3D Printing: The Stories We Didn’t Cover This Week — May 23, 2015

IMTS

Share this Article

This week’s stories we didn’t cover move from small daily details, like 3D printed bowls we can slurp from, all the way to a new industrial-size metal printer from Additive Industries that allows for 72-hour print jobs requiring no operator intervention. In between, there’s much to mull over. A Kickstarter campaign for a 3D printed smart fart monitoring device (yes, it’s true); a shoe company that uses scanning technology for customized shoes designed just for your feet; an online jewelry company’s new model service; a lampshade designing workshop offered by 3D Hubs and Autodesk; and a drone for hiking so we don’t get lost in the woods. On the hardware side, stories include–along with Additive Industries’ new Metalfab1 industrial metal printer–Stereolabs’ new depth-sensing camera and Budapest-based Do3D’s new DLP printer. From cereal bowls to a smart fart device and new hardware options, we aim to please all of our readership’s diverse 3D printing news interests!

3D Printed Slrp Bowl for The Child in All of Us

slrpThere are many kinds of food that leave traces at the bottom of the bowl: cereal leaves milk, soup leaves broth, and there’s leftover sauces of all kinds, too. The temptation to tip the bowl back and just, well, slurp the remainders begins at a young age. Some of us are admonished at this behavior because slurping is a pretty messy process. But now there’s a new Kickstarter campaign to launch Slrp–a 3D printed, BPA-free, dishwasher-safe bowl. The goal of the four fathers and one friend who designed the bowl, based on the observed needs of their own families, is to raise $70,000 by June 2nd. A backing of $21 will get you two bowls as an early bird special, so head on over to Kickstarter if you are interested in slurping to your heart’s content.

3D Printed CH4 Smart Fart Tracker

fartSpeaking of Kickstarter, would you be shocked to hear that a 3d printed fart tracking device--worn in a back pocket or backside of a belt, which monitors your gastrointestinal output so you can make dietary adjustments–did not reach its goal of $120,000? (The device’s creator raised only $3,827.) People seem open to much electronic mediation of their lives in the form of having our sleep and exercise monitored, but I guess people just aren’t as open to having their farts/food monitored…yet. Only time will tell!

Volumental 3D Scans Feet for Shoe Sizing

footNow, if a slurpable bowl and a fart tracker just don’t get your attention as immediate needs that should be fulfilled, what about customized shoes made just for your foot shape and size? This is not a new idea, and the proof of which companies survive the body scanning applications will be in the wearability of products actually delivered. Conceptually, yeah! It makes sense to wear shoes that really fit: especially if you are in between official sizes or have specific foot issues such as hammer toes or flat feet. Volumental makes use of existing scanning hardware, but has developed new software that takes a 3D image of a foot and archives a 3D model of it for size referencing purposes. The company hopes its platform will be used by brands in a retail environment, and eventually with scanners embedded in smartphones in a few years. The days of trying on countless shoes are no doubt numbered!

SUUZ 3D Printed Jewelry Offers Sample Service Now

dutch-3d-printed-jewelry-maker-suuz-launches-3d-printed-sample-model-service-1Before you finalize your order for a custom 3D printed piece from online jewelry maker SUUZ, you can now receive a 3D printed red plastic sample model of a ring, for example, which is shipped within two working days. Netherlands-based SUUZ has offered online 3D printed jewelry since 2012, but now the company realizes the key to excellent customer satisfaction. If you have someone taking time out to customize her own jewelry, then she’s going to also want the jewelry to fit perfectly too, right? SUUZ has eliminated the luck portion of the process, and now allows you to see and try on a sample that’s 3D printed on a DLP printer before you get the real ring in gold, silver, etc. The company will also, when you order the final piece in metal, take off a discount in that price, making the test model ultimately no extra cost in the final order.

3D Hubs and Autodesk Offer Lampshade Design Workshop 

lampNext weekend, 3D Hubs and Autodesk are offering a workshop for people to receive a crash course in the Autodesk Fusion 360 design software by creating their own lampshades. The workshop–An Introduction to 3D modelling in Autodesk Fusion 360 New York– will take place at 3D Hubs’ New York City office on May 30 and the event includes a $15 print voucher to have your design printed via a local 3D Hub location, as well as plenty of creativity-feeding snacks and drinks. You’ll also be able to meet other 3D printing enthusiasts while you design and print your very own lampshade.

3D Printed “Sprite” Drone Monitors Hiking Conditions

droneLost hikers in the woods–the stuff that many a horror film is made of–might be a thing of the past, as we consider how a rugged, 3D printed drone called the Sprite, now on Kickstarter seeking to raise $200,000 by June 13th, can change your relationship to your hiking terrain in real time. The device includes first-person perspective, waypoint navigation, and a follow-me feature, all while using 1080P high-definition video with 2-axis stabilized gimbal. Sprite also supports existing and very useful open source UAV apps–DroidPlanner, MissionPlanner, and Tower–that map territory, create flight paths, orbit points of interest, and control the drone via smartphone or tablet. The Sprite’s designer, Ascent Aerosystems, knows how 3D printing can set a product apart, too. This drone is durable and tough, able to land in rough terrain, and its also small enough for easy portability. It could even be used to help find lost hikers in an emergency situation. A Sprite can be pre-ordered through Kickstarter now at the $799 backing level.

Stereolabs Launches ZED, the Long Range Depth-Sensing Camera

zedThe ZED 3D Camera speaks to the scanner mania that is upon us, as scanner technology and its related software becomes more commonplace, and physical replicas of any and all existing bodies and objects can proliferate. This new camera, from San Francisco-based Stereolabs, is depth-sensing–which allows scans from far away. The ZED uses CUDA, a programming model that runs thousands of simultaneous calculations using NVIDIA graphics hardware. Real time depth mapping can be performed at 15 frames per second with resolutions up to 4416×1242. Then ZED software changes this data into 3D point cloud, where conversion to 3D print files can occur or Intel’s OpenCV library for motion tracking and gesture recognition can be used. This relatively affordable  package goes for $449, which includes the ZED stereo camera, tripod, the software development kit, hardware drivers, and a 2-meter USB 3.0 cable.

Budapest Do3D’s New G1 DLP 3D Printer

dlpHungary is getting further into the 3D print manufacturing scene with the new high-resolution 3D printer: G1 DLP from Do3D. What makes this printer different? Digital Light Processing (DLP) uses photopolymers that are cured by a light source, allowing for highly-accurate high resolution parts without large machinery. The Budapest-based company’s G1 DLP System is the first of a product lineup. It includes up to 20 micron resolution with a build volume of 100 x 80 x 150 mm. Different resins are being developed for the machine as well. Aimed at small- and medium-sized businesses, this machine is made to create parts quickly, with little time wasted on set-up and operation.

Industrial Metal Printer, Metalfab1, from Additive Industries

logoAdditiveIndustriesFrom small- and medium-sized business to large-scale industry: Netherlands-based Additive Industries created much hype at last year’s Euromold with still fairly secretive news of their development of a new metal printer that promises to be an industry-changer. The Metalfab1 now has a name, as well as more information released regarding its upcoming launch. Some of the highlights of its much-touted specs include: automated build platform, material, and post processing handling allowing it to run for 72 hours straight without operator intervention. The machine was announced at RAPID this week, and co-founder and CEO Daan A.J. Kersten told TCT Magazine that the MetalFab1 will launch in the fourth quarter of 2015, with beta customers receiving the first machines in early 2016.

Let us know what you think of these news pieces in this week’s Stories We Missed forum thread over at 3DPB.com.stories we missed

 

Share this Article


Recent News

Will There Be a Desktop Manufacturing Revolution outside of 3D Printing?

Know Your Würth: CEO AJ Strandquist on How Würth Additive Can Change 3D Printing



Categories

3D Design

3D Printed Art

3D Printed Food

3D Printed Guns


You May Also Like

Featured

Pressing Refresh: What CEO Brad Kreger and Velo3D Have Learned About Running a 3D Printing Company

To whatever extent a business is successful thanks to specialization, businesses will nonetheless always be holistic entities. A company isn’t a bunch of compartments that all happen to share the...

Würth Additive Launches Digital Inventory Services Platform Driven by 3D Printing

Last week, at the Additive Manufacturing Users’ Group (AMUG) Conference in Chicago (March 10-14), Würth Additive Group (WAG) launched its new inventory management platform, Digital Inventory Services (DIS). WAG is...

Featured

Hypersonic Heats Up: CEO Joe Laurienti on the Success of Ursa Major’s 3D Printed Engine

“It’s only been about 24 hours now, so I’m still digesting it,” Joe Laurienti said. But even via Zoom, it was easy to notice that the CEO was satisfied. The...

Ricoh to Open 3D Printing Center of Excellence at North Carolina State University

Japanese 2D-to-3D printing firm Ricoh is further extending its activities in the additive manufacturing (AM) sector, this time partnering with North Carolina State University to establish a Center of Excellence....