Category Archives: News
Top 3D Printing Headlines Last Week: Leaders, Records Broken, Burritos
A roundup of the top news On 3D Printing brought you from June 18 to June 24.
Monday, June 18
- Profiling the Five Heavyweights Driving the 3D Printing Industry
- Fab Lab of the Week: Milwaukee Makerspace Adopts 3D Printing
Tuesday, June 19
- Objet Launches Versatile Objet30 Pro Desktop 3D Printer in Japan
- Shapeways Friday Finds: Cheshire Cat, Kaleidoscope Clock, Dragon Transformer
Wednesday, June 20
- 3D Printing Marketplace Shapeways Raises $6.2 Million Series B Funding
- Nano Rubik’s Cube: Shapeways Member 3D Prints Puzzles in Millimeters [Video]
Thursday, June 21
Friday, June 22
- Making 3D Printing Accessible: Interview with Tinkercad Founder
- Chipotle Beware: BurritoBot Will 3D Print Your Lunch to Order
Saturday, June 23
NPR Interview: 3D Printing Without Limits, Body Parts, Sharing Culture
NPR held a special radio feature on 3D printing during their Science Friday program. Ira Flatow interviewed industry consultant Terry Wohlers, MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis, and Cornell Associate Professor Hod Lipson.
What if you needed a new toothbrush and all you had to do was hit print? What if doctors could print out transplantable organs and pastry chefs turned to a printer, not a kitchen, for their next creation? Ira Flatow and a panel of guests discuss 3D printing technology, how far it’s come and what a 3D-printed-future could look like.
Topics ranged from basic background information to detailed questions. Read the highlights below and then listen to the full radio program.
What is 3D printing? What is the MakerBot?
Terry Wohlers and Bre Pettis gave a nice overview of what 3D printing is. Here is Bre’s explanation of what the MakerBot does.
The MakerBot replicator uses one of two plastics. You can either make things in ABS plastic, which is what LEGO is made out of, or you can use PLA, which is the plastic that’s made from corn. And then you get your plastic on spools, and it kind of looks like a big spool of spaghetti.
And the spaghetti goes into the machine, and it draws a picture in plastic, and then it goes up a little bit, and layer after layer, it creates your model, and you can really create anything.
All the tools for designing things are becoming democratized. So 3D printing is getting democratized, the tools that make things are getting easier. You can use things like Tinkercad, which is free and online, and you’re off to the races and making things.
Will everyone have a 3D printer?
Comparisons were made to inkjets and microwaves. When first introduced into the market, these products were expensive and unfamiliar, but now they are common home appliances.
Even if, in the future, everyone does not have a 3D printer in the home, the experts suggested that people will have access to a 3D printer and will buy parts manufactured locally by a nearby 3D printer.
Can body parts be 3D printed?
It will happen in our lifetime. We are already 3D printing a replacement knee meniscus and have prototyped bone and organs.
Are there any limits to 3D printing?
For the first time in human history, making something complex with details that cannot be manufacturing through traditional processes is as simple as making a paperweight.
Current consumer machines are limited in size. MakerBot can print objects up to the size of a loaf of bread. But there are professional printers that can make much larger objects.
Hod Lipson’s team has a goal to print a robot, batteries included, that can walk off the printer.
The experts agreed that 3D printing will let us think about new breakthroughs in product design.
Culture of Sharing
The 3D printing community is very collaborative and are building off of each other’s successes. This allows for continuous innovation through a culture of sharing.
Via NPR.
Science museum photo by chooyutshing used under Creative Commons license.
Chipotle Beware: BurritoBot Will 3D Print Your Lunch to Order
Marko Manriquez has two passions: digital fabrication and good food. Fulfilling both of these passions is his master’s thesis at the Tisch School of the Arts. It’s called the BurritoBot, and it 3D prints burritos.
Using an iPhone app to build your order, the BurritoBot will receive the data and start making your burrito.
We don’t know when the BurritoBot will be ready for commercial prime time, but you can follow Manriquez’s project on his burritob0t website. Watch out Chipotle Mexican Grill!
Below is a video from Mashable that showcases the BurritoBot.
3D Printer Maker Objet Breaks Records by Developing 100+ Materials
3D printer manufacturer Objet has established a new record in the world of 3D printing: the ability to print with over 100 materials. This feat was accomplished by developing 39 “digital material” composites that are derivatives of other materials that can be fed to the printer.
By comparison, most consumer 3D printers can only support one, two or three unique materials in a single model and most marketplaces only support a dozen or so total materials to choose from.
From the Objet press release:
Objet expands material range to 107 including 39 new ‘Digital Material’ composites for the Objet Connex Multi-Material 3D Printing Systems
Objet Connex Multi-material 3D Printers can include up to 14 different material properties in the same model – unique to the industry.Objet Ltd., the innovation leader in 3D printing for rapid prototyping and additive manufacturing has announced 39 new ‘Digital Materials’ available with its Objet Connex range of multi-material 3D printing systems. This development places Objet customers at the forefront of additive manufacturing in terms of range of possible printing materials to choose from. Customers can now select from 107 materials ranging from rigid to rubber-like substances in terms of texture, standard to ABS-grade engineering plastic in terms of toughness, as well as from transparent to opaque, in terms of clarity and shades.
90 of the 107 materials made available by Objet are ‘Digital Materials‘, derived by the composite mixing of primary Objet materials. This enables designers, engineers and manufacturers to simulate very precise material properties to closely resemble their intended end-product with the greatest level of realism. The use of the Objet Connex multi-material 3D printer allows users to also combine up to 14 of these materials; such as rigid and flexible, or opaque and transparent materials, at the same time in a single consistent model.
According to David Reis, CEO for Objet, “With 39 new Digital Materials, Objet have become the first 3D printing company to break the 100 materials barrier. Considering that we had half this number just a few short years ago, this growth in material choice confirms our commitment to consistently deliver new and enhanced material properties to our customers,” explains Reis. These new materials will be used by design and manufacturing companies in virtually every industry segment and in every stage of their product prototyping process from form modeling to fit testing and functional verification.
The company has also today launched two new material enhancements. It now offers a new and improved Objet Rigid Black material (Objet VeroBlackPlus) providing increased dimensional stability and surface smoothness for all-purpose rapid prototyping applications.* Objet’s 2011-released High Temperature material, offering the high thermal functionality of engineering plastics will be available on all Objet Connex and Objet EdenV 3D Printers and the new Objet30 Pro Desktop 3D Printer.
Objet released a whitepaper listing the 10 reasons to shift to multi-material printing. In that whitepaper is the chart below that shows Objet’s continuous innovation in 3D printable materials.
Below is a video of a 3D printed car being manufactured with 14 different materials in the same model.
Via MarketWatch and Objet.
3D Printing Marketplace Shapeways Raises $6.2 Million Series B Funding
With over 1 million 3D printed products, 150,000 community members, and 6,000 shops, 3D printing marketplace Shapeways has just announced a new round of funding to help fuel growth in creative commerce. Lux Capital led a $6.2 million financing, joining existing investors Union Square Ventures and Index Ventures.
Below is a letter from CEO Peter Weijmarshausen we received about the funding:
On a daily basis, we make thousands of unique products and deliver them to people all over the world. We create an online experience that ignites creativity and increases access to the best of 3D printing, at the lowest cost. We work hard to open manufacturing such that everyone — regardless of technical background or expertise — can create the products that populate their lives.
As you can imagine, this is no easy task. To help us realize our vision and support our community, we’re growing an awesome team, building out the “factory of the future” in NYC, and expanding US distribution.
We’re excited to announce that we have a new partner on board to help us fuel our growth and the rise of creative commerce: Lux Capital. Lux led a $6.2M financing, joining existing investors Union Square Ventures and Index Ventures.
We plan to use these additional funds to help the Shapeways team grow and bring creative commerce and 3D printing to everyone. With over 6,000 independent designers selling their products through our marketplace, Shapeways shop owners are tapping into a new economic model in which their products are created on demand for their customers, at no additional cost. With over 30 material options including the recent launch of colored ceramics and Elasto Plastic, our community members have access to materials that rival the quality and cost of what you can buy in a store. And with over 150,000 community members from all backgrounds using Shapeways regularly, we’re in a really exciting time for 3D printing — you no longer need to know 3D modelling software to make ideas real.
Lux’s local NYC presence and network, as well as its expertise in commercializing emerging technologies, will help us as we expand and in particular, build out our NYC “factory of the future.” Josh Wolfe, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Lux shared, “We seek investment opportunities to help turn technical breakthroughs into world-changing businesses, and see Shapeways at the forefront of bringing the magic of 3D printing to everyday consumers.”
We’re moving really quickly to help bring Shapeways and 3D printing to everyone – to make it easier to make anything you want, to make it more affordable, and to make it faster, and faster.
We’re so lucky to have you on board for the ride.
Happy making,
Pete, Shapeways CEO and Co-Founder
Congratulations to the Shapeways team!
