Tag Archives: Fuel3D

Top 3D Printing News Last Week: Medical List, Fuel3D Kickstarter, More

3D Printing News

A roundup of the top 3D printing news from August 26 to September 1:

3D Printing Medical Heart The Body Shop

Tuesday, August 27

Wednesday, August 28

Friday, August 30

Sunday, September 1 

Fuel3D Handheld 3D Scanner Closes in on $300,000 Kickstarter Funding

3D scanner captures consumer and investor interest with low-cost device for 3D printing enthusiasts, games developers and 3D designers

Earlier this month, we wrote about Fuel3D, a handheld 3D scanner for less than $1,000 that had been growing on Kickstarter.

The company achieved its initial campaign goal in 2 days. With 4 days left to go, the project has raised nearly $300,000.

Fuel3D is an affordable handheld 3D scanner that delivers high resolution shape and color capture for a range of 3D modeling applications, such as 3D printing, 3D art and 3D game development. At an expected final market price of $1,500, its imminent arrival heralds a new price point in handheld 3D scanning technology, which typically sees products retail for $15,000 and above. Kickstarter backers still have up to 3:00pm EDT on Sunday September 1st, to purchase the Fuel3D scanner from $990.

Fuel3D Joshua Harker Kickstarter Cover

“We have been delighted by the reaction to our Kickstarter campaign, which has been a huge validation of our vision for bringing a lower-cost 3D scanning option to the masses,” said Stuart Mead, CEO, Fuel3D. “We have vastly surpassed our initial goal and have received many orders from our core US and UK markets and beyond – as far afield as Australia and Japan. We have been inundated by approaches from distribution partners and technical collaborators, and the interest from venture capital companies and even national defense organizations tells me that we’re really on to something.”

“Thanks to Kickstarter feedback, we think that offering automated stitching of multiple scans to create 360 degree models is the most useful feature that we could add into the product bundle,” added Mead.

Fuel3D: A handheld 3D scanner for less than $1000

In a recent development, Fuel3D and Uformia will aim to develop automatic stitching of multiple scans as a standard feature in Uformia’s MeshUp software in time for the launch of the Fuel3D scanner. This capability will allow users to take multiple shots of a subject and then the software will automate “stitching” them together to create a complete 360 degree 3D model.

After achieving its stretch goal of $250,000, the company has now committed to adding a tripod mount to its final design, as well as the ability to trigger the camera direct from the laptop or computer, both of which have been suggested by pledgers.

For more information, visit www.fuel-3D.com

Top 3D Printing News Last Week: MakerBot Digitizer, Fuel3D 3D Scanner

Stratasys MakerBot Complete Merger

3D Printing News

A roundup of the top 3D printing news from August 12 to August 18:

Tuesday, August 13

Wednesday, August 14

Thursday, August 15

Friday, August 16

Saturday, August 17

Artist Joshua Harker Designs Unique Cover for Fuel3D 3D Scanner

Fuel3D Joshua Harker Kickstarter Cover

Fuel3D reveals unique product casing for affordable 3D scanner

Last week, we wrote about Fuel3D, a handheld 3D scanner for less than $1,000 that has raised over $200,000 on Kickstarter.

Fuel3D Inc. today revealed the design of a unique product casing designed by renowned 3D artist, Joshua Harker. The limited edition casing is only available to pledgers for Fuel3D’s crowd funding campaign on Kickstarter.

Fuel3D is an affordable handheld 3D scanner that delivers high resolution shape and color capture for a range of 3D modeling applications, such as 3D printing, 3D art and 3D game development. Since launching on Kickstarter on July 31, with its initial goal of raising $75,000 achieved within 36 hours, the project has raised more than $220,000, with over two weeks of the campaign still remaining.

American artist, Joshua Harker, is considered a pioneer of 3D printed art and sculpture. Along with his techniques, subject matter and execution, his experimentation in the dissemination of his art through digital media and the internet has garnered him international recognition and acclaim. His work is included in nearly 3,000 collections, alongside such notable artists as Andy Warhol and Ron English.

“I am hugely impressed with the quality of the scans that I have seen from the Fuel3D scanner and am intriqued by the multitude of possibilities such a tool can bring to the table for artists,” said Harker. “The very reasonable price means that more people will be able to use the technology to get creative with 3D images and continue to push the medium in exciting new directions. This access ushers in a new phase of liberated design. To channel forms from one dimension into another is a profoundly powerful ability once only associated with the occult… welcome to our new reality!”

Check out the gallery of this design below.

Only available to Kickstarter pledgers, the unique product casing design, made from 3D printed polyamide and described as an “OUIJA planchette executed in the tangled filigree aesthetic”, aptly demonstrates the potential of Fuel3D to enable the creation of short-run, “special edition” product variants.

“With a product like Fuel3D, the ability to create specialized product designs is made a whole lot easier by allowing easy capture of 3D images which can then be manipulated into product enhancements for 3D printing,” said Stuart Mead, CEO, Fuel3D. “This can then be applied in many different scenarios, for example like the custom product cover Joshua has designed for the Fuel3D, and we think that the potential to apply this approach in the luxury goods sector and for other products is hugely exciting.”

Kickstarter pledgers will have the opportunity to get their Fuel3D with the special cover for just $1,490, but with only 40 being made, they will have to move quickly.

“The Fuel3D scanner with the Joshua Harker cover is available now on Kickstarter for less than the future retail price of the actual product, which is an amazing offer,” added Mead. “The lucky few pledgers who get this will be getting a unique piece of limited artwork along with their Fuel3D scanner!”

 

3D Scanning for 3D Printing: How Kickstarter is Changing the Game

3D Scanning 3D Printing

3D Scanning Makes 3D Printing Possible

Last week, two 3D scanning projects were launched on Kickstarter, looking to raise crowdfunding.

  • Fuel3D, which bills itself as “a handheld 3D scanner for less than $1000″ rocketed past its target of $75,000 and is now over $200,000 raised with 23 days to go.
  • Volumental’s 3D Scan-to-Print Web App, on the other hand, is still short of its $20,000 goal (they’ve raised about $12,000 so far).

Let’s take a deeper look.

First, why is 3D scanning important?

While the popularity around 3D printing continues to rise, sourcing good designs to print remains a challenge. Sure, you can buy a MakerBot 3D printer and download some 3D designs from Thingiverse, but what if you wanted to capture something in your home or office? That’s where 3D scanning technology comes in.

New entrants to 3D scanning

On the high end, there is expensive software and equipment used by professionals. Fuel3D is directly competing in this area of the market with a much more affordable solution.

Hardware innovation blog HackThings wrote, “Fuel3D is a handheld 3D scanner that’s capable of capturing extremely high resolution mesh (250 microns) and color information of objects in 3D, for around $1000.  According to the creators, that’s an order of magnitude less than today’s commercial solutions of comparable resolution.”

On the low end, there is free software such as Autodesk 123D Catch. And MakerBot has announced plans for real-world copy and paste technology. This is the area that Volumental is competing. The web-based software connects to a depth camera, like a Kinect, and builds a model on the fly.

HackThings wrote about this solution, “It works as a combination of inexpensive sensor hardware and sophisticated cloud-based software.  Log in to their web service, plug in a $300 depth sensor via USB, walk around the object you want to scan, wait for processing and then click “print” to get a clone either via an online printing service or on your own 3D printer.”

Kickstarter campaigns comparison

It might seem surprising that the higher priced solution has raised more money to date on Kickstarter, but this side-by-side comparison gives us some insight into the mentality of crowdfunding. Supporters don’t want to fund things that are perceived to be free; instead, they want to pledge to campaigns that are changing the market. Fuel3D is reducing the cost of high end 3D scanners by an order of magnitude, while Volumental is competing with free.

If you want to back either campaign, or both, here are videos and links to each project.

Fuel3D: A handheld 3D scanner for less than $1000

The 3D Scan-to-Print Web App by Volumental