Tag Archives: design
Old Refrigerators Recycled to 3D Print Modern Furniture [Video]
Designer Dirk Vander Kooij has taken industrial recycling to a new level. With his “Endless” process, old refrigerators were melted down and then used as raw materials to 3D print modern furniture.
His website describes the process:
It took 54 prototypes before we achieved the optimum comfort the chair now offers. After an intensive process of research and development into the engineering technique, we are now capable of producing tight lines and rounding off curves. Thanks to this rounding off technique, the chair has a distinct similarity to a thoughtfully wound up ball of string. This can only be done with the “Endless” production technique.
Below is a video of his industrial robot printing new furniture from old materials.
Via Mariella Moon
Pentagon Offers Prizes for Crowdsourced Military Vehicle Designs
DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), in collaboration with MIT, Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt and GE, is initiating a program to crowdsource designs for the next generation of military vehicles.
The New York Times reports about the Vehicleforge.mil program:
The near-term target, they said, is to collaborate on a design for an amphibious vehicle for the Marines. The first contest, with a $1 million prize, is planned for early next year. It involves mobility and drive-train subsystems for the vehicle. Next, about six months later, will be the design for the chassis and other subsystems, a contest that will carry another $1 million prize.
While not directly related to 3D printing, there is a connection. By crowdsourcing ideas for new military vehicles, the government is extending military design beyond the walls of the Pentagon. DARPA is acknowledging that the wisdom of the crowds might be a great way to augment the expertise of its staff.
If this model proves out, it could lead to wider adoption of crowdsourced design for other industries, such as consumer products, fashion and sports. Enter 3D printers and you have a future where individuals can leverage crowdsourced designs to find new products and print them in their own home or community.
It’s going to happen.
Read more about the Vehicleforge.mil program at the New York Times.
Tinkercad Chess Set Design Contest: Winner Announced!
A few weeks ago, 3D design software company Tinkercad hosted a contest where users could submit their designs for 3D printable chess sets. The winner, announced today, was awarded a MakerBot 3D Printer.
The image above shows the winning submission, called Action Chess by cymon. This innovative design not only is a traditional chess set, but also pays homage to Transformers by allowing chess pieces to be combined into a larger creature.
Congratulations to cymon. Hope to see more creative designs like this soon!
Super-Light, 3D Printed Guitar Revolutionizes Instrument Design
It’s a real guitar and has relatively the same shape as traditional shape of a classic les Paul, but this instrument did not come from a factory. This guitar was 3D printed.
Derek Manson, director of New Zealand design firm One.61 Ltd created the design and produced this new concept. He shared his inspiration.
“As you know music is so very subjective so we have no real data to support our design. The initial idea came from when I was watching Metallica’s Cunning Stunts DVD and Kirk Hammetts Wavecaster guitar is featured. This spawned the idea that a polymer based guitar is feasible because if it’s good enough for Kirk, it’s good enough for me.”
The implications of this achievement could be revolutionary for the music industry. It’s one thing to create a new design for an electric instrument, but imagine the possibilities for acoustic instruments.
Musical instruments have classic designs that are based mainly on the refinement by generations of specialist experts in hand-crafting the perfect shape for an instrument to have resonance and acoustic properties. Once a classic design is adopted, instruments can be mass produced.
With 3D printing technology, every musician can now experiment with complex instrument design. We are bound to see some instruments change from their classic form and new instruments appear.
Skeptical? Watch this video about a 3D printed flute.
Read more about the 3D Printed guitar at Forbes.
3D Printing for Kids – Kickstarter Project PotteryPrint Fails to Raise Funds
3D Printing for kids: it’s a noble and imaginative concept. Just as other disciplines, from math to basic science to foreign language, are being introduced to children at a young age, there could be many educational benefits to giving kids a hands-on 3D printing toolset.
The team at PotteryPrint launched a Kickstarter project to raise $12,000 to build an iPad app where kids could design pottery that would be 3D printed. Unfortunately, only $6,000 was raised by the deadline.
Why Did It Fail to Raise Funds?
First, perhaps the focus on pottery is too much of a deviation from the core developments in 3D printing today. Pottery is a decorative art, and pottery pieces can be quite fragile. 3D printed objects in production today are mostly utility, though some are art, but all are made from commercial polymers to ensure durability.
Second, the key deliverable of this Kickstarter project was the iPad app. What will truly drive kids education in 3D printing is access to printers, not access to software. The PotteryPrint concept outsources the 3D printing itself, thereby removing that hands-on experience from the educational cycle.
I hope PotteryPrint resubmits a new project with a promise to make 3D printing as accessible as its design software.
Below is their Kickstarter pitch.
