Tag Archives: design
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!
Shapeways Friday Finds: Cheshire Cat, Kaleidoscope Clock, Dragon Transformer
3D printing marketplace Shapeways featured beautiful designs in its weekly Friday Finds blog series.
Pictured above is a design familiar to fans of Alice in Wonderland: a Chershire Cat Ring by SG Designs. This ring is designed to be printed in silver and has an inscription on the inside that reads ”We’re all mad here.”
A Kaleidoscope Clock by Made by Wombat. Once you print the two parts, assemble them together and you will have an intricate 9″ hanging wall clock.
Finally, a dragon that can collapse into a cube shape: Dragon Die by Reaper Media. Watch the video below to see how it unfolds.
Via Shapeways blog.
Belgian Design Studio Unfold Features Beautiful Ceramic 3D Printing
Unfold ~fab is Belgian Design Studio Unfold’s Reprap and Personal Fabrication blog. Recently, they featured some beautiful ceramic 3D printing.
Below is a carafe and set of cups that was made for the design fair in Milan this year. These pieces were shown in a Belgian presentation called PERSPECTIVES at the Triennial di Milano.
The design technique is unique. Rather than using 3D modeling, the designer uses vector paths.
The carafe is a story an-sich because 90 percent of the design in actually not done in 3D software but designed straight in vector tool paths, only the basic outside shell is a 3D file, all infill and the folded structure are designed using our own custom software called Gcode Stacker which takes SVG vector files as input and spits out Gcode. Every SVG layer is a Gcode layer. This gives finer control over machine paths and enables you to do stuff impossible in 3D>Gcode toolchains like for example intersecting lines.
For L’Artisan Electronique, Unfold modified an open source 3d printer to print ceramics. Unfold created a virtual pottery wheel in collaboration with Tim Knapen. This pottery wheel gives visitors a chance to ‘turn’ their own forms. At regular intervals, a selection of these designs is printed in clay and exhibited in the space. In this time-lapse video you see the print process close up.
Read the full featured post at Unfold, where these images were sourced.
The First 3D Printed Car Optimizes Design for Renewable Energy
How do you design the most efficient car on the road that can run on renewable energy? You prototype, a lot, with 3D printing.
That is what KOR EcoLogic did using Autodesk software and Stratasys’ digital manufacturing service. The car, called Urbee, gets 200 miles per gallon.
“The Urbee was designed from the ground up to be as efficient as possible, and to run on renewable energy,” said Jim Kor, president and chief technology officer of KOR EcoLogic. “From concept through rendering, Autodesk software helped us not only build an efficient and sustainable car, but also communicate our designs to a broader audience, including potential investors.”
Urbee is truly the first car to have its entire body 3D printed.
The KOR EcoLogic team began by developing a set of core principles and pinning them to their workshop wall. Among them, the Urbee was designed to use minimal energy and produce less pollution during its design, manufacturing, operation and recycling stages, while remaining affordable and visually appealing.
“Startup clean tech companies need technology enabling them to create professional, fully realized and tested designs, while benefiting from visually stunning imagery of their products,” said Robert “Buzz” Kross, senior vice president, Autodesk Manufacturing Industry Group. “KOR EcoLogic is a great example of the combined power of Digital Prototyping and sustainable design.”
The Urbee team used Autodesk Inventor software to design a 3D digital prototype of the car’s body and subject it to simulated road and wind conditions, test different body designs to minimize drag and reduce overall weight by eliminating excess parts. More than 80 percent of a product’s environmental impact can be determined during the design phase, making Inventor a critical component in establishing the Urbee’s high level of environmental responsibility. KOR EcoLogic used Autodesk Showcase 3D visualization software to create photorealistic renderings of the Urbee for marketing to potential investors, partners and the general public.
Below is a video of the Urbee on a test drive.
Via dexigner.
Shapeways Friday Finds: da Vinci, Cube Pendant, Snap Bangle
3D printing marketplace Shapeways featured great new designs in its weekly Friday Finds blog series.
Pictured above, a fully functioning machine modeled from drawings by Leonardo da Vinci.
Snap Bangle by Electrobloom making the most of Shapeways colors.
See more at Shapeways blog.
