Florida Man’s Best Tale Yet

We’ve all had some fun with the Florida Man meme from time to time. But just as the only reason that that meme exists is Florida’s amazing open records law, not all Florida Man reports have unhappy (or weird) stories behind them. St. Petersburg, Florida man Francisco Piedra fell onto some hard luck when a side effect of a medication used during heart surgery left him a quadruple amputee. Unable to afford the prosthetics he needed, Piedra relied on the help of the Hanger Clinic for his legs and the volunteers of e-NABLE for 3D printed prosthetic hands. Read more of the heartwarming tale here. And never laugh at another Florida Man story again (unless it involves alligators).

Want to 3D Print Your Medical Needs? We can help.

A simple model like this one can be used to create 3D printed prosthetics for patients like Francisco Piedra (Photo by IntelFreePress on VisualHunt.com / CC BY-SA)

Blowing Up Your Feed

Ok, this story might not go viral, but a printer that can print layers of explosives’ components, eliminating the need for humans to touch each of those components or the final, explosive mixture — well, that’s actually a very big deal. A group of researchers at Purdue University developed a specialized printer with a mobile print bed (rather than a moveable nozzle), which builds an ignitable nanothermite material out of layers of other nanomaterials. Discover the explosive final feat of the research at Interesting Engineering.

Like a FitBit for Your Fiddle-Leaf Fig

The Internet of Things has now extended to plants: Iowa State University has developed “tattoo sensors” that attach to leaves. These “wearables” can measure the transpiration from plants, so scientists can develop plants with greater drought-resistance. The sensors are also cheap — costing, ultimately, cents. Learn all the details here, and remember: one day your plants will be able to tell you when you’ve been neglecting them.

Photo courtesy Iowa State University

Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself

The more a 3D print differs from its original file, the more compromised its ability to do the job it’s being printed for. It’s a problem that will only get bigger as everything from cars to spaceships get 3D printed parts. Fortunately a group of North Dakota researchers has made progress in solving it. Using sensor data from digital imaging, their just-patented system either compares the print with a reference print or with its CAD model in real time, as the print progresses. Learn how routine printer maintenance birthed this brilliance here.

Sick Burn

This year’s Burning Man will feature a digitally fabricated Temple (a central feature of Black Rock City, which you can learn more about here). The design, called Galaxia, will center around a 3D printed mandala. Somewhat sadly, the structure will be built, only to be destroyed. In Silicon Valley, this is considered profound. See more gorgeous photos of the planned structure here.

Photo courtesy Mamou-Mani

The post The Week in 3D Printing: Florida Man Wins, Explosive Prints, Wearables for Plants, Safer AM, and a 3D Printed Burn appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

Gemert, the Netherlands’ 3D printed cycling bridge

3D printed construction and infrastructure projects have been executed and teased for years. Last year, the first fully 3D printed office was erected in Dubai. And now, Winsun is collaborating with Saudi Arabia to print over 1.5 million houses over the next five years.

Bridges, however, seem to be a transitional kind of object, allowing for experimentation with 3D printing materials and designs in a challenging, but ultimately limited construction project. To see this in action, let’s take a look at how 3D printed bridges are being developed and how they are changing the scene for 3D printed construction and the construction industry at large.

Just to get one thing clear, we are starting out small with these bridges. They’re essentially prototypes to help us identify and solve a lot of engineering challenges inherent in 3D printed construction. In Spain, we have a 12-meter long pedestrian bridge. In Amsterdam and Gemert, the Netherlands, bridges that stand at about 8 meters long. In Japan, Obayashi Corporation’s bridge is so small a child can step across in two strides.

Gemert, the Netherlands’ 3D printed cycling bridge during installation

In terms of materials, bridges are a great place to start because they really only require one material — concrete. Of course, there are many ways to print out concrete. In Spain, the pedestrian bridge was made from concrete powder that is micro-reinforced with thermoplastic polypropylene. In Gemert, the recent cycle bridge boasts being the first bridge to be printed with steel-reinforced concrete, allowing it to support the weight of 40 trucks at a time.

By applying parametric design to the pedestrian bridge in Spain, concrete was printed only where necessary, reducing the waste, cost, and time required by traditional concrete pouring.

If you’ve seen desktop 3D printers, you know that they can be as small as a proverbial bread box. One of the obstacles with 3D printed construction is the size of the printers themselves, since standard models — whether desktop or industrial — have a set bounding box that limits the size of prints. For construction companies, one solution is to enlarge the entire machine, which is what Eindhoven University of Technology did when creating their concrete printing machine. It can print sections up to 11 meters long, 5 meters wide and 4 meters high.

The other direction to go is to implement a six-axis robotic arm that is not restricted by surface area but rather will print wherever you program it to. This is the approach Holland’s MX3D has taken to enable more creative design and unrestricted sizes. With these free-moving robots, onsite construction is indeed a possibility.

Speaking of robots, 3D printing construction dramatically reduces labor costs. Along with that comes reduction of labor-related injuries as well as need for and production of tools. For construction workers worried about the future of their employment, Theo Salet, a professor from Eindhoven University of Technology, says these jobs will not disappear. Rather they will adjust to these new processes of manufacturing, mainly to “build and maintain the robots.”

Bridges serve a mostly straightforward purpose — to support enough weight to provide transportation grounds over two pieces of land or over a body of water. But Eindhoven University of Technology believes these are a starting point to exploring how to integrate smart components to control temperature, lighting, and security, while taking advantage of additive manufacturing to add “strengthening agents, insulation, and even dirt repellants” into walls.

When can we expect to see these innovations in action? MX3D‘s smart steel bridge will be completed in Amsterdam by 2018. It will be printed with a sensor network that will continuously update engineers on the health status of the bridge through a 3D computer model.

Clearly, 3D printed bridges’ time has come, generating innovations that will pave the way for more sophisticated building construction on a much grander scale. For a full overview of current 3D printing construction projects, bridges and beyond, check out this comprehensive rundown. Today, 3D printed construction is an industry full of promise. What do you think? Will we end up living in vast 3D printed cities, or will the technology remain limited to high-profile vanity projects? Let us know your thoughts on the future of 3D printed construction and infrastructure in the comments below.

The post Why 3D Printed Bridges? Why Now? appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

#DutchPride, Part Deux

The Netherlands is really making this Dutch-born company feel all warm and fuzzy lately. First, the world’s first 3D printed cycling bridge opened in Gemert, and now, Amsterdam is on the verge of welcoming 3D printed floors and an even cooler 3D printed bridge to its historic environs. Yes, we’re bragging. Learn more at FastCoDesign and Slash Gear.

Beating Cancer, One 3D Print at a Time

Last week we encountered a 3D printed sternum. Now, the BBC brings us the story of a woman saved with a 3D printed titanium jawbone. The implant represents a vast improvement over the old take-some-fibula-and-make-it-work method. Heck, 3D printing has even improved that old-fashioned fibula jaw implant method by providing a 3D model of the patient’s jawbone that can be used to cut precisely fitting pieces of the fibula. These latest successes could mean a future where no bone is unrepairable.

Interested in 3D printing for your medical needs? We can help.

3D printed jaw implant recipient Debbie Hawkins and her medical team (image via ABM Health Board)

Multi-Material Magic

Silicone 3D printing has been a somewhat elusive goal, but German 3D printer company ACEO has reached it, and then some. As TCT reported, the company will debut multi-material silicone 3D printing at Form Next in Frankfurt next month. “Silicones of different colors, hardness or even chemical or physical properties can now be placed independent from each other at any given point throughout the process,” explained Dr. Bernd Pachaly, the project lead. This could have all kinds of applications in medical modeling, product development, and mass manufacturing of silicone 3D prints. And, it’s a big step toward printing multi-material machines and biomimicking models. That means we’re just a little bit closer to the “Star Trek replicator” dream.

A piece of multi-material 3D printed silicone (Photo: ACEO®; Wacker Chemie AG)

Threat…itunity!

What’s a threatitunity? I’m so glad you asked. It’s that combination of a clearly foreseeable challenge (threat) and the time needed to develop the tools to face it (opportunity). And that is what we have on our hands with 3D printing cybersecurity. As the Harvard Business Review discussed this week, hacks could lead to the physical instability of printed parts, which can pose incredible dangers, obviously, but also the kind of product recall nightmares that keep employees, CEOs, and shareholders up at night. If we can’t solve this, the era of mass manufacturing with 3D printing is threatened. Thankfully, as the technology develops, novel solutions are coming to light. Challenges + brains = innovations. And that’s a threatitunity.

The post The Week in 3D Printing: Dutch Much?, No Bones About It, Innovations — and Threatitunities appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

But, what about the moon?

Thanks to NASA’s 3D Printed Habitat Challenge, we’ve been hearing a lot about building habitats on Mars. But what about Earth’s moon, our first love, in terms of extraplanetary travel? The last time it got some attention was 2013, when Yutu, a Chinese rover, took a spin on its dusty face. Well, the Google Lunar XPRIZE is reviving the moonshot, awarding prizes from five to $30 million for successful unmanned lunar rover landings. One team in the competition, SpaceIL, is planning to use 3D printing to build their lunar lander’s legs, as reported by Industry Week. The lofty goals of the competition include habitats on the moon’s surface, so keep an eye out for future 3D printed lunar applications — far sooner than on that red planet that gets all the attention.

Learn the (pretty darn inspiring) story of SpaceIL here:

Implanting the future

An Australian team has successfully implanted its second 3D printed sternum. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and Melbourne-based medical implant company Anatomics created the implant out of titanium and Anatomics’ PoreStar porous polyethylene material. The patient, Penelope Heller, is the first American to receive such an implant, and this is the first surgery of its kind on U.S. soil. The possibilities of medical 3D printing are becoming more obvious every day, but this is one of the first concrete realizations of that incredible potential. After covering Form Prosthetics this week, I’m beginning to think that the Aussies are in the lead when it comes to turning us all bionic. But I’m not whinging about it.

Do do that Voodoo that you do so well

PLA-only 3D printing shop Voodoo is jumping into the fourth industrial revolution with both feet, incorporating advanced robotics into its 3D printing factory. As ZDNet reported, Voodoo is making use of cobots, or collaborative robots, which are both easier to program and safer when it comes to working around people. The bots harvest prints from build plates, 24 hours a day. That means more printers in use, more money for Voodoo, and faster turnaround times. Win-win-win.

See the cobot in action here:

So proud!

As anyone familiar with Shapeways knows, we’re a Dutch company that just happens to have its HQ in NYC. So, we felt a twinge of pride this week when the first (successfully completed) 3D printed bridge debuted in the Netherlands. Led by a team from the Eindhoven University of Technology and BAM Infra, the bridge is the first 3D printed concrete structure to be put into use. But we know it won’t be the last.

See how the BAM printer works here (audio is in Dutch):

YOU WERE SO CLOSE

Bill Masters filed a patent for 3D printing technology in 1984, before Chuck Hull, the “father of 3D printing” launched his first machine. And the idea had struck him eight years earlier. So, why isn’t Bill credited rightly as our forefather? Limitations in computing power had a lot to do with it, as this Ozy feature makes clear — but also, Masters had other things to worry about. Namely, running the most successful whitewater boating business of the 1980s, Perception Kayaks. Now, we think Masters deserves his due. We’re revising the family tree, Bill.

Bill Masters in a Perception Kayak (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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

That’s Nice

We love telling you about amazing girls doing cool stuff, and this girl, well, she is our hero this week. As ZDNet reported, little Hailey Dawson was born without all her fingers. Her options for prostheses were limited to ultra-expensive models that her family couldn’t afford. So, students and faculty at the University of Nevada Las Vegas stepped in to develop 3D-printed hands for Hailey. And now, thanks to a robotic hand they developed, she’s throwing out the first pitches at baseball games all over the country, including Game Four of the World Series. Keep your eyes on Hailey — a future as the first prosthesis-packing pro pitcher might just be ahead.

This girl!

Machines Learn to Build Bridges

It was a while ago when we first heard about MX3D’s plan to print a steel bridge designed by Joris Laarman. Today, we’re almost there. But, it took some redesigns (Amsterdam’s a pretty old place, and this is a brand-new kind of bridge) plus some amazing machine learning algorithms to get the bridge to print in a structurally sound way. Learn more in FastCoDesign’s feature on the span’s development and what it means for future projects. As for us, we can’t wait to cross that bridge… when we come to it.

Feeling Lighter Than Air

Airplanes are heavy, and each additional pound plays out in the extraordinary amount of extremely expensive fuel needed to fly them. But don’t worry, the aeronautics industry is not trying to recoup all that money via exorbitant baggage fees. As the New Scientist reported, they’re also working on using nanoparticles to make 3D printed aluminum strong enough to hold up to welding. That would make it possible to replace thousands of metal rivets and fasteners with strong, lightweight 3D printed aluminum products. Which could means thousands of gallons of fuel saved, possibly even saving the earth from climate change’s worst-case-scenario effects. A girl can dream.

Getting Ripped, Layer by Layer

We talk a lot about the magic of medical 3D printing applications. And so do a lot of other publications. All of those (amazing, hope-inducing, inspiring) applications mimic, in some way, the human form, to improve the health of humans. But what about robots? It stands to reason this would not be far behind: A group of researchers at Columbia University has created an actuator that imitates muscle matter, which expands and contracts to move robotic limbs. This might have applications in prosthetics, but for right now, it’s robots-only. When the robots come for us, they will be even more like us than we ever imagined!

Right now, they’re helping this guy bulk up. (photo via Columbia University)

The post The Week in 3D Printing: Super-powered Kids, Plus Prints That Are Bigger, Stronger, and Ready to Fly appeared first on Shapeways Blog.