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 »
Top 3D Printing Headlines Last Week: Katy Perry, Madonna, Airplanes, Military
A roundup of the top news On 3D Printing brought you from September 3 to September 9.
Monday, September 3
Thursday, September 6
Saturday, September 8
3D Printing Mobile Labs: A New Combat Strategy for the U.S. Military
The U.S. military is embracing 3D printing in a novel way: they have developed mobile labs that can prototype and manufacture replacement parts or innovative equipment in combat.
The service’s Rapid Equipping Force, known as the REF, took a standard 20-foot shipping container and packed it with high-tech, prototyping machines, lab gear and manufacturing tools to create the Expeditionary Lab — Mobile.
Soldiers no longer have to wait to bring ideas back to scientists and engineers back in the states. The REF has brought the experts to the soldiers in combat.
The first mobile 3D printing labs were deployed to Afghanistan this summer. Each lab costs $2.8 million.
Col. Pete Newell, commander of the Army’s REF, explained the motivation. “The soldiers out there, they know how to do stuff; they know how to fix stuff and they know what they need to be able to do, but what they don’t have is the technical expertise in many cases to do it themselves.”
The extreme heat in Afghanistan quickly eroded the eight-hour battery life of these devices down to 45 minutes, a problem that loaded down dismounted soldiers with the weight of extra batteries for multi-day missions.
Engineers created a special adaptor and power cable for a standard military-issue BA5590 battery, which now powers the Minehound for up to nine hours. The fix also allowed soldiers to take the battery off the device and wear it on their body for better weight distribution and reduced arm fatigue, Newell said.
Expect to see a growth in 3D printing mobile labs – not just for combat scenarios but also for handling natural disasters and other peace-time missions.
Watch the video below for more details.
Via Military.com.
3D Printing a Futuristic Airplane Cabin: Innovation at Airbus
Could you 3D print an airplane? Some engineers at Airbus seem to think so, at least by 2050 and with a really big 3D printer.
Bastian Schaefer, a cabin engineer with Airbus, has been working for the last two years on a concept cabin that envisions what the future of flight would look like from the passenger’s perspective. From that came a radical concept: build the aircraft itself from the ground up with a 3D printer that’s very large in deed, ie. as big as an aircraft hangar. That probably sounds like a long shot, since the biggest 3D printers today are about the size of a dining table. But the Airbus design comes with a roadmap, from 3D-printing small components now, through to the plane as a whole around 2050.
Why use 3D printing at all? Airbus parent EADS has been looking into using the process, known as additive layer manufacturing, for making aircraft for some time because it’s potentially cheaper, and can result in components that are 65% ligher than with traditional manufacturing methods. Airbus’ concept plane is also so dizzyingly complicated that it requires radical manufacturing methods: from the curved fuselage to the bionic structure, to the transparent skin that gives passengers a panoramic view of the sky and clouds around them.
The challenges are many. First, you need a 3D printer big enough to print airplane parts. Second, you need to incorporate precise, lightweight materials into the additive manufacturing construction. And third, this novel design needs to pass stringent regulation in the aviation industry.
Again the engineers are on the case.
EADS has been experimenting with 3D printing and famously printed an “Airbike” last year. Schaefer, who has been with Airbus for six years, started working on the transparent concept cabin project around the same time as the Airbike project in 2010, calling on colleagues from different departments at Airbus. “We have an opportunity to do something different,” he told them.
He and other industrial designers, tech- and trend-scouts started brainstorming and came up with the current, 3D printed concept design. He has around 10 people working on the project with him, including industrial designers and tech scouts, all trying to push the technology forward.
Below is a video showcasing the Airbus concept cabin, which incorporates many of these new design ideas.
Via Forbes.
Airplane cabin photo by WexDub used under Creative Commons license.
The Variable Cross: Create Your Own 3D Printed Cross Pendant Necklace
From Madonna to Katy Perry to the Duchess of Cambridge Princess Kate, celebrities are wearing cross pendant necklaces of all different shapes and designs. The trend is hot and there are many to buy online, but what if you wanted to design your own? Now you can.
The Variable Cross is a pendant that you can customize through a webpage in 3D. The website uses brand new WebGL technology (works best in Chrome). Once you create your design, it is 3D printed in sterling silver. This is the service first to offer you the tools to create your own jewelry in precious metals using 3D printing. And all without needing any special skills.
Go to the website to try it yourself: http://cross.
The Variable Cross was created by an artist who calls himself macouno. Here’s his bio.
I’m an artist, who has been working with new/3D technology for well over a decade. Find out more about me and my work at http://www.macouno.com. The last couple of years I’ve been doing a lot of experimentation with 3D print and related developments. Most notably perhaps the Entoforms (http://www.entoforms.com).
TechCrunch Hardware Hackathon: 3D Printing Hackers Unite
TechCrunch is hosting its annual Disrupt Hackathon this weekend and is looking for hardware hackers to join the event.
Do you have hardware project that’s been simmering on the back burner because you can’t get access to a 3D printer? Come on down to the Disrupt Hackathon and use one of the MakerBots and Raspberry Pis we’ll have on site for anyone to use. Build toys, robots, Arduino cases, or whatever you want and enter the Disrupt Hackathon as an inaugural hardware hacker. We dare you.
The best hardware hack as chosen by the judges wins a brand new Replicator courtesy of MakerBot – a $2,000 value.
The event has been hosted in NY and San Francisco. Join them on September 8 in San Francisco for your chance to build some 3D printing hacks.
Via TechCrunch.
TechCrunch Disrupt photo by Scott Beale used under Creative Commons license.
