This Week in 3D Printing

Week of 10/26/2015

This Week’s Contents

! In the News ! Research Insight of the Week ! 3D Prints of the Week

In the NewsSummary and Analysis of Headlines around 3D Printing

3D Printing Set to Transform the Luxury Dining Model Forbes recently released the final installment of a four-part series exploring how 3D printing will affect the future of fine dining. The first part, 3D Food Printing: Is It Ready for Luxury Dining? Explored the current state of 3D food printing and whether it’s ready for use in fine dining restaurants; the second part, How 3D Printing Will Change the Future of Fine Dining, explored the ways 3D printing will affect the fine dining experience; the third part, If A Fine Dining Meal Can Be Printed, Is it Still Luxurious? Explored whether using technology makes fine dining more or less expensive. The final piece, How 3D Printing Could Blow Up the Luxury Dining Model, explored 3D printing’s influence on the fine dining business, concluding that 3D printing will push the boundaries of idea creation while expanding the importance of curation of ideas to combat food creation theft. Source(s): Forbes.com

Using Beer to create 3D Prints As 3D printing machines progress and evolve, so does the materials used to print the products. 3Dom, a US company specializing in eco-friendly printing filaments has announced a way to 3D print using a material made from beer waste. 3Dom calls the filament Buzzed, and consists of leftover hops and barley. The color you get when you print with the filament is inconsistent due to a visible grain in filament itself. According to the company, you don’t need any particular 3D printer to use Buzzed, any Polylactic acid (PLA) printer will work. The release coincides with the recent announcement of a coffee-based filament called Wound Up. There’s no telling what the company may create a filament with next.

Source(s): TheNextWeb.com

Combating RFID Skimmers with 3D Printing and a 3D Printed Multi-tool.

RFID’s are everywhere and embedded in nearly everything, but most notably in new IDs and credit cards. These RFID’s are full of sensitive data and vulnerable to a particular form a data theft known as RFID skimming. A thieve can obtain an RFID reader and read all of the information stored in your wallet without ever having to come into physical contact. Maker, an Australian startup company, has decided to tackle the problem of RFID skimming in an interesting's way using 3D printing. In a recent Kickstarter campaign, they unveiled the Maker Wallet, an all-in-one RFID wallet and multi-tool made especially for designers and 3D printing enthusiasts. The Maker Wallet doubles as a RFID secure device, meaning when the wallet is in your pocket you become invulnerable to skimmer attacks, as well as a handy multi-tool designed specifically for 3D printer users.

Source(s): 3DPrint.com

A 3D Printed Violin with World-Class Sound

The Hovalin, designed and produced by Kaitlyn and Matt Hova, is a fully functional 3D printed violin that sounds nearly indistinguishable from a world-class wooden version. The team designed the violin in way that requires less than one kilogram of PLA to make, which helps keep production costs low. The cost of raw materials comes in at around $70, with the couple selling a prefabricated and fully-assembled Hovalin for $600. While 3D printed instruments aren’t entirely new, nearly all of them suffered from poor sound quality. Instead, the duo were inspired by the FFFiddle, a 3D printed electrical violin, and the classical Stradivarius violin, to make something completely different that strove to straddle arts and technology to make a difference in the future of STEM education. For that reason, the Hovalin is accessible due to a specialized 3D printing kit that is available for every level of maker.

Source(s): DigitalTrends.com

Best Buy Launches CreoPop 3D printing cool ink Pen in 1000 stores Best Buy, one of the largest retail electronics stores in the United States, has begun selling the CreoPop in over 1000 stores. The CreoPop is the world’s first cool ink 3D printing pen brought to the market by a venture-backed Singapore company of the same name. The CreoPop does not utilize thermoplastics, rather it utilizes light-sensitive ink, aka photopolymers, that are solidified using LED diodes. Because the CreoPop does not depend on melting metal, it is a safe device that can be used and enjoyed by both adults and children. Perhaps the most exciting feature of the CreoPop is the wide selection of inks available. Beyond a vast assortment of color, consumers can use specialty inks that glow in the dark, glitter, are aromatic, or even change color when exposed to heat. Source(s): 3ders.org

Breakthrough in 3D Printing of Artificial Organs and Tissues

Researchers trying to construct artificial organs and tissues have faced one major hurdle, the material collapse under their own weight as they form. This has stood as the major hurdle for 3D printing soft body parts. However, two teams of engineers have solved the problem. One at Carnegie Mellon University are doing so with a dish of ‘goo’ that has the consistency of mayonnaise. The goo is used as a support bath, where parts are printed within and once printed, the structures are stiff enough to support themselves. The print is retrieved by melting away the supportive good. A separate team from the University of Florida in Gainesville has a similar system for printing, but without the melting goo. The new printed body parts, which include models of brains and hearts, are more intricate than anything created before. The research teams are currently working to incorporate living cells into their process, seeking to crate a functional heart muscle. If results continue to remain positive, it’s possible that we may have 3D printable replacement organs and tissue in the near future.

Source(s): ScienceMag.org

Secrets of Seals’ Whiskers Revealed Through 3D Printing

Seals have an astonishing ability to detect prey based on the disturbance the prey causes in the air for up to 30 seconds, all because of their whiskers. The question of exactly how these cute sea creatures manage to accomplish this have baffled scientist for many years, and has been the focus of a few members of MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. One of the surprising features of seals whiskers is the ability to remain still while the animal moves through water, while still vibrating in response to the turbulence in the water caused by the movement of other bodies in the water. Here’s where 3D printing comes into play. The research team 3D printed a replica of a seal whisker but at a much larger sale. The whisker was then tested in a 30 meter long tank of water while attached to a moving track. The results of the test showed the vibrations generated by the seals movement in water were negated due to the seals whisker design. Thanks to 3D printing, a pervious phenomena has been solved and the resulting knowledge useful for practical applications to detecting underwater movements.

Source(s): 3DPrint.com

3D Printed Hair Clip Transforming How the Deaf Experience the World A new, small 3D printed device is quickly proving itself as a fantastic alternative to uncomfortable hearing aids and invasive surgical procedures such as cochlear implants. Ontenna is not a device that amplifies sound, or auditory nerve signals, but instead a device that clips on a wearer’s hair, where it acts like cat’s whiskers, allowing a wearer to actually feel and see sound. The device translates a wide variety of sounds into vibrations and pulsing lights, with different types of sounds translated into different types of vibrations. The clip picks up sounds between 30 decibels to 90 decibels and translates them into 256 different variations of vibrations and light patterns where the rhythm, loudness and pattern are conveyed to the wearer. 3D printing has empowered Ontenna to potentially change the world for so many. Source(s): 3DPrint.com

Using a GPU Computer to Create 3D Printed Architecture

Daghan Cam, founder of the architectural practice Daghan Cam Limited with offices in London and Istanbul, and professor at UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture, has implemented a innovative approach to architectural design by using image processing robots trained through advanced algorithm-based computer simulations to create complex 3D printable and highly artistic structures. To create his fascinating designs, Cam developed a design process filed with GPU (graphics processing unit) computing and algorithms. The GPU computing is the use of a GPU together with a CPU to accelerate general-purpose scientific and engineering applications. Cam believes that 3D printing will play a big role in construction and architecture in the near future, as it is a huge cost and time saving technology that adds a variety of design options to the building designers tool belt.

Source(s): 3ders.org

San Diego Central Library Expands 3D Printer Lab The San Diego Central Library created The Maker Lab two years ago to help San Diego students and entrepreneurs with free 3D printing and access to specialized training. However, due to its overwhelming popularity, the Marker Lab will soon expand to offer four times as much space to work. The printers, currently located on the eighth floor, are so popular that the library is moving the lab to the third floor, and come with three additional 3D printers, as well as a sewing machine, a vinyl cutter, and a milling machine to create circuit boards and a laser cutter. May students, and even older patrons have called the lab a life changing opportunity to “make whatever you can dream up and come print it on the computer.”

Source(s): nbcSanDiego.com

Research Insight of the WeekQuantifying the 3D Printing Landscape

3D printer hardware revenue is expect to approach $1.5 billion by 2019. In addition, as high profile players such as HP enter the market, there will be a yearly growth rate

of more than 30% between 2014 and 2019.

Source: International Data Corporation, 2015

3D Prints of the WeekShowcasing some of the most interesting applications of 3D Printing, from the amusing to the artistic to the innovative

3D Printed Micro Robot Cheetah

! InsaniTOY’s Trageser has taken advantage of the scalability of 3D model, virtually 3D printing his toys in any imaginable size.

! At the recent 3D Printing Santa Clara, Trageser’s work was on display, showing his Robot Cheetah, which is commercially available in a full range of sizes, the largest of which is nearly two feet long, and the smallest a few centimeters.

! However, at this particular event he amazed the crowd with a micro-scale version so small that it was barely recognizable with the naked eye, requiring two magnifying lenses to be fully visible.

Working 3D Printed Vehicle Engine

! 3D printing service providers Forecast 3D were also at the recent 3D Printing Santa Clara, demonstrating their additive manufacturing capabilities.

! They created an amazing 3D printed engine block, in which every part of the engine was completely 3D printed in various materials, crating an exact replica of a real working engine.