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After five weeks' hard work, the new version of 3D printers comparison is finally online. More technical data will be updated in the coming days. You can access it here:

3D Printers Comparison

3D printing technology is new for all of us. Therefore we make a "3D printing basics" to help beginners to discover easily what the technology is and hopefully get more people involved in the development of the 3D printing technology. We’ve got a whole list of items we still want to add to the site. Thanks for your support!

Since Oct.27, 2011 all news articles in Blog are moved to News Archive. You can access them here:

3D Printing News Dec. 2011

3D Printing News Nov. 2011

3D Printing News Oct. 2011

3D Printing News Sep. 2011

In this blog we write about 3ders.org site news, stories about our team, interesting stuff in daily life, all people are welcome to stop by and chat with us.

3D printed eco-car will make its European debut; Stratasys will also host aerospace stand at exhibition

• Where / what: Euromold 2011, Frankfurt, Germany
  - D132, Hall 11: Stratasys to showcase Urbee eco-car by Kor Ecologic
  - C111, Hall 11: Aerospace stand to show FDM parts in context

• When: 29th November ~ 2nd December 2011

Stratasys Inc. (NASDAQ: SSYS) today announced that it will be exhibiting the much publicised Urbee eco-car at this year’s Euromold event in Frankfurt. Urbee is the first prototype car ever to have its entire body 3D printed.

Press Release:

ROCK HILL, S.C., Oct. 27, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 3D Systems Corporation (NYSE:DDD) announced today that it earned 14 cents per share for the third quarter of 2011. Gross profit rose by 48% on a 39% revenue increase compared to the third quarter of 2010.

The company generated $12.6 million cash from operations during the third quarter despite a $5.3 million increase in its operating expenses. The increase included $1.2 million of higher R&D expenditures compared to the 2010 period in support of a number of significant new product launches that occurred during the quarter and its consumer and design productivity growth initiatives.

While many invoke the vision of 3D printers in the home, the reality is that until now, the ability to design and print your own creations in 3D has required expert knowledge in 3D CAD software. 

Mark Danks and Sarah Stocker, game industry veterans and the founders of Kodama Studios, are changing that. Leveraging their unique experience in video game development and the latest browser technologies in HTML5.0 and WebGL, Kodama has put the joy of play into creating in 3D. Their solution utilizes the unique speed, affordability and multicolor printing capabilities of Z Corporation 3D printers. 

-- From Press Release of Z Corp

MyRobotNation.com is online yesterday.

Microsoft is experimenting with a "holodesk" which three-dimensional virtual objects can be moved by hand. Users can stack blocks or juggle virtual balls.

In the last few months there are some pretty great applications of natural user interface (NUI). Among those, Holodesk is one of my favorite.

Holodesk is a research project of the Sensors and Devices Group at Microsoft Research Cambridge, it is described as “a novel interactive system combining an optical see through display and Kinect camera to create the illusion that users are directly interacting with 3D graphics”. Holodesk made it possible to manipulate 3D objects by hand.

Could 3D Printing Change the World? Atlantic Council issued the latest Strategic Foresight Initiative Report, co-authored by Thomas Campbell, Christopher Williams, Olga Ivanova, and Banning Garrett.

From the Atlantic Council website:

A new technology is emerging that could change the world. 3D Printing/Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a revolutionary technology that could profoundly alter the geopolitical, economic, social, demographic, environmental, and security landscape of the international system. AM builds products layer-by-layer—additively—rather than subtracting material from a larger piece of material—that is, “subtractive" manufacturing. This seemingly small distinction—adding rather than subtracting—means everything.

Press Release:

Objet Ltd., the innovation leader in 3D printing for rapid prototyping and additive manufacturing today announced that Guide3D Lab will start offering its dentist customers surgical guides made of the new Objet Bio-Compatible 3D printing material (MED610^TM). According to Guide3D, the material combines bio-compatibility with high transparency, which makes it an ideal material for the production of highly accurate, customized implant surgical guides.

Makerbot Industries launched Project Shellter on Oct. 18, 2011. According to Makerbot, the intention of Project Shellter is to save hermit crabs by designing and producing artificial shells for them. Makerbot Industries, who sells DIY 3D printers, wants to leverage their community and network of 3D printer users to provide the species human-made houses.

Miles Lightwood from AKA TeamTeamUSA, is leading the projects. His ambition is to provide 3D printed shells for hermit crabs the world over. 

According to Bre Pettis, founder of Makerbot: 

We’ve set up a crab habitat, a acrabitat, here at the Botcave in Brooklyn and Miles is setting up a crabitat in Los Angeles.

A project was undertaken by a group of students at the NTU Athens, aiming to introduce students to parametric design through the use of Grasshopper. They selected honeycombs as a form to produce. First of all they chose hexagon as primitive module due to its efficiency and many possibilities. The result was that they formed a general dimensional boundary, fully parametrical, with the use of the grasshopper. 

Architect and founder of Digital stance Marios Tsiliakos provided them with 3d printed version of the HoneyComb VB.net script. With the help the HoneyComb VB.net script the hexagons was able be fitted on the morphology of the structure.

I certainly love things like this, so beautiful to watch. The creator is printedCat, user of Shapways. 

This model is 15.9 w x 10.2 d x 6.9 h cm in dimentions, and needs some post production assemble.

If you choose the material from white, strong & flexible, the price is $38.

It is Replica of Wooden splinter bird of Happiness.

Bird of Happiness is the traditional North Russian wooden toy, carved in the shape of a bird. It was invented by Pomors, the inhabitants of the coasts of the White and Barents Seas.

The Digital Manufacturing Lab is recently open at the Bath Ventures’ Innovation Centre. It will also showcase the power and the potential of RepRap 3D printing technology. The purpose of setting up the lab is to increase awareness of RepRap 3D printing potential benefits for businesses.

There is free introductory session covering the basics of RepRap and explaining the potential of 3D pringing technology. You can book the session here.

If you are interested in joining one-day workshops. The workshop will be delivered by Dr Adrian Bowyer and Dr Andrew Dent. Dr Adrian Bowyer is father of the RepRap. You can find here the registration page.

Lisa Evans, a freelance illustrator model character Star Belly in Maya and let them printed in Shapeways. Really cute, lovable and huggable. 

The materials she used were Detailed(Acrylic-based photopolymer) and Strong and fexible (NYlon 12). Same material are used in Wedding Gift Sweetas and the world's first 3D printed Bikini. 

The figurine on the left is made out of the detailed material. It has a smoother surface making it easier to paint on. The figurine on the right is made out of the strong and flexible material. It captures more detail but also highlights more flaws.

Tom Kluyskens of Made on Jupiter has designed and made a wedding Gift "Sweet As!", it is 3D printed tie and bracelet. 

The material was White, Strong & Flexible, Nylon 12, laser sintered. It is the strongest nylon material and has a good heat resistance. Same material as the world's first 3D printed bikini. Also there are two sterling silver pieces engraved with "Sweet As!" Letters. 

The pieces were modeled parametrically in Houdini (a high end digital film effects tool), and the resulting 3D model was sent to Shapeways for 3D printing. The connector pieces were 1mm thick, with a .1mm precision.

Larsie, a Thingiverse user and MakerBot owner, made for his son these 3D-printed shoelace-toggles because the kid is not very good at typing his shoe laces and he didn't want to wear his shoes on the way to kinder garden. sometimes ideas are just come so easily from daily life.

Tying knots in shoelaces has got to be one of the most ridiculous activities in the world. It’s difficult to learn as a child, 1, the laces always come undone at inconvenient times, you can trip on them when they do, and you never notice until its too late.

News Release: 

ROCK HILL, S.C., Oct. 20, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 3D Systems Corporation (NYSE:DDD) announced today that it will introduce its new 3DTouch printer to the educators and administrators at the Abu Dhabi event. Starting at just $3,900 USD, the 3DTouch is the most affordable, educational, color 3D printer available and it will be on display at BETT Middle East, October 25-26, 2011 in stand D100.

The 3DTouch™ is packed with new features including multiple print heads, an intuitive touchscreen for enhanced user experience and USB storage.

In our earlier video clip we have watched the 3D printed bikinis. I am wondering if such products made of Nylon can be comfortably wearable. 

Mary Huang and Jenna Fizel are the creators of world's first 3D printed bikini. They run a company called Continuum Fashion, which is a New York-based duo that they use digital technologies to create distinctive bespoke design. One of their impressive products is 3D printed bikini. 

Mary Catherine O'Connor had an interview with them. They talked about N12 Bikini, which is named from the material it is printed in, Nylon 12.

Press Release:

Small businesses and innovators in Dallas / Fort Worth will now have a local source for high resolution 3D printing with the introduction of PartSnap. Rapid prototyping services offered by PartSnap greatly reduce product development time and aid in communications between designers, engineers, marketing and sales. 

 Euless, TX, October 20, 2011 --(PR.com)-- Services offered by PartSnap include 3D printing, laser scanning and urethane casting. PartSnap uses Objet PolyJet (TM) technology to produce 3D plastic models suitable for testing, design validation, or for producing artistic, architectural or medical models. PartSnap offers 3D laser scanning as a means of transferring legacy designs into modern 3D CAD data.

PP3DP has released the "platform suit", which is a possible solution in the model warping problems. As a lot of 3D printer operators experienced, that certain shapes and sizes of ABS plastic prints often curl when the print proceeds, especially when edges are thin. PP3DP therefore has made several updates. 

1. A upgraded spring, replaced the M3 washers, which increases the height between the platform and the X axis, allows small clips to hold the perfboard and clips do not touch the arm, also allows much more freedom and precision in leveling the platform.

The ProJet HD 3000 prints precision, durable plastic parts ideal for functional testing, design communication, rapid manufacturing, rapid tooling and more. The Projet HD 3000 print in two adjustable resolutions, which differ in speed and quality. In HD mode, this Projet prints 298 x 185 x 203 mm with a resolution of 32 μ (microns) per layer. In precise UHD mode it prints 127 x 178 x 152 mm at a thickness of 29 μ. Generally, the smaller the layer thickness is, the longer the production time is. 

The Projet HD 3000 can print both moving parts, such as complex and even inaccessible internal geometries printing.

Do you wish to have a copy of your face? Now it is possible, thanks for REAL-f. Japanese company REAL-f developed 3D modeling pictures technology to make "real mask". Now anyone can have a replica of their face, with every blemish, pore, hair, freckle, and scar. But, no teeth. ;-)

The price for making the REALFACE (real mask) is 300,000JPY ($4,000) (for Basic rate + the first product), 60,000JPY ($780) for the second product onward.　　　

The price for the REALHEAD (head mannequin) is 450,000JPY ($5,870) JPY for Basic rate + the first product, 150,000 ($1,950) JPY for the second product onward.

The delivery time for "real face" is around 2 weeks.

MIT Technology Review recently reported, that engineers at EADS Innovation Works near Bristol, England is testing an additive-layer manufacturing machine to create "intricate forms out of high-grade metal". 

This special additive layer manufacturing machine, is also known as 3D printer, makes small part for Airbus A380. EADS is owner of Airbus, they hope this technology can change the way of manufacturing.

Up to now, 3D printers can make complex parts in relevant short time, but it is still difficult to print strong, durable objects. This system print mechanical components with metal ­powder.

There is an interesting company there in 3D print industry, MCOR. They introduce a program "The free D revolution". They are offering free D – part of our freeDrevolution campaign. That means, they provide you Matrix 300 3D printer for FREE and you can print an UNLIMITED number of parts – they supply you with all the materials, and of course the maintenance.

On Oct.13, Equities research analysts at Piper Jaffray (PJC) issued a reseach note to investor, that they have brought down their price target on shares of 3D Systems (NASDAQ: TDSC) to $13.00.

3D Systems

Corporate Headquarters:333 Three D Systems Circle Rock Hill, SC 29730

Telephone: (803) 326-3900

Technical Support: (803) 326-4080   moreinfo@3dsystems.com

NYSE: DDD 

Founded in 1986, 3D Systems invented the first Stereolithography Rapid Prototyping system.

The interest in 3D printing is Booming. You can notice that more and more people are involving. Soon we all can print our own products at home. We can invent and make objects. One big issue is, most of us don't have much experience in 3D design. Is there an easy design tool that shows the shape of 3D objects and we can easily modify and change to the shape we like?

Endlessforms.com is a website where a powerful algorithm behind it. It allows people who have no experience in designing or working with CAD software and 3D design software to create 3D objects and then print them.

Creator: Thing-O-Fun

User "Thing-O-Fun" in Thingiverse recently created Functional Pin Tumbler Padlock Model. Cool. See the pictures below. 

The users has given a very detailed instruction: 

1)Print all parts
2)Setting the key
3)Inserting plug
4)Inserting driver pins
5)Adding the Lock Pins
6)Play

It looks complicted but it is a facinating process that you try to put all parts together and make it work. If you follow every steps of instruction, you can for sure get the real padlock that actual locks.

This is so cool!

**Comments? Tips? Find bugs? Or suggestions, ideas, please drop us a note at "contact us" form. Thank you.

How your dream house look like? Draw it and print it out, you can build your own house.

**Comments? Tips? Find bugs? Or suggestions, ideas, please drop us a note at "contact us" form. Thank you.

In the history of 3D printing, Z Corporation is listed as one of the pioneer in 3D printing. In 1995, Z Corporation obtained an exclusive license from MIT to use the technology and started developing 3D Printers based on 3DP technology.

On Oct.7 Phil Gallagher from BNews interviewed Joe Titlow, Vice President of Product Management at Z Corporation. Joe Titlow made a good explanation of the amazing technology of three-dimensional printers.

Check out the video below.

Source : BNews Weekly 

**Comments? Tips? Find bugs? Or suggestions, ideas, please drop us a note at "contact us" form. Thank you.

Bre Pettis, CEO of Makerbot, set up the company in January 2009 with Adam Mayer and Zach Smith, and now is one of the best-known 3D printer makers for hobbyist. You can order fully assembled Makerbot 3D printer, or just a makerbot kit and build up yourself. Then you can make almost everything at home.

On Sep 26, 2011 3D Systems Corporation announced the immediate availability of its latest Bits from Bytes(TM) 3D printer: the 3DTouch. The price start at $3,900.

The 3DTouch(TM) is packed with new features including multiple print heads for greater color and material choices, a new intuitive touchscreen for enhanced user experience and USB storage. This innovative 3D printer is easy to set up, simple to operate and capable of printing multiple materials and delivering more complex print geometries.

Source: Marketwatch

**Comments? Tips? Find bugs? Or suggestions, ideas, please drop us a note at "contact us" form. Thank you.

When I look at this, I have to say, wow....wow, that's beautiful. 

Designer Oliver has made this and you can place an order on Shapeway.com. Prices are different according to different material, for example with white and strong material you get one for $109.31. 

What is Borromean Rings? 

The design of three interlinked circles is known as the Borromean Rings. The three rings taken together are inseparable, but remove any one ring and the other two fall apart. Because of this property, they have been used in many fields as a symbol of strength in unity.

Read more on Borromean Rings Homepage.

Minecraft.Print() is a project by Cody Sumter and Jason Boggess in the MIT Media Lab. 

They attempt to create a bridge between Minecraft and the real world, via 3D printers. A Minecraft player defines a 3D space to be printed, after which the software extracts the object, structure, or other creation from the virtual space and creates 3D-printable version. 

By placing a combination of specific blocks (obsidian, diamond, gold, iron) at two points you can define the 3 dimensional area to print.Tthen the python script looks for everything that exists within those boundaries and generates a .stl file. You can use Minecraft.Print() to print out anything you create.

Professor Art Olsen of The Scripps Research Institute presents how they use a chemical analysis software in the lab to track the motion of 3d printed models. he uses a webcam to track 3D printed models of enzymes and drug molecules, from the video you can see how they can fit by each other. they combine physical model with computer calculations by using augmented reality so they can see how well the drugs will inhibit the enzymes for HIV protease.   

**Comments? Tips? Find bugs? Or suggestions, ideas, please drop us a note at "contact us" form. Thank you.

NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia has a device - the Electron Beam Free Form Fabrication (EBF3). It is built with an electron beam from a 3D drawing and can make all kinds of metal parts in all shapes. 

How it works 

Karen Taminger was the main developer for the process, she is Material Research Engineer for NASA. Wires from different metals can be fed to the machine. The electron beam melts the wire and deposits the molten metal on a spinning disk, so that a part is created layer by layer.

If you ask scientists what our future looks like, you get not only scientifically, but also very dramatic answers. From printed smart pills to heart, anything you can think of. 

In future it would be possible for information about our genes on a portable format to place and we always carry with us, including a complete medical history. If you faint in the streets, the immediate medical help can save lives. 

3D printing technology is developed fast and still a long way to go. The next step for us is a new heart to be printed.

Scientists at the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft in Germany are successful in using a 3D printer to create artificial blood vessels.

For a long time researchers have been unable to supply artificial tissue with nutrients because they don't have the necessary vascular system. The structures of capillary vessels are so complex and tiny that it is too difficult to build.

Despite numerous attempts in tissue engineering to create synthetic capillaries, only until recently is there a big progress. Thanks to multiphoton polymerisation, a technique that works with various lasers on a small surface. The scientists combine the 3D printer with twophoton polymerization to make highly precise and elastic structures.