Precious metal 3D printing with materials like Sterling Silver takes design and production to the next level, allowing for smoother surfaces and options like additional polishing. Professional finishes are available to showcase intricate details. Sterling Silver for 3D printing is softer and becomes even more malleable for 3D printing designs with thinner structures, like rings.

3D Print Silver with Wax Casting

Wax casting has been in use since ancient times. Known by several different names such as Lost Wax Casting, Investment Casting, and Precision Casting, this technique requires expertise, sophisticated tools, and high-quality materials. 

At Shapeways, Wax Casting is accompanied by 3D printing to make patterns for building molds. Sprues are added so precious metals like Sterling Silver can flow through. Simultaneously, the wax melts and drains, and the metal structure inside the mold solidifies for easy removal. The benefits of Wax Casting include:

• The ability to make innovative products, impossible via conventional manufacturing.
• The ability to make complex shapes with built-in intricacies like interlocking parts.
• Availability of superior choices for finishing.

Use Case – Sterling Silver Bracelets

Designers experience vast opportunities for customization at Shapeways, especially in using metal additive manufacturing and Wax Casting. Shapeways customers use a variety of materials for designing jewelry, and they may perform rapid prototyping and end-use manufacturing with the same materials. Other customers may enjoy all the benefits of one material for a line of products and then move on to a precious metal like Sterling Silver when developing luxury jewelry. This was the case for longtime Shapeways designers Groen and Boothman, an industrial design duo who continue to innovate and try new 3D printing materials and technology. 

For their Elements series, Groen and Boothman turned to cast silver for the Water and Cosmic bangle bracelet series, featuring a clasp mechanism and hinge (developed into two segments for simplicity in manufacturing and assembly).

“With 3D printing, you can engineer things so precisely that you can integrate a near-invisible, complex hinge mechanism, also under an angle, with an unprecedented level of sophistication,” said Hanno Groen.

Groen and Boothman added a handcrafted, ultra-polished touch, lending to the exclusivity of the jewelry which they described as offering ‘effects in silver that sparkle and captivate like precious stones.’ Download the case study to find out more about 3D printing with silver.

Finishes and Design Guidelines for 3D Printed Sterling Silver

Shapeways Sterling Silver (92.5% silver) 3D printing material is a high quality silver alloy commonly used in jewelry and other skin-safe applications. 3D printed Silver is skin-friendly, heat-proof up to 850°C/1562°F, and offers good electrical conductivity. 

Sterling Silver finishes include:

Natural Finish

3D print Silver with light polishing for a somewhat rough surface with a matte finish.

Polished Finish

3D print Silver for a hand-polished finish, and a smooth, shiny surface.

Fine-Detail Polished Finish

Extensive polishing of 3D printed Silver extends to intricate details, resulting in a very shiny surface. Note that extra polishing will remove more material, so some details could be lost in the process.

Antique Finish

Recessed details are blackened for a unique, antique look.

Bounding Box Requirements

The bounding box is a 3D imaginary outline of a box that encloses the smallest area occupied by your model. Your model must be within the minimum and maximum bounding box sizes. If the size of the model is close to the maximum bounding box, then the printing orientation will be restricted.

• Bounding Box Minimum
  • 2.4 x 2.4 x 0.6 mm
• Bounding Box Maximum
  • 89 x 89 x 100 mm
  • 75 x 75 x 40 mm (for interlocking parts)

About Shapeways

Enjoy the benefits of this advanced technology and a wide range of materials from Shapeways for 3D printing your creations with accuracy, complex detail, and no minimum or limits in terms of mass customization or single part orders. Shapeways has worked with over 1 million customers in 160 countries to 3D print over 21 million parts! Read about case studies, find out more about Shapeways additive manufacturing solutions, and get instant quotes here.

The post 3D Printing Materials Spotlight: Sterling Silver appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

We’re gonna need bigger printers

This 3D printed house went viral this week — with good reason. Built in a day for only $10,000, it’s not only incredibly cute (who doesn’t love a tiny house these days?), but it was also built by an unbelievably cool, enormous Apis Cor printer that had to be moved with a crane. Plus, the house was built in a snowy lot during a Russian winter, which should qualify it to work on Mars, at least in theory.

When you buy the latest toy way too soon

The Nintendo Switch made waves last week for being, well, the latest Nintendo console to hit the market. But, as Gizmodo reported, it’s might not have been… ready — at least as far as the design is concerned. Enter the internet’s most resourceful 3D designers, who’ve been sharing 3D printed solutions for everything from a faulty kickstand to a missing d-pad and inadequate joysticks. Maybe Nintendo wanted people to hack together fixes? Or not?

Fighting cancer with PLA

TechCrunch brought us the story of candy-colored tumors, set in silicone, that are helping doctors practice tricky laparoscopic liver cancer surgeries before operating on real patients. Never before has practicing dangerous life-saving surgeries been so… cute.

Drive it off the print bed

OK, we’re not exactly there yet, but according to Forbes, the largest car manufacturers — including the literal inventor of the assembly line — are starting to incorporate 3D printing into production processes in a typically large-scale way. It might be a while before 3D printing moves beyond the prototyping stage for most cars, but super-high-end rides will likely see more and more 3D-printing-enabled customization. In the meantime, I’ll stick with custom 3D printed cars I can actually afford:

A whole stable of sweet (N scale) 3D printed rides… courtesy RAILNSCALE

The post The Week in 3D Printing appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

We started with a dream of taking a classic Tamiya Hornet and making it our own. During this whole process, Tijs Lochbaum, who is a well-known European RC drifting expert, was our guide. As it turns out, I had a lot to learn about how to make a custom RC Car. I always thought you could only buy a complete car in a toy store, so a whole new world opened up for me. For one thing, I never thought so much manual polishing was involved to make the parts look good. I could go on all day about what I didn’t know — but instead, let’s take a look at what we’ve done so far:

Lap 1 – Upgrading The Tamiya Hornet

In the 1st Lap of the RC Customization Series, we explain our plan and what we need to create a custom RC car classic, the Tamiya Hornet.

Lap 2 – RC Engineering

The 2nd Lap features an interview with designer Alberto Massarotto from AMPro Engineering. Alberto takes us through his design process to guarantee his parts fit on original RC car body and chassis.

Lap 3 – Finalizing the Parts

On Lap 3, we look at post-production methods. Polishing, dyeing, sanding and preparing for spray-painting — we covered it all.

We’ve come a long way already, and we just have a few finishing touches to add. In the meantime, here’s a teaser shot of our completed Tamiya Hornet:

Stay tuned for the full reveal!

The post RC Customization Series: The Story so Far appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

Color Us Impressed

Huffington Post wrote about how Act For Kids is using 3D printing to create monster-shaped crayons to help provide art therapy to children who have experienced child abuse or neglect. Because drawing can be extremely therapeutic, the idea is that these crayons will allow kids to “draw away their monsters,” said Christian McKechnie, Co-Founder of Act For Kids.

Image courtesy Act for Kids YouTube channel

Vroom, Vroom

NewAtlas covered how Rolls-Royce spent 400+ hours 3D printing a small missile that propels children at a blistering 10MPH through hospital corridors. No word if they actually use their blinkers to signal a lane change.

Jinkies!

Hong Kong police used two 3D printers to reenact crime scenes to help with police investigations. CNet’s Zoey Chong opens up the article with a fitting Scooby Doo reference, “And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids and your 3D printers.”

Finger Licking Good

PSFK gave us the skinny on a glass wand prototyped on a 3D printer that helps to enhance the sweet flavors in foods like yogurt, Nutella, and honey. May not work well for hot wings.

The post The Week in 3D Printing appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

“Making is important.” Great remarks from Rep @MarkTakano at #3DDC2017 @MakerCaucus @publicknowledge pic.twitter.com/MWRqueLekz

— Nation Of Makers (@NationOfMakers) March 2, 2017

Former President Obama was a vocal proponent of the Maker Movement, hosting the White House’s first Maker Faire, establishing the National Day and National Week of Making, and launching Nation of Makers, now a non-profit organization. The new administration has so far been less vocal in its support, but, if this week’s 3D/DC policy conference is any indication, there’s reason to have hope that support will continue in the new administration.

Shapeways Design Evangelist Lauren Slowik took part in the panel The Maker Movement and the New Administration, joined by a group that included members of governmental organizations that actively support Makers. The Congressional Manufacturing Caucus, Congressional Maker Caucus, U.S Department of Commerce, and the U.S. Marine Corps were all represented.

President Obama was never alone in his pro-Maker Movement initiatives. The bipartisan Congressional Maker Caucus, led by California Representative Mark Takano, has worked since 2014 to raise awareness around the potential of the Maker Movement to revitalize American manufacturing. Yesterday, Rep. Takano signaled a more proactive approach to stimulating the movement:

“The Maker Caucus is leaving the awareness stage and preparing to legislate in support of the Maker Movement” @RepMarkTakano #3DDC2017 pic.twitter.com/QIrhCeOKyG

— Maker Caucus (@MakerCaucus) March 2, 2017

The panelists also focused on how the nature of manufacturing in America has evolved. Lauren stressed the importance of shifting the focus to building human capital. Said Jahanmir, Senior Legislative Fellow for Rep. Tim Ryan and co-chair of the Congressional Manufacturing Caucus and Congressional Maker Caucus, agreed, adding that the Maker Movement provides a powerful set of tools for job creation. Captain Chris Wood, Co-Lead for Additive Manufacturing, U.S. Marine Corps, shared that the military is setting up interesting pathways to becoming Makers, with a guiding educational philosophy that learning the technology of making isn’t something you can lecture to students, but something they must be shown how to do.

Dr. Jahanmir was optimistic about the potential of the movement, adding, “Old jobs disappear, but new jobs always come around,” but cautioning attendees, “You have to educate Congress on making. The public shouldn’t wait for the administration to do the work.”

Shapeways community members also spoke on the Extreme Applications of 3D Printing, 3D Printing and the Future of Education, and Women in 3D Printing panels. For full coverage of the 2-day event, follow Nation of Makers and Public Knowledge Policy Fellow Sara on Twitter. Cover image courtesy @NationOfMakers.

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Ten years ago today, Shapeways was just an idea. “I remember the day well. Walking into a small office in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, there was a chair, a table and that was it. I had a plan, but also a lot of figuring to do.” It was March 1, 2007 – Co-Founder & CEO Pete Weijmarshausen’s first day working full-time on Shapeways, and the unofficial birthday of the company. Still, to Pete, it seems like yesterday. “I almost can’t believe it has been 10 years. It seems time flies when you are having fun!”

Having fun has a lot to do with why Pete was drawn to the idea of Shapeways; he’s always loved to geek out on futuristic tech. “I love to share cool technologies with as many people as possible, and I felt 3D printing was one of the coolest, most magical technologies I’d ever seen.” And, it’s no surprise that the idea for the company was born in the 3D design community – the same community that still fuels and sustains it. “When I learned about 3D printing, the first thing I thought was, ‘OMG, this is something I need to share with my friends in the Blender community!’ I knew that so many people use 3D software (like Blender) to create beautiful things they are passionate about on their computers, in the digital domain, but could not hold those in their hands. I wanted to change that.”

I sat down with Pete to talk about how he took that vision and turned it into a 10-year-old company that’s now the world’s largest 3D printing community.

What would you say is the biggest or most unexpected challenge you’ve encountered and overcome since starting Shapeways 10 years ago?

The biggest, perhaps not unexpected challenge was (and perhaps still is) that the technology we call 3D printing was not initially made for manufacturing. When we started Shapeways, the technology was called Rapid Prototyping or Rapid Manufacturing. It was for the largest part used for prototyping, which has totally different requirements than manufacturing in terms of quality, speed, and especially cost. The challenge for us was to use what was and is available for manufacturing.

The biggest challenge of the three components was cost. For years we struggled to make the products our community wants at a cost that was a good fit. We have made huge progress in that front, but I do not think we are done yet. That is also why I am still very excited about the entry of HP into the market. They have built a new machine, starting with the idea that 3D printers are not (completely) made for manufacturing, that they are too expensive, do not yield high enough quality, and are too slow. The new machine we are currently testing seems to fix that to a large extent. But again, we are not done.

Pete opens Shapeways’ New York office, 2010

The landscape of 3D printing has changed widely since 2007. How has Shapeways adjusted and remained a big player in the space?

The market of 3D printing final products for consumers almost did not exist when we started. We are still growing that market. It is really cool to look back 10 years and observe what has happened.

When we started, there was no one that knew about 3D printing, although the technology had existed for almost 20 years, even back in 2007! So, our first hurdle was to create awareness. Together with MakerBot, we started the 3D printing hype. Where we have the vision that consumer 3D printing is a platform play, the industry seemed to think it was the desktop machine.

I think what has happened over the last two years or so is that the idea of the desktop printer being the answer for consumer 3D printing has been debunked. In a sense, we have stayed true to our vision that giving consumers access to high-end 3D printers is the way to unlock their creativity and enable them to make amazing products. We continue to work to make our website easy to use, adding features and tools that unlock creativity, and helping our users to get what they want. We also continue to work to make the quality top-notch, for a great price, and as fast as people want – which is now! The progress we have made and the things we can still do will further unlock the market.

What does the future of consumer 3D printing look like?

I think as the technology matures, both on the printing side and on the creation side (3D software), it will become easier and more relevant for anyone to use it. I think that the announcement of HP’s entry into the market has incentivized other big players like CANON and Toshiba to consider making 3D printers.

HP’s groundbreaking printer arriving at our Eindhoven factory

At the same time, new players are preparing to and are entering the market, like Carbon3D and Desktop Metal. But, it has also re-incentivized existing players to accelerate their R&D. All of that leads to enhanced abilities to deliver amazing products for consumers. Meanwhile, the software is getting better and better. New web-based 3D software like Onshape, but also Oculus Medium (a VR 3D modeling tool), Sixsense (VR) and 3D scanning are becoming mature. All of that will enable people to more easily express what they want. Shapeways’ role is to be the platform to connect people with all this technology, making it easy for them to get amazing products.

Are there any Shapeways designers who have been with the community since the beginning? How did you form those first relationships?

Yes of course! I remember well the first time I talked to Bathsheba Grossman and Oskar van Deventer. I think Bathsheba found us through our website. I noticed what she was doing and I reached out. Bathsheba was already using 3D printing way before we started and could tell me a lot about the industry. She also introduced me to Oskar, who unleashed the 3D printed puzzle scene! In those early days it was incredibly difficult to get designs uploaded (I remember Oskar having made a tutorial several pages long to get his puzzles uploaded – things have changed!)

I’m glad to see that after all these years they are still a loyal part of our community!

Oskar van Deventer’s record-breaking puzzle

Bathsheba Grossman’s Gyroid sculpture

What are some of the biggest growth areas for the community, and the company in general? Do you have any predictions for the next 10 years?

We are building a platform that provides access to the next generation of manufacturing for anyone to use, which will play a huge part in the 3rd Industrial Revolution. This platform works in two ways: We give our community access to incredible machines, and we help 3D printing companies gain access to the biggest community of Makers. As a result, we are going to see some incredible growth in the amount of products made, and what it’s possible to make.

The new 3D printers coming to the market will be the next generation of professional 3D printers which will enable our users to make even more compelling products, at an even higher quality. The machines will be made for manufacturing, making it easier for our team to get those products in the hands of our community faster (next-day shipping!). In terms of materials, true full-color plastic will really open up a lot of creativity.

From a software perspective, I expect it to become easier and easier for people to express what they want. The rise of VR tools, next-generation online 3D software, and 3D scanning will have a large role to play in that.

Overall, I think we will see the mass adoption of 3D printing as a way for Makers to get their own products, and just as important, as a way for anyone to engage and get the products they want. This will massively disrupt how we think about the way products get made, and even have an impact on society at large. I think and hope Shapeways will play a pivotal role in this change, that we continue to earn the trust of our community, and that they continue to see us as the one-stop platform to make their dreams come true.

The post 10 Years Ago, Shapeways Was Sparked appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

Printing a New World

This is not a 3D printer, but one day, it will have 3D printer friends

Pioneering USC engineer Behrokh Khoshnevis told NBC how he’s working with NASA to use found materials on Mars to create 3D printed homes, machines, infrastructure… basically anything humans need to choose that Martian lifestyle. That means technologies like 3D-printing method Contour Crafting (CC), which Khoshnevis used to print a 2,500-square-foot building in less than a day — back in 2004. Our post-Earth future is looking up. Now, if we can just figure out how to get to TRAPPIST-1.

Trump Should Check This Out

ABC brought us the touching story of a woman whose upcoming wedding compelled her to address her thinning hair. Thankfully, a high-tech hairpiece created using 3D printing saved the wedding day. The result is so realistic, our hairdo-in-chief should probably know about this (please, someone tell him).

It’s definitely more realistic than this

Sunglasses, Sports, Mullets

In the search for the perfect-looking pair of sunglasses, it’s often impossible to find a pair that actually, literally fit your face. Not “too big or too small for my face shape” but rather “don’t dig into my cheeks, fall off easily, or squeeze my head oddly.” Guess what can help? 3D printing! Skelmet (they originally planned to make bike helmets) takes scans of your head and face and creates custom frames to your specific measurements, as TechCrunch reported. However, as they also noted, these frames are strictly sporty, so you’ll either end up looking like Lance Armstrong or Dog the Bounty Hunter, depending on your hair length.

Skelmet’s scanning-for-sunglasses app in use

Pump Up the Jams

Geeky Gadgets got a little less geeky this week when they pulled a DJ move, showing us how to mix vintage knobs and switches,  3D printed parts, and an Arduino to create a smart MIDI controller. Recycled, digitized, and made with 3D printing? Pump it up.

The MIDI controller of your 3D printed dreams

The post The Week in 3D Printing appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

Safe Harbor by Flickr user Mark A. Vargas, used under CC license 2.0

Today, Shapeways, along with Kickstarter, MakerBot, and Meetup, filed comments in the U.S. Copyright Office’s multi-year study into how the copyright safe harbors that allow websites such as ours to function are working. You can read about prior developments in this study here.

The role of the safe harbors are reasonably straightforward. Websites (such as Shapeways) that allow users to post content do not know if the content being posted infringes on copyrights held by others. Without the safe harbor, this would require Shapeways (and Kickstarter and MakerBot and Meetup and Facebook and YouTube and every other site on the internet) to clear every model, comment, video, and other type of upload through the legal department before posting. In other words, without the safe harbor protecting sites from the potential copyright infringement of their users, none of these sites would exist.

Fortunately, the safe harbors allow sites such as Shapeways to assume that content posted by our users does not infringe on copyright until we hear from a rightsholder. At that point we quickly take the content down to initiate the notice-and-takedown process (details on how that process works can be found here).

These safe harbors were established as part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (often abbreviated as the DMCA) in 1998. In 2015 the U.S. Copyright Office initiated a study of how well they were working.

In this current round of comments, we made two primary points:

First, we noted that the DMCA copyright process continues to be heavily influenced by trademark law. Including a claim of trademark infringement effectively removes an accusation of infringement from the DMCA process. Among other things, that makes it very hard for users accused of infringement to challenge that accusation. We believe any study on the DMCA copyright process should recognize that element of how the process works in the real world.

Second, we raised concerns about the framing of much of the discussion in the Study. In addition to an earlier round of comments, the Copyright Office held a series of roundtables (which, for reasons known only to the Copyright Office, it refused to record or allow to be recorded either in audio or video but did release transcripts of) to discuss the issues. In both the earlier round and at the roundtables, a great deal of attention was paid to how the largest online platform – Google – interacted with the safe harbors. In our second point we tried to remind the Copyright Office that the vast majority of websites protected by the safe harbor are not dealing with millions of automated takedown requests a year. We therefore suggested that shaping solutions or conclusions with that scenario in mind would overlook how the safe harbors operated in the vast majority of cases.

As far as we know, this will be the last round of comments in this proceeding. At some point it is likely that the Copyright Office will release their report on the safe harbors. When they do, we will make sure to update you on the blog. Let us know in the comments if you have any questions.

The post Trademark and Copyright Safe Harbors (again) appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

Our community is a giant melting pot of creative designers, where 3D design is only a fraction of what the designers, makers, engineers and creators are capable of. A while back we celebrated the Academy Award nomination of Alienology, and today we want to highlight community member Sylvain Georget (visit his Shapeways shop Tegroeg), as he took his extreme detailed drawing skills to the next level by launching his own video game Hidden Folks today.

Hidden Folks is an interactive search-find-and-click game. At first, the concept might remind you of Where’s Waldo, but Hidden Folks has much more to offer. The miniature landscapes you’ll navigate through have many funny elements you can control by simply poking. Open tents, slam doors, poke crocodiles — there is so much to explore, we recommend you try it yourself. What really defines this game (besides the hilarious sound effects) are the amazing black-and-white graphics, all hand-drawn by Sylvain. Don’t let the minimalistic look of the game fool you; the world of Hidden Folks is rich in an insane amount of small but great detail — and gimmicks.

Sylvain has been drawing miniature worlds for quite some time, and he’s translated some of them into 3D to sell in his shop Tegroeg.

13 House by Sylvain Georget

House 7 by Sylvain Georget

During the past years we’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with Sylvain a bunch of times, in projects for Dutch Design Week and KunstVesting Heusden, plus we printed his designs for STRP-Festival 2015, and Sylvain even attended the official Eindhoven Factory Opening event back in 2014. Seeing Sylvain use his detailed drawing skills for a whole new platform is truly inspiring.

Sylvain, congratulations to you and Adriaan de Jongh in bringing Hidden Folks to life — we can’t wait to play again!

The post Finally found Waldo? Check out Hidden Folks, a game from community member Sylvain Georget appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

Toglefritz’s 3D Printed Quadroped is one of the most fully realized DIY bots we’ve seen to use 3D printed parts. A Playstation 2 controller, hobby servos, and Arduino-compatible microcontrollers under the hood bring the dog-sized robot to life. And when we say life, we’re not exaggerating:

Check out all the winners (and download their designs) at Instructables, and share your latest projects with us in the comments.

The post This Dog-Sized 3D Printed Robot Might Haunt Your Dreams appeared first on Shapeways Blog.