3Dvarius debuts – check it!

Posted on by aneczka2307

http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/3dvarius-debuts-as-first-fully-playable-3d-printed-violin-1.3189914

French violinist Laurent Bernadac spent years designing 3Dvarius, billed as the first playable, 3D-printed violin. Its streamlined design was inspired by the classical world's much-coveted Stradivarius violins.

3Dvarius debuts as first fully playable 3D-printed violin

French violinist spent years designing futuristic, minimalist instrument.

A Stradivarius violin is considered one of the world’s most coveted classical instruments, but amateur musicians could soon be jamming on homemade Strads.

French violinist Laurent Bernadac has unveiled 3Dvarius, billed as the first fully playable 3D-printed violin.

The translucent creation is inspired by the much-coveted instruments created by Italian master Antonio Stradivari in his legendary Cremona shop in the 17th century.

However, the design was then stripped down to be as lightweight as possible and allow for extreme freedom of movement for contemporary musicians.

The 3Dvarius is essentially an electric violin and uses a magnetic pickup to detect the vibrations made by the strings and must be plugged into an amplifier.

Produced as a single piece using stereolithography – a 3D technology that prints models one layer at a time by rapidly curing a liquid polymer using UV lasers – the model had to be strong enough to withstand the tension and pressure of violin strings, which also have to be tuneable.

Bernadac revealed one of the first successful prototypes, nicknamed Pauline, in videos released this month.

The musician, whose high-energy performances blend the traditionally classical instrument with guitar, the cajon percussion box and other sounds, has spent the past few years designing the futuristic-looking 3Dvarius.

References:

cbc.ca

http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/3dvarius-debuts-as-first-fully-playable-3d-printed-violin-1.3189914

Italian fashion wear

Posted on by Malta 3D Printing

Breathing Life Into High Quality Italian Fashion Wear

http://www.cnet.com/news/multimaterial-3d-printing-brings-italian-fashion-to-life/

Multimaterial 3D printing brings Italian fashion to life
Gruppo Meccaniche Luciani has created a six-piece fashion collection built using multi-material 3D printing.
Multimaterial 3D printing is opening up a brave new world of fashion possibilities, and the Stratasys Objet500 Connex3 is leading the charge. Gruppo Meccaniche Luciani – a Corridonia, Italy-based manufacturer of moulds and other tools for making footwear – has designed a collection to showcase its new service called rapid prototyping.

“3D printing enables us to offer a new line of items to our clients. We can design and 3D print realistic prototypes in a matter of hours and incorporate any required design iterations before starting full production,” said Gruppo Meccaniche Luciani’s Elisa Luciani.

The collection consists of six items: thee pairs of shoes, a bustier, a bracelet and a rigid, single-material handbag, designed to showcase the intricate work that can be achieved with 3D printing – both with multiple materials, in different colours and textures, achieved with the printer’s triple-jet design; and in the complexity of the designs themselves.

The bustier features a cutout in the middle, bordered by black curves contrasted with a pointed prism pattern, and filled with curved lines, in a soft, flexible material – Stratasys’ family of rubber-like materials – that is more comfortable to wear than hard PLA material.

“Our main requirement was to produce a highly-detailed, realistic wearable. Using Stratasys’ materials, we were able to 3D print a top with varying levels of softness that could be worn in direct contact with the skin,” Luciani explained. “The ability to combine rigid and soft materials simultaneously is unique and would have otherwise entailed manual manufacture and individual assembly of each material.

Meanwhile, one of the pairs of shoes is printed in both rigid and soft materials in two colours for a visually compelling, brightly coloured look; another has a complex, angular latticed design, which fits around the curved shape of the shoe itself.

“When designing the shoe we were concerned about the rigidity and resistance of the heels, but the 3D printer’s ability to combine varying densities of rigid and soft material simultaneously enabled us to manufacture the whole shoe in one print,” Luciani said.

CNET.COM
by | March 9, 2015 10:58 PM PDT

3D printing used to build houses

Posted on by Malta 3D Printing

For the architecture and construction fans; How 3D printing (and mud) may play a significant role in the buildings of tomorrow.

http://www.inside3dp.com/houses-future-3d-printed-mud/

WASP

Houses of the future could be 3D printed from mud

We’ve written about how 3D printing has not made a significant impact on construction. It seems this may be changing. One company has not only taken this industry head on, but it’s helping the poorest in society at the same time.

Italian firm WASP is using 3D printing to build affordable housing in poverty stricken areas. The printers use organic materials such as mud and natural fibers that are readily available and turns them into dwellings that can be easily transported to wherever is needed.

The inspiration for the idea came about after founder, Massimo Moretti, watched a particular type of wasp, a mud dauber, build its nest by depositing and shaping wet mud. Moretti wondered why he couldn’t use nature to build affordable houses in the same manner. And so the idea for his innovative project was born.

Using 3D printing and the natural resources, Moretti was not only able to reduce the cost of building, but the speed in which they could be constructed. Moretti’s company is rather appropriately called WASP. It actually stands for World’s Advanced Saving Project, and is dedicated to providing affordable housing to impoverished people worldwide, using inventive technology.

3D printing sturdy structures

A scaled down version of the WASP project was showcased at the Maker Faire in Rome, Italy, earlier this year. The faire is a mecca for debuting innovative technological projects from all over the world, and the WASP project was well received.

Mud huts are not a new as human dwellings, but the way the WASP project constructs them are. By 3D printing them in blocks, there is a much larger surface area, which means that they dry more quickly than traditional thicker bricks.

As the 3D bricks are triangular shaped, this also means that they are stronger and can hold more weight than a traditional rectangular brick, whilst also using less material. Using this shape of brick creates a larger interior space compared to traditional bricks, meaning homes can be built that are ten feet tall.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about all this is that you don’t need specialist printer. The 3D printer used for printing the mud bricks is fairly standard. You simply feed the mud and fibers into the extruder head and program whatever shape brick you require.

From idea to reality

Whilst no new houses have been built yet, WASP hope to start construction on their very first dwelling early next year. And although there are no plans for locations either, rumors are that the first mud houses could be situated in Sardinia, the Italian island just off the coast.

While this may be an odd choice for their first project location, the team at WASP state that they are keen to keep their first location close to home. This will enable them to iron out any problems that may occurs with the first build. After that, they are likely to move on to more remote areas.

INSIDE3DP.COM
by Janey Davies | Oct 20 2014 , 10:42:04