We talk a lot about 3D printers, but most use plastic or resin materials. Rarely do we have the pleasure of seeing a ceramic 3D printer which uses honest-to-goodness earthen clay to print an object. The Cerambot does exactly that – it takes your standard Kaolinite clay material and allows you to builds shapes, sculptures…

Despite often being pragmatic to the point of dispassionate, it turns out that I am not immune to hype, particularly when it comes to 3D printers. So, I fell for the lure of MakerBot’s announcement of a new product reveal on December 11th featuring cryptic and tantalizing images of glass and angular enclosures. It was a…

We hadn’t heard much from Kodak on their new 3D printer for quite a while, but now they’re back in action. We first saw their machine earlier this year at CES, where they showed their Portrait 3D printer. At that time we noted that the machine included a number of fascinating features that were designed…

It’s no secret that commercial 3D printing has been taking giant technological leaps in the past few years—but bringing the price per part down has been a significant technological barrier for just about every industrial 3D printer manufacturer. With their recently-announced Metal Jet commercial 3D printing platform, HP aims to take what they’ve learned from…

Though 3D printing is imperative for many hardware developers, it’s usually the price of the printer that stops a lot of folks from purchasing their own—as opposed to using an office 3D printer or a 3D printing service. After all, a half-decent desktop 3D printer capable of keeping your tolerances tight can cost well over…

If you are a user of Simplify3D, you want to read this. Simplify3D is a third party 3D print slicing and print operation software tool. The theory is that the default software tools usually provided by the 3D printer manufacturer are sometimes incomplete in function. Simplify3D attempts to fill the gaps with more sophisticated functions…

Sponsored by Let’s say you sit down in your office chair, it absorbs you back to 1992 where a mustached salesman in a mauve shirt smiles and starts pelting you with hard drives. What a nightmare… And exactly how I feel about the process of evaluating 3D CAD software. I’ve been through it multiple times,…

Researchers at CMU’s Morphing Matter Lab have developed a technique for 4D printing that could prove popular. 4D printing, if you are not familiar, is a variation of 3D printing in which the printed object is not static but somehow changes shape after normal 3D printing completes. There are a number of research projects underway…

M3D is well known for their inexpensive desktop 3D printers, but now they’ve added a very different machine to their product line. The new “Crane Quad” system is a full-color desktop 3D printer with a price said to be less than USD$500. Previously the company marketed single or dual extrusion machines that proved very popular,…

If you thought 3D printing an entire jet engine was a ambitious task, you aren’t thinking big enough… at least as far as size is concerned. 3D printed houses have been attempted in various ways, but we’ve been keeping our eye on what non-profit organization New Story and for-profit construction firm ICON is doing. They…

This could be a very big idea: 3D Hybrid Solutions announced a system to convert everyday CNC machines into powerful 3D metal printers. The startup company, based in Los Angeles, offers add-on hardware that could become a tool in a multi-tool metal CNC machine. Typical competent metal CNC machines today offer the ability to mill…

If you’re involved in the engineering of products manufactured globally, chances are you’ve been personally affected by SNAFU’s on an epic scale. Despite your best efforts, you probably had to sacrifice some weekends, or late nights, or quality time with your kiddos, or at the very least, your blood pressure. Hey, it happens to the…

Count this one under one of the coolest engineering class projects, ever. JetX, an aerospace student team founded by University of Glasgow President Chris Triantafyllou, is currently working with Rolls Royce (yes, THAT Rolls Royce) to make the world’s first COMPLETE 3D printed scale jet engine model. Aptly named the X-Plorer 1, the engine measures…

As if printing your own desk toys and battle armor wasn’t enough, researchers up at the University of Washington have recently developed a method for transmitting data via Wi-Fi using 3D objects without the need for electricity. The objects in question use a series of 3D springs, switches, and gears to translate motion into data…

When 3D printing arrived, the public waited to see how it would change the world. While no major changes can be noted yet, as the cost of 3D printing drops and it slowly enters the mainstream market, businesses revolving around the technology are beginning to appear. By blurring the line between producers and consumers, and…

4-Mation Is A Series of 3D Modular Zoetropes With Swappable Animations Before the introduction of film and movies, pre-animation devices like zoetropes presented a glimpse into the future of moving images. Using a series of paintings or drawings in different phases of animation, a person could paint the illusion of an object (or objects) in…

3Devised is about to launch their new “PLUTO” desktop 3D printer on Kickstarter. The machine is resin-powered and uses the “top-down” approach, unlike almost every other SLA-style 3D printer, which tends to illuminate (usually with lasers) through the bottom of a transparent tank. Instead, the PLUTO fires its light downwards onto the (hopefully) flat and…

New Matter has released a new desktop 3D printer that improves on their original design. We first encountered the company some years ago and were impressed with their approach. While their device was quite inexpensive, it distinguished itself with a sophisticated cloud system to manage and operate the 3D printer. In other words, it was…

There’s a new online 3D CAD player in town and they’ve been gaining steam over the past year since announcing beta and opening up registration. SelfCAD describe themselves as an online browser-based 3D model, sculpt, print platform with a mission to “make 3D designing and printing accessible to everyone, including professional designers, as well as…

Germany-based voxeljet announced a new 3D printing process they call HSS. voxeljet is known for their line of very large format 3D printers, which are specialized for the production of casting molds. Many companies use voxeljet technology to produce large cast metal parts, and in many circumstances, do so much more effectively than using conventional…

Japan-based Mimaki formally announced a new and rather interesting full-color industrial 3D printer. The new machine, the 3DUJ-553 UV LED, is the first 3D printer for the organization, which to this point has produced only 2D color equipment. But they are a large corporation with decades of experience developing very high-quality printing solutions, today making…

An interesting technique used by some Ultimaker users could put a better finish on your 3D printed parts. It’s called “Neosanding” and is a way for flat surface layers to be “polished”, so to speak. The technique has been developed by Ultimaker forum moderator Neotko from Spain, who has recently posted a version 2 method…

Italy-based WASP announced a new version of their flagship 3d printer, the DeltaWASP 20 40 Turbo2. WASP has become very well known for their reliable – and sometimes overly large – delta-style 3D printers. They’ve developed equipment that can 3D print in a variety of unusual materials, including local clay, plastic pellets and other substances.…

For all the things it can create in its bosom, your average 3D printer is a lot of work. The best 3D printers are huge, expensive, and require more space than a young professional’s apartment can afford. On the flip side, cheaper printers are usually unreliable and are about as appealing to the eye as…

“It’s time we bring back the human touch, and get our hands dirty again.” Formlabs has introduced the Fuse 1 selective laser sintering (SLS) desktop 3D printer. It’s a slight departure from their resin-based 3D printer focus that catapulted the company to the heights as the standard for high-quality SLA parts. However, it lines up…

A startup company has launched a 3D printer specifically designed for clay 3D printing. ClayXYZ, found currently on Kickstarter, has developed a simple and low cost 3D printer that prints just clay. But it’s not any clay, it’s the commonly available “air hardening clay” that doesn’t require firing in a furnace as most clay does.…

Hot off the trail of their One DLP 3D printer debuted last year, Taiwan-based Phrozen is back, this time with Make, “the world’s most compact, reliable, and precise LCD light-cured resin 3D printer.” If that sounds like a mouthful, you’re right, but over 240 backers have already put Phrozen over their Kickstarter campaign target goal…

Stand-alone, desktop 3D printers seem to be going the way of the Dodo bird with the introduction of all-in-one machines, which offer more than simple printing. There are an increasing of companies who have eschewed traditional 3D printing to incorporate additional functionality. I used to think it was all a gimmick, but after seeing a…

Last week Carbon and Adidas announced a deal to produce 3D printed midsoles. But how big is this deal, exactly? It’s hard to gauge the magnitude of a business deal from popular reports, but I believe it can be estimated based on the statistics shown to the public. Carbon has developed a custom resin specifically…

While 3D printing might have lost its magic in the mainstream, there’s no denying that those that are still in the thick of it are coming up with ever more impressive ways of extruding melted plastic into functional objects. And for some, 3D printing is still a viable way for not just prototyping but also…

By itself, one isn’t all that impressive. But, bring enough of them together, and it’s certainly an impressive sight. Originally designed by researchers at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, the Perdix drone (formally Project Perdix) was built for swarming operations and tasked with airborne environmental monitoring. The tiny 6.5-inch drone was impressive enough in its swarming capability…

Netherlands-based 3D4Makers seems to have broken through a major barrier to producing unusual 3D print filaments in engineering materials with a new production system. The secret to their venture is a new filament extrusion system that differs significantly from typical filament production operations. But let’s see how most filament production is done. Most filament production…

3-in-1 is the name of the game for Febtop Tech with the introduction of their Optimus Transformable 3D printer, which boasts a multiple configuration design that includes a 3D printer, laser cutter and CNC mill. Considering this is the Swedish-based company’s first foray into the world of 3D printing it’s certainly impressive, but not the…

It’s embarrassing isn’t it? When you get caught in the garage with all the tires off, halfway between blowtorching the lower panels and wrapping tank tread around your freshly welded drive sprocket. Just tell your spouse the smell will dissipate over time. Then, quickly show them RC Speed Tank this to distract them. Sven Drechsel…

“Witness the world in living color” is more a phrase you’d like to hear a drunk Will Ferrall say, not a phrase usually associated with 3D printing. While some companies (botObjetcs, Spectrom, etc.) tried a slight-of-hand at producing full-color CMYKW prints, most of them fell short of delivering on their claims. Israel-based Something3D wants to…

You’ve likely been hearing a lot about something called “Machine Learning” lately, but could this affect 3D printing? Most definitely so! The concept of machine learning is simply the application of advanced algorithms against previously collected data to develop predications, classifications and decisions about future events. From the outside view it more or less mimics…

Remember when life was nothing but eating large amounts of pasta and disassembling engines? Yeah, that was the best! Especially the time you shot noodles out your nose and into the crankcase – that squirrel didn’t even know what was coming. Ah, simpler times perhaps. Though some would question their ability to launch noodles from…

You might be familiar with 3D Platform, a company dedicated to making large-format 3D printers. Now it seems they’re working on ways to make large prints much faster. Many of the currently available large format 3D printers are simply scaled up versions of RepRap-style extrusion machines. This style of machine works perfectly well at the…

You know that dream you have where you wake up and a robot is removing circuit boards from your chest and printing in new one? No? That’s just me? Well, BotFactory is the precursor to that eventuality, and their technology is so convincing that they just raised a $1M Seed Round of financing through New York Angels, with New York…

The promise of distributed manufacturing—when consumer products can be downloaded and manufactured by consumers locally—was always one of the highest hopes for desktop 3D printing. Unfortunately, that didn’t quite pan out. However, that’s not to say that the occasional project comes through that keeps the hope of distributed manufacturing alive. The SLO (Single Lens Objective)…

Fuel3D announced a new “mirror” 3D scanner that could lead to advanced eyewear applications. The company has long been developing 3D scanning equipment based on an unusual high-speed structured light system. Initially they produced a very effective 3D face scanner, the Scanify, used for both 3D printing and in 3D gaming. Since their introduction in…

It’s been nearly four years since WobbleWorks LLC. screamed onto the scene via Kickstarter and blew everybody away with the 3Doodler –– AKA “The World’s First 3D Printing Pen” –– to the tune of $2.3 million. Since then, the small company has maintained a small but loyal following of artists and retailers including the reputable MoMA…

Maryland-based startup M3D gained fame back in 2014 when they successfully crowdfunded their Micro 3D printer on Kickstarter in a matter of minutes (surpassing their goal of $50K and ending with over $3.4M). The fledgling company is hoping for a repeat performance with their latest edition of their 3D printer lineup–the M3D Pro, which again,…

I haven’t heard much from 3DPrinterOS for a while, but now the reason for this is clear: they’ve been working on powerful integrations. 3DPrinterOS is a cloud-based system for integration with common 3D printers, which tend to be rather dumb. 3DPrinterOS makes them a lot smarter by hooking them up to a cloud network where…

With 3D printing services popping up like dandelions across the nation, and UPS, Amazon and other major retailers hopping on the bandwagon, 3D printing is becoming more available to consumers. Home printer quality is hit or miss, to be honest. Even printers made from M3D, a bigger company, have their own share of issues. I…

What happens when aerospace specialists develop a motorcycle with bionic algorithms instead of calculating spaceship engines? According to Airbus subsidiary APWorks, the result is “the world’s lightest motorcycle,” AKA the 77-pound Light Rider. 3D printed with the company’s own Scalmalloy material – which they describe as being a 3D printing-optimized, aircraft-grade aluminum with the strength of…

Back when my generation were kids, we created projects using the most state-of-the-art technology on the market–Tinkertoys, Erector Sets and the eternally popular LEGO. It took a lot of imagination (along with cuts and bruises) to create projects that somehow always ended up being some crazy Rube Goldberg contraption. Imagine if we had access to…

Back when we caught our first glimpse of the 3D prints made using Multi Jet Fusion Technology in October of 2014, it became quite apparent to us that HP not only changed the game but effectively positioned themselves to control the entire court on which everybody plays. This morning, after years in development, the HP…

I’m viewing a very curious video from Tokyo-based ENOMOTO, who seem to have developed a 3D printer that can print in many directions.

It’s critical to make your company distinct, especially in the world of 3D design and digital fabrication. Manufacturers often boast about the capabilities and features of their 3D printers, such as printing with more than one material, fabricating at lightning speed or having a high resolution. While those claims are often true, few compares to…