3D Printer Buying Guide 2018
Since our buying guide last year, a lot has changed in 3D Print-Land. More functional desktop 3D printers have emerged, and a slew of competitors entered the low-cost 3D printing space. All of this competition is good for you, the 3D printer buyer. It may also be very confusing. To help you out we’ve evaluated […]
Since our buying guide last year, a lot has changed in 3D Print-Land. More functional desktop 3D printers have emerged, and a slew of competitors entered the low-cost 3D printing space. All of this competition is good for you, the 3D printer buyer. It may also be very...
The Future of Open Source Desktop 3D Printers
A few weeks ago a spat erupted between popular low-cost 3D printer manufacturer Creality and 3D printing retailer Printed Solid. This public spat highlights some of the core issues affecting the 3D printing community today. In short most “open source” 3D printers are not in a meaningful way giving back to the community. They use […]
A few weeks ago a spat erupted between popular low-cost 3D printer manufacturer Creality and 3D printing retailer Printed Solid. This public spat highlights some of the core issues affecting the 3D printing community today. In short most “open source” 3D...
3D Printing Crime, The Dark Web, Bitcoin and The King of Queens
That 3D printing could be used for crime was already on many people’s minds years ago. Law enforcement agencies have been learning about 3D printing for the past few decades in order to discover how it can be used for crime. Whereas the popular media has focused on 3D printing guns, actual criminality with 3D […]
That 3D printing could be used for crime was already on many people’s minds years ago. Law enforcement agencies have been learning about 3D printing for the past few decades in order to discover how it can be used for crime. Whereas the popular media has focused...
How Much Will The University Tuition Be For My Robot Love Child?
What will the future bring us? Will technology save or damn us? In the past antidotes to techno-optimism could readily be found in Aldous Huxley and George Orwell. Decades ago they had peered into our murky futures and what they saw was: emerging dystopia. Huxley saw a stratified caste- driven mass consumption cargo cult devoid […]
What will the future bring us? Will technology save or damn us? In the past antidotes to techno-optimism could readily be found in Aldous Huxley and George Orwell. Decades ago they had peered into our murky futures and what they saw was: emerging dystopia. Huxley saw...
Will Google's Downloadable 3D Objects Help or Hinder 3D Printing?
Google just released an experimental version of Article, a 3D viewer for AR. The viewer lets you on your desktop or in the browser: look at, manipulate or view 3D models. Article also works with AR (augmented reality) – in an AR capable browser on a device the Article can be selected, a crosshairs is […]
Google just released an experimental version of Article, a 3D viewer for AR. The viewer lets you on your desktop or in the browser: look at, manipulate or view 3D models. Article also works with AR (augmented reality) – in an AR capable browser on a device the...
What the Apple 3D Printing Patents Mean for Our Industry
Recently Apple has been granted a patent for a color 3D printing idea whereby the printed object is first made and then colored in afterwards. This idea is a straightforward one; using it one could print an object using FDM for example and then later color it with an inkjet print head. This method would […]
Recently Apple has been granted a patent for a color 3D printing idea whereby the printed object is first made and then colored in afterwards. This idea is a straightforward one; using it one could print an object using FDM for example and then later color it with an...
The Top Ten Most Significant 3D Printed Things: The Results Are In
First I came up with a list of the 10 most significant 3D printed things, then this list was expanded upon to include 24 and you could vote to determine once and for all what in 2017 would be the Most Significant 3D Printed Thing. I’ve tabulated your results and the winners are……. 10. CRP […]
First I came up with a list of the 10 most significant 3D printed things, then this list was expanded upon to include 24 and you could vote to determine once and for all what in 2017 would be the Most Significant 3D Printed Thing. I’ve tabulated your results and the...
3D Printing at Dutch Design Week: The Klokgebouw
During Dutch Design Week, the city of Eindhoven becomes a hub for design. Over a quarter of a million people attend and there are over 100 venues and 2500 participating designers. Events, presentations and shows (and many parties) are held all across town. The Klokgebouw is but one building of the entire series of events. […]
During Dutch Design Week, the city of Eindhoven becomes a hub for design. Over a quarter of a million people attend and there are over 100 venues and 2500 participating designers. Events, presentations and shows (and many parties) are held all across town. The...
3D Printing at the Design Academy Graduation During Dutch Design Week
In an old Philips factory in the center of Eindhoven the Netherlands lies the Eindhoven Design Academy. In the heart of a city built by manufacturing and the first consumer electronics boom, some of the world’s best designers are educated. Across the street in a tiny building is Philips’ first factory. Here over a century […]
In an old Philips factory in the center of Eindhoven the Netherlands lies the Eindhoven Design Academy. In the heart of a city built by manufacturing and the first consumer electronics boom, some of the world’s best designers are educated. Across the street in a tiny...
Using Metal 3D Printing to Make an Innovative Bike Part
EOS GmbH is the market leader in metal and plastic powder bed fusion systems. Also called selective laser sintering, laser sintering or SLS. The metal variants are called Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS), Selective Laser Melting (SLM), Laser Melting and many other things. These industrial 3D printers are high throughput manufacturing solutions. I’m personally a massive […]
EOS GmbH is the market leader in metal and plastic powder bed fusion systems. Also called selective laser sintering, laser sintering or SLS. The metal variants are called Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS), Selective Laser Melting (SLM), Laser Melting and many other...
A Kosher High with a 3D Printed Medical Marijuana Inhaler
Israeli drug delivery company Syqe Medical has made a 3D printed medical marijuana inhaler. This intersection of all the buzz lacks only in a nanomaterial and big data, or it would be the sole thing spoken about on Earth today. The company’s inhaler can control the doses and is a metered dose cannabis and plant […]
Israeli drug delivery company Syqe Medical has made a 3D printed medical marijuana inhaler. This intersection of all the buzz lacks only in a nanomaterial and big data, or it would be the sole thing spoken about on Earth today. The company’s inhaler can control the...
We Need To Talk About Fablabs
Fablabs are wonderful things. Places to congregate, learn and experience, they’re a haven for makers. For many, the fablab was the first place where you saw a 3D printer and got the chance to operate one as well. You learned to weld or solder at one and made your first proper thing at one: your […]
Fablabs are wonderful things. Places to congregate, learn and experience, they’re a haven for makers. For many, the fablab was the first place where you saw a 3D printer and got the chance to operate one as well. You learned to weld or solder at one and made your...
Self Peeling Droplets: Can Droplet Control Help Improve 3D Printing?
MIT researchers Kripa Varanasi, Jolet de Ruiter, and Dan Soto have recently published a paper in Nature Physics detailing how they can control the adhesion of droplets on surfaces. By changing the thermal properties of a surface, the team has found that they can control if the droplet falling onto that surface will stick, bounce […]
MIT researchers Kripa Varanasi, Jolet de Ruiter, and Dan Soto have recently published a paper in Nature Physics detailing how they can control the adhesion of droplets on surfaces. By changing the thermal properties of a surface, the team has found that they can...
Vote for the Most Significant 3D Printed Thing in the World 2017
Soooo….a few weeks ago I released the definitive, totally unsurpassable Top 10 3D Printed Things. It turned out that sadly some mere mortals did in fact disagree with me. I’ve decided to do a rather more democratic approach. I’ve made a new list based on my initial suggestions, some more I came up with, coupled with […]
Soooo….a few weeks ago I released the definitive, totally unsurpassable Top 10 3D Printed Things. It turned out that sadly some mere mortals did in fact disagree with me. I’ve decided to do a rather more democratic approach. I’ve made a new list...
Flexible 3D Printing Filaments
Flexible 3D printed materials have a lot to offer us. Rather than just make rigid things, flexible materials can let us make wearables, shoe soles, clothing and other things such as buttons. Flexible materials such as FlexPLA, Polycaprolactone and some Nylons have been used. Most popular on the desktop are TPUs (Thermoplastic polyurethane, which may […]
Flexible 3D printed materials have a lot to offer us. Rather than just make rigid things, flexible materials can let us make wearables, shoe soles, clothing and other things such as buttons. Flexible materials such as FlexPLA, Polycaprolactone and some Nylons have...
Monoprice's Push To Europe and the $200 3D Printer
Monoprice was like a Banquo at the banquet for the European 3D printing community. The US-based company was making waves online with its inexpensive 3D printers but Monoprice itself was nowhere to be seen. Little understood or known, the company was selling tens of thousands of units. This changed at the TCT Show, where for […]
Monoprice was like a Banquo at the banquet for the European 3D printing community. The US-based company was making waves online with its inexpensive 3D printers but Monoprice itself was nowhere to be seen. Little understood or known, the company was selling tens of...
Incoming: A Third Wave of 3D Printing Companies
The first wave of desktop 3D printing startups were bootstrapped companies that started with kits. MakerBot and Ultimaker are examples of these companies that were pioneers in the desktop 3D printing market. Relying heavily on their communities for ideas, feedback and product development, they took simple kits and made them more sophisticated. They moved to […]
The first wave of desktop 3D printing startups were bootstrapped companies that started with kits. MakerBot and Ultimaker are examples of these companies that were pioneers in the desktop 3D printing market. Relying heavily on their communities for ideas, feedback and...
Aposema: 3D Printed Soft Robotics Masks
Soft robotics is a new area for many people. The idea of making soft robots out of soft parts could potentially bring about an entirely new way of constructing robots. Rather than having a rigid robot with lots of steel parts, flexible pneumatics could move a robot. Rather than a conventional battery and actuator, a […]
Soft robotics is a new area for many people. The idea of making soft robots out of soft parts could potentially bring about an entirely new way of constructing robots. Rather than having a rigid robot with lots of steel parts, flexible pneumatics could move a robot....
Low Cost Selective Laser Sintering: The Innovator's Dilemma in Powder?
Selective Laser Sintering is also called powder bed fusion and SLS. The SLS process sees a bed of polymer powder selectively sintered by a laser. A new layer is applied and this is then also hardened with unsintered powder acting as a support. Dominated by EOS Gmbh, SLS is probably the most high volume, high […]
Selective Laser Sintering is also called powder bed fusion and SLS. The SLS process sees a bed of polymer powder selectively sintered by a laser. A new layer is applied and this is then also hardened with unsintered powder acting as a support. Dominated by EOS Gmbh,...
Comparison of Metal 3D Printing -- Part Three: Inkjet
Metal 3D printing is a burgeoning area at the moment. Many companies are investing in metal 3D printing systems and the market is growing quickly. There are a number of different metal 3D printing technologies out there. You can find the previous parts of this series comparing metal 3D printing technologies here, covering powder bed […]
Metal 3D printing is a burgeoning area at the moment. Many companies are investing in metal 3D printing systems and the market is growing quickly. There are a number of different metal 3D printing technologies out there. You can find the previous parts of this series...
Tyr3D: 3D Printing Replacement Car Parts in the Backside of Ireland
When I first came upon the Tyr3D website it was not very confidence inspiring. And I was not exactly a fan of Tyr3D logo either. Yet, I had been assured that they were at the forefront of 3D printing spare car parts. Where everywhere else people just talked about 3D printing replacement car parts, Tyr3D […]
When I first came upon the Tyr3D website it was not very confidence inspiring. And I was not exactly a fan of Tyr3D logo either. Yet, I had been assured that they were at the forefront of 3D printing spare car parts. Where everywhere else people just talked about 3D...
The Top 10 Most Significant 3D Printed Things
The definitive, totally unsurpassable Top 10 3D Printed Things, as selected with exceeding unparalleled rigor by me. You could disagree with this list, but then you would be wrong. These things have all inspired us, are emblematic of major steps forward in 3D printing, are very important designs, are some of the most popular 3D […]
The definitive, totally unsurpassable Top 10 3D Printed Things, as selected with exceeding unparalleled rigor by me. You could disagree with this list, but then you would be wrong. These things have all inspired us, are emblematic of major steps forward in 3D...
How Close Are We to Full Color 3D Printing?
Full color 3D printing is the holy grail of 3D printing. To be able to 3D print an object in any color whatsoever with clear definition and no bleed would really make prototyping with 3D printing more valuable. If prototypes coming off the printer would look almost exactly like the final object, then the technology […]
Full color 3D printing is the holy grail of 3D printing. To be able to 3D print an object in any color whatsoever with clear definition and no bleed would really make prototyping with 3D printing more valuable. If prototypes coming off the printer would look almost...
3D Printed Food: Easy as Pie?
3D printed food has caught chefs’, journalists’ and the general public’s attention for a number of years now. There is however a lot of disinformation around the subject as well as confusion. To help clear that up a bit we’re going to be looking at overview post detailing the broad strokes possibilities in 3D printed […]
3D printed food has caught chefs’, journalists’ and the general public’s attention for a number of years now. There is however a lot of disinformation around the subject as well as confusion. To help clear that up a bit we’re going to be looking at...
What Do We Need for Production Scale 3D Printing? Amateur Hour is Over.
Whereas most of the media focus around 3D printing was initially directed at desktop 3D printing, a lot of the opportunity is actually in industry. Industrial 3D printing can unlock value for manufacturers by making their supply chains more flexible. Part count reduction and weight reduction in parts can lower costs. By using 3D printing […]
Whereas most of the media focus around 3D printing was initially directed at desktop 3D printing, a lot of the opportunity is actually in industry. Industrial 3D printing can unlock value for manufacturers by making their supply chains more flexible. Part count...
