Joshua Pearce

Open Source Everything: Assist in Everything with 3D Printing

In a previous post in this series, we looked at the opportunities related to open source assistive devices, often small and novel objects that can be 3D printed cheaply. Unique…

Open Source Everything: 3D Print Your Own Assistive Device

Professors Joshua Pearce and Jacob Reeves worked with student Anita So to make an open source walker. It’s a customizable device, whereby the joints are 3D printed on desktop machines…

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Open Source 3D Printing: Set up Your Open Hardware Development So Everyone Can Participate

Josef Průša, the founder and CEO of Prusa Research, published an important and thought provoking article titled “The state of open-source in 3D printing in 2023” where he called for…

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The State of Open-source 3D Printing: How to Preemptively Quash Patent Parasites and Trolls

Josef Průša, the founder and CEO of Prusa Research, published an important and thought provoking article titled “The state of open-source in 3D printing in 2023” where he called for…

3D Printing Webinar and Event Roundup: September 4, 2022

We’re getting busy again for this week’s webinar and event roundup! The Stratasys tour is taking.a break, but the company is still presenting a webinar on the NASA Hunch Program….

Open Source 3D Printed Surgical Table Cuts Costs by 98 Percent

We hear a lot about 3D printed medical devices like models, implants, prosthetics, surgical tools, and even medical device packaging, but how about a 3D printed surgical fracture table? Researchers…

3D Printing News Briefs, September 2, 2021: VELO3D, EOS, & More

In 3D Printing News Briefs today, VELO3D is expanding its team in Europe, and Etihad Engineering is working with EOS and Baltic3D on an R&D project. Moving on from business…

3D Printing for Preppers: Ruggedized 3D Printers for Austere Environments

3D printers are ideal for making improvised, emergency repairs in austere environments. If you need something now, or a new design to improve something quickly, 3D printing is ideal. It’s…

Educators Could Save $450,000 Yearly with Open-Source 3D Printing

There remains little doubt that 3D printing enhances the quality and effectiveness of education, whether at the kindergarten or university level. The cost of printers and materials for filament-based 3D…

Pearce’s Latest Open Source 3D Printer Handles PEKK, PEI for Less than $1,000

In an effort to address, among other things, the need to sterilize 3D-printed personal protection equipment made to fight COVID-19, the lab of Michigan Technological University’s Professor Joshua Pearce has…

Michigan Tech Develops Open Source Smart Vision for 3D Printing Quality Control

Monitoring and quality control systems are becoming more widespread in additive manufacturing as a means of ensuring repeatability and aiming for first-time-right parts. A greater need for quality control are…

Open Source Grinding Machine Cuts Cost of Pellet 3D Printing

In pursuing the Distributed Recycling and Additive Manufacturing (DRAM) approach to open-source hardware development, a significant challenge lies in addressing the high cost of the compression screw component for alternative…

COVID-19 and 3D Printing: Go Open Source to Save Lives

As the COVID-19 pandemic reached the U.S., fears of ventilator shortages spread across states, who requested far higher numbers of the breathing machines than the national stockpile maintained. According to…

Success in Education: Michigan Technological University Offers Comprehensive 3D Printing Technology Workshop to Teachers

Chelsea Schelly, Gerald Anzalone, Bas Wijnen, and Joshua M. Pearce, researchers from several different departments at Michigan Technological University, explore one of the most exciting aspects of digital fabrication in…

Desktop FDM 3D Printing: Tensile Strength of ABS, PC, HIPS, PA and Ninjaflex

Nagendra G. Tanikella, Ben Wittbrodt, and Joshua M. Pearce, all researchers at Michigan Technological University, further explore the area of materials science in the recently published ‘Tensile Strength of Commercial…

3D Printing: A Technology of Degrowth? Part 2

In the first part in our series on the possible role of 3D printing in a degrowth society, we explored some of the more sustainable aspects of the technology and…

3D Printing: A Technology of Degrowth? Part 1

Even if you’re an optimist, Earth is currently on track for an uncertain fate. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has concluded that global greenhouse gasses (GHG) need…

The Maker Movement Unmade? Part 6: The Community Responds, Continued

In our last installment, we began relaying comments from the maker community, including prominent RepRappers and Adafruit, about the status of the maker movement. In this article, we’ll continue the…

Cost Sensitivity Analysis Performed for 3D Printed, Open Source Infant Clubfoot Brace

Congential talipes equinovarus (CTEV), perhaps better known as clubfoot, is one of the most common congenital physical deformities, as it occurs at least once every 1,000 births. In countries like…

How Cost Effective are 3D Printed Adaptive Aids for Arthritis Patients?

Millions of people are affected by arthritis, a chronic condition consisting of physical disability and joint pain that can negatively affect the patient’s life. But not only is the condition…

Michigan Tech Researchers Recycle Wood Furniture Waste into Composite 3D Printing Material

From artwork, instruments, and boats to gear shift knobs, cell phone accessories, and even 3D printers, wood has been used often as a 3D printing material. It’s a valuable renewable…

Desktop 3D Printing and Functional Replacement Parts

3D printing is seeing increasing use in the manufacture of components for bikes, and sometimes even the bikes themselves. Bikes with 3D printed parts don’t just look cool, either – they perform just…

Michigan Tech Researchers Publish Paper on New Recyclebot 3D Printer

If you’re familiar with 3D printing, solar power, and open source research, then you’ve probably heard of Dr. Joshua Pearce, Associate Professor of Materials Science & Engineering, and Electrical & Computer Engineering,…

Researchers Develop the Kijenzi 3D Printer to Respond to Humanitarian Crises

There is little doubt left that 3D printers are opening a new door for responding to human needs the world over. Even in the realm of outer space, efforts are…