Month: August 2012

A private/public partnership funded to the tune of $70+ million that is dedicated to 3D printing in manufacturing.

Following through on our We Can’t Wait efforts, the Obama Administration today announced the launch of a new public-private institute for manufacturing innovation in Youngstown, Ohio as part of its ongoing efforts to help revitalize American manufacturing and encourage companies to invest in the United States.  This new partnership, the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute (NAMII), was selected through a competitive process, led by the Department of Defense, to award an initial $30 million in federal funding, matched by $40 million from the winning consortium, which includes manufacturing firms, universities, community colleges, and non-profit organizations from the Ohio-Pennsylvania-West Virginia ‘Tech Belt.’

via We Can’t Wait: Obama Administration Announces New Public-Private Partnership to Support | The White House.

A group called Defense Distributed is attempting to raise money via IndieGoGo in order to produce a printable firearm.

DefDist will build and design a 100% 3D printable gun for the purpose of porting to a RepRap printer. The result will be an easily accessible and replicable design shared with the world. At this point, any person has near-instant access to a firearm through the internet.

via Defense Dist. 2) Adapt the design down to cheaper 3D printers.

Customized Disney princess statues with your child’s face on them? Great idea, creepy as heck in reality.

The experience takes around 10-minute while several cameras instantly capture multiple angles of a guest’s face which are then reconstructed and used to make the final figure. The “princess in waiting” can choose one of seven different Disney Princesses including Ariel, Aurora, Belle, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White and Tiana. Hair, skin and eye color of the figurine are customized to match the guest. The guest of honor will also receive a Princess silver link necklace with choice of colored gem charm. The process of finishing the figure takes about five to six weeks at which time the completed figurine is then shipped directly to the guest’s home.

via D-Tech Me Technology Returns to Disney World For Princesses | The Disney Blog.

How 3D printing changed the face of ‘ParaNorman’

The technology is not too dissimilar from the budget 3D printers making their ways into the homes and garages of hobbyists. Nor, for that matter, is it far-removed from more traditional inkjet printing, spraying down a minute amount of resin (15 microns, according to McLean’s numbers), layer by layer, which is cured by the machine’s built-in UV lights. Laika put the technology to work printing “replacement faces” that could be attached to the head of a character, giving young Coraline a grand total of around 200,000 expressions. It’s an impressive number, particularly when placed up against the 800 or so expressions Jack Skellington was capable of achieving in “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” By “ParaNorman,” however, the studio had rapid prototyping down to a science, with the movie’s fuzzy-haired protagonist (that’s 275 tightly bundled strands) able to express himself a staggering 1.5 million ways, according to Laika’s number crunching

Really interesting new take on 3D printing, using natural materials plus a binding agent of some sort. The mechanism is also really clever…a fully articulated robotic arm is significantly more flexible than the traditional desktop XYZ axis printhead. Looking forward to seeing how this evolves.

Stone Spray Project from Stone Spray on Vimeo.

You aren’t likely to find anyone more enthusiastic about 3d Printing than I am. And you also won’t find anyone more likely to document their child’s development. But this may be a step too far.

New parents have a strong urge to collect everything they can from their child’s early life — from photos and videos to hair and fingernails. Catering to this demand to immortalize infancy is a new product from Japanese firm Fasotec and Hiroo Ladies Clinic — a 3D printed model of your little bundle of joy in utero.

via Japanese company will 3D print your fetus for $1,275 | The Verge.

Pwdr is an open source powder-based rapid prototyping machine. Its goal is to promote experiments and innovations in powder-based rapid-prototyping. The machine is ready to use both the 3DP as the SLS process with minimal adaption, although the printer is currently prepped for 3DP.

Sintered powder printers have a ton more detail than deposition printers…this could be really interesting.

I think I got something in my eye…*sniff*

3D-Printed “Magic Arms” – YouTube.