone collar with a mechanical iris on his neck. Pedro and Bruna are now seeing if they can turn their whacky dog into a business. They also would like to thank Karen and Vlad of our customer servies team for all the help both gave them in repairing the file and helping them with the engineering of the Dog. We wish them a lot of luck and congratulate them on a great product! We would like to thank Chris Lefteri for including a reference to i.materialise in his book Making It: Manufacturing Techniques for Product Design, which is how Pedro and Bruna found us in the first place.
C
3D Printing Functional Robots
How futuristic do you need us to be, really? For months Hiro (our business development guy in Japan) has been working on an area that is very important to us here at i.materialise: using 3D printing to customize robots.
We think that in the coming years two technologies that are ripe for democratization are robots and 3D printing. To combine both of them into one service is irresistible to us. Because of this Hiro has been doing extensive research on what people that have robots at home need.
A few months ago robotics enthusiast news source Robots Dreams already posted a review of some of the parts we had made back then. Check it out below.
This gives you insight into one of the consumer robot areas that we are exploring. Our initial baby steps back then consisted of creating, together with a customer, some customized faceplates and other robot parts using SLS. This let the customer create a custom unique version of his Kondo robot. Last year I went on vacation to Japan an
Polyjet 3D printing by Objet
Israeli company Objet has a very detailed 3D printing process called Polyjet. Polyjet works with layers by layer building up a photopolymer and then hardening it with UV light. Polyjet produces very highly detailed parts that are very attractive. The parts are however not very strong and have low heat deflection temperatures. Polyjet is great for art objects, artistic projects and things such as characters whereby detail is crucial. On i.materialise we call Polyjet FineLayer epoxy and you can get it in White. Check out the video below showing you the entire Polyjet process on an Objet Eden.
- Hardness 83 Shore D
- Flexural modulus (stiffness) 2140 MPa
- Flexural strength 74,6 MPa
- Elongation at break 15 – 25%
- Izod Notched Impact Resistance 37.5 J/m
- Heat Deflection Temp (@ 1,82 MPa) 47.6° C
- Natural Color white
- Minimum Wallthickness 0.7
FULL PRINT3D
Earlier this week The New York Times published a nice article called ‘3-D Printing Spurs a Manufacturing Revolution’. Although the article is getting a lot of attention, it only shows you a glimpse of what 3D printing can actually do. If you feel like discovering a whole lot more, you should visit the FABRICATION LABORATORY in Barcelona and experience all the 3D digital manufacturing technologies up close.
Fabrication Laboratory. New scenarios for 3D design and production is a series of events that are held at the Disseny Hub Barcelona (www.dhub-bcn.cat) from 15 June 2010 to 29 May 2011. With FABRICATION LABORATORY the DHUB presents an overview of the new 3D digital manufacturing technologies, a phenomenon that’s constantly evolving and leading to radical changes in design and production processes worldwide. The idea of the DHUB is to show the reflection on how these machines and software allow a new kind of fabrication that involves a different way of designing and programming.
Additional payment service for Credit Cards is available: Ogone
When you have PayPal as payment service, you are all set.
That is what we intially thought.
For most of you PayPal is perfect.
However, when you don”t have a PayPal account, there are sometimes annoying order obstructing rules in PayPal, especially with higher value orders.
This made us look for an additional payment service.
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