SimplyColor3D has now now moved to version 2.0, and it includes a lot more features. With the increased availability of multi-color 3D printers, there is a demand for multi-color 3D models. However, there’s a huge problem: there are hardly any such models available in popular 3D model repositories. In fact, I took a cruise through…
German startup iFactory3D has now launched their inexpensive belt 3D printer on Kickstarter. Inspired by the 3D print community, Artur Steffen and Martin Huber developed an open source belt 3D printer design way back in 2018. They posted this design on Thingiverse, and apparently received demand from visitors to provide a kit to build the…
Adobe announced the coming availability of a new feature in their Capture app: Scantastic. The Capture app, which is available for iOS and Android platforms, has been around for a while and has been used in the Adobe ecosystem for capturing vector graphics. One of the frequently used functions in graphics arts is to convert…
MakerOS produces a cloud-based system designed to assist companies “making” things for others. While that sounds straightforward, it’s actually quite a complex set of tasks: product designs must be iterated, discussed with clients, invoices sent, files shared, and more. All of this must be tracked as well, and done at scale. MakerOS provides a platform…
An incredible demonstration of the capabilities of belt 3D printers has been completed: a 20 foot (6-meter) long part has been produced. Karl Brown of NAK 3D Designs achieved this incredible feat on a pre-release version of the upcoming 3DPrintMill from Creality, likely as a demonstration of its capability. Belt 3D Printers Belt 3D printers…
Crocs, Inc. is an American company based in Niwot, Colorado that offers comfortable leisure footwear and is known for innovation. In 2020 Crocs sales have surged partly due to people staying at home in response to COVID-19. The company saw a 14% increase in March 2020 when compared to 2019 sales numbers. Crocs has done…
I’m reading a fascinating story about how a small motorsport company is using 3D printing in a very different way. The company is Finland-based JML-Sports, which is an automotive company specializing in rebuilding decades-old “cult cars”, like the Toyota Celica or the Mitsubishi Lancer. It’s the brainchild of Finnish rally car driver Jari-Matti Latvala, Latvala…
BMF has released details about their new industrial-grade 3D printer targeting the micro parts market – the microArch S240. Projection Micro-Stereolithography The Boston-based company has been on our pages earlier this year when they revealed their technology. The resin-based 3D printing process they use is called “PμSL”, for “Projection Micro-Stereolithography”. PμSL is able to achieve…
Software company nTopology has announced a hefty Series C funding round set to accelerate its offerings of engineering design tools for advanced manufacturing. The $40 million round is led by Insight Partners and joined by Grant Verstandig and existing venture partners Root, Canaan, DCVC, and Haystack. Insight Partners’ Josh Fredberg is joining the nTopology Board…
I bumped into a 3D print accessory I’d never heard of, and think it’s a pretty good idea. The accessory is “Plastic Repellent Paint”, distributed by Slice Engineering. They are a reseller of unusual components for 3D printing since 2017, and their product line consists of a few exotic hot ends, replacement parts, accessories, and…
It seems that Creality is developing a belt-driven 3D printer, and that has several implications. Creality is well-known for producing several very popular and inexpensive desktop 3D printers that have gained lasting places in the community. The CR-10 was perhaps their first big hit, followed by the immensely successful Ender 3. Most recently they updated…
MakerBot announced a new service called MakerBot CloudPrint, which is intended to deliver a seamless 3D printing experience to clients. MakerBot Print Up to now MakerBot 3D printer operators would use MakerBot Print to prepare and schedule jobs for attached MakerBot devices. That tool has been around for several years, and it’s proven to be…
There’s now at least one new app that takes advantage of Apple’s new LIDAR capability. A few months ago Apple unexpectedly announced a new iPad Pro model equipped with LIDAR. LIDAR is a range-sensing technology that is often used in high-end equipment for 3D scanning, particularly for landscapes. Seeing it appear in an affordable consumer…
Arkansas-based AMBOTS is developing a concept called “Swarm 3D Printing”, describing themselves as “an advanced manufacturing company with a focus on swarm 3D printing and assembly” that will bring us “the next manufacturing revolution.” “This technology aims to automate manufacturing with a swarm of smart and autonomous mobile robots, from everyday products to houses and…
Researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed a method of using holography in 3D printing. Holography is an optical method of producing and recording a three-dimensional light field by using multiple light sources to create an interference field. You’ve likely seen holograms from time to time; they are those strange images that suddenly burst…
Today I’m looking at a 3D printer I had not seen before, the Incus Hammer Lab35. Incus Background Incus is a spin off of Austria-based Lithoz, who have done very well with their line of ceramic 3D printers. Now it seems they’ve leveraged their expertise to produce a metal 3D printer that is capable of…
Researchers at UC Davis have developed an unusual new form of 3D printing that uses Droplet-Based Multiphase Emulsion. One of the big challenges in 3D printing is the inability to handle multiple materials. Typical 3D printers of today can 3D print a single material at a time, with certain more advanced models being able to…
A new online service has emerged that hopes to guide 3D printer operators to better printing parameters: 3DOptimizer. FabControl SIA, the producers of 3DOptimizer, seems to be a spinoff from well-known 3D printer manufacturer Mass Portal. Their claim to fame was being able to achieve 3D prints of astonishing quality, so there’s definitely skill present.…
Note: This is concept software! Interested in available 8-bit/DOS modelers? Check out Magicvoxel, 3D Studio DOS, or Mikshape3D! Game developer Johan Peitz posted a tweet recently with a video of a project he’s working on called “PICO CAD”. It’s a kind of 8-bit 3D modeling system to develop very simple 3D objects. We don’t yet…
The idea of parallel 3D printing is incredibly powerful. The rap against 3D printers has long been that they are monumentally slower than traditional manufacturing equipment to produce finished units, even though they are able to make objects of any design on the next print job. This slowness has sometimes been the reason for not…
If you happen to own stock in Nano Dimension, it’s definitely your lucky week, as the price quadrupled after a surprise announcement. The company announced a breakthrough in its technology that will be of significant interest to the industry. Nano Dimension produces equipment to 3D print circuit boards. While circuit boards are essentially 2D structures,…
Miele, the high-end German manufacturer of consumer goods, now offers downloadable 3D models for printing. The company produces a wide array of top-notch consumer products, including vacuums, stoves, refrigerators, washers and dryers, wine coolers, dishwashers, coffee makers, and much more. Last year their revenue exceeded €4B, making them one of the largest producers of appliances…
VELO3D announced the availability of a new alloy of aluminum for use in their Sapphire series of metal 3D printers. The California company has been quietly developing new materials for the Sapphire system, which recently gained a new, tall option. The stretch version of the Sapphire 3D printer sports a 1m tall build volume, and…
Did you know Autodesk is providing free access to Fusion 360 due to the crisis? Fusion 360 Features Autodesk’s Fusion 360 system is a powerful cloud-based CAD tool that can provide both beginners and full-time professional designers a worthy experience. The system includes a wide variety of CAD features, including 2D sketching, 3D modeling, simulation,…
I thought I’d heard all I needed to know about 3D printed corals some years ago, but I was wrong. Some years ago, D-Shape, a then-emerging construction 3D printer manufacturer, demonstrated a way to 3D print coral reefs using their concrete printing process. Essentially they developed a rough design for a coral-like concrete structure, then…
I’ve bumped into a very interesting technique that could save an enormous amount of support material and 3D printing time. Support structures are an inevitable aspect of 3D printing: some geometries are simply not capable of being printed without support for overhangs exceeding the threshold of your device. Typically this ranges from 45 to 60…
I’m reading a paper from Texas A&M University researchers that discusses the notion of using in-situ materials for additive manufacturing of buildings. When you learn more about this concept, I’m sure you’ll agree with me that it is a sweeping change in philosophy regarding construction in general, rather than simply a new material for construction…
I’ve received a detailed update from Photocentric regarding a spectacular improvement in their COVID-19 production rate. If you recall, last week I reported on the Photocentric’s efforts to mass-produce a disposable ventilator valve. This component is, in some areas, in short supply and thus there could be interest in being able to produce them quickly. …
During the crisis, many are anxious to “do something” to help, and 3D print experts are stepping up to do their part. Many groups and companies have organized COVID-19 projects to help hospitals, redirect their resources to manufacturing essential goods, and other ventures. But on an individual basis, it can be more challenging to figure…
Ultimaker has released a new version of Ultimaker Cura 4.5, and as usual there are a couple of very interesting new features. Ultimaker Cura, formerly known simply as Cura, is perhaps the most popular 3D print slicing system. There’s a good reason for that statistic, and it’s because Ultimaker chose to release it as an…
Matt Boyle is the VP of Engineering at Shapeways and, in a recent post from him on StackOverflow, reveals some of the methods the company uses to provide high-speed, global 3D print services. Shapeways History Shapeways has been one of the longest-running 3D print services available to the public. They launched in the Netherlands long…
Essentium announced a pair of new materials for its high-speed 3D printer. The Texas-based 3D printer manufacturer’s claim to fame is its highly engineered HSE series of 3D printers that can operate at 3D print speeds unseen in most other FFF devices. They are able to do so due to the precise engineering of the…
The biggest thing to hit 3D printing in the next few years is likely to be volumetric 3D printing. But who’s developing it? If you haven’t seen Fabbaloo’s previous questions about volumetric 3D printing on the tech, let’s start with a quick overview. Volumetric 3D Printing Volumetric 3D Printing projects the form of an object from…
Researchers have developed a complex system that is able to 3D print tiny structures at very high speeds. There are few vendors providing microscopic 3D printing today, but those that do enable the production of incredible microscopic devices, lenses, and components. Many use what’s called the “two-photon” approach, where light is focused deep within a…
Recently I’ve seen moves by several 3D printer manufacturers to position their equipment for use in specific industries, and this is a strong trend. Let me explain my thinking here: years ago, when the initial 3D printing patents expired, a large number of 3D printing startups appeared. Most tended to offer very basic equipment with…
I’m looking at how a 3D print company provided colorful 3D prints for sale using commercial designs. We’ve all seen this many times, where a popular character from the movies, TV, games or other mass media has been somehow reproduced in 3D form and placed on sale. The question is whether this is done legally. …
A young engineering student found a way to deliver 150 3D printed robots to students. Danielle Boyer is a nineteen-year-old engineering student with a passion for 3D printing and STEM. She’s the founder of a non-profit, The STEAM Connection, which develops accessible educational materials designed to increase thinking and diversity in students. Boyer is clearly a…
I spoke with Paulo Kiefe, the founder of STEMFIE, a new site dedicated to providing 3D printable construction set components. The site, as you might gather from its name, is focused on providing an ability for students to learn principles of construction. STEMFIE provides an “open educational construction set” for making new designs. Aside: It…
I’m looking at an interesting project undertaken by Protolabs, the well-known manufacturing service. The project in question is the curiously-named “Wayzn Slide”, a smart robotic door opening system designed for pet access. It’s a mechanism that attaches to a standard sliding door and can open and close the door automatically. It does this through a…
After reading yet another mainstream publication talk about “3D printed human organs” I thought it wise to share my thoughts about the five most frequently heard myths of 3D printing. These myths have been around since I started in this business over 12 years ago, and for some unexplainable reason, they have not gone away.…
Protolabs has selected two innovative designs as their Cool Idea Award: Healthcare Grant. Protolabs is a well-known 3D print and manufacturing service based in Minnesota, and they’ve been operating an awards program they call the “Cool Idea Award” since 2011. Since inception, the program has awarded projects some $1.5MM USD in services to aid in…
Researchers have been exploring new concepts for developing metamaterials. Metamaterials are small mechanical structures made from one or more basic materials, but the motions possible in the structure exhibit more complex behaviors. A very simple example might be to 3D print a spiral structure – but at the same time creating a “springy” material. The…
Industrial giant Siemens acquired Atlas 3D to add to their growing additive manufacturing portfolio. Somehow I missed this in the Formnext Frenzy, but on 12 November Siemens and Atlas 3D announced the Indiana-based startup was to be entirely acquired by Siemens. Sunata Features We’ve followed 3D Atlas for a few years now and were impressed…
Stratasys announced a new workflow system, GrabCAD Shop. GrabCAD GrabCAD is Stratasys’ main 3D model repository, having acquired it from independent owners way back in 2014. Stratasys bills it as: “The largest online community of professional designers, engineers, manufacturers, and students” And this is likely true, as they say there are currently over 6,550,000 members.…
I was a bit shocked when I saw a press release from Israel-based Modix that touted a coming “Personal Car Factory 3D Printer”. Could someone 3D print their own car? It seems to me that level of additive manufacturing tech is still a bit into the future. Maybe quite a bit. But it turns out…
Autodesk seems to be tightening up their rules regarding use of the popular Fusion 360 CAD system. The company moved the product to a subscription-based cloud system a couple of years ago and then simplified their licensing levels. This is a very common practice in the software industry as it provides significant advantages: a near-100%…
There are plenty of uses of 3D printing, and one of them is for design feedback. The most frequent use of 3D printing is prototyping, in which a proposed model of the final design is produced and tested. The testing can take many forms, from mechanical to aesthetic, and this approach has been very successful…
They say space exploration is good because it generates “spin-offs”. Well, here’s one to add to the list. Over the past couple of years NASA has been searching for solutions for 3D printed structures in space. Specifically, on the Moon and other planets. Instead of developing the technology themselves, they used crowdsourcing to generate unique…
miniFactory has announced the release of a series of technical datasheets that should enable engineers to more easily use their 3D printers. Finland-based miniFactory (not be be confused with London-based 3D model repository MyMiniFactory) has been producing high-end desktop 3D printers for many years. We first saw them in 2013 when they exhibited a device…
Researchers at the Berkeley Lab have developed a technique for 3D printing liquid structures that are reconfigurable. Microscopic Machines The researchers were experimenting with ferro-fluids, which are liquids infused with ferric nanoparticles. These iron oxide particles are only 20 nanometers across, so they are extremely tiny. The liquid was 3D printed into 1mm droplets through…