E3D-Online has nearly completed its beta test of an unusual tool-changing 3D printer. The UK-based company is most well known for their powerful and reliable hot ends and extruders, which are used in countless 3D printers made by dozens of manufacturers worldwide. But they’re also working on an advanced 3D printer. Their “tool-changing” 3D printer…

Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed an extremely interesting process that is quite different from current approaches to 3D printing with photopolymer resin. The researchers sought to eliminate one of the most pervasive problems when 3D printing photopolymer resin: window adhesion. Window adhesion occurs when the light engine solidifies liquid material at the…

Formlabs is introducing two new resins this week at CES while showcasing end-to-end workflow with 3D printing. There will be plenty of 3D printing at CES this year, but it may not always be so obvious as in years past when rockstars came to big-name 3D printer manufacturers’ booths to talk up consumer usage. In…

Materialise published a series of trends and we have some thoughts. Materialise is one of the larger and more notable 3D print services in the industry, and they’re one of the oldest as well. They work with global businesses to help produce 3D prints in many ways, including software and services. Recently they published 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…

I’m looking at some material from Robotfactory and noticed that print quality challenges are quite different. Robotfactory is an Italian 3D printing startup that produces the Sliding-3D desktop device, which we wrote about earlier this year. This is a highly unusual 3D printer that can print continuously. And by “continuously”, I mean literally continuously: the…

RS has announced the availability of a new BETA version of DesignSpark Mechanical. This 3D CAD tool is available at no charge from RS, so long as you register an account with their system. It’s a comprehensive 3D CAD development tool that works only on the Windows platform, in both 32 and 64 bit modes.…

One of the hardest tasks in 3D printing is the production of highly complex figurines in color material. 3D printing of figurines has long been a popular activity among desktop 3D printing enthusiasts, and particularly among gamers. Very often you will see game pieces being 3D printed, either original or stock designs. The first problem…

Autodesk is making very significant changes to their Fusion 360 product offerings. Fusion 360 is Autodesk’s flagship 3D design tool that is offered in a cloud-based subscription service. The system provides not only CAD, but also CAM, simulations and even generative components. It’s proven quite popular in certain circles. As of October 7th, they will no…

A group of self-described “anarchist biohackers” has designed a lab reactor that people can make at home out of 3D-printed pieces and off-the-shelf parts, which could potentially enable people to synthesize their own medications. The Four Thieves Vinegar Collective was founded by mathematics professor Michael Laufer in 2015, on a platform of ensuring that people…

After watching a video of Prusa Research headquarters, it’s increasingly obvious that time is up for new 3D printer startups. The video, produced by 3D printing YouTube Channel 3DMN and appearing below, is an informal tour of the Prusa Research manufacturing site, where that company produces thousands of desktop 3D printers each and every month.…

Mosaic Manufacturing announced their latest 3D printing product, the Palette 2. If you’re not familiar with the original Palette and Palette+, you should be, as they are among the most unique 3D printer accessories one could consider using. They can literally change a single extruder desktop 3D printer into a multi-material machine – without altering…

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…

The FormBox is an inexpensive table-top vacuum former, and they say it’s “a perfect partner for your 3D printer”. What’s a vacuum former? A vacuum former a simple manufacturing system that uses molding principles to form 3D shapes. The idea is to heat a thin sheet of thermoplastic to the point where it is soft…

An interesting 3D camera has launched, the Wunder360 S1. This is a 360-degree camera, similar to one you may have or others you’ve likely seen: it captures visual activity happening all around you. It’s developed by Evomotion and a follow-up to their highly-rated Wunder360 C1 camera. But the S1 adds quite a bit more. It’s…

An anonymous tipster has provided the solution to last week’s Solidscape event. If you missed it, Stratasys unexpectedly sold their subsidiary, Solidscape, to Prodways for an undisclosed amount of cash. Solidscape produces high-end wax 3D printers mainly for the jewelry industry, whereas Prodways delivers large-scale production 3D printers for industry–quite a bit different. Our thought was that…

Aerosint has received a large funding round to support their highly unusual 3D printer development. The company, based in Liges, Belgium, has produced a rather unusual 3D printing process that to my knowledge has not been used elsewhere. While we wrote about it in detail some time ago, I can summarize it as follows. Aerosint uses a…

Dassault Systèmes, producers of the popular SOLIDWORKS 3D modeling system, announced an educational partnership that may suggest something interesting. The company struck a deal with UMass Lowell to jointly open a “digital learning center” on campus to “let engineering students get hands-on experience in designing and creating products for the Experience Economy”. They explain further:…

The company launched their product not too long ago but is receiving a great deal of attention and one might say their venture is entirely successful. In today’s ultra-competitive professional 3D partner market it is often difficult for companies to stand out among the dozens of alternative machines. AON3D decided to focus on 3D printers…

I’m looking at a very interesting concept 3D printer from engineer Swaleh Owais. The “WorkHorse 3D” is a 3D printer able to do some functions few other machines can accomplish. First, it is one of several “continuous” 3D printers in that it can, by itself, automatically unload prints and commence 3D printing a subsequent object.…

Researchers from MIT have developed a new technique to enable highly detailed, multi-material 3D prints from 3D scanners. “By using voxel-printing methods, superfluous preparation overhead and loss in detail can be prevented. This approach enables one to directly translate volumetric property gradients to 3D printable material gradients. Hence, if preservation of the given data representation…

I’m reading a brief analysis by Gartner’s Pete Basiliere on how 3D printing could affect business models. Business models, of course, are critical devices for the successful operation of a business. They define how money is spent and collected based on the creation and distribution of value to clients. Companies without business models are not…

Nike announced a new “3-D Printed” running shoe, but it seems a bit strange to me. The new shoe, released in time for the famous London Marathon, is made using their new “Flyprint” method. This is quite a competitive move, as their major nemesis, Adidas, has been 3D printing amazing midsoles using Carbon’s technology in recent…

FoldStar provides a very unusual 3D model generation system. The New Jersey-based company’s product, by the same name, is a generative system to dynamically create 3D models of folded geometry. Here’s how it works, in their words: Doubly-Periodic Folding Tessellations are a versatile family of deployable materials that repeat a pattern in “row” and “column”…

A French company, Bombyx Prod, has devised a different way to provide 3D print services to manufacturers. The problem being attacked here is the low-volume production market. This market exists because there are those who require smaller volumes of products than would otherwise justify the expense of setting up a traditional manufacturing line. Several 3D print…

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…

Call me surprised, but Ultimaker is moving ahead rapidly. The company embarked on a tricky strategic change a couple of years ago and now it seems to be paying off with a blockbuster announcement from Bosch. The giant manufacturer has agreed to equip their worldwide offices with Ultimaker 3D printers. This could amount to thousands…

We’ve heard a lot about “personal” 3D printing in the past, but perhaps it’s time for “personalized” 3D printing. By “personal” 3D printing, I mean the ownership of a 3D printer and production of objects for personal use. This was, and probably still is, the vision for consumer-based 3D printing. While there was a great…

I’m reading more about the concept of “metamaterials”, and believe this is a lot more important than I imagined. What Are Metamaterials? But first, what are metamaterials? They are simply 3D objects that gain their properties from an ingenious internal structures. In other words, an object made of metamaterials may adopt different engineering properties compared…

At CES last week, I noticed something interesting at the T3D booth. If you recall from our previous stories, T3D is a 3D printing startup that produces a clever desktop 3D printer that re-uses your own smartphone as the printing engine. The T3D mobile desktop 3D printer uses a resin process to create solid objects. Photopolymer resin is…

A 3D printer manufacturer has a new application target: foam! Foam, you ask? Everyone is familiar with foam, as it’s been around for decades. Foam has been traditionally produced with a chemical reaction process: resins are mixed that produce countless small bubbles. These bubbles become fixed when the resin solidifies shortly thereafter. Foam is incredibly…

Formlabs announced a new “color kit” for their equipment. The company has marketed resin-based desktop 3D printers for years now, but until recently had a rather limited selection of resins. At the beginning they had only a standard utility resin available in grey and clear colors. Times have changed; Formlabs now offers a wide variety…

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…

Something quite interesting was observed at the recent FormNext exhibition. This year’s FormNext was indeed the largest dedicated exhibition of 3D printing equipment, materials, and services ever held in human history, with 420 exhibitors and over 20,000 attendees. However, I noticed something very interesting when compared to the same show last year. This year there…

We’ve just done a quick test of a new 3D model repair tool, CUR3D Maker Edition. The need for 3D model repair tools has never been higher, with the number of 3D printers increasing rapidly around the world. 3D printers and their software typically treat poorly formed 3D models in a bad way, often resulting…

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…

MakePrintable announced an interesting integration with Cura that should make life much easier for many 3D printer operators. Recap: MakePrintable is a startup that offers a very powerful 3D model repair service. Their cloud-based software seems to be able to repair even the most awfully formed, but still STL-syntactically correct 3D models. I’ve tossed some…

MatterHackers announced a new, upgraded 3D printer set-top controller, the MatterControl T7X. MatterHackers, a California-based 3D print reseller, markets a variety of different 3D printer brands and a wide set of filaments as well, but to us they are most well known for producing a very interesting set top box for typically “dumb” desktop 3D…

3DAGOGO, the startup company behind 3D print cloud service provider Astroprint, is attempting to raise funds through crowdsourcing. The MicroVentures campaign intends on raising at least USD $50,000 for the company, with a maximum amount set at USD $500,000. As of this writing, early into the campaign, they’ve raised a little over USD $20,000. On…

Stella, a “Polyhedron Navigator” provides a way to very quickly view and generate almost any type of 3D polyhedron you can imagine. What’s a 3D polyhedron? While you may bump into them in real life constantly, it’s a geometric concept that encompasses a broad set of possible objects. Wikipedia defines them as: In geometry, a polyhedron (plural…

With Mercedes-Benz announcing last year that it is now selling 3D printed spare parts for its cargo trucks, 3D printing is gaining momentum as a commercial strategy for large-scale manufacturers. But what does 3D printing mean for non-enterprise businesses and entrepreneurs? Can 3D printing really offer ordinary people the chance to change their lives? As the technology…

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.…

Entertainment giant Disney has published (pdf) an interesting study on a compliant mechanism system they’ve developed to assist in 3D design, which could be very useful for 3D printing. What is a “compliant object”? They explain: Fueled by progress in technology and computation, however, many fields of engineering have started to embrace deformation and to leverage flexibility…

MyStemKits announced an international expansion of its 3D printing kits and curriculum, which could eventually lead to breakthroughs in 3D print use worldwide. MyStemKits is a US-based organization that provides educational packages for students and teachers to learn about 3D design and print in the classroom. We’ve written about them previously when they launched larger quantities…

There are 3D print fashion designers, and there are fashion designers who go a bit farther. One of them is Francis Bitonti. Bitonti has been working in the 3D print field of fashion design for many years, and we’ve seen his works at multiple exhibitions. In fact, our records show that he’s been awarded Fabbaloo’s…

From something quite obscure a few years ago, 3D printing is now at the point where you can obtain a degree focused on the technology. 3D printing, or Additive Manufacturing, as it is sometimes known, has long been a single-course subject in engineering schools, or as a tool one might learn as part of lab…

Though 3D printing was slow to catch on when equipment was expensive and resources were hard to come by, we’re living in a different world now. 3D printing jobs are in demand. 3D Printing Jobs on the Rise Many companies and private individuals are embracing the convenience and practicality that come with 3D printing. As…