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Archive for the ‘3D printing’ category: Page 140

Dec 12, 2013

London designer creates 3D-printed, regenerative running shoes from protocells

Posted by in category: 3D printing

Valentina Palladino

http://cdn0.sbnation.com/entry_photo_images/9548087/Protocell-Trainers-by-Shamees-Aden_dezeen_ss_3_large_verge_medium_landscape.jpg

At the Wearable Futures conference, London designer and researcher Shamees Aden debuted a running shoe concept that will put your worn out kicks to shame. The shoes, which he’s developing with University of Southern Denmark professor Martin Hanczyc, are 3D printed from a synthetic biological material that can repair itself overnight.

The running shoes are the product of Aden’s study of protocells. The basic protocell molecules are not themselves alive, but can be combined to create living organisms. Mixing different protocells creates different properties, and allows them to be programmed to behave differently depending on heat, light, and pressure. The shoes’ unique construction allows them to be 3D printed to the exact size of the user’s foot, so they would fit like a second skin. While running, the shoes would react to pressure and movement, providing extra cushioning when needed.

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Dec 11, 2013

3D Systems Leads 3D Printing Movement But HP Could Become A Major Player, Jefferies Says

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, business

The science-fiction-like world of 3D printing is starting to get some very real attention from Wall Street. This week Jefferies initiated coverage on the sector with “buy” ratings on three of its five major players – 3D Systems, Stratasys, and ExOne – and “holds” on the other two, Arcam and voxeljet. These companies could revolutionize mass manufacturing, Jefferies says, and could even get competition from a bellwether of the traditional printing industry: Hewlett Packard.

In a comprehensive, 97-page research note, Jefferies analyst Peter Misek writes that while 3D printing has been around since the 1980′s, a confluence of factors ranging from improvements in printer speeds to a greater availability of software that produces the digital designs used to create 3D printouts have brought the sector into the mainstream, and it will only continue its climb in years to come.

“Our base scenario envisions an eventual expansion of consumer 3D printers from its hobbyist base into a prototyping tool for ‘creative consumers’ and for home printing of toys to become mainstream,” Misek writes, defining ‘creative consumers’ as those who might favor the craft site Etsy. He says that 3D printing could eventually take a $12.5 billion chunk out of the $22 billion U.S. toy market for its ability to recreate action figures, building sets, craft supplies and more. While some companies insist this development is around the corner — 3D Systems is trying to get a $500 consumer 3D printer on the market in time for the 2014 holiday season — Misek thinks such products won’t debut until 2015 or 2016 at the earliest.

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Dec 9, 2013

International 3D Printed Drone Competition

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, drones

By On ·

3D printing specialists Solid Concepts is to partner with the wcUAVc for an international student competition to create state-of-the-art, affordable UAVs to seek out hot spots of human activity and warn national park rangers in time to save animals. With poaching still at large in national parks in Africa where staff are limited, the outcomes could be very beneficial indeed.

The wcUAVc, founded by Princess Aliyah Pandolfi – a well known animal preservation activist – sought out Solid Concepts earlier in the year for advise and sponsorship regarding this challenge. Pandolfi and Solid Concepts strongly believe that 3D printing, which has already helped to lower the costs of manufacturing in many other industries, could help to lower costs as well as enhance and widen possibilities for UAVs.

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Dec 8, 2013

‘The Hobbit’ and ‘Ender’s Game’ are making 3D printing Hollywood’s smartest new marketing tool

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, entertainment, media & arts

‘The Hobbit’ and ‘Ender’s Game’ are making 3D printing Hollywood’s smartest new marketing tool

December 4, 2013 8:16 AM

Hollywood, despite being ancient and entrenched, is embracing 3D printing in a big way.

To help market The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug, Warner Bros. will offer fans digital blueprints of “The Key to Erebor,” a key item from the series, which fans can 3D print on their own or send to a company like Shapeways to print for them.

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Dec 7, 2013

3D printed pizza is coming sooner than you think

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, business, food, fun

By

3d printed pizza

For some odd reason, pizza always seems to be at the forefront of emerging technology. It was the first food you could buy via online ordering, the first food to legitimately be delivered via drones, and now it’s dipping its saucy little Italian toes into 3D printing.

Natural Machines, a startup out of Barcelona, has developed a prototype 3D printer called Foodini that can pump out decent, edible-looking pizza just like a normal 3D printer pumps out custom-made lightswitch covers and drain plugs.

Dec 4, 2013

How 3D Printers Are Cranking Out Eyes, Bones, and Blood Vessels

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, bioprinting, biotech/medical, health

Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan on Gizmodo

How 3D Printers Are Cranking Out Eyes, Bones, and Blood Vessels

At the dawn of rapid prototyping, a common predication was that 3D printing would transform manufacturing, spurring a consumer revolution that would put a printer in every home. That hasn’t quite happened—-and like so many emerging technologies, rapid prototyping has found its foothold in a surprisingly different field: Medicine.

The following studies and projects represent some of the most fascinating examples of “bioprinting,” or using a computer-controlled machine to assemble biological matter using organic inks and super-tough thermoplastics. They range from reconstructing major sections of skull to printing scaffolding upon which stem cells can grow into new bones. More below—and look out for more 3D printing week content over the next few days.

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Dec 2, 2013

Law Banning 3D-Printed Guns Up for Crucial Vote

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, defense, engineering, government, law enforcement, open access, policy

3d-printed-gun

By Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was speaking at a government function in July when a man sitting a few rows behind him pulled a Liberator, the infamous 3D-printed gun that the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) recently defined as a “lethal weapon.”

The gun posed no real danger. The man bearing it was just a TV reporter trying to prove how easy it is to sneak a 3D-printed plastic gun past security checks that include metal detectors.

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Dec 2, 2013

New Tech and National Security Law – 3D Printing

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, complex systems, defense, engineering, geopolitics, military

By
Monday, December 2, 2013 at 7:00 AM

For those who haven’t been following along, this recent story about 3D printing of plastic guns should be a revelation. 3D printing is one of those technologies where the reality is fast outrunning our imagination. It is, in essence, the ability to construct a product from feedstock using a readily available “printer” linked to a computer where the source code for the product is executed. According the Washington Post’s story, the new plastic guns are capable of firing lethal rounds and, naturally, they are beyond the detection of metal detectors.

But for every “parade of horrible story” about 3D printing there’s also one of great promise. For example, NASA recently announced plans to send a 3D printer to the space station. This development, combined with the development of printing for metal objects (from liquid metal feedstock) means that many of our concepts of logistics will go out the window. If a manufacturer can construct metal parts from an easily transported feed stock then, as Andrew Filo, a consultant with NASA on the 3D space station printing project, said: “You can get rid of concepts like rationing, scarce or irreplaceable.” That’s a truly extraordinary development.

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Dec 1, 2013

GE Turns to 3D Printers for Plane Parts

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, business, engineering, human trajectories, robotics/AI

The GE90 is one of the world’s most powerful jet engines. GE plans to produce 100,000 3D-printed components for the next-generation GE9X and Leap models

General Electric (GE), on the hunt for ways to build more than 85,000 fuel nozzles for its new Leap jet engines, is making a big investment in 3D printing. Usually the nozzles are assembled from 20 different parts. Also known as additive manufacturing, 3D printing can create the units in one metal piece, through a successive layering of materials. The process is more efficient and can be used to create designs that can’t be made using traditional techniques, GE says. The finished product is stronger and lighter than those made on the assembly line and can withstand the extreme temperatures (up to 2,400F) inside an engine. There’s just one problem: Today’s industrial 3D printers don’t have enough capacity to handle GE’s production needs, which require faster, higher-quality output at a lower cost.


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