Editorials / Opinions
Breaking The Boundaries Of 3D Printing
The 3D Printing industry should take note: just as Heston Blumenthal has transformed traditional concepts of what is possible with culinary ingredients, Ultimaker’s Senior Materials Engineer Diana Garcia-Alonso is cooking up a similar storm from the company’s...
Guide to Selecting and Buying 3D Printing Filament in 2018
Your priority was likely finding the right 3D printer to match your requirements and budget. But what often gets less attention is the filament you feed through it. After all, plastic is just plastic, right? So it would make sense to just find something that’s...
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...
Kim Kardashian Lookalike Immortalized in Partly 3D Printed Cake
I have made no secret of the fact that I find edible reproductions of people’s faces to be extraordinarily creepy. I do not want people on my cake. Therefore, in my opinion, the cake that broke the Internet (it didn’t, mine’s still working) is the...
When the Lights Go Out: The Untold Story of Type A Machines
At the end of January 2018, Type A Machines announced that it was closing its doors for good. DesignBox3D CEO Preet Jesrani shares his perspective on what happened, having worked closely with the company for years. I first contacted Type A Machines in 2014, having...
3D Printing, Nature, and the Industry Renaissance
A revolution marks a sea change, a hard resetting of the status quo; a renaissance is, literally, a rebirth. While a revolution is typically relatively short in duration and punctuated by some fundamental shift that changes a paradigm, often political, a renaissance...
Making Your Own Goods and Products At Home: When Will Every Home in America Have a 3D Printer?
3D printing technology has helped to create everything from custom prosthetics and medications, and concrete bridges and buildings, to parts for cars and planes, as well as personalized pizza, athletic shoes, and jewelry. While many of these items weren’t...
What Possibilities Does the Future Hold for 3D Printed Construction?
There is no doubt that 3D printing will impact the design and production of buildings, whether residential or commercial. Efforts are underway to understand how traditional building materials, techniques, and aesthetics can be impacted through the introduction of 3D...
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...
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...
3D Printers: The Death of Monochrome Display
When releasing a new 3D printer model, manufacturers wonder what screen they should put in their printers. Let’s discuss what features make a good screen and what options manufacturers have: Many desktop 3D printers still come with monochrome LCDs. When I see them, it...
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...
The 3D Printing Race is on for 2018: Functional Materials for Orthodontic Aligners and More
After 15 years in the 3D printing business, our team at EnvisionTEC has seen a lot of trends come and go, and we’re excited about what we see on the horizon. While we can’t disclose much of our behind-the-scenes work with customers, we continue to see manufacturers...
10 of the Most-Read 3D Printing Stories of 2017
At 3DPrint.com, we publish a lot of stories over the course of a year; 2,500 in 2017. As the news comes in and goes out to our readers, we take note of what trends are happening in the 3D printing world, but we can never fully predict which stories are going to stand...
Shapeways CEO Speaks Out For Net Neutrality
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), headed by the uniquely irritating Ajit Pai, recently voted to overturn Obama-era net neutrality regulations. This is not particularly surprising given the current president’s manic desire to remove everything...
Taking a Stance to Create an Inclusive and Diverse Industry
This article originally shared on LinkedIn. A follow up to Sarah Goehrke’s “3D Printing While Female: 2017” article on 3DPrint.com. Click here to view the article. The manufacturing industry as a whole has been male dominated for many years. Several people...
Top Ten 2017 3D Printer Developments
For the year 2017, the 3D printer industry evidenced solid overall industry growth with a lot of exciting product, software and material developments. HP Inc. HP’s first full year as a separate company appeared to be gaining traction and attracting lots of customer...
3D Printing While Female: 2017
The 3D printing industry has a problem. It’s not a unique problem, particularly when looking to any sector of the greater manufacturing industry. Additive manufacturing has a diversity problem. It’s not exactly a secret that there are more men than women involved in...
formnext 2017
In only its third year, formnext has quickly become the additive manufacturing event in Europe to see and to be seen. I attended last year’s formnext and shared here the impression it made. In my view, it was the most impactful additive manufacturing industry event in...
Careers in 3D Printing
It’s not just a fad. Explore how people are using 3D printers in their careers and why it’s important to teach the next generation about this growing technology. When speaking with teachers about their efforts to bring 3D design and 3D printing programs...
3D Printing: A Tool in the Toolbox for Makers and Educators
Early adopters in the 3D printing industry were often faced with a number of obstacles that made it difficult to sell their machines. There was (and still is) a general lack of education among schools and the existing workforce. Schools that purchased 3D printers...
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...
3D Printing Bump-Fire Stocks
Before the horrific massacre in Las Vegas, I, and I suspect most people, had never heard of bump stocks or bump-fire stocks. As shown below, they are after-market gun stocks that replace the standard stock that comes with semi-automatic assault weapons. They are...
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...
3D Hubs Fumbles with Automated Selection
3D Hubs in in a bit of a pickle. Their crowdsourced model enables consumers to choose from a big list of suppliers, but all that choice leads to friction. As a result, many simply do nothing. Conversion suffers. To combat that, 3D Hubs began testing (in the US at...
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