Feb. 15, 2015
3D object sharing site YouMagine has announced Laird Popkin with his "High Speed Large Format 3D Printing with Detail Finish" Idea and XYZAidan's Silicone 3D Printing Process as the winners of their "Develop a New 3D Printing Technology Challenge."
"We looked closely at the level of innovation, feasibility & achievability of the technology." notes Joris Peels of YouMagine. "We also looked at to what extent the entries would revolutionize 3D printing and be a step change in 3D printing for the desktop 3D printing user. We tried to determine which technologies were not already being worked on within the open source 3D printing community. We also looked at which technology would let designers & makers explore new design directions in 3D printing and make new things possible."
Current 3D printing of large format parts requires an prohibitively long print times, Popkin wanted to solve the issue by creating a dual nozzle 3D printer. His solution is "to build a printer with two extruder nozzles, one very large (e.g. 1.2mm) and one much smaller (e.g. 0.4mm), and to configure/modify the slicer software so that it can use a single perimeter layer that is fine resolution (small nozzle, 0.1mm to 0.2mm layer height) and then interior perimeter and infill using much thicker lines of filament (large nozzle, 0.5-1mm layer height)."
Popkin says he wanted to "make the modifications to the open source slicer software and configurations to optimize print speed and quality for such as configuration."
"My goal is to optimize printing of prosthetics, such as the e-NABLE Raptor, which are composed of large components, and which can take an extremely long time to print, often several days (assuming breaks for sleep and work) for an adult recipient. Once the software and configuration are validated on standard hardware, my ultimate goal is to "hack" the Ultimaker to support 2x dimensions, for 8x the print volume, in order to be able to extremely rapidly print prosthetics for entire adult limbs in a single print," Popkin says.
He wants to start with the Gigimaker design for a large format machine and go from there.
Aidan Leitch, (aka XYZAidan) and his Silicone 3D Printing Process is the second winner of the contest.
Aidan 's idea is to 3D print a silicone mix and he says with this process the silicone will eventually cure inside of the nozzle. Aidan says he wants to increase the resolution of 3D printing with his technology and also bring about higher print stability. "We liked his ambition and by introducing new materials and a completely new way of 3D printing we could see that his idea could radically transform 3D printing for the home user. His idea to 3D print a silicone mix could be difficult to implement. If he is successful however it would be a significant advance for desktop 3D printing." Peels comments.
Check out Aidan's video below describing his idea and process.
Posted in 3D Printing Events
Maybe you also like:
- US government uses 3D printing to develop artificial bomb-sniffing dog noses
- Community 3D printing project EGG on display at the Dutch Design Week 2014
- 3D printed titanium components now onboard the Airbus A350 XWB
- 3D printing used to help remove his wife's tumor - Join Mike Balzer's free seminar to learn '3D in Medicine'
- 3D printing helps build upper jaw prosthetic for Indian cancer patient
- Morgenrot 3D printed eyewear wins innovation award, to be released in early 2015
- Australian doctors use 3D printer to save 71-year-old cancer sufferer's foot
- The first crowd fabricated open source 3D printable chair
- Japanese man sentenced to two years in prison for 3D printing guns
Cool! Congrats, Aidan!
3Ders.org provides the latest news about 3D printing technology and 3D printers. We are now seven years old and have around 1.5 million unique visitors per month.
