3D Printing News

A roundup of the top 3D printing news from July 8 to July 14:

Monday, July 8

• 3D Printed Batteries Showcased as Future Energy Solution

Tuesday, July 9

• 3D Printed Spider is So Life-Like It’s Scary (Video)
• 3D Printing Startup Mixee Labs Launches Customizable 3D Printed Cufflinks

Wednesday, July 10

• MakerBot and Stratasys Take Center Stage at the Inside 3D Printing Chicago Keynote
• 3D Printing Sparks Innovations in Art – MGX by Materialise at Inside 3D Printing Chicago
• Microsoft Confirms Plans to Take 3D Printing to the Masses at Inside 3D Printing Chicago
• Top Photos from Inside 3D Printing Chicago Conference Day 1

Thursday, July 11

• Canadian Actress Ellen Page Tweets “No F ing way” About 3D Printing – Our Response
• Inside 3D Printing Conference Chicago: Day 1 Top Stories
• 3D Systems CEO Predicts Moore’s Law Will Hit 3D Printing Technology – Inside 3D Printing Chicago
• Simulation-Based Design for 3D Printing: Special Effects and the Store of the Future
• 3D Printed Fashion: From Fantasy Gowns to Accessible Couture – Inside 3D Printing Chicago

Friday, July 12

• Inside 3D Printing Conference Chicago: Day 2 Top Stories

 Saturday, July 13

• eBay Breaks into 3D Printing with iPhone App eBay Exact – Our Review

Inside 3D Printing Chicago: Day 1

Day 1 of the Inside 3D Printing conference in Chicago kicked off in high gear and built momentum throughout the day. Below are the top stories from the day.

MakerBot and Stratasys Take Center Stage at the Inside 3D Printing Chicago Keynote

Scott Crump of Stratasys and Bre Pettis of MakerBot kicked off the Inside 3D Printing conference in Chicago with a vision of the future 3D printing.

3D Printing Sparks Innovations in Art – MGX by Materialise at Inside 3D Printing Chicago

Joris Debo talks about a brave new art world pioneered by Materialise with their Mammoth Stereolithography 3D printing technology.

Microsoft Confirms Plans to Take 3D Printing to the Masses at Inside 3D Printing Chicago

Microsoft wants to create a consumer operating system that is available to everybody that works fluidly with 3D printing.

Top Photos from Inside 3D Printing Chicago Conference Day 1

We are covering the Inside 3D Printing conference in Chicago this week. Here are some of our top photos from the conference on day 1.

Stay tuned or follow us on Twitter @on3dprinting for more updates from Day 2.

MGX by Materialise Leads the Charge in 3D Printing and Artist Collaboration

At the Inside 3D Printing conference in Chicago, Joris Debo talked about a brave new art world pioneered by Materialise with their Mammoth Stereolithography 3D printing technology. Materialise is a Belgian based company that is involved in additive manufacturing (3D printing) in many industries like software development, rapid fit (automotive & aerospace), biomedical (CT & MRI scans) & orthodics among others. Debo is the Creative Director at MGX, which is the consumer goods division for Materialise and he is especially passionate about using 3D printing technology to “create objects that are both art and functional.”

MGX has become a company that closely works together with artists to come up with new pieces that would be very difficult and extremely labor intensive to make without 3D technology.  Joris noted, “When I arrived in the company eight years ago, there were two people that were not engineers. Over the years, we’ve commissioned people, like Patrick Jouin, for a new era of digital aesthetics.”

MGX is in multiple collaborations with artists and fashion designers like Iris Van Herpen for example. Van Herpen has revolutionized fashion with mesmerizing futuristic designs that push the boundaries of art and fashion. In fact, a lot of her pieces are found in museums after they hit the runway. Debo notes how like Van Herpen, the “people that make these dresses are the new craftsmen.”

3D printing also allows the combination of traditional art with very high end furniture that matches the art. Joris pointed out how if you have a Jackson Pollock in your home and you want something to match the Jackson Pollock, an artist can custom create a piece or multiple pieces of furniture to match the Jackson Pollock using MGX’s 3D printing technology. Debo further noted how it’s “not only about 3D printing but about craftsmen that can finish the pieces.” This applies to pieces of furnitures, sculptures and even art replicas like museums have begun to use recently.

The Root Chair by Sulan Kolatan and William MacDonald

Joris discussed how art pieces or historical artifacts are sometimes too fragile to travel the world and thus insurance companies will not cover their repair if broken. Moreover, some artifacts, like King Tut’s mummy for example, are irreplaceable and is too risky to move regardless of the financial cost. To show King Tut’s mummy in New York City, National Geographic partnered with MGX in order to make a perfect replica that allowed people to feel they were actually looking at the real King Tut. These kinds of partnerships make it clear as to why museums like the Smithsonian is investing in 3D printing technologies that allow for their rare pieces from fossils to sculptures to be replicated.  In sum, 3D printing technology is not only revolutionizing the industrial world, but it is already changing the aesthetics and culture around us, from clothing to furniture to historical artifacts and art pieces.

Authored by On 3D Printing contributor Rodrigo Garza Zorrilla, technology entrepreneur and advisor.

The Financial Times published a feature profiling the five industry heavyweights in 3D printing.

Abe Reichental, CEO of 3D Systems

Mr Reichental regards 3D printing as a “disruptive technology” with the power to revitalise the global manufacturing industry. In the past three years he has spent about $230m on acquisitions to make 3D Systems the fastest expanding large 3D printing equipment producer.

Hans Langer, CEO of EOS

The sparkling-eyed German physicist has turned EOS into one of Europe’s most promising high-tech mid-sized businesses and one of the world’s biggest makers of 3D printing hardware.

Wilfried Vancraen, Managing Director of Materialise

He has expanded his Leuven, Belgium-based company’s range of services to make parts using 3D printing for a large group of customers in fields from interior design to the medical equipment industry. Materialise also makes its own range of personalised jewellery using the technology.

Scott Crump, CEO of Stratasys

He has built up Stratasys into one of the world’s biggest makers of 3D printing systems and is keen to stress the links between 3D printing and other forms of “digital manufacturing” in which computer codes are used to instruct factory machinery to make objects, often on a customised basis, relatively cheaply and to high precision.

Sir David McMurty, Chairman and CEO of Renishaw

Sir David regards 3D printing as a “unique business opportunity” with “plenty of scope for development” and became interested in the technology prior to Renishaw’s acquisition last year of MTT Technologies, a small Staffordshire-maker of 3D printing machines.

Read the full executive bios in the feature at FT.com.

We’ve written before about fashion and 3D printing, but that story was about a single designer making a line of 3D printed shoes. This past week at the Materialise World Conference, a fashion show was held in which runway models showcased an entire collection of 3D printed haute couture accessories.

Here is a summary form Materialise:

Following a day featuring speakers such as Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, Prof. Dr. Vermeersch, member of the surgical team responsible for Belgium’s first face transplant, and Iris van Herpen, rising star in the world of Haute Couture, the Materialise World Conference put on a fashion show with a 3D printed twist. Making their runway debut were four hats from Brussels’ master milliner Elvis Pompilio, clutch purses and necklaces by renowned designer Daniel Widrig, and a collection of stunning pieces that redefine how accessories can be worn by Niccolo Casas. Also on the catwalk were the top 20 designs of a hat and hair accessory competition, the “Hat’s Off to 3D Printing Challenge,” which was put together by Materialise’s consumer division i.materialise. All of the designs were produced by Materialise at their Headquarters in Leuven, Belgium.

Via Materialise.

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