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 »
eBay Breaks into 3D Printing with iPhone App eBay Exact – Our Review
eBay Exact is an iPhone App for 3D Printed Goods
Leading auction marketplace eBay is the latest major e-commerce company getting into 3D printing, following the recent news by Amazon, Tesco, and others. eBay launched an iPhone app called eBay Exact that lets users customize and order 3D printed goods.
How eBay Exact Works
eBay has partnered with 3D printing companies and designers, including MakerBot, Sculpteo, and Hot Pop Factory, to source 3D printed goods that can be customized and purchased.
Here’s the description from the eBay Exact product page:
Unleash your creativity by customizing select products to create exactly what you want with eBay Exact. Simply select a product, choose a design, and add your own personal flair to create a unique item for yourself or someone special!
With our first foray into 3D printing technology, we have partnered with Sculpteo, MakerBot, and Hot Pop Factory who are leaders in 3D printing technology to hand-select a range of special products including, iPhone cases, figurines, and jewelry.
Take the power of creation into your own hands and download the app now to start customizing right away.
Bring your style to life. Choose from a variety of materials, including plastics, wood and metals. Use the engraving feature to further customize your product.
Be the first to use new technology to create one-of-a-kind iPhone cases, jewelry, and figurines based on self-portraits.
Build your collection. Whether you love jewelry or figurines, eBay Exact allows you to create as many unique products, exactly as you like, based on your personal desires and preferences.
Reviews
There are just a few reviews so far, but some of them are glowing.
“Really cool app that gives affordable access to 3D Printers. I’d love to see more templates to customize and buy. Opening up to user generated content – a deviantart like community for 3D models would really make this a very addictive app!”
“App is beautiful- first company to do something like this, impressive.”
Below is a gallery that shows how you can discover an item, customize it and preview your design before ordering it.
Get the app for iPhone and iPad at iTunes or learn more about eBay Exact at eBay.
Inside 3D Printing Conference Chicago: Day 2 Top Stories
Inside 3D Printing Chicago: Day 2
Day 2 of the Inside 3D Printing conference in Chicago continued to delight audiences with compelling talks and great networking. Below are the top stories from the day.
3D Systems CEO Predicts Moore’s Law Will Hit 3D Printing Technology – Inside 3D Printing Chicago
Avi Reichental, CEO of 3D Systems, keynoted Day 2 at Inside 3D Printing Chicago with a talk entitled Manufacturing the Future.
Simulation-Based Design for 3D Printing: Special Effects and the Store of the Future
Artist and designer Isaac Katz of Electronic Art Boutique gives an overview of the powerful 3D modeling software programs available on the market today.
3D Printed Fashion: From Fantasy Gowns to Accessible Couture – Inside 3D Printing Chicago
3D printed fashion designers Michael Schmidt and Francis Bitonti speak at the Inside 3D Printing conference in Chicago.
Read our recap from Day 1.
Follow us on Twitter @on3dprinting for more updates.
3D Printed Fashion: From Fantasy Gowns to Accessible Couture – Inside 3D Printing Chicago
3D Printed Fashion Stuns in Chicago
As part of our coverage of this week’s Inside 3D Printing Conference in Chicago, On 3D Printing brings you an industry perspective on the latest developments in 3D printing for fashion and retail. In addition to providing an in depth review of their successful collaboration with Shapeways in creating the first fully-articulated 3D printed gown, designers Michael Schmidt and Francis Bitonti encouraged the 3D printing industry to continue its pursuit of applications in the fashion industry.
Schmidt and Bitonti’s articulated gown was custom designed and famously worn by burlesque star and style icon Dita Von Teese, and unveiled this past March during a showcase event at the Ace Hotel in New York City. Describing the dress as a “flight of fantasy” inspired by Fibonacci’s golden ratio, Schmidt welcomed the opportunity to work with 3D printing technology.
Schmidt and Bitonti emphasized printing process and material selection as critical to their success. Having ruled out a range of the available 3D printing technologies as incompatible with their design ends, they moved forward with laser sintering, which they felt would provide the necessary flexibility. While it took several months to develop the concept and code for the dress, the printing process itself took only four days. Because the dress applied the Fibonacci’s sequence throughout the design to create a truly custom fit to Ms. Von Teese, no two parts of the dress are alike.
All told, the dress is made of 3,000 printed nylon joints, which were printed in 17 sections using a selective laser sintering process, whereby layers of nylon powder are selectively fused together by a laser. While most custom gowns require at least several rounds of fitting to ensure a perfect fit, Schmidt and Bitonti were pleased to discover that “the dress fit really well right out of the box.”
Illustrating the importance of post-processing and hand finishing, Schmidt and Bitonti indicated that the printed pieces were expertly extracted at Shapeways to remove the nylon powder residue from within each joint in the dress. After the sections were printed and shipped to Schmidt’s studio, they were rip dyed, joined together by a hinged mechanism (also 3D printed) and hand encrusted with over 25,000 Swarovski crystals.
While Schmidt and Bitonti’s articulable dress stands as a testament to what’s possible, the designers also addressed the limitations of current technology. ”We are limited at the moment to these fantastical garments. We aren’t able to print in materials that have the qualities of a successful garment until we develop these materials to meet the needs of the body itself – that’s the holy grail,” Schmidt said.
One of the biggest issues in Schmidt and Bitonti’s view is the need to build fluidity of movement into the printing process itself, as the current selective laser sintering process renders the nylon powder stiff. They also noted that current technology does not provide the option to print in organic materials like cotton or silk. Both designers are hopeful for the future of the technology, however, and are currently developing a line of jewelry.
Below is a video of the 3D printed dress being displayed at the Inside 3D Printing conference in Chicago.
Authored by On 3D Printing contributor Lisa M. Pérez, co-founder of Heart Design Inc.
Simulation-Based Design for 3D Printing: Special Effects and the Store of the Future
In a two-part lecture during the Inside 3D Printing conference in Chicago, artist and designer Isaac Katz of Electronic Art Boutique gave us an overview of the powerful 3D modeling software programs available on the market today. He considers these programs to be essential creative tools, which he uses to create works of art, jewelry and sculpture in a process he calls “simulation-based design“.
Katz employs sculpting programs like Zbrush and Mudbox, and the more CAD-centered Rhino to create powerful and detailed images which he projects onto canvas, and exports to 3D printers to create sculptures and jewelry casts. These tools are commonly to create visual effects for 2D media, but can have a broad range of other applications, including architecture, industrial design, jewelry, sculpture and others. Katz emphasized that programs like Zbrush and Mudbox harness a great deal of mathematical power, and are capable of generating an “incredibly high level of detail” that extends even beyond what current 3D printers are capable of rendering in a physical model.
However, Katz noted, 3D printing capability continues to catch up and is poised to grow exponentially, and the intersection of 3D simulation technology and 3D printing has the power to change our visual experience of the world.
For designers, Katz explained that this process presents a completely new way of looking at design and product creation that allows them to both capture more detail and project a range of organic and fluid shapes that may otherwise be difficult or impossible to obtain. Increasingly, if you can imagine and create a character, you can animate and print that same character using motion capture technology, as well as other non-traditional, non-CAD software, and thanks to 3D printing technology, you can also create a physical model of your character.
For investors and business owners, the combination of simulation technology and 3D printing provides “a glimpse into the design process…and some vision for what’s possible,” both today and in the years to come.
In the second part of his lecture, Katz articulated his vision for the future of retail in a world that continues to trend toward greater personalization. Katz drew a sharp contrast between the retail store of the present, in which producers and customers alike are forced to transact around pre-designed and pre-fabricated products, and the store of the future, in which customers will be able to purchase clothing and other goods that are uniquely made to their specifications at or after the time of purchase.
Such a world, in Katz’s view, would not only allow retailers to save costs by eliminating the need for complex distribution chains, but it would also invite users into the creative process as part of the retail experience.
Authored by On 3D Printing contributor Lisa M. Pérez, co-founder of Heart Design Inc.
3D Systems CEO Predicts Moore’s Law Will Hit 3D Printing Technology – Inside 3D Printing Chicago
3D Printing Will Change the Face of Business
Avi Reichental, President and CEO of 3D Systems, opened up this morning’s keynote speech at Inside 3D Printing Chicago with an enthusiastic and insightful view of the present and future of 3D printing. His presentation, Manufacturing the Future, focused on the democratization of 3D printing that will make it ubiquitous and empower anyone to become a maker. For example, one thing 3D Sytems has done is offer the service Cubify, which allows people to use their industrial printers to make objects in plastics, nylon and Zprint. Reichental noted, “whether you’re a deep pocketed corporation or a garage entrepreneur looking to start, it gives anyone access to 3D printing through the cloud.”
Throughout his presentation, he pointed to examples of how 3D printing already impacts our lives in will exponentially continue to do so. From applications in medicine to fashion to automotive, he is a firm believer that additive manufacturing will be an integral part of our everyday lives both in the industrial world and in the comfort of our own homes. He explained how Moore’s Law has begun for this industry and that, “printers are going to double up on performance and double down on costs. Expect printers to become real powerful home appliances. The train has left the station.” Bre Pettis at MakerBot for example, has been a key figure in beginning the process of lowering price to make printers accessible for regular consumers.
Despite rapid growth, there are numerous skeptics that ask: Does 3D printing really scale? Reichental however, emphatically answered “absolutely yes!” To answer skeptics, Reichental presented the example of Invisalign. Last year, he noted, 17.2 million Invisalign braces were made. Each one of them was manufactured in a 3D printing, 24/7, lights out manufacturing faciility. What is also amazing is that each of these designs are unique and distinct to adapt to people’s mouths. Furthermore, it seems like GE believes it will scale with over $3 billion they have invested in advanced digital manufacturing.
To put his money where his mouth is in terms of democratizing 3D printing, Reichental announced two important partnerships for 3D Systems. The first is a partnership with Google – Motorola, where 3D systems has outfitted Google/Moto trucks with their latest technology in order to teach people, mainly teens, how to use 3D printing technology. The trucks will go around college campuses, maker fairs and any other type of creative space where people want to create. The trucks will have the ProJet 3510 and the Projet 460 plus.
On the industrial end, Reichental announced, “this morning we have launched a game changing partnership with Deloitte Consulting to accelerate the way that companies can harness, adapt and implement this disruptive technology into their business model and their manufacturing operations.“ Together, they seek to help companies get educated about the technology and make decisions directionally on what they can do. After speaking with 3D Systems Chief Marketing Officer, Cathy Lewis, it is clear that education is a big focus for the company and clearly they are doing something concrete about it with these major partnerships. In sum, Reichental believes that this revolution is just beginning and we can expect to see completely new ways to design and manufacture from architecture to medicine and almost anything we can imagine.
Authored by On 3D Printing contributor Rodrigo Garza Zorrilla, technology entrepreneur and advisor.
Avi Reichental image courtesy of @3dsystemscorp. Other photos by On 3D Printing.
