Author: ananya kondiparthy

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Sony 3D prints device holders for its underwater store in Dubai

Xperia Aquatech Store
Xperia Aquatech Store

3D printing technology has been utilized by well-known brands as an essential aid to make their products, but using 3D printing as a part of a marketing gimmick can be something a bit unheard of, yet profoundly interesting. And to add to that a multinational builds a flash store under sea!!

3D printed coral holders

Japanese technology giant Sony executed a unique marketing strategy for its water-proof Xperia products.

Most of Sony’s Xperia smartphones are waterproof, till they are 1.5 meters under water. As a part of an ambitious marketing strategy Sony recreated an “Xperia Aquatech Store“, an underwater store in Duabi that displayed its waterproof Xperia smartphones. The pop up store, which was planned to last for only 3 days was constructed 4 meters under sea.

The event took place at The World Islands, Dubai. The list of guests for the Grand opening of the Aquatech store consisted of lucky winners of a competition, media people and certain VIPs of Sony. The invitation-only guests underwent scuba-diving training to “enter” the store.

The tech giant collaborated with Paradigm 3D, a Dubai-based 3D printing service provider company to contribute to Sony’s brand building idea. Upon brainstorming the two companies decided to make 3D printed corals that would act as holders for the devices and this would’ve matched the theme of underwater store. Paradigm 3D made sure that the holders look natural corals – and all of it using the Stratasys Fortus 400 and Fortus 900 3D Production 3D printers.

The soluble support of the coral being removed
3D printed coral
The 3D printed coral

“With our in-house Stratasys Fortus 3D production 3D printers, we were able to print the coral in robust ABS plastic to provide a fitted surround for the latest Sony waterproof products,” a spokesperson from the Paradigm 3D team told.“We were able to suggest some simple design changes to optimize the data for 3D printing and reduce the time needed for production, thereby keeping to the strict requirements of the coral in order for it to meet the deadline for the opening of the underwater shop and optimizing the aesthetic effects.”

Patrons at the Aquatech Store

Xperia Aquatech Store

 

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3D printed wheelchair for girl dog Luisa

Luisa with the wheelchair 3D printed
Luisa with the wheelchair 3D printed

A dog is a man’s best friend and this species have been evolving and adopting with humankind for over centuries, study shows. Recently many associations used social media tools  to express their concern for the safety of stray dogs and urged for support for their foster homes. We have seen celebrities like Katherine Heigl, Anne Hathaway, Orlando Bloom, Kelly Clarkson, Jay Sean and more, being in news showing support on the subject of adopting pups from Rescue homes. However, as opposed to this brighter side, there are many stray dogs that fall trap of tragic circumstances due to their fate.

Something similar was about to happen to Luisa, who was hardly few days then, and with her 4 siblings and mother. But thanks to proTier eV, a foster animal protection association, based in Germany, soon Luisa and her family was able to find herself a shelter. The team saved them from being put down in the streets of Italy. This was probably the beginning of brighter days for Luisa as she was soon adopted by two experienced dog owners and a loving family of Petra Rapp and Manuel Tosche.

Unfortunately Luisa has one problem. She was born with underdeveloped forelimbs and she had to crawl and hop and take aid for movements. But lucky girl Luisa didn’t have to live that way for long. Her new owners Petra and Manuel, being the founders of Multec 3D printers wanted to make a wheelchair for their little girl, so that she doesn’t have to move with any aid or support anymore.

Luisa in 3D printed wheelchair

Florian Rapp and Karin Buffe, employees at Multec and master students of automotive engineering, designed a 3D model of the chest shell that would serve as a chassis in the wheelchair. While designing it was made sure that the chassis perfectly fits little Luisa’s chest. The wheelchair also needed to weigh as light as possible so that Luisa doesn’t find it difficult to adapt.

The 3D printing was accomplished with the help of a Multirap M420 3D printer.

Luisa seemed happy and excited about her new possession. With the blessings of 3D printing she could move more freely and have fun with her mates and siblings at her home.

Luisa playing with her mate

3D printed wheelchair

wheelchair frontview

Previously we have seen how doctors and biotechnologists 3D printed prosthetic limbs that helped children to use it in their daily lives. This also gave them the joy and confidence to play with other kids of their age.

And in another part of the world the story of the Australian twin brothers  who survived the life-threatening Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy utilising 3D printing technology and kept motivating other Muscular Dystrophy patients motivated.

3D printing technology has been a boon to mankind. And this technology is being utilized to the fullest to help animals as well for their betterment. And thanks to these dog lovers from Germany we know another case of 3D printing technology coming to the rescue for our handicapped friend. This is sheer inspiration to all animal lovers out there who want to make a difference to their lives, using 3D printing technology.

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3D printed homes for city birds by Printed Nest

Printednest colourful Feature
Printednest colourful Feature

3D printing technology has been bringing various hobbyists and enthusiasts, from across the globe together, under one common platform and share their ideas, discuss about the various nuances of 3D printing technology. People have formed several communities where they are sharing their ideas and experiences, for eg., how to build a racer car, a remote-controlled boat, and even prosthetic limbs.

To add to this ever-growing list of communities a talented bunch of bird lovers have been forming an international community of bird-watchers and bird lovers and using 3D printing technology to help the city birds to get a shelter. These enthusiastic groups have been designing eye-catching 3D printed birdʻs nest for them. These 3D printers-cum-bird lovers’ team are calling themselves the Printed Nest team.

Printed nest

printed nest birdʻs nest

Upon interviewing, one of the team mates told, “Cornerstone of our philosophy is feedback from our users who are considered part of the team – we call it open cloud design.” The whole team shared their opinion on this fast-growing technology saying, “In our opinion there is no perfect design, no flawless product. 3D printing technology is evolving, perfecting itself; future generations are going to be bigger, better and they will be produced much faster than they are now.”

The innovative yet classy design has inspired bird-feeders from all over the world to try the process themselves and the feedback was amazing. About 87 bird feeders in 65 cities covering 20 countries have tried implementing the idea.. and the number is still growing.

Printednest colourful nest

“3D printing technology has a way of developing a product which is constantly evolving and being perfected based on errors of previous prototypes, much as living organisms are,” adds the Printednest team.

It is certain that as 3D printing technology is evolving everyday users are communicating and discussing every problems they are facing, with one another and come to feasible solution(s). These platforms are turning into different community boards including social media groups. But it is quite certain that 3D printing technology is one of the ways to bring the whole world together under various platforms.

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Engineering student 3D prints Internet Radio using PrintrBot Simple

Internet Radio
Internet Radio

If technology and music are your favorite past-time hobbies, then you can combine them together and make something useful, like, a radio or walkman or an iPod. 24 year old Finland based engineering student used his talent with the help of additive manufacturing technology and created something marvelous in his PrintrBot 3D Printer.

The PrintrBot Simple 3D printer can become your favourite if you want to give shape to your hobbies. The printer consists of build volume of 4″ x 4″ x 4″.

Printrbot Simple
PrintrBot Simple

Miska Karvonen, 24 year old engineering student from Oulu, Finland, finds his passion in tinkering with small projects which he displays at the Instructables website. Previously this young student, and also a father of a 3 year old, 3D printed an emulator that brought to life a 90ʻs favourite game ‘Mario Bros’. This time Miska tried his hands in creating something different. He 3D printed a 2.8″ touchscreen Internet Radio which can be monitored through your PC, smartphone and any device that has a browser and an internet connection. He used Raspberry Pi PCB board and an Adafruit PiTFT touch screen Along with it he attached a cable cord to connect the PCB and the touch screen. Now that the electronic components are ready, the only thing that is required now is a box that can cover the components. Miska refers to the PrintrBot Makers Kit to 3D print a suitable box to fit the components and he used SketchUp to design the different cases of the box).

Internet Radio
The 3D printed Internet Radio By Karvonen

The printing time of the cases is about 2.5 hours, having layer heights of 0.2 mm and the printing speed is 50 mm/s. As operating system Karvonen used Volumio. It is a must to use the Volumio V 1.41Pi for the TFT screen to  work. For audios, do not forget to connect the speakers.

Hobbyists, enthusiasts are using 3D printing technology at full strength to give shape to their imaginations – all they need is passion and zeal to do it. Whatʻs on your mind?! Contact us if you have any 3D printing idea and we will you implement it. Or you can directly post your design at our Print on Demand section of our website.

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Prop artist 3D prints his favourite Avengers character

Avengers - Age Of Ultron Official Poster
Avengers - Age Of Ultron Official Poster

The current buzz in the Film & Entertainment world is the release and reviews of the much awaited “Avengers – Age of Ultron” movie, starring Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans and others. While this movie was hitting in the box office globally 3D printing designers were all excited about 3D printing Iron Man’s new heavy suit and the villainous Ultron to be a part of cosplay costume projects.

gmax-1_5-3d-printer-2 (1)

Let’s introduce Michael Ruddy, a passionate cosplay artist and an owner of gMax 1.5 XT 3D. He recently 3D printed an Ultron helmet of wearable size for one of his clients.

Ultron Mask
3D printed ultron mask

Although Ruddy could have made the entire head of the Ultron at one go using his gMax 3D printer but he chose to divide the making of the mask into four different parts i.e., jaws, main face, top head, and ears will be 3D printed separately. He printed the jaw at 0.15 mm later height and it took him roughly 13 hours to 3D print it, the main face printed at 0.2mm layer height took 30 hours. The ears (printed at 0.15 mm layer height) and the head (0.3 mm) took him around 10 and 30 hours respectively. The head needed supports in the middle while being 3D printed, so it took comparatively much more time than the rest of the parts.

Prop Artist

As children we have dreamt and imagined so much about our superheroes and we definitely wanted to own such toys and miniatures. 3D printing is letting every child’s imagination come true. What they can imagine they will be able to touch and if they want they can have them customized. And thanks to Michael Ruddy, not just toys, if you want dress up and wear your favourite’s superhero’s mask you know it is possible. All of it at much affordable cost!!

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Dutch scientists use 3D printing technology to study clavicle surgery

clavical 3D print
clavical 3D print

The 3D printing applications in the field of medical science has helped doctors and scientists to execute any complex surgery or implanting parts within a human body more feasible in less time. Fitting in this bill Dutch scientists recreate 3D printed clavicle parts of human body and use them for surgery.

Prof Richard Goossens, Head of Section Applied Ergonomics and Design at Delft University, explains doing a clavicle surgery “isn’t so simple. In the current situation, a trauma surgeon has to screw a special plate into the patient’s shoulder, which will function as a mold for the desired shape of the rebuilt clavicle.” Professor Goossens explains that each plates cannot be of standard shape. It is customized depending from patient to patient, “Problematic in that procedure is that those plates are issued in a standard shape, rather than designed specifically to suit each patient. While this isn’t a problem eight times out of ten, the other patients will develop various complications after surgery as the angles of the joints simply aren’t optimal.”

But thanks for 3D printing technology Dr. Goossens says they are able to make replicas of clavicles, from the CT scans of the patients, and that is helping them to design the clavicles as per the patient’s need, “We use the CT scans of the patient to make 3D printed replicas of both his clavicles,’ So both the clavicle that needs to be operated on, and the healthy one on the other side. We make a mirror image of that healthy clavicle to suit his other side, and 3D print it. During surgery, the surgeon can then bend the plate to match that mirrored replica of the healthy clavicle. That means the inserted plate is entirely based on that specific patient.”

The Delft scientists are expecting that using 3D printing technology they’re able reduce the risk of complications in the patients and also reduce the number of times the surgery needs to be done. So, it is needless to say that 3D printing technology is not only helping to optimize complex work but also trying to avoid future complications post surgery.

dutch scientists at delft university
Dutch scientists at the University of Delft
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4D printing technology saved lives of 3 babies

4D Splint
4D Splint

Today we are able to witness and use numerous benefits of additive manufacturing technology in the field of medical science. Because the technology has been in news for a while and people sharing their experiences and writing testimonials more and more people are opening up to test this technology for their own use. However, the first 3D printing technology in the medical field happened few years ago, and saved lives of three babies.

Garrett, Ian and Kaiba, three babies were diagnosed with a terminal and incurable form of tracheobronchomalacia, condition that caused the windpipe to collapse and that was making breathing impossible for all the three of them. But doctors and researchers at the University of Michigan’s Mott Children’s Hospital came up with a solution that had saved the three lives. The doctors made, what they are calling, a 4D airway using 3D printing technology. Why is it calling it a 4D airway is because the 3D printed tracheal splint will be able to grow along with the child as he grows.

Glenn Green, M.D. and Associate Professor of Pediatric Otolaryngology [a medical department which deals with children’s Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) region] told, ‘These cases broke new ground for us because we were able to use 3D printing to design a device that successfully restored patients’ breathing through a procedure that had never been done before.’

4D airway

Dr. Green Glenn stated, ‘Before this procedure, babies with severe tracheobronchomalacia had little chance of surviving. Today, our first patient Kaiba is an active, healthy 3-year-old in preschool with a bright future. The device worked better than we could have ever imagined. We have been able to successfully replicate this procedure and have been watching patients closely to see whether the device is doing what it was intended to do. We found that this treatment continues to prove to be a promising option for children facing this life-threatening condition that has no cure.’

Details of the settings

Glenn along with his colleague Scott Hollister, a professor of biochemical and mechanical engineering and associate professor of surgery, used CT scans and laser-based 3D printing technology to develop a custom tracheal splint for Kaiba Gionfriddo, 3 years back when he was about to have the surgery. The splint was sewn around Kaiba’s airways to expand the trachea and bronchus. The unique feature of this splint is that it will be absorbed by the body once it’s not needed.

trachea splints

details of how the splint is placedThe three 3-year olds are doing fine now. ‘The first time he was hospitalized, doctors told us he may not make it out,’ Kaiba’s mother April Gionfriddo told reporters. ‘It was scary knowing he was the first child to ever have this procedure, but it was our only choice and it saved his life.’

“The first time he was hospitalized, doctors told us he may not make it out,” Kaiba’s mother April Gionfriddo told reporters. ‘It was scary knowing he was the first child to ever have this procedure, but it was our only choice and it saved his life.’

A healthy Kaiba

‘We were pleased to find that all of our cases so far have proven to improve these patients’ lives. The potential of 3D-printed medical devices to improve outcomes for patients is clear, but we need more data to implement this procedure in medical practice.’ Glenn says.

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Survey says 1 out of 4 people open to trust 3D printed Food!

3D printed food doubt
3D printed food doubt

I’m sure as much as we admire and even love 3D printing technology, it is a no-brainer that there can be some who are yet to get a grip of the technology, especially its applications in the food industry, at least 3 out of 4 people are not okay with 3D printed food on their plate.

Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, company providing property and casualty insurance to its customers, conducted a survey as a part of its  2015 Consumer Perceptions of Business Risk Survey. As per the survey, only 23% of the respondents are okay with having a 3D printed food.

Steven Hernandez, the worldwide loss control manager for the Chubb Group said, “Consumers also are embracing many of the products and services being developed through new technologies, but they clearly are concerned about how companies are managing the emerging risks of such innovation,”

3d printed building
3D printed villa

But however it seems a whopping 77% of them wouldn’t mind using 3D printed prosthetic limb. Also, 64% of them said they would like to wear or use 3D printed accessories, clothes or shoes. So, probably 3D printing technology in fashion industry has higher chances of earning revenues. A decent 58% voted in favour of 3D printed automotive part. 51% of the respondents are cool with staying in a 3D printed house. And around 8% of the crowd who are still not convinced about the 3D printing technology and this percent of people said they want nothing out of 3D printing technology.

Laurel Shoe on model
3D Printed shoes

Since it is a company dealing with the property of its customers there were certain questions survey respondents were also asked if they trust the 3D printing materials and an astonishing figure of 60% expressed that they are immensely concerned about the safety of 3D printing materials and the objects and 54% of the total respondents are concerned about the durability and performance of 3D printed items.

Independent public opinion and market research firm, Opinion Research Corporation is the entity responsible for conducting the survey this year.

Image courtesy: Youtube.com

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Canadian Rockers use 3D printed musical instruments

3D printed guitar
3D printed guitar

When it comes to designing musical instruments using 3D printing technology we have seen how MONAD Studio And REIFY have  created aesthetic 3D printed instruments, which can be really difficult making them manually. It’s highly time consuming and the designs may not as perfect as you want it to be.

It turns out that songwriters and band singers have are adopting 3D printing technology for their own benefit. Canadian band Secret Broadcast recently used 3D printed their musical instruments like guitar and in an interview singer of the band Matt Lightstone told. “About a month ago, we were having a few drinks while brainstorming some ideas for our new video when we overheard someone at the next table discussing 3D printers.Five minutes later we had our concept. We thought it would be a blast to make our own 3D printed instruments and record a song with them.”

The band used GoPro cameras to shoot the video of their single “One Born Every Minute”. The uniqueness of the video of the single is that it features the 3D printing process of the guitars, along with that the video would also have clips of the recording of the track.

In case you are a music or a fan of Secret Broadcast then it might interest you that their music video will be produced by Grammy-award winning producer Adam Kasper who’s produced Aerosmith, Nirvana, R.E.M, Pearl Jam, and many more.

“Agile Manufacturing and 3D Systems were nice enough to help us print the instruments,”Lightstone told. “We then went to Dream House Studios in Toronto and recorded a song live off the floor. It took our engineer a little while to dial in the right sounds, but in the end we were all really happy with how the recording turned out.”

Not just musical instruments, even jewellery were designed using music tone. To know more, click here,  3D printing is proving time and again that it has the full potential to make impossible possible, we are sure of that !

Secret Broadcast
Secret Broadcast