3D Printing Color is a rapid prototyping center based in Montana. Founded by Montana resident, Marc Milisavljevich, the company has built a cost-effective, accurate, high-quality way to create 3D replicas, and now has the ability to 3D print for any customers in the United States as well as internationally.

3D Printing Color focuses on offering custom product creation, rapid production, fast shipping, and competitive pricing, and has launched a website showcasing their services: www.3dprintingcolor.com.

3D Printing Color provides a variety of 3D printing services. However, the focus remains on transforming the rapid prototyping market as they attempt to shrink the product to market time-span. The product development lifecycle historically reaches a slower pace during the prototyping phase. Now, 3D Printing Color uses their rapid prototyping services to get products to market in a timely manner, without compromising any design elements. Merging additive manufacturing with 3D printing technology, Montana residents have quickly learned the benefits of rapid prototyping to move ideas from concept to prototype quickly.

Accuracy, consistency, and quality have paved the way for ground-breaking products that hit the market quickly – all of this begins with a rapid prototype. From something as simple as a tennis shoe or iPhone case to something as complex as an artificial prosthetic, rapid prototyping allows for virtually any creation. 3D Printing Color takes a computer-aided design (CAD) and uses 3D printing technologies to transform any image into a 3D prototype.

As entrepreneurs, designers, engineers, inventors, and the like continue to discover the power of product development using rapid prototyping the industry is expected to skyrocket. Over the next decade, 3D printing will truly transform the manner in which companies get their products to market. From large jobs to small jobs, 3D Printing Color helps companies with no minimum order.

3D Systems Continues Acquisitions with UK-Based CRDM

3D Systems (NYSE:DDD) announced that it has acquired CRDM, Ltd. , a leading UK provider of rapid prototyping and rapid tooling services based in Bucks, England. The company intends to immediately integrate CRDM into its global Quickparts Solutions custom parts and manufacturing services. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

CRDM, Ltd. designs, prototypes and manufactures parts and tooling for a variety of automotive, aerospace, medical device and motorsports applications, including F1. With almost two decades of experience and a loyal customer base, CRDM extends 3D Systems’ offerings and its footprint in the UK, further positioning the company at the center of the rapidly growing, direct manufacturing opportunity.

“CRDM is a strategic and geographically important addition to our rapidly growing 3D content-to-print services portfolio,” said Ziad Abou, Vice President and General Manager, Quickparts Solutions, 3D Systems. “With a proven track record in advanced manufacturing and rapid tooling, CRDM complements and expands our extensive range of custom parts services.”

More information is available at www.3DSystems.com

Poppy Lets Your iPhone Go 3D

Remember the View-Master? The retro toy that would let you immerse yourself in images of the Eiffel Tower or an African safari. Well there is a new device in town that brings back the nostalgia of the View-Master while embracing our high-tech and social iPhone world.

It’s called Poppy and it’s on Kickstarter

Poppy is the name of the innovative device that lets you capture, share and view images in 3D using only your iPhone. It was created by two serial entrepreneurs Ethan Lowry and Joe Heitzeberg who are also founders of the blog Hack Things. Ethan and Joe describe Poppy this way:

Poppy has no electronics or batteries to babysit, but since it uses iPhone as its brain it’s quite a capable device. You put your iPhone in, and a system of mirrors captures two side-by-side images onto you iPhone’s single camera. Like the Viewmaster you might have played with as a kid, when you look in, lenses bring the two images together into a single 3D image. With retina quality video, the effect is immersive and really quite beautiful. It’s like stepping into another world.

Poppy went live with a Kickstarter campaign today, and as of writing this article, the campaign has raised over $25,000 of it’s $40,000 goal. [Update 6/28 - they've now raised $80K!]

Watch the video below and back the campaign if you like it. (Disclosure: a member of our staff has backed the campaign)

3D Printed Poppy?

Although Poppy is not a 3D printed product, the design and development leveraged 3D printing for rapid prototyping. Below are some sketches of the early designs, some of which were 3D printed for field testing.

We asked the founders why they used 3D printing in product development. Joe Heitzeberg shared his insights with us:

3D printing helped us make Poppy stylish and easy to use by allowing us to iterate the design and get actual usage feedback from real users before committing to the more costly work of tooling for injection molds.

The Poppy team shared some exclusive photos of their 3D printed prototypes with us. Here’s a photo of Zach Hoeken Smith, co-founder of MakerBot, holding a 3D printed prototype of Poppy in China.

And below is a close-up photo of the prototype, held by founder Ethan Lowry. You can see the cross-stitch resolution lines common with 3D printed surfaces.

3D Printed Poppy Kickstarter Perk

If you’re passionate about 3D printing and excited about Poppy, there is a 3D printing Kickstarter perk. Pledge $1,200 or more to receive one of the original 3D printed functional prototypes.

Collcap Packaging in the UK is using revolutionary 3D printing technology to prototype cosmetics packaging for their many international perfumery and cosmetics suppliers. Using the Stratasys Objet30 Pro 3D printer, Collcap’s designers are able to turn 3D CAD designs into accurate prototypes using a choice of 7 different materials ranging from blue, gray, white and black to clear transparency, high temperature resistance and polypropylene-like.

The transparent material (Objet VeroClear) is particularly useful in simulating glass and PMMA. 3D printing allows Collcap to place precise transparent replicas in the hands of their customers only a few short hours after their initial design. Once the chosen 3D printed models are approved the designs are sent to glass cutting and then final manufacturing.

The Objet1000 is Objet‘s largest ever 3D printer. With a build platform of 1000 x 800 x 500 mm (39 x 31 x 20 inch), the system enables designers, engineers and manufacturers to quickly and easily create large and very precise models for prototyping parts and products in automotive, defense, aerospace, consumer goods, household appliances and industrial machinery sectors. The system features Objet Connex multi-material technology offering standard and ABS plastic performance, a choice of over 100 materials and the ability to mix up to 14 different materials in a single prototype or model to achieve the true look, feel and function of your intended end product.