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,…
Some say 3D printing is not useful and is dying, but in fact our world is being slowly changed in fundamental ways behind the scenes. In factories around the world, designers and manufacturers are exploring the advantages of 3D print technology, trying to find ways to optimize their work. With the recent increase in awareness…
Think you need to be a 3D modeling pro to use a 3D printer? Think again. Consumers and the hobbyists among us can buy the equipment and start pumping out piles of plastic within the hour. We can even take local classes or find an online course, many free. Ah, what a time to be…
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…
Already considered one of the most reliable and user-friendly consumer desktop 3D printers, the Ultimaker 2+ now has an entirely new feature for those who need to prototype on-the-run. The 2 Go Backpack, which keeps an Ultimaker 2+ fully contained and protected for traveling by foot, bike or plane, is a packaging “mod” that adds…
A newly invented process could enable large-scale use of nano-printed metal materials. 3D printing is most often done at a visible scale, but for many years researchers have sought methods of printing materials at a nano scale to take advantages of molecular effects and microscopic structures. While many of these experiments have been successful, the…
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…
There’s been speculation for years now about whether giant Apple would ever sell a 3D printer. Turns out they have been for a while. There have been some tantalizing hints that the consumer giant would eventually market some kind of advanced 3D printer for consumers, and even some patents clearly in the 3D print technology…
Since raising over $350K for their desktop 5-axis CNC mill on Kickstarter last year, the husband and wife engineering team at hardware startup Pocket NC has shown no signs of slowing down their hustle to bring fabrication tools to desktops. Announced last week, The Machine Shield is the latest desktop fabrication machine from the Bozeman,…
Early last month, SolidSmack reported on an impressive large format 3D printer made from two $9.99 IKEA LACK side tables created by Northampton-based 3D printing enthusiast Wayne Mason-Drust – AKA the “Printtable”. Using an E3D V6 Titan Extruder with an MKS SBase controller and an MKS TFT using Smoothieware, the (
Every summer, thousands of people around the world flock to a handful of Greek islands to spend their summer vacations in a Mediterranean paradise. Similar to what happens in other seasonal small towns around the globe, this influx of vacationers tests the limit of small infrastructures designed for a very small population that lives there…
The excitement that used to come with each new “revolutionary” desktop 3D printer a few years ago has since quieted down in a major way. While technologies like HP’s Multi Jet Fusion and Carbon’s CLIP can hold their own and even generate mainstream news coverage, these are geared towards professionals at price points that are…
An experiment by researchers at the University of Copenhagen attempted to persuade an A.I. to create a 3D model from scratch. It did. It’s a peculiar approach that was used in this experiment, and is very similar to “genetic algorithms” in A.I. research. Here’s how it worked: The A.I. creates a random shape Images of…
You remember that dream of your fists being replaced by portals to one world with unlimited meat cannon buffets and the other to a world of candy dinosaur rides? Yeah, this Venus Box is exactly what those portals looked like. What’s even weirder is how you ALL had that same dream and wrote me about…
While it’s not uncommon to take 3D printed parts to a high-level of finished quality, it’s not necessarily something we tend to see too often when it comes to stationary toys and objects that have become synonymous with consumer FDM 3D printers. At their headquarters in Brooklyn, NY, the Locknesters team of toy designers are…
There’s an interesting option available for those requiring a large-format desktop 3D printer: the T-Rex from FORMBOT. The open-style cartesian 3D printer appears to have a simple design, but there are some very interesting features beyond the basics of 3D printing. The most important feature, of course, is the huge build volume, which is measured…
Except for perhaps the Raspberry Pi or Arduino, few products are as capable of going from zero to hero with a little DIY ingenuity than IKEA furniture – otherwise known as IKEA Hacks. At its core, an IKEA hack is a modification or repurposing of an IKEA product that breaks into the IKEA code of furniture…
Earlier we published a story on the massive CoLiDo Mega 3D printer, but some believed the print was faked.It does look a bit surreal in the image, however. For those accustomed to printing smaller items on smaller 3D printers, the sight of a giant print may seem, well, impossible.
The force has always been strong when it comes to interest in Star Wars prop replicas, but Disney and Lucasfilm have always relied on licensing official designs and schematics to third-party companies. While the resulting products may hold up well when it comes to sales numbers, they’ve been a far cry from what would be…
UK-based Laykanics is an interesting service that offers monthly 3D print-based project kits that I think could be very suitable for educators looking to expose students to 3D printing.
Yeah, so here’s the thing. When your kid ask why you have a superhero’s head with knives stuck in it sitting on your countertop, you can say, “Did I ever show you how to make Chimichangas?” But why do… “CHIMICHANGAS!!” It’ll all make sense. And how do you get a superhero’s head on your countertop.…
Presented by For those who have visited, it’s slightly difficult to pinpoint exactly what makes Amsterdam such an attractive city. No matter how you describe it, though, few cities are capable of melding that old European charm with the attributes of a modern metropolis quite like Amsterdam can. It should come as little surprise then,…
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…
The folks at E3D are most well-known for their very popular hot-ends, which are installed on many desktop 3D printers. Now they’ve taken a step out of bounds to produce a pretty amazing filament.
Rockers. Triggers. Directional Pads. No matter how you use them, nothing yells control quite like physical buttons do. Unfortunately, incorporating working analog controls into a piece of hardware is more often than not significantly more difficult than it sounds. From an industrial design perspective, buttons can both be a blessing and a burden. While size,…
Although it has advanced significantly within the past few years, the process of going from CAD model to 3D printed object is still a bit rough around the edges – particularly in industrial applications. Aiming to expand their 3D printing ecosystem with a refined design-to-print workflow for product designers, engineers and 3D printer operators, Stratasys…
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…
As predicted, hot off the (literal) heels of HP’s unveiling of their HP Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution this morning, the first of many companies have stepped forward in support of incorporating Multi Jet Fusion technology into product development processes and low production runs. First up to the plate is none other than Nike – consistently…
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…
As the latest in digital fabrication technologies – such as 3D printing in multiple materials – become more affordable and widespread, the promise of a supply chain-disrupting distributed manufacturing future – at least, for some products – continues to look more promising. As we continue to navigate the landscape of 3D printing and other digital fabrication…
There have been multiple attempts to develop a feasible method of 3D printing buildings, and Branch Technology is trying another method.
Responsible for churning out everything from construction helmets to hot tubs, vacuum forming is easily one of the most fascinating forms of manufacturing for the non-technical crowd due to its relatively simple process: heat plastic and pull it around a shape to create multiples of that shape. Aiming to package this vacuum forming experience with…
A new filament from Avante demonstrates how much more advances in 3D printing filament chemistry can achieve. The new FilaOne GRAY filament from Avante Technology is one of very few materials specifically designed for 3D printing engineering applications. Avante explains: FilaOneTM GRAY provides very high flexural modulus, yet can bend and recover without crack- ing…
The consumer 3D printing landscape has changed dramatically since MakerBot Industries stormed onto the scene in January of 2009. While any new company can expect its fair share of ups and downs, navigating the rocky road of lofty consumer expectations for 3D printers – combined with a surge of competitors from nearly all corners of…
As any hardware developer worth their salt knows, getting part dimensions accurate is key for success in manufacturing and ensuring that assemblies fit together in the real world as intended. Among other common problems that can occur and cause a domino effect disaster down the line include mismatched fastener hole placements and loose or overhanging…
When it comes to the expansive community of product designers focused on 3D printing as their medium of choice, few have offered more in the way of pushing the boundaries of what’s possible than Emerging Objects. Between printing a Utah Tea Set out of actual tea to creating a 3D printed house that you’d actually…
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…
Back in December of 2015, Alex Bolderoff and Joe Mosfet of Arcadian 3D came together to bring the ARC-one 3D printer to the world through crowd-funding website Kickstarter.
Despite the growing excitement around some of the latest additive manufacturing technologies, producing multiple plastic parts is still best left to traditional manufacturing methods – particularly injection molding. That said, there’s no reason why the two can’t continue to live in harmony as different respective steps of the design and production process. To further explore the…
Although support material is a necessary part of the additive manufacturing process, it is far from desirable due to the time required to carefully remove it and finalize a print’s surface quality. But what if the support material became an actual part of the design of a product itself? In a recent collaboration with Materialise,…
It’s no secret that the announcement of Carbon’s M1 3D printer is big news – but it’s not the only 3D printer that’s turning heads this week. Aiming to empower designers and engineers with the ability to 3D print nearly any product in a single process, Stratasys yesterday unveiled the world’s first 3D printer capable…
Since storming onto the 3D printing scene with a jaw-dropping TED presentation in March of 2015, Dr. Joseph DeSimone – CEO and Co-Founder of Carbon (formerly Carbon3D) – has fought relentlessly to bring his revolutionary CLIP (continuous liquid interface production) technology to market. Now, just a year later, the public can get their hands on…
In what is likely going to be a more commonplace business strategy for some hardware developers, Valve, creators of the popular Steam gaming platform, have released the mechanical CAD geometry for their popular $49.99 Steam Controller. Under Creative Commons licensing, the geometry for all of the externally visible parts is free to download in a…
I have no earthly idea how we walked down dark halways prior to having smartphones. Anyone remember? Surely it was too dark to even venture out or, my goodness, GO DOWN STAIRS?! Smartphones have changed things. Soon, we may be asking, “How did we 3D print things before smartphones?!” If the OLO 3D printer is…
Autodesk just revealed their plans to jump from desktop 3D printer/platform development to taking on high-production industrial machining. And it goes way beyond hardware. A few years ago, we wouldn’t imagine Autodesk even getting into hardware. We joked about them producing their own 3D printer, then they did. But one little ol’ 3D printer, with…
It was exactly a month ago when Mattel and Autodesk teamed up to introduce the $300 Thingmaker 3D Printer; an updated take on the toy company’s original household “toy” manufacturing device of the same name from the 1960s. Not surprisingly, other toymakers want to get in on the “affordable” digital fabrication revolution, too. Hasbro – a…
Between a colorful variety of open source sex toys and the ability to have 3D scans of a fetus 3D printed for sharing with the whole family in advance of birth, you’d think we’ve seen the full gamut of possible uses for today’s digital scanning and fabrication technologies. If the Nudee from UK-based Firebox is…
In case you’ve been sitting there staring at your new 3D printer for two weeks straight, wondering what to do next, and you’re badly in need of a shower, we’ve got some news for you. The sharp all-things-3D teaching team over at SolidProfessor has two new 3D Printing courses that are bound to get you…
We’ve seen how viable direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) is as a method of reliably producing metal parts in industries ranging from aerospace to dentistry – but what about industries that regularly depend on structures made from multiple metal materials for different structural needs? Standing at the intersection of machine learning, advanced printers and cloud software…
For years now, the promise of on-demand athletic shoe manufacturing hasn’t lived up to its hype. While the top brands have presented various interpretations of what a “3D Printed Shoe” would or could look like, little has trickled down to the consumer other than the option to customize colors a la Nike iD. Needless to…