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
MakerBot and GrabCAD Issue 3D Printing Challenge to Design Futuristic Travel
MakerBot and GrabCAD challenge you to design a futuristic vehicle that would exist in the year 2040!
Create your own 2040 vehicle design. How might we travel in the future? Air, Surface, Water, Space. Explore designs that are optimized for 3D printing and can be assembled as beautiful display models.
In this design challenge with the GrabCAD community, they are asking about your vision for the future of transportation. How will we get around in the year 2040? Will it be by car, plane, boat, bike, or something new that is yet to be created? It is up to you to decide.
Make a 3D printable version of your idea of a futuristic vehicle to win your own MakerBot Replicator™ 2. The second place winner will win a MakerBot Original Replicator (SRP $1,999 USD) and third prize receives $250 USD along with some GrabCAD merchandise. The fourth place through sixth place winners also receive a hard to get GrabCAD shirt and coffee mug.
Models can come together via snap fit, bolts, screws, or glue. For more information on how to build for 3D printing, refer to MakerBot Support.
This is a great chance to add a concept vehicle to your portfolio. This Challenge started on December 10, 2012 and ends on January 11, 2013. Winners will be announced on February 11, 2013 at the latest. Submit your entry, now!
Top 3D Printing Headlines Last Week: Lunar Base, Futuristic, Patents
A roundup of the top news On 3D Printing brought you from December 11 to December 16.
Tuesday, December 11
Thursday, December 13
Friday, December 14
- Well… In Late Night News, Now You Can 3D Print Adult Toys at Home
- Life on the Lunar Base: 3D Printing at the Repair Shop
Sunday, December 16
Photo by Ben Sandler via Behance.net.
Video: Inside Shapeways Factory, the Amazon of 3D Printing
In the video below, Andy Greenberg from Forbes interviews Shapeways Evangelist Duann Scott onsite at their New York factory. Scott answers questions ranging from technical to strategic.
Highlights of the interview:
- Shapeways uses Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) to get finer resolution and more flexibility than fused deposition modeling (FDM) can offer.
- Scott does not see home 3D printers as competition; to the contrary, people with 3D printers at home will become better designers, testing their iterative concepts at home and then looking to a marketplace like Shapeways for the final product.
- Shapeways also enables customers to sell their designs and print in a multitude of materials.
- They built their factory in New York to be close to their customers.
See why Duann Scott calls Shapeways the “Amazon of 3D printing” in the video below.
Via Forbes.
No Limit – Futuristic Photo Series About 3D Printing
Photographer and artist Ben Sandler has published a futuristic photo series that imagines 3D printing brought to life. The series is called “No Limit” and was featured in Amusement magazine.
Via Behance.net.
Life on the Lunar Base: 3D Printing at the Repair Shop
As scientists prepare for the next stage in space exploration and the construction of a lunar base, there is a challenge. What do you do if something breaks? How do you ship repairs from Earth?
The answer is you don’t. Astronauts can use 3D printing to build repairs from moon dust.
Researchers at Washington State University have successfully simulated this process using a composite material similar to moon dust.
The simulant is an expensive combination of silicon, aluminum, calcium, iron and magnesium oxides. Meant to mimic the properties of the regolith found on the moon, the powdery material had a particle structure resembling that of ceramics.
Because of their tendency to crack, ceramics can be tough to manipulate using 3D printers. But the WSU researchers, including husband-and-wife team Amit Bandyopadhyay and Susmita Bose, had previously demonstrated that ceramic-like material can be re-formed with an on-demand fabricator to create custom-made bone scaffolding.
For the new study, the researchers fed the raw simulant powder into a 3D printer, heating the material to high temperatures and printing it out in smooth half-millimeter (0.02 inches) layers to form small cylindrical shapes with no visible cracks. The structures that came out of the printer were about as hard as typical soda lime glass, the researchers explain in a study detailing the recent experiments in the Rapid Prototyping Journal.
“It is an exciting science fiction story, but maybe we’ll hear about it in the next few years,” Bandyopadhyay said. “As long as you can have additive manufacturing set up, you may be able to scoop up and print whatever you want. It’s not that far-fetched.”
Via Space.com.
Moon photo by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center used under Creative Commons license.
