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3D Printing Blog

The i.materialise blog keeps you updated about outstanding 3D designs, the newest 3D printing technologies and the best 3D modeling software tutorials.

Meet the i.materialise Team: Volodymyr

Greetings,

My name is Vlad, and I’m that guy who is always replying on your e-mails something like “I have just checked your 3D model and…” :).

I really love to check your 3D models – each of them is really different and amazing. Each one requires unique approach that has to be applied in order to make it printable and to have a nice final look. I love this challenge and see it as a competition for me to win, for you.

I’ve been working in Customer Support for five years and when I saw that i.materialse was searching for a new employee that will be working with 3D models, designers and 3D printers– I was so impressed with that job and I was ready to start the next day! My first working day started in the Belgian Materialise Headquarters in the general planning department where I saw how projects were handled. Later on I was shown the production facility, got to speak with the production guys and did some finishing work together with them. That was a really fun and interestin

C3A, Océ and i.materialise Architect@Work architecture competition

C3A, Océ and i.materialise are organising a 3D and 2D printing contest for Architect@Work.  This contest is for Belgian architects.  C3A is a company specialising in software, hardware and training for architects and engineers in the construction industry.  Océ is a € 2,6 billion revenue part of the Canon group that specialises in large format and professional imaging and 2D printing. Together we will be doing a contest that ends at the end of this month. You can submit your entry at C3A Net. There will be 2 categories in the contest 1. A large format 2D print of a AutoCAD, Revit or Sketchup project. 2. a 3D print of a Sketchup project. We will select 3 entries per category and then the visitors to Architect@Work that is taking place in Kortrijk Xpo on May 5th and 6th will be able to vote to decide who the winners are. The 6 entrants designs will be 2D printed on a size of A1 and displayed on the stands of C3A and Océ. The winners can win €600, €500 and €300 in

i.materialise launches Sketch to 3D, A 3D modeling service for 3D printing

Today we are launching Sketch to 3D. Sketch to 3D is a 3D modeling service that can turn your drawings into 3D models. Now you can draw anything you want and get it 3D printed. 3D printing is an amazing technology that potentially can let you make whatever you want. But because few can 3D model it has been impossible for most people to make exactly what they want to make, until now. The democratization of manufacuring has now reached you. Now you have no excuse, you can now 3D print whatever you want to.

We’ve partnered with GrabCAD and together we can turn your thoughts, ideas and drawings into 3D prints. Now you can improve the world around you by making things exactly as you think they should be. Want a better lamp? Make your own using 3D printing. Want a one of a kind gift, sketch it and we’ll make it for you. Need something that doesn’t exist, make it.

The sketch service costs 57 Euro (around $80), the costs of the 3D print will depend on the material you chose and t

i.materialise Student Discount

UPDATE: This post is from 2011. Click here for the latest promo code for students!

Last year we noticed a spike in orders in April through July from design and engineering students worldwide who 3D printed concept cars, architectural models, functional models of prototypes and all sorts of other things with us. We really liked working on those projects (despite all the last minute stresses some of you had) and would like to encourage more students to 3D print with us.

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 20% discount if you 3D print with us. We”re especially interested in Design Academy Students (Eindhoven, Finland etc.) & Engineering and product design graduates. But, feel free to wow us with any work from any discipline.

Rules

  • You have to be enrolled at a College, University or Technical school
  • You must contact us using a .edu or other university/school email adress to verify th

3D printing in wood flour

On April Fools, our friends at FOC pulled a well executed prank on everyone by telling the world that they can 3D print in wood using sawdust. Well…it turns out you can 3D print in wood, using wood flour. Wood flour is a  fine sawdust like powder made from pulverized wood. A year ago Open3D student Meghan Trainor started doing tests on 3D printing in wood. Later on students  Juliana Meira do Valle and Kate Lien took over the experiments and worked to improve the results. The team now 3D print in black walnut shell flour, pecan shell flour, wood bark flour & wood flour. The team uses a powder based 3D printer which is basically a hacked version of a commercial system.  In this case the team has used UF glue as a binder. The recipe for 3D printing in wood is to use 4 to 5 parts wood or nut flour and 1 part UF glue. The initial results are intriguing  and prove once again that the Open3DP team is really pushing the envelope on hacking and improving 3D printers and 3D printi

Be Your Own Souvenir with 3D printing

Be Your own Souvenir was a project that ran in Barcelona in the beginning of this year. Using open source software the project let people pose in front of a Kinect set up and the resulting shape was 3D printed by a RapMan 3D printer. The project aimed to turn consumers into producers and give people the experience of creating their own souvenirs. The installation was on the Rambla and the “project mimics the informal artistic context of this popular street, human sculptures and craftsmen, bringing diverse realities and enabling greater empathy between the agents that cohabit in the public space.” The installation was the work of BlaBlabLAB.

Be Your Own Souvenir! from blablabLAB on Vimeo.

Via Truthisaconcept.

Patrick Jouin wins a Red Dot Award for his MGX.Bloom lamp

Very loud cheers and congratulations to our colleagues over at .MGX and designer Patrick Jouin. Patrick Jouin has just won a Red Dot Award for his .MGX.Bloom lamp in the category outstanding product design!

The Bloom table lamp is inspired by nature. As many flowers do the Bloom can actually bloom by opening and closing. The entire lamp shade is 3D printed and the shade is produced in one piece and works straight out of the 3D printer. By letting the lamp bloom you can mechanically regulate the light that comes out of it. Opening and closing this lamp is addictive as you can see the hinges move and the entire body slot into itself. Its a wonderful lamp to look at but also a powerful example of the power of 3D printing.  Its a huge honor for the lamp to be awarded with a RedDot and I”m sure all of our colleagues are happy not only for .MGX but also because Patrick Jouin”s beautiful design is 3D printed here at Materialise. The same 3D printers and the same high level of c

Priority 24 get your 3D prints quicker

Faster 3D prints anyone? We’ve just launched Priority 24. Priority 24 is a way for you to get your 3D prints quicker. With this option we will 3D print your design within 24 hours. When you get it depends on where you live. If you order before 12:00 CET on a Monday we will produce it within 24 hours and ship it Tuesday. If you’re in the UK, Belgium, France, Netherlands and Germany your order should be delivered on Wednesday. If you’re in a US major city you should also get it on Wednesday also. Major Asian cities will get their orders on Thursday.

  • To use this service choose the Polyamide Priority material when uploading.
  • You can order models up to 100 by 100 by 100mm.
  • Priority makes your order 30% more expensive.
  • If you miss the 12:00 CET deadline it will arrive one day later.
  • If there is an issue with your model that we have to fix or come back to you with questions about, it will also take at least one day more.
  • Customs hold ups or shipping delays might delay the ar

The Craziest 3D Printed Scale Model in the World

When I entered our production facilities a few months ago, I was totally blown away by a small scale replica of a gas plant. This is truly one of the craziest 3D printed scale models I have ever seen. The model has all the details of the actual system and has an overall size of 1300mm x 1000mm. The highest part of the model is 750mm. Because it was so huge, the production team had to build it in 7 segments and then glue it together. All the parts were produced in polyamide using laser sintering and spray painted in silver afterwards.

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Free shipping on orders above $99

We”ve looked at the results of our free shipping experiment over the past few weeks. The results were very encouraging and lead to an increase of orders from faraway places. In light of this we”re now offering you free shipping on any and all orders that are more than $99 or 99 Euro depending on which currency you pay us in. We like the fact that we can make it cheaper for you to order from us and can now get your goods, concept models, lamps, book ends and all the other awesomeness for less. We hope this encourages you to make more things with us and let more of your creations to stream in for us to make.

We know that many people would like to also have free shipping on orders below $99. At the moment we”re not ready to do this. There is a lot of handling involved with small parts and this drives up their cost and overal costs. It will be easier for us to control costs and lower overal prices in the long term if we concentrate on stimulating  you to make larger pieces. In