EDDIE KRASSENSTEIN – Malta 3D Printing

What’s the most highly anticipated movie the year? Of course it’s Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, the first movie in the series after Disney’s purchase of the rights to Star Wars from George Lucas in 2012. While Star Wars fans are certainly excited for the next episode, many are wondering just how well director J.J. Abrams will fare in his Star Wars debut on December 18th.

Whether you are a Star Wars fan or not, since you’re at this site you likely are a fan of 3D printing, and what better way to enhance the excitement surrounding this upcoming film than with one of the more elaborate 3D printing projects we have seen in a while?

You may remember Jerry Berg, aka Barnacules, who is a bit of a YouTube sensation himself. Back at the end of last year, we partnered with Barnacules on a video in which he polished a handful of 3D printed bronzeFill ‘Bitcoins’ using various methods. Barnacules is now back to his old 3D printing habits, this time working with MyMiniFactory on a project which can only be described as awesome! Over the last several months, an entire Star Wars Episode VII Stormtrooper suit has been fabricated, which he has been chronicling on his YouTube channel over the last few months. After lots of printing, and some incredible design work on the part of MyMiniFactory, we are told that this suit is finally complete and will be officially unveiled at PAX Prime in Seattle this weekend by Barnacules himself.

The suit–which is the work of Lloyd Roberts, the lead designer on the project, who also happens to be one of MyMiniFactory’s most popular 3D designers–was created in pieces to specifically fit the build of Barnacules. Roberts was certainly not the only one who helped out on this mindblowingly awesome project. Another MyMiniFactory character artist named Francesco Orrù put his talents to use on the project as well, using Zbrush.

While all the components making up the Stormtrooper suit have not been publicly released and have remained under wraps, MyMiniFactory has made two key parts of the costume available on their website for free download. The Stormtrooper helmet, designed by Roberts, with some special help from his friend Ricardo Salomao, is quite impressive and will certainly get all you Star Wars fans out there a bit more excited for the film’s December release. Additionally MyMiniFactory has made the Stormtrooper TFA blaster also available for download on their site. The weapon, which was designed by another very popular MyMiniFactory user, Kirby Downey, looks pretty spectacular if you ask me.

While we are sure that there will be plenty of quality images of the 3D printed suit over the next couple of days coming from PAX, we were able to obtain a handful of pictures so far, which you can see above as well as in the gallery below. Also we highly recommend following Barnacules’ YouTube channel where he is sure to show off the suit in its entirety very soon.

Let us know if you happened to attend PAX and bump into this Barnacules wearing this incredible piece of work. What did you think? Discuss in the 3D Printed Stormtrooper Suit forum thread on 3DPB.com.

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by EDDIE KRASSENSTEIN | AUGUST 31, 2015

Huge 3D printed scorpion!

Posted on 27/08/201509/09/2015 by aneczka2307

http://3dprint.com/88633/3d-printed-scorpion-2/

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This Huge Scorpion is 3D Printed in 53 Articulated Parts

When 3D printing really began catching on among at-home users about 2 years ago, it was fairly common to see various designs for figurines, most of which were not very poseable or articulated. Over the past year or so though, we’ve begun to see designers start coming up with ways to make more articulated figures, figures which feature several movable parts.

For one 25-year-old Greek designer, named Vasileios Katsanis, moving to London presented him with an opportunity to use his creative ability to fabricate unique 3D printable objects when he joined the MyMiniFactory Academy.

“I believe that 3D printing is an amazing way to express yourself, create art, useful objects and interesting mechanisms and I think that there is a lot of future in it,” Katsanis tells 3DPrint.com. “Since I joined the academy, I was flirting with the idea of creating a poseable creature.”

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And that is exactly what he ended up doing. Katsanis didn’t just create any 3D printed posable creature though, he took it to the extreme with a very unique, and very large 3D printed scorpion. It consists of 53 parts, and measures 110cm x 40cm x 60cm in size.

“The body of insects bend only at specific points – they are like ‘mechanical’ creatures,” Katsanis tells us. “So, I thought that a 3D printed insect with moving parts would look way more natural than, for example, a mammal with moving. From that point on, I had to decide what insect [I was going to design] and I chose the scorpion because I think it is one of the most fascinating beings in the world of insects.”

Katsanis’ scorpion was modeled in Zbrush, and then he used Rhino to split it into the 53 individual parts. Then joints were added, which he downloaded the design for from MyMiniFactory. The joints all had to be resized to fit the various body parts of the scorpion. Instead of adding all of the joints vertically, Katsanis instead had to angle them to different degreess in order to ensure that they moved in a similar fashion to how a real scorpion does.

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The head of the scorpion is split into 6 parts and the upper claws into 2, in order to avoid the need for any support material going into the joints. The parts were glued together once printed on his Dremel Idea Builder 3D Printer. In all, the 53 parts took approximately 35 hours to print out. After fully printing it out and assembling it Katsanis proceeded to paint his creature all black with a grayish blue color on its sides, the stinger and the eyes.

Katsanis has made the design files for his scorpion available for anyone to download and 3D print free of charge on MyMiniFactory.

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3dprint.com

by EDDIE KRASSENSTEIN | AUGUST 14, 2015

3D printed circular saw

Posted on 27/08/201509/09/2015 by aneczka2307

http://3dprint.com/86755/tiny-3d-printed-circular-saw/

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Man 3D Prints the World’s Smallest Working Circular Saw And It’s Amazing!

“Honey, I shrunk the power tools!”

Perhaps you remember a story that we broke back in March, concerning a New Zealand man, named Lance Abernethy, who 3D printed the world’s smallest working power drill. Lance’s creation garnered him the attention of the international media, and apparently enticed him to continue his efforts of creating even more miniature working power tools.

Now Abernethy has revealed his latest creation, perhaps even more impressive than his previous. He has unveiled a miniature 3D printed circular saw, which he 3D printed on his Ultimaker 2 machine, after designing the individual parts using a software called Onshape. The parts were printed in PLA at a layer height of 21-40 microns and shell thickness of 0.5mm. The printing process took less than 1 hour to complete in total.

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The miniature saw is printed in 4 pieces, including 2 halves for the main housing, a saw guard, plus a blade holder, just like your typical full size circular saw would have. It is powered by the same hearing aid battery that powers his miniature drill, and it has a button on the handle that turns it on.

“The saw was just a natural progression from the drill,” Abernethy tells 3DPrint.com. “I would like to be able to make a whole set of power tools just like my Makita set I have. I’m not sure how many I will get around to making though.”

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While the saw operates like an actual full size circular saw, Abernethy says that it can not cut through anything at this point in time. Although he plans to iterate upon the design and create one that actually can cut in the near future.

“I also printed little brief cases for them to go in as you can see in the video (below),” Abernethy explained. “I actually made this a few months ago and will start making more stuff soon, once I get back into 3d printing. I will eventually get around to making something with parts people can easily buy and print, and then do a tutorial on how to make it.”

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It should be interesting to see just what Abernethy comes up with next. Obviously this won’t be the last we see of him or his extremely minute creations. What do you think about the world’s smallest working circular power saw? What tools would you like to see 3D printed next? Discuss in the 3D Printed Circular Saw forum thread on 3DPB.com.

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by EDDIE KRASSENSTEIN | AUGUST 4, 2015

US Navy 3D prints custom drones

Posted on 27/08/201509/09/2015 by aneczka2307

http://3dprint.com/85654/us-navy-3d-printed-drones/

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US Navy is 3D Printing Custom Drones Onboard the USS Essex

Back in April of last year,we reported that the United States Navy had installed a 3D printer onboard the USS Essex. This was quite a significant move at the time, allowing sailors to print replacement parts and surgical tools when needed, at sea.

Boy, has a lot changed within a year. Today we get word that the US Navy is now 3D printing custom drones onboard their ships. They’ve apparently been testingthe use of the onboard 3D printers to print out parts used to construct and assemble the drones.

The idea of printing drones, as needed, is one which could greatly improve intelligence while also decreasing the likelihood of Navy personnel being put into harm’s way, and has been on the minds of military planners around the world for some time now. In fact, just last week we reported on a story in which the British Royal Navy had launched 3D Printed SULSA drones from their ships.

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Data files and models of the drones can be sent via satellite from land to the USS Essex, and eventually other ships within the Navy fleet, and then these files can be 3D printed in a matter of hours. Once printed, the parts can be assembled together with other electronic devices held in storage on these ships, to create virtually any type of drone that may be required.

The project, which is being carried out by researchers at the Naval Postgraduate School, looks to provide sailors with modern-day technology which could benefit them and the United States in more ways than one.

“The challenge aboard a ship is logistics,” explained Alan Jaeger, faculty research associate at the Naval Postgraduate School. “Once a ship leaves, getting additional parts to that ship becomes difficult.”

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The idea that ships can leave port with just a small supply of electronic components and parts, common to the majority of drones, means that completely custom bodies can be designed on land and then quickly sent to the 3D printers on these ships for quick fabrication. While the drones could be designed to perform many different tasks, the example drone that was 3D printed on the USS Essex, this past December, was designed to carry a transmitter and tiny camera that was capable of sending live video back to a head-mounted display worn by one of the sailors on the ship. Its mission was to fly over ships in order to help stop piracy and drug smuggling at sea.

“This kind of concept — the flight controller and the major parts — doesn’t matter if it is a four-bladed or six or eight(-bladed drone), or whether it is 18 inches across or four feet across, as long as the electronics stay the same, the sailors can essentially create a platform, based on what their need would be,” explained Jaeger.

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While the testing of this process onboard the USS Essex has been deemed very successful, there have been some problems that the researchers have run into.

“Even with a small amount of wind, something this small will get buffeted around,” explained Jaeger.

This isn’t exactly an issue with the 3D printing process, but rather an issue with tiny drones in general. Certainly continued research into the 3D printing of drones will result in better, more well equipped UAVs for the US Navy in the future. What do you think about this latest breakthrough? Discuss in the US Navy 3D Prints Custom Drones forum thread on 3DPB.com.

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by EDDIE KRASSENSTEIN | JULY 30, 2015

First 3D printed Supercar!

Posted on 25/08/201508/09/2015 by aneczka2307

http://3dprint.com/74810/3d-printed-supercar-blade/

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World’s First 3D Printed Supercar is Unveiled – 0-60 in 2.2 Seconds, 700 HP Motor – Built from Unique Node System

The automobile industry has been relatively stagnant for the past several decades. While new car designs are released annually, and computer technology has advanced by leaps and bounds, the manufacturing processes and the effects that these processes have on our environment have remain relatively unchanged. Over the past decade or so, 3D printing has shown some promise in the manufacturing of automobiles, yet it has not quite lived up to its potential, at least according to Kevin Czinger, founder and CEO of a company called Divergent Microfactories (DM).

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Today, at the O’Reilly Solid Conference in San Francisco, Kevin Czinger is about to shock the world with a keynote presentation he will give titled, “Dematerializing Auto Manufacturing.”

“Divergent Microfactories is going to unveil a supercar that is built based on 3D printed parts,” Manny Vara of LMG PR tells 3DPrint.com. “It is very light and super fast — can you say faster acceleration than a McLaren P1, and 2x the power-to-weight ratio of a Bugatti Veyron? But the car itself is only part of the story. The company is actually trying to completely change how cars are made in order to hugely reduce the amount of materials, power, pollution and cost associated with making traditional cars.”

The vehicle, called the Blade, has 1/3 the emissions of an electric car and 1/50 the factory capital costs of other manufactured cars. Unlike previous 3D printed vehicles that we have seen, such as Local Motors’ car that they have printed several times, DM’s manufacturing process differs quite a bit. Instead of 3D printing an entire vehicle, they 3D print aluminum ‘nodes’ which act in a similar fashion to Lego blocks. 3D printing allows DM to create elaborate and complex shaped nodes which are then joined together by off-the-shelf carbon fiber tubing. Once the nodes are printed, the chassis of a car can be completely assembled in a matter of minutes by semiskilled workers. The process of constructing the chassis is one which requires much less capital and other resources, and doesn’t require the extremely skilled and trained workers that other car manufacturing techniques rely on. The important goal that DM is striving for, and it appears they have accomplished, is the reduction of pollution and environmental impact.

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Today, Czinger and the rest of the team at Divergent Microfactories will be unveiling their first prototype car, the Blade.

“Society has made great strides in its awareness and adoption of cleaner and greener cars,” explains CEO Kevin Czinger. “The problem is that while these cars do now exist, the actual manufacturing of them is anything but environmentally friendly. At Divergent Microfactories, we’ve found a way to make automobiles that holds the promise of radically reducing the resource use and pollution generated by manufacturing. It also holds the promise of making large-scale car manufacturing affordable for small teams of innovators. And as Blade proves, we’ve done it without sacrificing style or substance. We’ve developed a sustainable path forward for the car industry that we believe will result in a renaissance in car manufacturing, with innovative, eco-friendly cars like Blade being designed and built in microfactories around the world.”

Assembling of the 3D printed nodes and carbon fiber tubing to construct the chassis

The Blade is one heck of a supercar, capable of going from 0-60 MPH in a mere 2.2 seconds. It weighs just 1,400 pounds, and is powered by a 4-cylinder 700-horsepower bi-fuel internal combustion engine that is capable of using either gasoline or compressed natural gas as fuel. The car chassis is made up of approximately 70 3D printed aluminum nodes, and it took only 30 minutes to build the chassis by hand. The chassis itself weighs just 61 pounds.

“The body of the car is composite,” Vara tells us. “One cool thing is that the body itself is not structural, so you could build it out of just about any material, even something like spandex. The important piece, structurally, is the chassis.”

Kevin Czinger, Founder and CEO, Divergent Microfactories, Inc. with the Blade Supercar

The initial plan is for DM to scale up to an annual production of 10,000 of these limited supercars, making them available to potential customers. This isn’t all though, as DM doesn’t merely plan on just being satisfied by manufacturing cars via this method. They plan on making the technology available to others as well. On top of selling these supercars, they will also sell the tools and technologies so that small teams of innovators and entrepreneurs can open microfactories and build their own cars, based on their own unique designs. Whether it is a sedan, pickup truck or another type of supercar, it is all possible with this proprietary 3D printed node technology.

Pre-painted Blade supercar

The node-enabled chassis of cars built using this unique 3D printing method, are up to 90% lighter, much stronger, and more durable than cars built with more traditional techniques. Could we be looking at a great ideology change within the automobile manufacturing industry? Lighter, stronger, more durable, more affordable, environmentally satisfying vehicles are definitely something that just about anyone should consider a step in the right direction.

3D printing has been touted as a technology of the future, for the future, enabling individual customization of many products. Now, the ability for entrepreneurs to enter an industry previously overrun by huge corporations could mean a future with individualized, custom vehicles which perform and appear just the way we want them. If Divergent Microfactories has a say, this will be our future, and that future isn’t too far off.

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What do you think about this 3D printed supercar? Do you like the idea of entrepreneurs having an opportunity to fabricate their own line of vehicles? Is DM onto something with this unique method of automobile manufacturing? Discuss in the Divergent Microfactories 3D Printed Supercar Forum thread on 3DPB.com.

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by EDDIE KRASSENSTEIN | JUNE 24, 2015

3D printed model car shop

Posted on 24/08/201508/09/2015 by aneczka2307

http://3dprint.com/72827/ford-3d-store-printed-cars/

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Ford Launches Online 3D Printed Model Car Shop – Print Your Favorite Ford Car or Truck Today

The automobile industry has long been known to be one of the most aggressive when it comes to using 3D printing technology. In fact, car manufacturers were some of the very first businesses to utilize 3D printing in order to rapidly prototype various automobile parts and designs. This has been going on literally for decades, but in recent times, we have begun to see car manufacturers take the idea of 3D printing a few step further. There have been car parts which have been completely 3D printed, entire cars — in the case of Local Motors — that have been printed in plastic, and various other innovations going on within the automobile industry. 3D printing certainly has its place not only in current car manufacturing but in the future as well.

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Today, Ford Motor Company has informed 3DPrint.com that they are taking things to a whole new level when it comes to 3D printing. No, they aren’t 3D printing an entire car, nor are they allowing people to 3D print replacement parts, but what they are doing will certainly appeal to both fans of the company as well as car enthusiasts and collectors in general.

“Just in time for Father’s Day! Today Ford announced that it is the first automaker to open a one-stop 3D digital shop – the Ford 3D Store,” Ford Motor Company tells 3DPrint.com. “Now, with the help of Turbosquid, Ford fans can use advanced technology to make their own models of Ford vehicles or opt to purchase a 3D digital file from a growing library of more than 1,000 Ford vehicle images.”

Available to order models include the new Ford GT, F-150 Raptor, Shelby GT350R, Focus ST, and Fiesta ST with plenty more models coming in the very near future. These models are printed at 1:32 scale in plastic and are priced at $39.00. However, if you own a 3D printer yourself, or have access to one, you can purchase the 3D design files for a measly $4.99. This allows you to scale the car to whatever size you wish and print it out yourself.

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“3D printing at home is a growing trend, and it makes sense for us to offer our customers a chance to make their own 3D Ford models,” explained Mark Bentley, licensing manager of Ford Global Brand Licensing. “At Ford, we’re using 3D printing every day to rapidly prototype parts, and now we want to share that fun with our fans.”

So what exactly spurred Ford into making these incredibly detailed and accurate replicas available to 3D print? Seemingly it is the fact that researchers are predicting that sales of desktop 3D printers will exceed 1 million units within the next 3 years, over twenty times the number sold last year.

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The Ford 3D Store website has been built by Turbosquid, a company that specializes in selling 3D models and stock images. They have extensive experience when it comes to selling similar models which are capable of being 3D printed, so they have a clear understanding of IP laws and various methods of securing files. When users purchase a 3D model, they must agree not to distribute it elsewhere. This has the potential of bringing up an issue which certainly has been looming for the 3D printing space for the past few years. It should be interesting to see how companies like Ford and Turbosquid ultimately deal with such IP conflicts that may arise if people begin to freely share these files, without providing Ford with any royalties.

“TurboSquid already allows customers to purchase more than 1,000 unique, licensed digital images of Ford products ranging from the Model T to the all-new Ford GT,” said Bentley. “We’re at the forefront of licensing 3D automotive images, and it made sense that TurboSquid help us complete that connection to the consumer.”

Without a doubt, this is huge news for the 3D printing space. The idea that individuals can now purchase 3D printed models of licensed replicas, or the design files for these vehicles and then print them out themselves, is something that no other car manufacturer has yet to do. It should be interesting to see how well this business model works, and we will certainly be keeping an eye out for future models which are released to the Ford 3D Store.

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What do you think about this announcement? Will you be downloading and printing your own Ford vehicles anytime soon? Should other car manufacturers contemplate doing the same thing as Ford has? Discuss in the Ford 3D Store forum thread on 3DPB.com.

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by EDDIE KRASSENSTEIN | JUNE 11, 2015

Witch & Mix multiple colors in single layers

Posted on 24/08/201508/09/2015 by aneczka2307

http://3dprint.com/70852/multiple-color-3d-printing/

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Bradford Student Invest a 3D Printer That Can Print Witch & Mix Multiple Colors in Single Layers

College is a time for learning, partying, and finally living our lives away from Mom and Dad. Not only do we learn about scholarly subjects, but we tend to learn about ourselves and our future goals as well. For one University of Bradford student, Michael Hebda, college has provided him with the resources needed to bring a new type of desktop 3D printer into reality.

Hebda, who is graduating this summer from his BSc in Product Design at the prestigious university, actually got the idea for his creation while working at his job.

“I came up with the idea whilst working for Denford Limited on my placement year,” Hebda tells 3DPrint.com. “I worked fixing and maintaining regular 3D printers and was often asked by customers ‘Can the machines do colour?’. I had to always answer, ‘no, not really.’ When returning to the University to complete my Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Product Design I decided that was my final project; I wanted to create a machine which designers and engineers could use to create multiple colours within a single layer of printing, in order to create their prototypes, in what is now being dubbed as ‘Full Colour 3D Printing’, within online 3D printing culture.”

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Full color 3D printing is something which many believe will revolutionize the industry. The idea of 3D printing in virtually any color you want and mixing and matching colors in single layers, would give designers so much more ability. There have been several companies working on similar technology, some of whom have been successful and some of whom have not. However, Hebda’s creation is pretty unique.

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Hebda says that the main use for his machine will be for creating prototypes with more color blends and choices of materials. He wants to eventually iterate upon the 3D printer to give it the capability of printing in virtually any color possible. He hopes to do this next year as part of his Master’s research at the university. On top of this, he wants to also experiment with adding the option of using multiple materials per layer as well.

“Different materials could potentially be used and it is something I will hopefully be looking into in the next few months,” Hebda tells us. “I do not believe full colour printing has been achieved before using this method and will be looking into patent options. The printer is controlled using an Arduino board for prototyping purposes.”

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Hebda’s printer currently can print using three different colors of ABS filament. All three filament strands are fed through a single nozzle which is able to rapidly switch between them in order to print multiple colors within a single layer. The printer is capable of a resolution of 0.15 mm and has a build volume of 300 x 300 x 300 mm. As for speed, Hebda has not exactly done any calculations but tells us that the “average sized print, about the size of your palm, can be printed within an hour”.

It will be interesting to follow Hebda’s progress as he continues to develop this 3D printer further with the help of the University of Bradford. What do you think of this unique 3D printer? Discuss in the Color Changing 3D Printer forum thread on 3DPB.com.

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3dprint.com

by EDDIE KRASSENSTEIN | JUNE 5, 2015

3D Printed RayGun Shoots 7 Rubber Bands!

Posted on 20/08/201507/09/2015 by aneczka2307

http://3dprint.com/62498/3d-printed-rubber-band-raygun/

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This 3D Printed RayGun Shoots 7 Rubber Bands in Quick Succession

Creativity is endless when a skilled 3D artist is provided with a 3D printer, allowing him/her to turn their virtual models into tangible, real life products. The technology has brought to life some incredible inventions and innovations which have greatly enhanced the lives of others. At the same time, 3D printing has also allowed for these creative minds to have a little fun in fabricating things that would have only been dreamt of a few years ago.

For one freelance 3D artist, named Aiman Akhtar, who specializes in modeling characters, 3D printing allowed him to create a toy gun unlike anything we’ve seen before. Akhtar, who writes a monthly column for 3D World Magazine on the topic of 3D printing, seems to thoroughly enjoy the challenges that come with designing new products.

“Every month, I challenge myself to print something I have no clue how to make, then figure it out and take the readers on the journey with me. In the past months I’ve created an iPhone case, bobbleheads, fully articulated characters, 3D printed trophies, eyewear, and am currently tackling jewelry and wearables,” Akhtar tells 3DPrint.com.

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When you think of 3D printing, there are a ton of designs out there for objects that are cool to look at, but only a small percentage of the objects out there are actually functional. One of Akhtar’s latest projects was for something that not only is fully functional, but something that is a ton of fun to play with as well. He designed and 3D printed a rubber band raygun.

“I recently moved to Los Angeles and decided to visit the Rose Bowl Flea Market which takes place bi-weekly in Pasadena,” Akhtar told us. “There, on display, I saw some hand made, wooden, rubber band shooters and instantly knew I had to make my own custom 3D printed version. That’s the great thing about 3D printing, inspiration can come from anywhere and it’s the fastest way to go from an idea to a prototype. I took the toy apart that night and started redesigning it for 3D print.”

To design the gun, Akhtar searched around the internet for photo references of other raygun designs. He then used Photoshop to sketch out his various ideas. Once he had come up with an idea that satisfied him, he used ZBrush to sculpt the shape what he needed, before exporting it as an OBJ file into MODO to start building its functional parts. After all of the parts were designed, the models were brought back into ZBrush to key them all together, before exporting each part out as a separate STL file.

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In all, there were 21 separate pieces that needed to be 3D printed, including the trigger, hammer, barrel, sights, grip, internal keys, and more. Akhtar tells us that he could have easily 3D printed it in just five or six parts, and even perhaps as a single object, but he had a desire to make it as colorful as he could. Breaking it down into many individual pieces allowed him to do so.

Surprisingly, Akhtar doesn’t own a 3D printer himself. Instead, for this project, he used 3D Hubs to find an affordable printing service close to his home.

“I landed upon a small buiness called Cybertech, and submitted an order though 3D Hubs to their print lead, Israel Pena,” Akhtar tells us. “I gave clear specifications and color notes on how I wanted each part printed, and Israel took care of the rest. He used a MakerBot 5th generation, switching out the various color plastic spools as specified.”

After receiving the parts back, Akhtar put them together but found that the trigger was not flexible enough. It was too weak to stop the hammer, and upon trying to fire the gun, it snapped off. He quickly redesigned the trigger, and just as quickly had the new design printed out by Cybertech. He tells us that it “worked brilliantly” after receiving and assembling the revised trigger. It can shoot up to 7 rubber bands in quick succession, and it is one of the most beautiful toy guns you will ever see.

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The complete detailed tutorial on making this gun can be found in 3D World Magazine, issue 194, which can be purchased through iTunes or ordered as a physical copy through MyFavouriteMagazines. What do you think about this incredible design? Discuss in the 3D Printed Rubber Band Raygun forum thread on 3DPB.com.

3dprint.com

by EDDIE KRASSENSTEIN | MAY 5, 2015

MacklerMedia’s NYC Event

Posted on 20/08/201501/09/2015 by aneczka2307

http://3dprint.com/58588/worlds-largest-pure-3d-printing-show-mecklermedias-nyc-event-is-huge/

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‘World’s Largest Pure 3D Printing Show’ – MacklerMedia’s NYC Event is HUGE

The city that never sleeps may just be on the verge of becoming the 3D printing capital of the world. This week, MecklerMedia launched their much anticipated 3D Print Week NY event, bringing companies and individuals from all around the globe to the Big Apple in what has be building up to be one of, if not the, largest 3D printing events in history.

The city-wide event, which launched Monday, April 13th with SOLS Martini Monday includes individual events being held by various companies within New York City, as well as MecklerMedia’s own Inside 3D Printing Conference and Expo, and their 3D Print Design and Fashion Shows which are taking place at the Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. As a co-producer of these MecklerMedia events, 3DPrint.com had a feeling that this year’s show would not only be one of the company’s largest 3D printing events ever, but that it could potentially become the world’s largest event moving forward.

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“As of an hour ago (10:00 AM ET), [we’ve had] 11,100 pre-registered guests, with 53 countries represented [and] 44 U.S. states — Largest pure 3D printing show in terms of attendance worldwide.”

With all eyes on 3D printing this week, thanks to the Inside 3D Printing Conference as well as the 3D Print Design Show and 3D Print Fashion Show by MecklerMedia which officially kick off tomorrow morning, it is no surprise that most of the 3D printing stocks have been trading up considerably today. At the time this article was written, shares of Stratasys (NASDAQ:SSYS) were trading up an astounding 6.29%, while 3D Systems (NYSE: DDD) was up 6.06%, and Materialise (NASDAQ:MTLS) was trading up 2%. All three companies happen to have a huge presence at this year’s event, and the world seems to be taking notice. Coincidence? Probably not!

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With over 11,000 people who have pre-registered for the MecklerMedia events, this will certainly be one heck of a show, one which we at 3DPrint.com are excited to be a part of. It’s not too late to get tickets for the any of these shows, but hurry up because they are going fast.

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For those of you who do attend, be sure to stop by the 3DPrint.com booth, located in the 3D Printing Conference section, for a chance to meet some of our writers.

Will you be attending this event? Be sure to check in and discuss what you saw in the 3D Print Week NY forum thread on 3DPB.com.

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by EDDIE KRASSENSTEIN | APRIL 15, 2015

‘Membrane based’ 3D printer

Posted on 19/08/201501/09/2015 by aneczka2307

http://3dprint.com/54864/super-fast-3d-printer/

Student Creates Super Fast ‘Membrane Based’ 3D Printer – Prints 40 x 40 x 100 mm Objects at 10 Microns in 12 Minutes

It is truly amazing how quickly the 3D printing space is developing. Just two weeks ago we stood stunned as a company called Carbon3D unveiled a new breakthrough 3D printing process called CLIP. This process can supposedly print objects 25-100 times faster than other SLA 3D printers. Then just a week after that, Gizmo 3D unveiled another super fast SLA-based 3D printer which looks to challenge Carbon3D as far as speed and resolution go. Then just earlier this week we reported on a Chinese company, called Prismlab, which has shown off their incredibly fast SLA line of 3D printers, rumored to be able to print 2,712.27 cm³ of material per hour.

Now, 3DPrint.com has discovered yet another super fast SLA 3D printer created not by a large company, but by a college student named Bo Pang. Pang, a University of Buffalo student, majoring in Industrial Engineering, and graduating with a degree of Master of Science in May, has been researching 3D printing for the past 2 years.

It was also 2 years ago that Pang got the idea of creating a “continuous 3D printing process,” one which could greatly speed up 3D printing in general. The printer Pang has created was designed and fabricated last summer, and it’s just now that he is unveiling it to the world.

“Our machine is mostly similar with Carbon3D’s, but there is one important way in which we are very different,” Pang tells 3DPrint.com. “The Carbon3D machine uses an oxygen-permeable window to create a ‘dead zone’ (a thin layer of uncured resin between the window and the object). This dead zone guarantees the part can grow without stopping, and this is the key to the CLIP process. For our machine, we don’t use that oxygen-permeable window, but we instead use a special membrane to create that thin layer of uncured resin. There are 2 advantages of this special membrane. First, this membrane is much less expensive than the oxygen-permeable window, as it only costs about 1/100 of the price of the oxygen-permeable window. Second, this membrane is very easy to mold, meaning we can make this membrane almost any shape we want.”

So how fast is Pang’s innovative new 3D printer? Very! Featuring a relatively small build volume, it can print with an incredible X-Y axis resolution of 15 microns, and a Z-axis resolution of just 10 microns. He was able to 3D print a miniature Eiffel Tower measuring 10 x 10 x 20 mm in just 7 minutes and 26 seconds, a cubed truss measuring 7 x 7 x 7 mm in just 2 minutes and 7 seconds, and a larger 40 x 40 x 100 mm Eiffel Tower in just 12 minutes and 6 seconds (seen on videos provided).

While Pang’s invention is quite impressive, he is still working out some issues that his new system is experiencing.

“There are still some short-comings, and I guess even Carbon3D can’t solve this problem now,” Pang tells us. “The continuous process can print truss structures very well because there is a very small suction force for these prints. But for solid parts, like a cylinder, this process doesn’t perform well. When you’re printing solid parts, the suction force between part and the bottom of the tank will be extremely large. How to overcome this force is the key to printing solid parts. We just got an idea today for a solution to this problem, but we need time to test it. I believe we can figure it out soon.”

As for the cost of creating this unique 3D printer, Pang tells us he would estimate that it costs much less than $3,000. As for when he would plan to bring this printer to market, that still remains up in the air. Currently he just considers it a research project, but says that if he can obtain the right resources, he will consider mass production. He also said that he may consider using crowdfunding in order to raise money for the project.

Without a doubt, this is another super fast 3D printer that could challenge the likes of Carbon3D. While the build volume is pretty small, Pang tells us that he thinks that with some calibration he can expand this quite a bit. His next project is to attempt to 3D print a part measuring 50 x 50 x 140 mm in dimensions.

Pang himself is set to graduate from the University of Buffalo this May, and he has hopes of finding a job somewhere related to 3D printing. He feels that he has a very in-depth knowledge of the technology and could help many companies looking for someone with an interest and education in the field.

“I mainly focus on design, as well as build and calibrate new concept 3D printers, especially for the hardware and testing part,” Pang tells us. “I am also skilled in CAD software and hand-on skills. I have enthusiasm within the realm of 3D printings, I really hope I can work in this area for my whole career.”

Certainly any employer would be lucky to obtain the experience and knowledge that Pang has to offer. If anyone has any interest in speaking to Pang about a job opening, you can contact him via phone at (716) 435-7766, or on his LinkedIn account. (Note: the test was initially started on an EnvisionTec 3D printer, which Pang tells us is a very reliable printer).

What do you think about Pang’s new 3D printer? Will this be something that revolutionizes the desktop 3D printing space? Discuss in the Super Fast SLA 3D printer forum thread on 3DPB.com.

3dprint.com

by EDDIE KRASSENSTEIN | APRIL 2, 2015