Motorola Mobility, a Google company, is building a 3D printed modular phone, and has partnered with 3D Systems for commercial fulfillment. More »
The Captured Dimensions pop-up studio was located in the Smithsonian Castle and featured approximately 80 digital cameras all connected to 3D software. More »
Microsoft expanded their support for 3D printing by launching a Windows 8 app called 3D Builder. It includes a library of objects you can edit and 3D print. More »
3D Systems (NYSE:DDD) announced the availability of the Sense 3D scanner, the first 3D scanner designed for the consumer and optimized for 3D printing. More »
With rumors circling that 3D Systems will be purchased by IBM, the stock soars. We look at why IBM might be interested in the 3D printing giant. More »
Yearly Archives: 2012
3D Printing is the Bellwether Technology of the Singularity
MarketWatch blogger T.S. Troth recently published an article which contemplated the Singularity as the next great industrial revolution. And what technology was called out as the bellwether for the Singularity? 3D printing, of course.
Enter, the Singularity. Ray Kurzweil, who brought this term into the lexicon, defines the Singularity as a time when machine intelligence will reach such a level as to replace human engineers with machines smart enough to make other machines. Many dispute the exact timing of the Singularity’s arrival, but it is coming. The bellwether technology and harbinger of the Singularity’s arrival, as well as the canary in the coal mine for the Ricardian comparative advantages reached by way of cheap labor, is 3D Printing.
From ashtrays to airplanes, 3D Printing is the game-changing technology that will bring manufacturing home to U.S. shores after oh-so-many (painful) years abroad. No more will manufacturing be held hostage by totalitarian, suppressive regimes capable of paying their workers a pittance.
I’m assuming the vast majority of MarketWatch’s readership already knows precisely what 3D Printing is, but for the minority who do not, 3D Printing is, as defined by Wikipedia, “a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital model.” And, to borrow a turn of phrase from the kids, it is freaking rad!
Read Troth’s full essay on the Singularity.
Top 3D Printing Headlines Last Week: 3D Print Show, Mars Rover, Wii U
A roundup of the top news On 3D Printing brought you from October 17 to October 21.
Thursday, October 18
Video: See All of the Exhibits at the 3D Print Show in London!
Here is a video report by futurist Christopher Barnatt from the 3D Printshow in London, October 19th 2012.
Excellent summary of the exhibitors, innovations, and designs being showcased at the event!
Objet Showcases Exquisite 3D Printing Applications at the 3D Print Show
Objet Showcases Exquisite Examples of Professional 3D Printing Applications at the 3D Print Show
Two pieces from Neri Oxman’s ‘Imaginary Beings: Mythologies of the Not Yet‘ series, recently exhibited at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, take centre stage on the Objet stand (P19 Level 2, Porter Tun Room). Printed using Objet’s unique Connex multi-material 3D printing technology, Oxman explains why the process was significant in the development of the pieces, “Objet 3D printing technology was extremely important in dreaming up this project. It wasn’t about generating forms and then using 3D printing to print them. It was really about using multi-material technology as an opportunity to think about how to make these ‘contraptions’ or ‘wearable myths’ mythical, and how to actually make them work better as products or objects for the human body.”
Legacy Effects’ Jason Lopes, another Objet technology user, explains how 3D printing is used within the business in two seminars on Saturday 20th October 15:00-16:00 and Sunday 21st October 11:00-12:00. An award winning full service character design, make-up and animatronic studio, Legacy Effects’ work can be seen feature films such as Avatar, Iron Man II, Shutter Island, Alice in Wonderland, and Thor and has been nominated for an Academy Award® for Iron Man. With Objet Eden and Objet Connex multi-material 3D printers, Lopes’ team is able to react to short deadlines, cater for multiple projects and make changes and different versions easily with quick conversion from scan files: “The best thing about 3D printing for me and my team is that our customers and actors can interact and try out the fit of our concept designs. When we produce character suits, creature mock ups and make-up effects, the materials are so durable and workable they can really see how it’s going to work out for them on set.”
Designer Daniel Hilldrup will also feature Objet 3D printed work at the show. ‘Flux‘, appearing in the 3D Printshow’s art gallery, was produced on an Objet Connex multi-material 3D Printer.
Described by Hilldrup as “a statement on the transference of energy and its transition and total transformation from one physical state and form into another”, Flux depicts black candle wax melting into the liquid base of a candelabra, captured, like a fossil, at a specific moment in time.
“We’re delighted to count Objet among the exhibitors at the 3D Printshow,” says Kerry Hogarth, founder of the 3D Printshow. “As a leading player in the 3D printing community, providing professional equipment for rapid prototyping and additive manufacturing, Objet makes an excellent addition to the show.”
Below is a video of the Objet Connex in action.
Via Sacramento Bee.
MakerBot Presents Groundbreaking 3D Masterpieces at the 3D Print Show
MakerBot Presents Groundbreaking 3D Masterpieces from Artist Cosmo Wenman at 3D PrintShow London 2012
MakerBot unveiled the incredible work of California-based artist Cosmo Wenman at the 3D PrintShow London 2012, October 19-21. The work is displayed in the MakerBot booth at the show. The pieces include: Head of a Horse of Selene, Acropolis, Athens, 438-432 BC; Portraits of Alexander the Great: -300, 1440, 1945, Hellenistic Greek 2nd-1st century BC; and Antikythera Mechanism, Hellenistic Greek, 1st century BC.
Cosmo Wenman is a prolific contributor to MakerBot’s Thingiverse website that is home to approximately 25,000 digital designs for real, physical objects. On Thingiverse, Cosmo has charged users to follow his example and capture scans of actual people or notable things in the world (like an asteroid or the deepest spot in the Earth’s ocean). He is on a mission to digitize the world and to challenge notions of materialism; his personal website notes that the “next couple years are going to be a big, exciting mess.”
“Cosmo’s latest work is some of the most compelling I have ever seen done by a MakerBot 3D printer,” said Bre Pettis, MakerBot ceo and founder. “Cosmo’s work calls into question the limitations often attributed to our machines, and they show beyond a shadow of a doubt that MakerBot desktop 3D printers can create pieces of incredible size, form, and beauty.”
These pieces were scanned from originals in the British Museum. Cosmo modeled them to print on a MakerBot Replicator desktop 3D printer in MakerBot PLA Filament. He then treated them with various finishing processes to create remarkably authentic, museum-quality replicas.
The first generation MakerBot Replicator Desktop 3D Printer was named “Best Emerging Tech” at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The MakerBot Replicator 2 was just announced in September. The company has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Wired, The Colbert Report, Fast Company, Engadget, Make: Magazine, Rolling Stone, Time, IEEE Spectrum, CNN, Financial Times, NPR, Vogue Italia and many others.
Via MarketWatch.
Cosmo Wenman photo courtesy of MakerBot blog.
