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3D printing gets a boost from major retailers

“3D printing technology has the potential to completely transform the way we shop for our needs.” All of us agree to this statement, except that we vary on the time lines and the degree of agreeability. For any trend to catch on, it will need a few strong backers to propel it to the next level.

3D printing seems to have found its backers in the form of the retail giants such as Amazon.com and Wal-Mart. These stores could give 3-D printing a much needed boost to give it the reach in the nascent consumer market. In March, Amazon launched a pilot program to allow service providers to sell 3-D printed objects on its website. Sculpteo, a world-wide 3D printing service, has announced that 3D products from designers are now available on their Amazon.com storefront. Last October, Wal-Mart started its own pilot test, offering 3-D imaging and printing-services programs.

There is a lot of interest from other retail chains too. For example, Asda Stores in UK are offering a miniature service – “mini me”, where they create a detailed 3D printed miniature version of you and your family. According to Mike McNamara, there is a market for 3D printing in large supermarkets, and that 3D printers will be commonplace in stores, as this could ‘give shoppers a new reason to visit shops for quick access to niche items.

Another noteworthy name to be added is the office supply and services giant Staples. Staples is the first major retailer to offer consumer and prosumer 3-D printers, which it does online and in 150 of its 1,500 U.S. stores Also, Staples has come up with two experimental 3-D printing service centers in New York and Los Angeles in partnership with 3D Systems, which provides the design, scanning, and printing hardware and software for occasional use or to try out before purchasing. The experience center provides access to a $60,000 professional full-color 3-D printer. Customers can print larger, more complex items off-site on a 3D Systems’ $1 million set-up through a cloud-printing service offered in-store, which are then shipped to offices or home.

From a retail store’s perspective, apart from the fact that a niche service will draw more customers and more revenues for the overall store, 3D printing also helps the retails stores to cut down their space costs. They can just show the catalogue to the customers, without having to keep the physical object in the shelf, and once a selection is made the print can be done and delivered to the customers’ house. This way, the retail stores can expand their portfolio with minimal additional cost.

With the retail thrust, you can envision a scenario where consumers will be able to download printable files from amazon, and print their own parts from a low cost home printer or a 3d printing kiosk in the neighborhood. They might even go to a retail store nearby to get the part printed or select a latest item.

The entrance of retail giants into 3-D printing is a very encouraging sign, and will improve the awareness and usage of 3D printed materials. This will have a positive impact on the sale of printers, materials and the much needed consumer level innovations.

Image Credit: Simon Shek (Flickr handle – simon_shek)

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Creopop, the cool 3D printing pen that does not use hot plastic

Remember 3Doodler, the 3d pen that creates shapes out of thin air, with help of hot plastic oozing out from the tip? It was an instant hit in kickstarter and could raise $2.3 million through 26000 backers. It’s a cool idea to create your imaginations, and all you need is a creative mind and a steady hand. This project has not only caught the fancy of a lot of common folks, but has also fuelled competition from fellow entreprenuers and tech geeks. Last month, we have seen the entry of a promising 3d pen – Lix. Now, it has got another formidable opponent in the form of Creopop, a pen that uses cool ink.

Creopop is very different from its predecessors – Lix and 3Doodler. It does not use traditional method of heating the plastic filament and oozing out the melted plastic. Instead, it relies on built-in ultraviolet light to solidify the special light sensitive polymers. That means no hot parts, no melting of plastic and of course no smell, and is very safe for both adults and kids.

Creopop is battery operated and can be charged through micro USB. CreoPop is cordless and offers more freedom while you are busy with your design. The company also offers a wide range of the special inks including elastic, magnetic, glow-in-the-dark, nice smelling and body painting inks. The website even boasts of ink that changes color with temperature and ink that conduct electricity made for school science classes.

Creopor will soon be launching their crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. In the meantime, if you can’t wait, you can pre-register for the campaign, at their website.

 

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3D printers get a cool new feature – Colour mixing

Now, a new exciting feature has got added to 3D printing – Colour Mixing. Till now, we have seen 3D printers with single extruders giving output with single material and single colour. We have also seen advanced printers with multiple extruders supporting mult-material or multi-colour outputs. But, mixing of colours to achieve new shades or gradients is a cool new feature.

Dutch 3D printer manufacturer, Builder has just introduced this colour mixing feature to its Builder and Big Builder line of single-extruder dual-filament FFF 3D printers. These Dual-Feed machines will be able to extrude 2 colors at the same time creating prints in mixed colors, with some great new effects. The mixed color is created by changing the percentage of colors in G-code from extruding 100% of each color to, for example, 40% red and 60% yellow. This process creates the color mixing effect.

colormix-3d-printvoorbeelden1 All you need to do is to upload your G-code on “color mixing” generator page and then select the colour mix ratio’s from the two extruders with a simple slider scale.. The online code generator will then add extra commands into your existing G-codes. The new commands transform a normal G-code into a color mixing G-code. Then you can download the G-code for printing your own color mixed object.

When purchasing a small or Big Builder with Dual-Feed extruder, customers will receive a password by email which allows them to use the “color mixing” generator.

Imagesource : 3dprinter4u.com

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A visit to iMakr 3D printing store in London, UK

Last month, we visited iMakr store in London to attend one training session on MakerBot Replicator 2. The store is located in London’s Farringdon area, a historic area of London known for its numerous architecture and jewelry firms. The tagline of the store reads “The World’s largest 3D Printing Store”. After visiting the store, one can vouch for that tagline.

look n feel of imakr store

The total store is a 2000 sft two storied complex. From the outside, the store looks like one of those mysterious London shops except for the long glass façade facing the road. Various 3D printed objects are displayed at the glass façade. And we see lot of passers-by stopping at the store and browsing through all the interesting 3D objects displayed there. In that sense, the store is definitely a strong crowd puller. The interiors of the store has a cool apartment vibe. There is a lot of space inside the store and there is perfect blend of 3D machines, materials and objects put up for sale. In the ground floor, all materials and 3D objects packed in iMakr branded boxes are displayed. One can purchase the items directly at the store. Also, we find some people creating 3D designs on computers. We believe these are customers creating their own custom designs to get them printed at the store.

Basement is where the whole printing activity takes place. At one corner, there are various printers constantly churning out interesting 3D models. There is a team of in-house designers at the other corner creating nice 3D models of various renowned people.  There is also a dedicated space for training and workshops in the basement. We saw a wide range of 3D printers and materials in the store. The entire store is manned by 3D printing experts who patiently address all the questions customers have on 3D printing.

 

imakr 3d models

The most attractive feature of the store is the Mini-You product booth. One can get a 3D scanned image of oneself there and get it printed directly at the store. Around 12 pictures are taken of the person (or model) in various angles. Then a team works on joining these pictures into 3D model. This 3D model is then printed using Pro-X 300 printers. We found various interesting models that are printed and waiting to be dispatched to the customers.

imakr training session

After having a quick tour of the store, we finally sat down for the training session. In total 4 people attended this 2 hour training session. 3 of us are newbies looking to purchase the printer. The fourth one already purchased the printer from iMakr and wanted to clarify some doubts.  The training session presentation was projected to a wall and a live demo of the MakerBot Replicator 2 was conducted. The session went on for 2 hours and the training instructor seems to have thorough knowledge of the printers and 3D printing industry.

All in all, opening of the iMakr store in London, the first retail store in UK and also the world’s largest 3D printing store will be remembered as a landmark event in the history of 3D printing.  It’s a great place to visit for all the 3D print geeks, designers, engineers and also the inquisitive people who have a quest for something new. We applaud the efforts and the brave step taken by iMakr team to launch such big retail store for 3D printing when the whole industry is in a nascent stage.

Below is a short introductory video about iMakr

 

How to reach there: Take any train heading south from King’s Cross & St. Pancras and get down at Farringdon (Just one stop from King’s Cross). Exit the tube and walk for about 5-10 min on the lane parallel to Farringdon station lane and you find a big iMakr store to your left. Click here to know more about directions to store. 

About iMakr: iMakr operates the world largest 3D Printing store over 2 floors. Located at 79 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5AR, in Central London, the store sells best-in-class 3D Printers, 3D Scanners, Filaments, Finishing solutions and 3D Printed objects by renowned designers. The iMakr Store also operates a 3D scan yourself service, as well as training, classes, workshops and demonstrations. iMakr also operates iMakr.com online store and iMakr.vc, a dedicated fund for investments in 3D space. iMakr, iMakr.vc and iMakr.com are trading names of Instant Makr Limited, 88-94 Wentworth Street, London, England, E1 7SA, registered in England No. 08342137. Instant Makr Ltd. was founded in 2012 by Sylvain Preumont, a Technology entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in new technology start-ups. Click here to know more about iMakr

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3D Printing and the Toy Story

The future of 3D printing is not only promising but also very exciting. After proving its mettle in a wide array of industries, the 3D printers are on their way to conquer the toy world. The toy world is considered to be one of the most dynamic sectors because of the ever changing demands of toys. So in order to be at par with the demands it’s important for the companies to use technology that gives them all the liberty in the world to make the necessary changes and create objects with high precision and speed. These requirements are fulfilled by 3D printers, which have proved to be ideal for bringing various designs to life.

3D printers have proved themselves as being perfect for making miniature clones of anything. So making toys with the help of 3D printers will be child’s play. The toy industry is influenced by big companies like Fisher Price, Hot Wheels etc. Moreover, the industry is a hard nut to crack especially for SMEs and individual designers, who do not have sufficient resources to stay in the market and innovate. 3D printer will now give individual designer to cultivate their talents and bring their imagination and innovation to life.

There are many companies that are promoting such individual designers as well as the usage of 3D printers in the toy world. Few companies which are active in this new and positive change camp are ToyFabb, Modarri and Dynamo Development Labs.

ToyFabb is a Switzerland based company which was started by Jochen Hanselmann and Alex Schmid. The website of this company allows designers or hobbyists to create, a free account and can publish their designs are then sell their own models to customers. The website is also well equipped to fight a battle against piracy. Designers are the ones to decide whether the customers will receive the STL file of the design or the G-Code can be streamed securely to their 3D printer once. The other great step taken by the company is that of hosting an online contest for both hobby designers as well as professionals. Through this contest the company is looking for 3D printable designs that will be shown to the world. The last day for signing up for the contest is 30th September, 2014. The winner will bag a prize amount of $100 US. To check out the contest as well as all the new innovative 3D techniques that are being used by the company you can long on to their website which is ToyFabb.com.

The other company is Modarri, which enable its buyers to choose custom materials and colors and order their desired product. It also helps the buyers to substitute broken parts and also download the CAD files to design each part from the scratch.

Dynamo Development Labs, which was founded by Tucker Johnson and Wayne Lossey developed Modibot, a modular action figure that can be printed, and is currently available on the website of Shapeways. The lab is at present making a hybrid manufacturing model. The main aim of the company is to develop new approaches to creating toys.

Apart from these companies, there are various other companies that are contributing towards bringing the 3D printing technology into the toy industry. The entry of 3D printers in the toy industry will surely bring in the concept of open markets in this much monopolized industry.

Image Credit: Julian Fong (flickr handle – levork)

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Urban Planing with 3D Printers

Although the usage of 3D printers has existed in the market for nearly a decade now, the implications for this technology on the economy is yet to be explored. 3D printing essentially enables everyone to be their own manufacturers and as per the forecasts made by the experts, 3D printers will one day become a common sight in every home. The dawn of 3D printers is going to have a huge impact on the manufacturing sector, health and safety regulations, copyright and law in general, and so many other unknowns. After having placed a firm foot in the healthcare industry and other industries, 3D printers are all set to venture into the much undiscovered land of urban planning.

A design firm called the Steelblue which creates public spaces; 3D printed the model of San Francisco’s downtown and SOMA areas. This is believed to be the largest model of any city that has ever been made. This model was presented by Autodesk, which is a much acclaimed maker of digital modeling software and tools and Steelblue. The model was made to help Tishman Speyer, who is a real estate developer. This model was made to showcase the various projects and their impacts on the dynamic city of San Francisco. The model was created at a fraction of the cost and time than the traditional methods; it includes everything from politics to demographics to traffic planning. The model was built at Autodesk’s Pier 9 workshop using two Objet Connex 500 printers. It took almost two months to make the entire structure, including the time required to build prototypes and coasted around $20,000.

In another similar venture of 3D printing cities, this was materialized at Louisville, on the occasion of Kentucky’s Ideas Festival, which was an interactive event. In this festival community members got a chance to rearrange the city and try out new ideas for future development, all this was done with the help of 1/1000 scale. The buildings were printed out live at the event by local hackerspace LVL1, who had collaborated with the students of architecture of the University of Kentucky. The people who attended the event were able to move the 3D oriented buildings around the map of the city. The additional feature of the model was that the building could be modified with the help of Google SketchUp and printed live on one of the five 3D printers that were provided by LVL1. There were discussions among the people about the traffic patterns and zoning designations. This was a planning initiative that was held to unveil the city’s development strategies for the next 25 years. The city also plans to keep the 3D printed models and also record the ideas that were developed for the future course of action.

Apart from these two cities, Chicago was rendered in 3D way back in 2009, which was exhibited by the Chicago Architectural Foundation.

The bloating up of the map of cities helps in understanding the planning of a city in a very efficient way. It also equips architects, planners and officials to understand the city in a better way. The usage of 3D printing in urban planning is here to stay!

Image Credit: mtlockca (flickr handle – 64123293@N00)

 

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A Must have Kitchen Appliance: Foodini Food 3d Printer

Imagine if you could do away with all the mess of cleaning, chopping and then cooking the food that you eat. If someone would say to you, that you can 3D print your own food? It would surely make you feel that you are on the sets of the sci-fi Hollywood film, Cloudy with the chance of meat balls, but this imagination is on the verge of becoming a reality.

The concept of 3D printing food could be difficult to wrap around your head but a Barcelona start up Natural Machines has invented a new prototype 3D printer which it calls as the Foodini. This machine can produce a wide range of foodstuffs such as chocolates, cheeseburgers, gnocchi, ravioli, bread sticks and a lot other stuffs. Like most other 3D printers, Foodini squeezes liquid materials onto a printing bed. The sole difference is that it can use six capsules that can be used for six different ingredients. Each of these ingredients is squeezed out at different rates of pressure and temperature. There is a built-in heater in the printer so that the food is warm throughout the printing process.

The end product will be designed to look and operate like any other kitchen appliance. In order to make the product user friendly, a specialized software has been developed with a touch screen interface to allow its users to operate it like a tablet or a Smartphone. The level of technology that is being used in this product can be understood by the features that are being included in it. A Wi-Fi set up is also included in the machine so that the users can easily update the software. The company also plans to build an online community so that people could share their recipes and experience with the product.

As per the estimates made by the Chief Executive of Natural Machines, Emilio Sepulveda, the cost of this machine would probably be around 1,000 euros and the machine is expected to hit the stands by the middle of next year.

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3D printed efforts on the red planet – Mars

“The key for living on Mars is to use the raw materials that are already there” said Bruce Mackenzie, founder of the Mars Foundation, an organization that aims to build and operate the first permanent settlement on Mars. Now, as it turns out, 3D printing can be an answer to this requirement. 3D Printers have become more sophisticated, easy to move and very fast. Also, a greater choice of engineering materials is now available for creating objects of choice.

Firstly, all an astronaut needs to take along will be a 3D printer with the right software library of tools and spare parts (plus some raw materials). It would probably cut fuel costs by a lot and the packing for the space trip will be easier than a business trip.

Engineers at Mars Foundation hare exploring the possibility of manufacturing oxygen and methane, the gases and fuels needed to craft plastics like polyethylene, polyester and epoxy. According to Mackenzie, plastics can be made from the raw material already found on Mars. Plastics make it possible to build at a low cost, and also create irrigation pipes or manufacturing gears locally. What is required is set up of industrial cutters and 3D printers, to make things out of Martian raw materials, to start making a variety of objects needed for shelters, greenhouses and even parts for new 3D printers. A Contour Crafting robot, can even manufacture structures as large as apartment buildings and hotels using locally available materials such as clay and plaster.

Let us see how soon we can see soon the civilization flourishes on the red planet!

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Minockio lets you create 3D printed customized figurines

Ever wondered how a miniature version of your friend looks like? Did you ever wonder how you will look like, if you were ever shrunk to 1/100th of your current size? I am super excited to see a mini-Me. We need not keep imagining things any more.

Thai based company Minockio, launched a fascinating application which brings 3D printing much closer to the interest of general public. Minockio enables you to create “MINOCKIO”,  a cartoon version of any person. With the help of the software on the company’s website you can create a cartoon version of Yourself, your family and friends, your special someone or even a random cartoon  character from your imagination.

The software allows you to choose  various facial features such as  hair style, face type, eyes, mouth, nose , eyebrows, clothing and even the pose. ‘MINOCKIO’s which posses matte finish  are approximately 4 inches in size ,depending on the pose you select , are prices are around 140 USD + shipping and are shipped globally The company states that it takes around 15 to deliver your figurines.