3D Printing Flies High now. Articles on three-dimensional printers are popping up everywhere these days. And nowadays there are many 3D printer products. Some are small enough to fit in a briefcase and others are large enough to print houses.
Everything you ever wanted to know about 3D printing article tells that 3D printing is having its “Macintosh moment,” declares Wired editor -in-chief Chris Anderson in cover story on the subject. 3D printers are now where the PC was 30 years ago. They are just becoming affordable and accessible to non-geeks, will be maybe able to democratize manufacturing the same way that PCs democratized publishing.
Gartner’s 2012 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies Identifies “Tipping Point” Technologies That Will Unlock Long-Awaited Technology Scenarios lists 3D Print It at Home as important topic. In this scenario, 3D printing allows consumers to print physical objects, such as toys or housewares, at home, just as they print digital photos today. Combined with 3D scanning, it may be possible to scan certain objects with a smartphone and print a near-duplicate. Analysts predict that 3D printing will take more than five years to mature beyond the niche market. Eventually, 3D printing will enable individuals to print just about anything from the comfort of their own homes.Slideshow: 3D Printers Make Prototypes Pop article tells that advances in performance, and the durability and range of materials used in additive manufacturing and stereolithography offerings, are enabling companies to produce highly durable prototypes and parts, while also cost-effectively churning out manufactured products in limited production runs.
3D printing can have implications to manufacturers of some expensive products. The Pirate Bay declares 3D printed “physibles” as the next frontier of piracy. Pirate Bay Launches 3D-Printed ‘Physibles’ Downloads. The idea is to have freely available designs for different products that you can print at home with your 3D printer. Here a video demonstrating 3D home printing in operation.
Shapeways is a marketplace and community that encourages the making and sharing of 3D-printed designs. 3D Printing Shapes Factory of the Future article tells that recently New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg cut the Shapeways‘ Factory (filled with industrial-sized 3D printers) ribbon using a pair of 3D-printed scissors.
The Next Battle for Internet Freedom Could Be Over 3D Printing article tells up to date, 3D printing has primarily been used for rapid commercial prototyping largely because of its associated high costs. Now, companies such as MakerBot are selling 3D printers for under $2,000. Slideshow: 3D Printers Make Prototypes Pop article gives view a wide range of 3D printers, from half-million-dollar rapid prototyping systems to $1,000 home units. Cheapest 3D printers (with quite limited performance) now start from 500-1000 US dollars. It is rather expensive or inexpensive is how you view that.
RepRap Project is a cheap 3D printer that started huge 3D printing buzz. RepRap Project is an initiative to develop an open design 3D printer that can print most of its own components. RepRap (short for replicating rapid prototyper) uses a variant of fused deposition modeling, an additive manufacturing technique (The project calls it Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) to avoid trademark issues around the “fused deposition modeling” term). It is almost like a small hot glue gun that melts special plastic is moved around to make the printout. I saw RepRap (Mendel) and Cupcake CNC 3D printers in operation at at Assembly Summer 2010.
There has been some time been trials to make 3D-Printed Circuit Boards. 3D Printers Will Build Circuit Boards ‘In Two Years’ article tells that printing actual electronics circuit boards is very close. Most of the assembly tools are already completely automated anyway.
3D printing can be used to prototype things like entire cars or planes. The makers of James Bond’s latest outing, Skyfall, cut a couple corners in production and used modern 3D printing techniques to fake the decimation of a classic 1960s Aston Martin DB5 (made1:3 scale replicas of the car for use in explosive scenes). The world’s first 3D printed racing car can pace at 140 km/h article tells that a group of 16 engineers named “Group T” has unveiled a racing car “Areion” that is competing in Formula Student 2012 challenge. It is described as the world’s first 3D printed race car. The Areion is not fully 3D printed but most of it is.
Student Engineers Design, Build, Fly ‘Printed’ Airplane article tells that when University of Virginia engineering students posted a YouTube video last spring of a plastic turbofan engine they had designed and built using 3-D printing technology, they didn’t expect it to lead to anything except some page views. But it lead to something bigger. 3-D Printing Enables UVA Student-Built Unmanned Plane article tells that in an effort that took four months and $2000, instead of the quarter million dollars and two years they estimate it would have using conventional design methods, a group of University of Virginia engineering students has built and flown an airplane of parts created on a 3-D printer. The plane is 6.5 feet in wingspan, and cruises at 45 mph.
3D printers can also print guns and synthetic chemical compounds (aka drugs). The potential policy implications are obvious. US Army Deploys 3D Printing Labs to Battlefield to print different things army needs. ‘Wiki Weapon Project’ Aims To Create A Gun Anyone Can 3D-Print At Home. If high-quality weapons can be printed by anyone with a 3D printer, and 3D printers are widely available, then law enforcement agencies will be forced to monitor what you’re printing in order to maintain current gun control laws.
Software Advances Do Their Part to Spur 3D Print Revolution article tells that much of the recent hype around 3D printing has been focused on the bevy of new, lower-cost printer models. Yet, significant improvements to content creation software on both the low and high end of the spectrum are also helping to advance the cause, making the technology more accessible and appealing to a broader audience. Slideshow: Content Creation Tools Push 3D Printing Mainstream article tells that there is still a sizeable bottleneck standing in the way of mainstream adoption of 3D printing: the easy to use software used to create the 3D content. Enter a new genre of low-cost (many even free like Tikercad) and easy-to-use 3D content creation tools. By putting the tools in reach, anyone with a compelling idea will be able to easily translate that concept into a physical working prototype without the baggage of full-blown CAD and without having to make the huge capital investments required for traditional manufacturing.
Finally when you have reached the end of the article there is time for some fun. Check out this 3D printing on Dilbert strip so see a creative use of 3D printing.
2,059 Comments
maleconieco says:
thank you this nice tips
Tomi Engdahl says:
3-D IMAGING: 3-D modeling improves spinal casting process
http://www.vision-systems.com/articles/print/volume-18/issue-01/departments/technology-trends/3-d-imaging.html?cmpid=EnlVSDJanuary212013
4DDynamics have developed a 3-D system that can be used to develop prosthetic corsets in less than half a day
This 3-D model can be analyzed by a physician, modified as required, and used as input to a computer numerical control (CNC) machine to fabricate the custom prosthetic corset, a process that takes less than one day.
“Using 3-D scanning technology in this manner,” says Grauzinis, “eliminates the need for customized casting tables, dramatically reducing the time required to both create a 3-D representation of the spine and generate a prosthetic corset. And it can be done by any nontechnical personnel without any computer knowledge.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Implantable Cartilage Created With Hybrid 3D Printer
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1394&doc_id=256836
While some hobbyists are rapidly prototyping items and objects from 3D printers, others in the medical field have taken that tool to a whole new level in printing out actual implantable tissue and even organs that could prolong life.
In the last few years, medical science has used 3D printers to replace damaged tissue (skin) or to restore limbs for those who have suffered wounds.
The group has recently made advances in simplifying the printing process for creating implantable cartilage-constructs that could be used to help regrow damaged cartilage in areas such as joints. This advancement was due in part by creating a hybrid 3D printer, which makes the overall process easier and is the combination of an ink jet printer and an electrospinning machine.
The Wake Forest scientists haven’t limited their study and development to just cartilage. They are looking into developing bio-printing of dental implants, prosthetics, and organs, as well.
Increased developments in 3D printing technology for bio-printing soft-tissue organs are on the rise, as well.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is this 3D-printed robot the first of thousands?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57565426-1/is-this-3d-printed-robot-the-first-of-thousands/
InMoov is an open-source DIY printable robot that can obey voice commands. It’s slightly creepy, but at least it’s cheap.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DIY BioPrinter
http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-BioPrinter/
Bioprinting is printing with biological materials. Think of it as 3D printing but with different materials.
BioPrinter Community Project was born
Hacking an old inkjet printer to print biomaterials
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printing for the Home
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=257785&cid=NL_Newsletters+-+DN+Daily
Mcor’s claim to fame is that they actually do the printing on plain old printer paper. It gets combined with some kind of adhesive and stacked together to produce a real model.
Basically, all you’re paying for (besides the printer) is paper, ink, and glue.
Mcor struck a deal with Staples, whereby you send Staples your model data, and they will print it for you on an Mcor printer.
Up 3D USA caught my attention because of its price point — $899.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D printing your own Nokia Lumia case isn’t all it’s cracked up to be (hands-on)
http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/24/3909426/nokia-3d-printing-lumia-820-hands-on
Nokia surprised the 3D printing community last week by unveiling mechanical drawings to allow Lumia 820 owners to print their own case. The company pushed out an impressive Wiki full of details, ten “fascinating facts” about 3D printing, and has been promoting it ever since. However, it’s not as easy to print one of these covers as Nokia might lead you to believe.
Allen agreed to print the case at a cost of £48 ($75) and I dropped by his office on Brick Lane to take a look at the results.
Allen explains that Nokia’s diagrams meant there were points on the case, particularly around the button areas, where it was particularly thin. “Rule of thumb is you should keep it above 1mm,”
“Printing the case is OK, but not the buttons,”
I tried the case on a Lumia 820 and the 3D print successfully snapped onto the phone tightly. The case of Nokia’s Lumia 820 is one of the most difficult smartphone cases I’ve had to remove, so removing the 3D printed case was challenging. I removed it from the top corner of the device and it immediately shattered on the weak side near to the buttons, cracking along the back close to the camera.
“I really like the fact they’ve released it, but I think they’ve gone at it by simply releasing the injection molding version which isn’t the best way to do it,”
The results aren’t encouraging for those wishing to print a Lumia 820 cover. Allen has had some inquiries about printing them, but he admits “it’s gonna cost you more to print that than it is to buy one off the shelf.”
While you won’t get the customizability that the 3D printed version offers, it’s clear that Nokia’s diagrams are suitable for injection molding techniques and not typical 3D printers. Others in the 3D printing community agree
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D-Printed Clothing Hits the Paris Runway
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=257923&cid=NL_Newsletters+-+DN+Daily
Stratasys Ltd. and Materialise have printed 3D clothing pieces that were worn on the catwalk of Paris Fashion week in the Iris van Herpen’s haute couture show, “Voltage.”
Two pieces out of the 11-piece collection were 3D printed.
Stratasys’s Objet Connex multi-material 3D printing technology was used. This technology can use a variety of material properties to be printed into a single build, which allowed both soft and hard materials to be used to give the piece movement and texture.
The other creation, an intricate dress, was 3D printed by Materialise
Tomi Engdahl says:
3d printed hexapod robot
http://hackaday.com/2013/01/30/3d-printed-hexapod-robot/
This hexapod was made almost entirely via 3d printing. The parts that you need to supply include a few fasteners to make connections, twelve servo motors, and a method of driving them.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ESA proposes 3D printing on the moon
Instant lunar base, just add moon rock
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/31/esa_lunar_base_3d_printing/
One of the challenges with constructing a moon base is the extravagant expenditure needed to boost the necessary materials from Earth. The European Space Agency is now considering an alternative proposal: feeding moon rock to a 3D printer.
Architecture firm Foster + Partners has designed a concept demonstration suggesting it just may be feasible, turning a 1.5-tonne block into a simulated building. Using a 3D printer from UK company Monolite, a mobile printing array of nozzles sprayed materials onto a six meter frame using simulated lunar material.
The material was mixed with magnesium oxide to create a “‘paper’ we can print with”, says Monolite’s founder Enrico Dini. “Then for our structural ‘ink’ we apply a binding salt which converts material to a stone-like solid.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ten 3D printers for this year’s modellers
The shape of things to come
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/02/04/ten_3d_printers/
You might not know why, but you want a 3D printer. These are intrinsically cool devices: A mix of engineering, electrical engineering, material science, chemistry, electronics and software. As an emerging technology you need to understand a bit of all of these to get the most from a hobbyist device, just as early computer users needed to be competent with a soldering iron and assembler.
Here we look at ten of the most interesting 3D printers around
Tomi Engdahl says:
Three-Armed DeltaMaker 3-D Printer Takes Cues From Mass-Production Tools
http://www.wired.com/design/2013/02/deltamaker-3d-printer/
Most 3-D printer manufacturers compare their products to side-to-side-moving paper printers, but the three-armed DeltaMaker takes its design cues from high-speed manufacturing robots.
Like most hobby-grade 3-D printers, the DeltaMaker uses fused filament fabrication (FFF) technology, but unlike the RepRap and MakerBot, the plastic extruder is moved by three nimble arms instead of the standard X/Y mechanism.
“Designing a 3-D printer requires balancing trade-offs between build size, build quality, and build speed,”
By moving the print head instead of the build platform, large prints don’t suffer, but a delta configuration isn’t required to gain these benefits.
The DeltaMaker takes a slightly different approach to 3-D printing, but its output can rival the industry leaders.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D printing with stem cells could lead to printable organs
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57567789-1/3d-printing-with-stem-cells-could-lead-to-printable-organs/
A potentially breakthrough 3D-printing process using human stem cells could be the precursor to printing organs from a patient’s own cells.
Some day in the future, when you need a kidney transplant, you may get a 3D-printed organ created just for you. If scientists are able to achieve that milestone, they may look back fondly at a breakthrough printing process pioneered by researchers at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland in collaboration with Roslin Cellab, a stem cell technology company.
The printer creates 3D spheroids using delicate embryonic cell cultures floating in a “bio ink” medium. They end up looking like little bubbles. Each droplet can contain as few as five stem cells. Basically, this comes down to the printer “ink” being stem cells rather than plastic or another material.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Create your own humanoid robot using a 3D printer
http://www.electronicproducts.com/Sensors_and_Transducers/Sensors/Create_your_own_humanoid_robot_using_a_3D_printer.aspx
You don’t have to be a skilled engineer to create a robot anymore. All you need is a 3D printer, and you can design and build your very own.
French sculptor and model maker Gael Langevin has been working on a life-size, 3D printable humanoid robot called InMoov. Langevin has developed a website so that anyone can follow his instructions and view demos to create their own robots as well.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D printed prosthetic hand helps out for about $150
http://hackaday.com/2013/02/08/3d-printed-prosthetic-hand-helps-out-for-about-150/
We know that there are already 3D printed hips and knees in use in the medical field, but it takes a story like this one to really bring home the idea of how this technology changes lives. 5-year-old [Liam] is missing parts of his right hand, and this open-source prosthetic hand has given him a jolt of increased function.
The design is available on Thingiverse. In addition to the 3D printed parts the prosthesis uses off-the-shelf hardware store items like bungee cord and fasteners.
Tomi Engdahl says:
SCARA arm 3D printer
http://hackaday.com/2013/02/08/scara-arm-3d-printer/
Tomi Engdahl says:
French Designer Uses 3D Printer to Create Humanoid Robot
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=258309&cid=NL_Newsletters+-+DN+Daily
A French artist and designer named Gael Langevin has taken the idea of a “build your own robot” kit to the next level through an ambitious hobbyist project called InMoov. The open-source project’s ultimate goal is a full-sized animatronic humanoid robot that can be printed and assembled by anyone with a 3D printer.
Langevin writes a detailed blog about the project
The blog also includes the printer files for the robot for free download. The robot can then be assembled from those parts and off-the shelf electronics at a cost of less than $1,000. The robot’s parts are mainly made using acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, or ABS, plastic material.
To program the robot, Langevin used a number of sketch programming languages, including Serialterm, MyRobotLab, and Arduino.
.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How do you set up the first lunar base? With a 3D printer of course
http://www.electronicproducts.com/Packaging_and_Hardware/Shielding_and_Insulation/How_do_you_set_up_the_first_lunar_base_With_a_3D_printer_of_course.aspx
A group of industrial partners, including Italian space engineering firm Alta SpA, Pisa-based engineering university Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, and renowned architects Foster+Partners, have joined the European Space Agency (ESA) to explore the feasibility of 3D printing a basecamp on the moon using lunar soil as the primary source of material.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Untether Your 3-D Printer With a $35 Raspberry Pi
http://www.wired.com/design/2013/02/raspberry-pi-3-d-printer/
While most people still have trouble setting up an inkjet printer on a wireless network, a group of intrepid IT hackers are making big strides with far more advanced machines, using the tiny Raspberry Pi microcomputer to untether laptops from their 3-D printers.
“I just wanted to make a self-contained system that was easily transportable,” says Bales. “I am using my main computer to do the slicing of the STL files to generate the gcode. Right now I am saving everything to my Dropbox account and just downloading the G-Code files on the Pi.”
The credit card-sized computer still doesn’t replace a PC entirely — the slicing software that turns complex 3-D models into simple 2-D cross sections is too memory-intensive for the tiny board, and an Arduino still controls the mechanical components, but the Raspberry Pi is making printers faster and more convenient.
Tomi Engdahl says:
When you have a 3D printer, you might also want possibility to scan 3D objects to 3D models you can later print. Here is one idea for that:
3D scanner made in a day
http://hackaday.com/2013/02/14/3d-scanner-made-in-a-day/
The LVL1 Hackerspace held a hackathon back in June and this is one of the projects that was created in that 24-hour period. It’s a 3D scanner made from leftover parts.
The webcam is of rather low quality and one way to quickly improve the output would be to replace it with a better one.
laser (pulled out of a barcode scanner which produces a line of red light) and the turntable.
A Python script does all of the image processing, assembling each slice of the scan into both an animated GIF and an OBJ file.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Make your own 3D printing filament
Filabot recycles plastic
http://www.electronicproducts.com/Electromechanical_Components/Motors_and_Controllers/Make_your_own_3D_printing_filament.aspx
So you’ve got yourself a 3D printer, and you’re designing prototypes or tinkering with things you downloaded from the thingiverse. After a while, chances are your workspace is starting to look like layered plastic graveyard.
The plastic extrusion robot, developed by Vermont Technical College student Tyler McNaney, allows you to recycle all of that plastic to make usable 3D printing filament. An all-in-one tool, the Filabot can grind, melt and extrude plastic filament.
In addition to rejected 3D prints, the Filabot recycles just about any kind of plastic, including milk jugs, soda bottles and packaging material.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D-Printed House Can Be Assembled in Just One Day
http://mashable.com/2013/02/15/3d-printed-house/
Just last month, Dutch architects unveiled plans to build the world’s first 3D-printed house out of sand, with a construction time of 18 months. Now British architecture collective Softkill Design has announced that it too is planning to build a 3D-printed house, but it can be printed in three weeks and built in one day.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D-Printing Pen, The 3Doodler, Reaches Kickstarter Funding Goal In Hours
http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/19/3d-printing-pen-the-3doodler-reaches-kickstarter-funding-goal-in-hours/
3D printing can be complex or, if the 3Doodler is any indication, wildly simple. Built by a team of toy designers, the 3Doodler is a pen with a simple plastic extruder at the tip. When you press a button, a thin string of plastic comes out and almost instantly hardens. You can use the pen to draw plastic pictures or, with a little plastic, even build three-dimensional objects.
A pledge of $75 gets you a pen and you can use standard-gauge ABS/PLA plastic – the same material used by Makerbot.
3Doodler: The World’s First 3D Printing Pen
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1351910088/3doodler-the-worlds-first-3d-printing-pen?ref=live
It’s a pen that can draw in the air! 3Doodler is the 3D printing pen you can hold in your hand. Lift your imagination off the page!
There are many ways 3Doodler can be used. 3Doodles can be created as flat forms and peeled off a piece of paper, as freestyle 3D objects, or in separate parts, ready to be joined together using the 3Doodler.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Patents That Threaten 3-D Printing
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/02/20/0317250/the-patents-that-threaten-3-d-printing
“We’ve watched patents slow down the smartphone and tablet markets. We’ve seen patent claims thrown against Linux, Android, and countless other software projects. Now, as 3-D printing becomes more capable and more affordable, it seems a number of patents threaten to do the same to the hobbyist and tinkerer crowd.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Big Business is Stymying Makers’ High-Res, Colorful Innovations
http://www.wired.com/design/2013/02/3-d-printing-patents/?pid=1994&viewall=true
If you’re waiting for desktop additive-manufacturing technology to move closer to professional-level results, be prepared to wait for a very long time.
The past year was a breakout for desktop 3-D printing.
But the year ended with a legal hiccup. Formlabs will be dealing with a patent infringement lawsuit brought against them by 3D Systems, one of the biggest players in the industry. The hobbyist segment of the industry has been built on the back of expired patents, but as the Electronic Frontier Foundation has pointed out, many patents that will be required to advance the state of the art will not expire for years or even a decade.
We’ve uncovered 10 patents that could severely stifle innovation in the low-cost segment of the 3-D printing market and keep you from making colorful, smooth-finished figures and precise, articulating parts. These patents cover core technologies and ease-of-use features, and could take momentum from the upstarts and return it to the entrenched companies.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Visualize This: The Concept Art Behind ParaNorman’s 3-D Printed World
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/02/paranorman-oscar-art/
When production designer Nelson Lowry first approached the making of the animated film ParaNorman, he had a goal: Nothing should be perfect. Lines didn’t have to be straight, inspiration would be found in mistakes, and the final product should looks as much like the “beautiful, expressive napkin sketch” that it came from as possible.
He got his wish. ParaNorman, which is up for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars this weekend, is a 3-D printed, stop-motion wonder of a film — right down to each and every jagged edge.
The faces of each of the film’s 27 characters were 3-D printed in many, many iterations (the film’s titular character Norman’s facial parts were capable of 1.5 million expressions, for example) and every minute of the movie required dozens of different faces for each character.
“Physical stuff is a little harder to control and there’s more surprises and you can really exploit those surprises if you do it carefully. So a stain or a ripped edge or a broken piece of material might have a really interesting shape and you can actually build that into the design,”
3DmodelerDy says:
Great article ! Love it. Very informative. I can just agree that 3D printing is really hot topic ! And in the very near future it will reach its golden age . I am founding more and more information about that 3D models marketplaces are trying to be on the scream of the fashion and work on exapanding their websites on 3D printing too ! This is hot topic too.. You know what strife now will be ??? I can`t imagine .. Anyway I love 3D modeling so I am thanking God that someone have such fantastic idea to create this kind of printer !
Tomi Engdahl says:
An industrial RepRap
http://hackaday.com/2013/02/23/an-industrial-reprap/
It may just be another 3D printer, but [Jonas] and [Simon]‘s Kühling & Kühling RepRap Industrial is a cross between a work of art and a beautiful machine tool. It also looks to be a pretty nice 3D printer, to boot.
Tomi Engdahl says:
SCARA arm finally prints plastic parts
http://hackaday.com/2013/02/25/scara-arm-finally-prints-plastic-parts/
Here’s a neat alternative to the usual gantry setup you see on 3D printers. [Quentin] designed and build a SCARA arm 3D printer
Most of the parts are 3D printed, including the blue arms for the x and y axes that are driven by stepper motors. The z axis is controlled by two lead screws
Tomi Engdahl says:
Giving 3D printed parts a shiny smooth finish
http://hackaday.com/2013/02/26/giving-3d-printed-parts-a-shiny-smooth-finish/
No matter how good a 3D printer gets, you’re always going to have visible print layers. Even with very high-quality prints with sub-0.1mm layer height, getting a shiny and smooth finish of injection molded plastic is nearly impossible. That is, of course, until you do some post-print finishing. [Neil Underwood] and [Austin Wilson] figured out a really easy way to smooth out even the jankiest prints using parts you probably already have lying around.
Acetone vapor will form in the jar and react with any printed part smoothing out those layers.
You can check out the tutorial video
Tomi Engdahl says:
Next Year’s 3-D Printers Promise Big Things — Really Big Things
http://www.wired.com/design/2012/11/big-3d-printers-euromold-2012/
2012 has been a big year for 3-D printing, but the industry has quietly been growing for decades. And the innovations are impressive — for every new plywood-clad 3-D printer kit that makes the rounds on the internet, engineers are developing ways to print titanium parts for jet engines that will change the aerospace industry.
The 3-D printing industry is on track to be a $3.1 billion business by 2016
its foundation is growing — both in revenue and in physical print size.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Revolving camera mount helps to capture 3D video-game assests
http://hackaday.com/2013/03/01/revolving-camera-mount-helps-to-capture-3d-video-game-assests/
Here’s a camera rig that makes it a snap to produce photorealistic 3D models of an object. It was put together rather inexpensively by an indie game company called Skull Theatre.
They’re using 123D, a software suite which is quite popular for digitizing items.
http://www.123dapp.com/
Scanning turntable digitizes objects as 3D models
http://hackaday.com/2012/04/27/scanning-turntable-digitizes-objects-as-3d-models/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Soluble support structure can be used with any extruder-based 3D printer
http://hackaday.com/2013/03/01/soluble-support-structure-can-be-used-with-any-extruder-based-3d-printer/
One of the issues with extruder-based 3D printing is that it can be very difficult to print objects that have voids in them. You simply must have something to deposit the soft material on until it has a chance to harden. [Matt] found a solution which should work for any extruder-based printer (with one caveat we’ll get to in a minute). He prints a support structure out of HIPS then later dissolves it using Limonene.
The only real problem with this technique is that it requires a second extruder.
ABS will be unaffected by the hydrocarbon solvent Limonene, except for the residual smell of citrus.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Preserving locomotives with 3D laser scanning and 3D printing
http://hackaday.com/2013/03/04/preserving-locomotives-with-3d-laser-scanning-and-3d-printing/
The days where manufacturing plastic models meant paying tens of thousands of dollars in tooling for injection molds are slowly coming to an end thanks to 3D printing, so [Chris] thought it would be a great idea to create his own models of these small locomotives with 3D laser scanners and high quality 3D printers.
There’s a lot that can be done with a laser scanner in a railway or air museum or [Jay Leno]‘s garage, so we’d love to see more 3D printed models of engineering achievements make their way onto Kickstarter.
Tomi says:
83-Year-Old Inventor Wins $40,000 3D Printing Competition
http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/03/04/1428241/83-year-old-inventor-wins-40000-3d-printing-competition
“The Desktop Factory Competition was a contest to create an open-source design for a low-cost machine capable of turning cheap plastic pellets into the filament used by 3D printers, with a prize of $40,000. The winner is being announced today — and he was born during the Hoover administration.”
How an 83-Year-Old Inventor Beat the High Cost of 3D Printing
http://techland.time.com/2013/03/04/how-an-83-year-old-inventor-beat-the-high-cost-of-3d-printing/
If there were an award for Emerging Gadget Most Likely to Change Everything, it might well go to the 3D printer. These devices, which turn digital blueprints into physical objects made out of plastic or other materials,
the spools of plastic filament which a 3D printer layers into an object have a huge impact on the long-term economics of 3D printing. The filament is far more costly than pellets made of exactly the same plastic: “It’s like a 10x difference,”
Sponsored by Inventables, Kauffman and the Maker Education Initiative, it offered $40,000 from Kauffman and hardware prizes such as a 3D printer from Inventables to the first person or team who submitted plans for an open-source device capable of turning plastic pellets into filament.
His first entry, the Lyman Filament Extruder, could indeed turn inexpensive plastic pellets into filament.
was disqualified
So he returned to his drawing board and came up with the Lyman Filament Extruder II. “It’s my first machine with a few little parts changed,” he says. “I resubmitted it, and it worked. It worked great.” The judges agreed and declared him as the winner.
This home-made filament dramatically improves the economics of 3D printing.
Almost 12,000 people around the world have downloaded the plans for his two extruders to date
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dita Von Teese Flaunts Fibonacci-Inspired, 3-D Printed Gown
http://www.wired.com/design/2013/03/dita-von-teese-3-d-printed-gown/
Last year it was shoes. This year, full 3-D printed garments are hitting the runways, both in Paris and New York.
At Manhattan’s Ace Hotel, burlesque “muse and model” Dita Von Teese donned a specially printed nylon mesh dress for a private runway event on Monday night. Her Fibbonaci-inspired gown was designed in collaboration by Michael Schmidt and Francis Bitonti and printed on a 3-D printer at Shapeways.
“The exciting thing about this for me, is what 3-D printing is going to do in every industry,” says Bitonti.
“The entire dress was designed on an iPad, refined over Skype, rendered digitally by Francis and sent to Shapeways for printing, an entirely virtual endeavor,” says Schmidt.
Using Von Teese’s measurements, he built a 3-D model of the dress, adapting Schmidt’s original sketch to fit her body using Maya,
Then in Rhino, another design software that allows for precise surface manipulation, he detailed 2,633 independent rings, or links, that formed the body of the dress.
The whole thing was laser sintered on an EOS P350 in 17 parts which were then manually assembled.
“This would have been incredibly expensive, if not impossible, to do by hand,” says Bitonti. “The level of craftsmanship it would require is being assumed by the machine.”
“There’s potential for 3-D printing to change the fashion market, if we can push the process a little faster and introduce new materials,”
“Traditionally, all garments are either a weave or a stitch,” says Scott. “And with 3-D printing, we can … introduce something completely different. So we can grow designs rather than just using something that’s centuries-old technology. It’s a whole way to move forward in fashion and clothing and textiles.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Print your own adjustable lenses
http://hackaday.com/2013/03/06/print-your-own-adjustable-lenses/
[Christopher] is really going the distance with his liquid-filled 3D printed lens project. The idea is to create a bladder out of two pieces of clear plastic. It can then be filled with liquid at a variable level of pressure to curve the plastic and create an adjustable lens.
Two 3D printed frames are pressure fit together to hold one piece of plastic wrap.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Everything you need to build a light-cured resin 3D printer
http://hackaday.com/2013/03/06/everything-you-need-to-build-a-light-cured-resin-3d-printer/
[Rachel Levine] was one of the mechanical engineers on the team at the Rochester Institute of Technology who built this resin-based 3D printer. She wrote in to show off the fantastic work they’ve been doing. Their project website is daunting to take in at first, which shouldn’t be all that surprising since the concepts used here are fairly advanced.
The rig pulls a printed object up from the ooze on the build platform. They’re using resin that is cured with visible light.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Build a Laser 3D Printer – Stereolithography at Home
http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-Laser-3D-Printer-Stereolithography-at-Ho/
Tomi Engdahl says:
DIY BioPrintet
http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-BioPrinter/
Bioprinting is printing with biological materials. Think of it as 3D printing, but with squishier ingredients! There’s a lot of work being done at research labs and big companies like Organovo on print human tissues and human organs, with an eye towards drug testing, and transplantation into humans.
All this sounds incredible complex, but the fact is that the basic technologies are very accessible – it’s all based on inkjet and/or 3D printing!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Printed Optics
http://www.disneyresearch.com/project/printed-optics/
Printed Optics is a new approach to creating custom optical elements for interactive devices using 3D printing. Printed Optics enable sensing, display, and illumination elements to be directly embedded in the body of an interactive device. Using these elements, unique display surfaces, novel illumination techniques, custom optical sensors, and robust embedded components can be digitally fabricated for rapid, high fidelity, customized interactive devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printing Embryonic Stem Cells
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1394&doc_id=260078&cid=NL_Newsletters+-+DN+Daily
Researches over at the Herlot-Watt University in Edinburg have successfully 3D-printed embryonic stem cells for the first time ever. This new bio-printing technology has the ability to eliminate the need for organ transplants. The artificially-printed tissue could also eradicate animal testing and the need to extract embryonic stem cells by providing labs with a ready supply of the material.
Organovo, a 3D human tissue manufacturer in San Diego, Calif., has already partnered with Autodesk to develop the first software for 3D bioprinting to be used in conjunction with the NovoGen MMX printer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Makerbot shows off 3D scanner
http://hackaday.com/2013/03/10/makerbot-shows-off-3d-scanner/
Makerbot is looking to expand their 3D design and fabrication portfolio; they just announced an upcoming 3D scanner at SXSW. It’s called the Makerbot Digitizer, and it takes real, 3D objects and turns them into CAD files.
Of course 3D scanning of real objects to translate them into CAD files is nothing new for Hackaday readers. We’ve seen our fair share of desktop 3D scanners, including one that was built in a day out of junk. Even the Kickstarter crew has gotten into the action with a few desktop 3D scanners, some of which scan in full color.
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Thermoplastic Makes 3-D Printed Skull Implants a Reality
http://www.wired.com/design/2013/03/3-d-printed-skull-implants/
OsteoFab is the coolest 3-D printed material you’d never want to use. Invented by plastics research firm Oxford Performance Materials (OPM), this first-of-its-kind polyketone can be used by 3-D printers to repair large sections of a damaged skull. It was recently cleared for use by the FDA and is being used in critical surgical procedures all over the world.
In the emergency room, doctors stabilize the patient and and get a CAT scan. The OPM engineering team builds on the data from the scan and creates printable CAD files that feature screw holes and scaffolding necessary for implantation.
A surgeon approves the design and it’s printed at OPM using a selective laser sintering 3-D printer.
OPM had to submit their product to the FDA for evaluation. “Their process was very thoughtful,” says DeFelice. “They understood the technology and benefits, both for the patient and the opportunity for savings by adopting patient specific solutions.”
He also adds that it doesn’t hurt that the president is talking about 3-D printing. The material was cleared for use by the FDA in February, but has been available in Europe and used successfully in procedures already.
Despite his innovations, DeFelice thinks there’s a bubble in 3-D printing. “There’s a novelty aspect of paying $2,500 to buy a machine that can make a shape,” he says. “But sustainable, impactful applications of 3-D printing that will reduce energy consumption and impact lives are much more complex.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Self-Assembly Meets 3D Printing
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1392&doc_id=260118&cid=NL_Newsletters+-+DN+Daily
Two technologies at the edges of manufacturing are on the verge of coming together: self-assembly and 3D printing. In a recent talk given at the 2013 TED conference, Skylar Tibbits, an MIT faculty member in architecture, demonstrated a new material and process that results in a 3D-printed object self-assembling underwater.
The new technology is a combination of Tibbits’ process with Stratasys’ materials and its Objet Connex 500 Multi Materials inkjet 3D printer, Daniel Dikovsky, digital materials team leader for Stratasys, told Design News. The idea for the material came when Dikovsky and Tibbits discussed Tibbits’ self-assembly projects, which he had been activating via mechanical energy.
The material is a combination of two acrylic polymers, one water expandable and one an existing, static Vero black already used with the Connex 500 multi-material printer. “The combined material acts as a source of energy when placed in water, but it also serves as an actuator,” Dikovsky told us. “When exposed to water, it absorbs water, expands, and changes its dimensions.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D-Printable Gun Project Announces Plans For A For-Profit Search Engine Startup
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/03/11/3d-printable-gun-makers-announce-plans-for-a-for-profit-search-engine-startup/
For the last six months, Cody Wilson and his non-profit group Defense Distributed have worked towards a controversial goal: To make as many firearm components as possible into 3D-printable, downloadable files. Now they’re seeking to make those files searchable, too–and to make a profit while they’re at it.
Tomi says:
DEFCAD, the island of misfit objects
http://hackaday.com/2013/03/12/defcad-the-island-of-misfit-objects/
DEFCAD isn’t only about guns. They plan on hosting anything those in the upper echelons of power don’t like – or at least those with a copyright, patent, or trademark gripe – and never responding to a takedown request. It’s a great idea, somewhat akin to The Pirate Bay for physical objects, but actually popular.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cloud support for fleets of 3D printers
http://hackaday.com/2013/03/13/cloud-support-for-fleets-of-3d-printers/
More than ever, 3D printers are being used for small prototype and production runs, and the normal way of using a 3D printer with a single desktop app is becoming more and more out of date. [Zach 'Hoeken' Smith] has a solution to the frustration of printing out multiples of objects: it’s called BotQueue, and allows anyone to submit print jobs to multiple 3D printers over the Internet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Video: Biggest 3D Manufacturing Machine Builds Jet Fighter Wing Boxes
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1392&doc_id=258652&cid=NL_Newsletters+-+DN+Daily
Sciaky’s direct manufacturing method has a faster deposition rate than the very fine layer deposition of powder metal beds, which are commonly used in SLS. In Sciaky’s process, a fully articulated, movable electron beam wirefeed welding gun deposits metal layers on a substrate plate, Kenn Lachenberg, the company’s applications engineering manager, told us. Metals include titanium, tantalum, inconel, and stainless steel. The machine can deposit anywhere from 7 lb to 20 lb per hour, depending on the object’s shape and material. The process does require a small amount of post-processing finished machining
Tomi Engdahl says:
iRobot Takes Humans out of 3D Printing Equation
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1394&doc_id=260321&cid=NL_Newsletters+-+DN+Daily
Even though 3D printers act as if they do all the work, the current methods require lots of human labor, especially after the printer has made the seed part. Milling, trimming excess, drilling holes, and adding wires still must be done by hand. As a result, mass manufacturing or DIY projects can still be very time consuming and laborious, even with a 3D printer.
iRobot Corp. sees this problem impeding the future of 3D printers and automated manufacturing, so it has filed a patent application for a fully automated robotic 3D printer for manufacturing. This type of system could finish printed pieces without human intervention.
No official announcement has been made about when we might see this printer being sold commercially. But the patent application suggests prototypes are being built.