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 »
Search Results for: 3d printer
3D Printing Makes Online Marketplace Etsy Change Its Handmade Policy
Founded in 2005, online marketplace Etsy has become a popular destination for handmade goods. From art to clothing to jewelry to toys, Etsy sellers create it all, and many sellers are quite sensitive about the definition of handmade.
As Etsy has scaled its business to now hosting over 18 million items for sale and attracting more than 60 million visitors per month, the company has had to consider how it can support sellers who are also achieving scale. And in that vein, Etsy has made a dramatic change to its policy about how goods are sourced.
No longer are items required to be handmade, but instead must have authorship with the seller. 3D printing is one of the factors influencing this decision.
“We have jewelers, for example, on Etsy who are using 3D printing to make parts for their jewelry. Those are hand-made, I think in spirit, even though they are designed on a computer and printed on a 3D printer,” said Chad Dickerson, CEO of Etsy, in an interview with NPR.
In fact, when you search Etsy for 3D printed goods, you find quite a selection. Approximately 750 items are listed in a 3D printing market on Etsy at this time.
While artisans who specialize in handmade goods are not happy with Etsy’s policy change, it will be interesting to watch the diversity of new items that are listed on Etsy as a result of the company embracing 3D printing.
Perhaps Etsy will even start to compete with Shapeways and other 3D printing marketplaces as it finds profits and popularity in 3D printed goods.
3D Printing Week: HP, Stratasys, Formlabs Funding, Africa, Surgery
3D Printing News
Here is a roundup of the top 3D printing news from October 21 to 27.
Doctors in Belgium are using 3D printing solutions from Mcor to save time in surgery by creating detailed bone structure models.
In Haiti, a non-profit organization delivered the first 3D printers to the country. [Edited]
Africa was also highlighted this past week. In Togo, an inventor created his own recycled 3D printer out of electronic waste scrap and hopes to put his design on Mars.
Computing giant HP CEO Meg Whitman announced that the company is building 3D printers to debut in 2014. Meanwhile, 3D printing incumbent Stratasys expanded its presence in Asia through an acquisition.
And finally, the big venture capital news this week was the $19 million Series A funding for Formlabs, makers of the Form 1 desktop 3D printer that uses stereolithography instead of FDM.
Monday, October 21
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Formlabs Raises $19 Million to Make Desktop 3D Printing Awesome
Form 1 3D Printer Raised $3 Million on Kickstarter, Now Gets $19 Million from VCs
Formlabs is a storybook startup. Founded by 3 engineers from the world-famous MIT Media Lab, the company launched an historic Kickstarter campaign in which they raised nearly $3 million from over 2,000 backers for their Form1 desktop 3D printer.
Now the company has achieved a new milestone. Formlabs raised $19 million in venture funding from DFJ Growth, Pitango Venture Capital, and Innovation Endeavors. Some angel investors also participated in the round. Formlabs will use the capital to expand its world-class product, design, and research teams, while growing its marketing and customer support capabilities internationally.
“There is still a wide open space in front of us to continue innovating and bringing incredible new products to the market; with these new resources, we’ll be able to continue to push the envelope, making extraordinary new tools available around the world,” co-founder Maxim Lobovsky said, “The group we’re putting together to get here is the most creative and passionate team working in 3D printing and I’m personally excited about using this new investment to grow our team and take digital fabrication to the next level.”
Formlabs has seen tremendous growth in the last year and is now expanding into an 11,000 square foot facility in Somerville, Massachusetts. “We’re going to use every inch. There’s a lot of work to do, so we are thrilled to have DFJ Growth and Pitango onboard,” said cofounder Natan Linder, “We’re looking forward to expanding internationally, and bringing a professional 3D printing experience to people around the world.”
“We are very excited to partner with Formlabs on their next phase of growth,” said DFJ Growth Managing Director Barry Schuler, who will join the board. “Max and the entire Formlabs team have done an amazing job with the Form 1 printer, a big advancement in the new industrial revolution.”
To date, the company has shipped over 900 desktop 3D printers.
The company is also making software a priority with PreForm 1.0, a milestone in the development of its easy-to-use, powerful 3D printing software. Formlabs’ PreForm software allows everyone, from novice to professional, to print 3D models with just a few mouse clicks.
How Formlabs Differentiates on Quality and Price
In the increasingly competitive 3D printing industry, Formlabs stands apart for two reasons. First, it is desktop 3D printer that can form layers as small as 25 microns (.001 inches), creating incredible detail. For example, look at this photo of a neptune statue standing next to a U.S. 25-cent coin.
Formlabs achieves this through a technology called stereolithography. Many desktop 3D printers use a process called FDM, or fused deposition modeling, that extrudes plastic layer by layer to form an object. 3D printers from MakerBot, Ultimaker, and Printrbot all use this approach.
The Form 1 3D Printer instead uses a resin based printing process ideal for detailed and complex parts. A high precision positioning system directs a laser onto a tray of liquid resin and traces out each crosssectional layer, causing the resin to harden. This process repeats until a full part is constructed. Printing is simple, reliable, and quiet.
Stereolithography was originally invented by Chuck Hull of 3D Systems, and the company still holds a patent on stereolithography. In fact, shortly after its Kickstarter success, Formlabs was named in a patent infringement lawsuit by 3D Systems.
However, many patents have expired already and the patent named in that lawsuit is set to expire early next year, which is likely why DFJ felt comfortable putting so much money into Formlabs.
Formlabs also differentiates on price. Their Form 1 3D printer costs $3,299.
Compare that to industrial stereolithography 3D printers which cost tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars. And the Form 1 is not much more expensive than the leading FDM-based desktop 3D printer, the MakerBot Replicator 2, which sells for $2,199 and does not have nearly the precision of the Form 1.
Interview with Formlabs
We spoke with Sam Jacoby of Formlabs about the company’s plans for expansion on the announcement of this round of funding.
On 3D Printing: Congrats on your funding. Formlabs differentiates from most of the 3D printer makers by focusing on stereolithography, but that has also gotten you into some hot water due to patents in the space. Will stereolithography continue to be the focus for your company, or are you expanding to other 3D printing techniques?
Jacoby: Right now, we’re focusing on making the Form 1 the best possible 3D printer out there. We really proud of how far we’ve come, but we there’s still so much to do. We think there is a lot to be done with stereolithography, but we’re looking at whatever technologies will allow us to create the most powerful, innovative fabrication tools of the future.
On 3D Printing: Your company has a great story. How did starting at MIT set you up for success?
Jacoby: MIT is a great place. There, we had access to the most incredible set of fabrication machines–but those were expensive, high-end tools. We wanted to create something that could be shared more widely.
On 3D Printing: It looks like you are focusing more on software. What are the pain points you are looking to solve?
Jacoby: Software is a big part of what we do. When making hardware, it’s easy to overlook how important software is, so we’ve really made PreForm a focus. We’ve done a lot of extraordinary work in making a tool that is reliable and easy-to-use as possible. For example, many CAD programs have a tough time creating models that are ready to 3D print. To solve that problem, we’ve incorporated algorithms that automatically repair your 3D-models, so you can spend your time designing and getting on with your work.
Thanks to Sam Jacoby for the interview and congratulations to Formlabs on its $19 million funding round.
HP Preps for 3D Printing Debut in 2014 Says Meg Whitman
2D printing giant HP has plans to enter 3D printing
“We want to lead this business. HP Labs is looking at it.” – Meg Whitman, CEO of HP
At the Canalys Channels Forum in Bangkok, HP CEO Meg Whitman finally broke the silence on whether HP would get back into the 3D printing game. ”We are excited about 3D printing,” Whitman said.
Whitman also expressed hesitation about getting in too early. She shared her concerns about how slow 3D printing is today. ”To print a bottle can take eight to ten hours. That’s all very interesting, but it is like watching ice melt,” she said.
HP previously had a partnership with Stratasys that fell through in August 2012.
Read: Stratasys and HP Part Ways on 3D Printer Manufacturing
Wait for 2014
Whitman did not provide a specific timeline on when HP will bring its own 3D printing products to market, but did indicate that 2014 would be their entry timing.
“3D printing is in its infancy,” she said. “It is a big opportunity and we are all over it. We will have something by the middle of next year.”
CC image by TechShowNetwork
Belgium Doctors Use Mcor 3D Printing to Save Precious Time in Surgery
Paper-Based 3D Printing Used by Medical Team to Create Detailed Bone Structure Models
There are two issues with long surgeries: cost and risk to the patient. Surgery cost approximately $100 per minute, which means there is a business opportunity for shortening surgeries without reducing efficacy. Also, the longer a surgery lasts, the greater the health risks to the patient, especially in sensitive operations on the brain or other major organs.
In Belgium, 3D printing is offering doctors a chance to shave hours off in the operating room by creating an exact replica of a patient’s bone structure as a surgical guide.
“With each procedure, we easily win an hour in the operating room, and that’s a major benefit for the patient.” – Professor Raphael Olszewski, a surgeon and head of the university’s oral and maxillofacial surgery research lab at the Cliniques universitaires saint Luc, Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) in Belgium.
These doctors are using paper 3D printing from Mcor Technologies, an approach that can 3D print in millions of colors and nearly any additive shape.
Related: Mcor 3D Printing on Paper Creates Photo-Realistic Objects
In a piece authored by Mcor’s Director of Marketing Julie Reece, this innovative medical technique is explained in more detail.
The surgeons employ paper 3D printing technology from Mcor Technologies to recoup hours from traditional surgical procedures. Working from the digitally scanned contours of patients’ bones, doctors push a button to create full-size 3D physical models they can use as surgical guides.
Since the model is a facsimile of the patient’s actual physiology, surgeons can use it to precisely shape metal inserts that fit along a patient’s residual bone. The insert might be a plate that supports a damaged mandible or a titanium mesh for reconstructing a damaged eye socket. Without 3D physical models to work from, surgeons would be forced to rely on time-consuming trial and error to shape the metal implants and risk potential tissue damage.
Eco-Friendly Solution
The Belgium-based medical team is not new to 3D printing, but did make a switch in 3D printers. They had previously employed a ZPrinter from ZCorp (acquired by 3D Systems) that uses resin and powder, and converted to the Mcor 3D printer that uses paper with water-based adhesive. One benefit to the doctors is that Mcor provides an eco-friendly and non-toxic solution. Moreover, the cost to 3D print a patient model is about half of what it costs on the ZPrinter.
Recent News about Mcor: Staples Launches 3D Printing Challenge for Mcor 3D Printers with €1000 Prize
