Category Archives: News
3D Printing Accelerates Development of a Race Car
Prodrive‘s 3D printing success story shows how functional prototypes and rapid tooling can significantly speed up the development of a race car.
“3D printing is an important part of our design and development process that has massively reduced our reaction time,” said Prodrive chief design engineer Paul Doe. “The technology allows us to produce new parts for the test car within hours of a problem or need being discovered.”
With 3D printing technology, the team can quickly test new ideas without the large cost of retooling production equipment. The prototypes that are “printed” are production ready, reducing time traditionally spent creating new parts and testing them sequentially. In fact, the cost of this development effort was 1/5 the size of a comparable project not using 3D printing.
Read more about this announcement here.
Hi-Res 3D Printing – Innovation by b9creations
Startup b9creations is setting the bar on high-resolution 3d printing. Mike Joyce from b9creations explains their technique after demoing in Boulder, CO:
The printer uses light from a DLP projector to cure light sensitive resin layer by layer. The test version I’m working on has a .1mm resolution and a build area of 102 x 76 x 150mm. Resolution can go higher, but that shrinks the build area (or requires a more expensive projector).
The video below shows b9creation’s technique for printing a high-resolution Eiffel Tower design.
Excited to see what b9creations comes up with next!
Moving Beyond Plastic: 3D Printing Electronics
Most 3D printing hobbyists and enthusiasts are familiar with printers that produce objects out of molten polymers. The result can be bland; more of a prototype than a product.
Stratasys is looking to change that. The Minneapolis company last week announced the world’s first hybrid process for 3D printing and printed electronics.
“Bringing together 3D printing and printed electronic circuitry will be a game changer for design and manufacturing,” says Jeff DeGrange, VP of direct digital manufacturing at Stratasys. “It has the potential to completely streamline production by requiring fewer materials and steps to bring a product to market.”
Read more in their press release.
3D Printing Industry in Explosive Growth – $3.1 Billion by 2016
$3.1 billion by 2016 and $5.2 billion by 2020 — those are the estimates made by Forbes for the size of the emerging 3D printing industry.
Given that the field is nearly 30 years old, it looks like 3D printing is finally ready to hit an inflection point.
Forbes cites a quote from research by industry guru Terry Wohlers:
“Low-cost 3D printers affect both the professional and consumer markets. The increased sale of these machines over the past few years has taken additive manufacturing (AM) mainstream more than any other single development. 3D printers have helped spread the technology and made it more accessible to students, researchers, do-it-yourself enthusiasts, hobbyists, inventors, and entrepreneurs.”
But hobbyists and researchers are clearly not the only sources of growth. Here are some other examples:
- Medical: Dental practices are employing 3D printing to construct perfect-fit crowns in tooth repair procedures.
- Mechanical engineering: CAD models can now be edited in your web browser, untethering expert designers from their desks and expensive software.
- Global: Consumers in the US and Europe are buying 3D printed goods based on designs created by individuals in China, South Africa and India.
Will 3D printing grow from a quaint hobby to a $5 billion market in 8 years? Most certainly.
Broad stripes and stars image used under Creative Commons from Jason Samfield.
First-of-its-Kind Fabrication Lab in UK Gets Government Support
A Fabrication Lab, or “Fab Lab”, is a place where small business owners can reserve time on expensive 3D printing and laser cutting machinery to produce prototypes of their new products.
In the UK, the first Fab Lab to reach commercial appeal is based in New Islington, Manchester. Yesterday they received a visit from UK Business Secretary Vince Cable.
As part of his visit, Dr Cable was able to test some of the equipment himself and met students of the Fab Academy, a diploma programme taught via video link by world-renowned scientist and Fab Lab founder [MIT Professor] Neil Gershenfeld.
Since opening in March 2010, over 3,000 small manufacturers, inventors, schools and community groups have used Fab Lab Manchester.
Dr Cable said: “There is a wealth of creativity and entrepreneurial spirit in the UK, as demonstrated by the Fab Lab.
More details on the Manchester Fab Lab available here http://www.fablabmanchester.org/
