Category Archives: News
3D Printing Retail Store Hosts Open House in Denver, CO
Denver, CO, is now one of the first cities to have a 3D printing retail store, joining the ranks of Manhattan where MakerBot held its grand opening in September 2012. Aleph Objects, a Loveland, CO startup founded in 2011 that makes the LulzBot 3D printer, joined forces with The 3D Printing Store and welcomed over 400 people to an open house on February 7.
The Store blogged about the 400 people who swarmed their open house:
People started showing up at 1 and didn’t leave until 7:45 pm. This is additional proof that there is a great deal of interest in how 3D printing works.
Principal Deb Wilcox said, “It was so gratifying to see kids that seemed to know about and people much older wanting to learn more….. whether they were hobbyists, inventors or architects, and we had all of these and more.” In fact, she continued “It was so crowded that some people couldn’t even get up to see any of the 6 printers we had in operation and are making an appointment to come back. We’ll have to do this again.”
At the 3D Printing Store in Denver, customers can select a digital design to print on site, or they can purchase a consumer 3D printer for about $1,725.
Aleph Objects was also recently featured in the Denver Post:
At its Loveland headquarters, Aleph has about 40 LulzBots, each printing parts that are used to build the 3-D printers themselves. The machines, which retail for $1,725, can create objects that are up to 8 inches in length and width and 4 inches in height.
Aleph’s next generation printer, dubbed the TK-0, will take those dimensions up to 12-by-12-by-11. It is an open-source machine, meaning anyone can download component designs to build their own 3-D printer.
A 5-pound spool of ABS plastic — which can create hundreds of objects — costs $100. Other printable materials include nylon, PLA plastic and wood.
Moe said broader adoption beyond hobbyists and tech geeks is not far away as the software to create digital designs gets easier to use and the price continues to drop.
“I think we’re getting really close to that price point,” he said, adding that the company has shipped printers and parts to 59 countries.
Read more about 3D printing goes big with help of Loveland’s Aleph and Denver store – The Denver Post
In the video below, Aleph Objects CEO Jeff Moe takes us on a tour of his company’s 3D printing capabilities.
Biofabrication: Scientists 3D Print Stem Cells to Create Human Organs
Scientists from Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, have developed a technique for 3D printing human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), claiming that this research could be advanced to eventually 3D print human organs. In the short-term, this technique could be used for more reliable drug testing.
Dr Will Shu, from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, told BBC: “We found that the valve-based printing is gentle enough to maintain high stem cell viability, accurate enough to produce spheroids of uniform size, and most importantly, the printed hESCs maintained their pluripotency – the ability to differentiate into any other cell type.”
Here is a video from Sky News featuring the Edinburgh lab and an interview with Dr. Will Shu.
The team’s research has been published in the journal Biofabrication.
More from BBC:
Jason King, business development manager of stem cell biotech company Roslin Cellab, which took part in the research, said: “Normally laboratory grown cells grow in 2D but some cell types have been printed in 3D.
“However, up to now, human stem cell cultures have been too sensitive to manipulate in this way.
“This is a scientific development which we hope and believe will have immensely valuable long-term implications for reliable, animal-free, drug testing, and, in the longer term, to provide organs for transplant on demand, without the need for donation and without the problems of immune suppression and potential organ rejection.”
Accused of Stealing, 3D Printing Design Marketplace 3DLT Apologizes
Yesterday, Wired reported that a new 3D printing design marketplace called 3DLT was accused of selling stolen merchandise, i.e., designs, on its site.
Designer and co-founder of Nervous System, Jessica Rosencrantz, was surprised to learn that some of her fashion designs were being sold on 3DLT. Wired interviewed Rosencrantz:
“They never contacted us,” she says. “I had never heard of them until someone sent me the link last night to ask me if it was legitimate.”
The designs at issue are five of 3DLT’s fashion offerings (until recently, the entire fashion category). “They changed the names and descriptions but are using our images,” says Rosencrantz, “They claim to have the STL files for these designs, but I guarantee they do not. The last design they show — ‘circle necklace’ (our name ‘Radiolaria Necklace’) — isn’t even 3-D printed.”
Today, 3DLT CEO Pablo Arellano Jr. issued an apology on the site.
3DLT.com is currently in private beta. The site is not yet live and we are still testing the platform. We recently had an issue where the eCommerce portion of our site was activated and exposed to the public. Some of the products and images on the site were being used as placeholders and were not approved for use. These products and images have been removed from our site. Two orders were placed. The users have been contacted, informed of the issue and will be refunded any monies due.
We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. We take this situation seriously and will ensure that upon launch, all of our designer onboarding processes are clearly documented and available for public viewing, including our process for vetting design files.
We apologize again for any inconvenience and have put the site on hold until our development team fixes the matter.
So was this simply an innocent mistake? It definitely calls attention to the issues of copyright and piracy in 3D printing.
Designing Future Body Armor after Dragon Fish Scales with 3D Printing
Researchers from MIT have looked to an ancient fish for inspiration in modern warfare.
This fish, Polypterus senegalus, is a tough beast whose strong bite and sturdy exoskeleton has kept its species going for 96 million years. Each of the scales that cover its long body is made up of multiple layers; when the fish is bitten, each layer cracks in a different pattern so that the scale stays intact as a whole.
Scales near the flexible parts of the fish, such as the tail, are small and allow the fish to bend. Those on the side, protecting the internal organs, are larger and more rigid. Their joints fit together tightly so that each peg reinforces the next scale rather than allowing it to flex.
After performing x-ray scans of scales, Swati Varshney and her team turned to 3D modeling and 3D printing to develop body armor that would protect humans in a similar way.
The researchers created computer models of the different scale types and blew them up to 10 times their original size. Using a 3D printer, they printed a sheet of 144 interlocking scales out of a rigid material (an early prototype is pictured). The group hopes to eventually develop a full suit of fish-scale body armour for the US military that could replace the heavy Kevlar armour currently used, but Varshney says this is still some way off. Such a suit would mimic the fish: rigid and strong across the torso and more flexible towards the joints.
Via NewScientist.
Dragon fish photo by kafka4prez used under Creative Commons license.
Wow: 3D Printing a Lunar Base with Material Already on the Moon
If you look back at the growth of civilization, we have progressed from building huts out of mud and rock to constructing massive skyscrapers with advanced machinery. Imagine now starting over on the moon. How would you go about constructing livable habitats on the moon? Would you transport everything from the Earth?
Similar to a process developed by Washington State University researchers we covered earlier, a concept developed by Foster + Partners proposes to use 3D printing to construct a lunar habitat from material already on the moon.
Foster + Partners is part of a consortium set up by the ESA to explore the possibilities of 3D printing to construct lunar habitations. Addressing the challenges of transporting materials to the moon, the study is investigating the use of lunar soil, known as regolith, as building matter.
The practice has designed a lunar base to house four people, which can offer protection from meteorites, gamma radiation and high temperature fluctuations. The base is first unfolded from a tubular module that can be transported by space rocket. An inflatable dome then extends from one end of this cylinder to provide a support structure for construction. Layers of regolith are then built up over the dome by a robot-operated 3D printer to create a protective shell.
To ensure strength while keeping the amount of binding “ink” to a minimum, the shell is made up of a hollow closed cellular structure similar to foam. The geometry of the structure was designed by Foster + Partners in collaboration with consortium partners – it is groundbreaking in demonstrating the potential of 3D printing to create structures that are close to natural biological systems.
Simulated lunar soil has been used to create a 1.5 tonne mockup and 3D printing tests have been undertaken at a smaller scale in a vacuum chamber to echo lunar conditions. The planned site for the base is at the moon’s southern pole, where there is near perpetual sunlight on the horizon.
The consortium includes Italian space engineering firm Alta SpA, working with Pisa-based engineering university Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. Monolite UK supplied the D-Shape™ printer and developed a European source for lunar regolith stimulant, which has been used for printing all samples and demonstrators.
Lord Foster: “This project is a significant and pioneering step in space age construction. Working with our European colleagues, it is part of our on-going commitment to research and innovation.
”Xavier De Kestelier, Partner, Foster + Partners Specialist Modelling Group:“ As a practice, we are used to designing for extreme climates on earth and exploiting the environmental benefits of using local, sustainable materials – our lunar habitation follows a similar logic. It has been a fascinating and unique design process, which has been driven by the possibilities inherent in the material. We look forward to working with ESA and our consortium partners on future research projects.”
Image credit: ESA.
