3D-printed Mario Kart turtle shells race to rescue American economy

By Sharif Sakr
From http://www.engadget.com/

As soon as you see these little RC Koopa shells, you know that life can't be that bad. In fact, they've already had a hallelujah-inducing impact on the world of the 3D-printing genius who created them. Ten days ago, Michael Curry (aka Skimbal) was among America's 13.9 million unemployed, having been unceremoniously booted out of his ailing architect's firm. All he had was a $700 MakerBot printer to stop his hands from idling, but he made the most of it. MakerBot saw his stuff and were as bowled over as we are, so they just gave the guy a job. We're dusting off our Wii controllers and even those little plastic steering wheels in celebration.

Gizmodo

ThingiVerse

Engineers Fly World's First 'Printed' Aircraft

SULSA is the world's first 'printed' aircraft. (Credit: Project SULSA UAV)

ScienceDaily (Aug. 2, 2011) — Engineers at the University of Southampton have designed and flown the world's first 'printed' aircraft, which could revolutionise the economics of aircraft design.

The SULSA (Southampton University Laser Sintered Aircraft) plane is an unmanned air vehicle (UAV) whose entire structure has been printed, including wings, integral control surfaces and access hatches. It was printed on an EOS EOSINT P730 nylon laser sintering machine, which fabricates plastic or metal objects, building up the item layer by layer.

No fasteners were used and all equipment was attached using 'snap fit' techniques so that the entire aircraft can be put together without tools in minutes.

The electric powered vehicle aircraft, with a 2-metres wingspan, has a top speed of nearly 100 miles per hour, but when in cruise mode is almost silent. The aircraft is also equipped with a miniature autopilot developed by Dr Matt Bennett, one of the members of the team.

Laser sintering allows the designer to create shapes and structures that would normally involve costly traditional manufacturing techniques. This technology allows a highly-tailored aircraft to be developed from concept to first flight in days. Using conventional materials and manufacturing techniques, such as composites, this would normally take months. Furthermore, because no tooling is required for manufacture, radical changes to the shape and scale of the aircraft can be made with no extra cost.

This project has been led by Professors Andy Keane and Jim Scanlan from the University's Computational Engineering and Design Research group.

Professor Scanlon says: "The flexibility of the laser sintering process allows the design team to re-visit historical techniques and ideas that would have been prohibitively expensive using conventional manufacturing. One of these ideas involves the use of a Geodetic structure. This type of structure was initially developed by Barnes Wallis and famously used on the Vickers Wellington bomber which first flew in 1936. This form of structure is very stiff and lightweight, but very complex. If it was manufactured conventionally it would require a large number of individually tailored parts that would have to be bonded or fastened at great expense."
Professor Keane adds: "Another design benefit that laser sintering provides is the use of an elliptical wing planform. Aerodynamicists have, for decades, known that elliptical wings offer drag benefits. The Spitfire wing was recognised as an extremely efficient design but it was notoriously difficult and expensive to manufacture. Again laser sintering removes the manufacturing constraint associated with shape complexity and in the SULSA aircraft there is no cost penalty in using an elliptical shape."

SULSA is part of the EPSRC-funded DECODE project, which is employing the use of leading edge manufacturing techniques, such as laser sintering, to demonstrate their use in the design of UAVs.

The University of Southampton has been at the forefront of UAV development since the early 1990s, when work began on the Autosub programme at its waterfront campus at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton. A battery powered submarine travelled under sea ice in more than 300 voyages to map the North Sea, and assess herring stocks.

Now, the University is launching a ground-breaking course which enables students to take a Master's Degree in unmanned autonomous vehicle (UAV) design..

N12 3D-printed bikini by Continuum Fashion and Shapeways

by Cino Zucchi Architetti »

from: http://www.dezeen.com/

N12 3D-printed bikini by Continuum Fashion
and Shapeways

The world’s first 3D-printed bikini has gone on sale, created by designers Jenna Fizel and Mary Haung of Continuum Fashion.

Called N12, the design comprises discs of varying sizes, linked together by springs.

These circles are smaller on parts of the garment that need to curve round the body and larger on areas with flatter contours.

The designers envisage that bespoke items of clothing could be made according to a body scan of the customer.

The project was developed in collaboration with 3D-printing company Shapeways and can be purchased through the online shop.

Photographs are by Ariel Efron.

The information below is from Continuum Fashion:

---

Designed by Continuum Fashion in collaboration with Shapeways the N12 if the first completely 3D-printed, ready-to-wear, item of clothing. Previous experiments into the use of 3D printing in clothing have remained purely experimental, haute couture items not available to purchase. This represents the first affordable design that will lead the way for more items fabricated using 3D printing technologies.

“The bikini’s design fundamentally reflects the beautiful intricacy possible with 3D printing, as well as the technical challenges of creating a flexible surface out of the solid nylon. Thousands of circular plates are connected by thin springs, creating a wholly new material that holds its form as well as being flexible. The layout of the circle pattern was achieved through custom written code that lays out the circles according to the curvature of the surface. In this way, the aesthetic design is completely derived from the structural design.” Mary Haung, Continuum Fashion

The patterning starts with a curved surface, some geometry to indicate edges and value ranges for the circles sizes and tolerance parameters. The pattern begins placing circles at a point near the edge. Each subsequent circles tries to stay as near to the nearest edge geometry at possible. The circle’s size is determined with this nearness and by the local curvature of the surface. Curvier areas get small circles and flatter areas larger, both to help with accurately approximating the surface and to ensure flexibility where it is needed and efficiency of pattern where it is not.

Every time a bend or elbow is encountered in the surface edge, a small gap will be left in the pattern. Gaps will also occur near the middle distances between edges where the placement of the next circle is less certain. After the first level of pattern has been created, these open areas are infilled with smaller circles to ensure complete coverage, and to create a more interesting aesthetic pattern.

One of the goals of the circle patterning system is to be able to adapt it to any surface, at any size. This means that future articles of clothing can be produced using the same algorithm, this could be taken a step further into absolute customization by using a body scan to make a bespoke article of clothing, 3D printed to exactly fit that person only.

Continuum Fashion is comprised of Jenna Fizel and Mary Haung. Jenna designs and programs interactive environments at Small Design Firm in Cambridge, MA. She has previously worked at KPF in computational geometry and has her BSAD in Architecture from MIT. Jenna is interested in reinterpreting traditional crafts and manufacturing using computational tools. Mary has a BA in Design and Media Arts from UCLA, and a MA from the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID). Most recently, she worked in interaction design at Local Projects in NYC. Her other notable work includes Rhyme & Reason–a collection of LED dresses, and TYPEFACE–a software piece combining facial recognition and typography.

Shapeways is the online community and marketplace for personalized production where anyone can make and sell their own creations or buy custom‐made products, fabricated on demand in a variety of materials using the latest 3D printing technologies.

With headquarters in New York City and production facilities in Europe and the United States, Shapeways hosts a vibrant community of passionate creatives from around the world.

Model: Bojana Draskovic

First 3D-Printed Car Hits The Road

by Lloyd Alter, Toronto
from: http://www.treehugger.com/

Credit: Stratasys

The Urbee has been an Automotive X Prize candidate and will be on The Discovery Channel's Canadian flagship Daily Planet. The car, designed by Kor Ecologic of Winnipeg, Canada, is an electric / liquid-fuel hybrid that will get the equivalent of over 200 mpg on the highway and 100 MPG in the city.

But it is also the first car ever to have its entire body printed out on a giant 3D printer.

Credit: Stratasys

According to a press release from Stratasys:

Urbee is the first prototype car ever to have its entire body 3D printed with an additive process. All exterior components - including the glass panel prototypes - were created using Dimension 3D Printers and Fortus 3D Production Systems at Stratasys' digital manufacturing service - RedEye on Demand.

The designers at Kor point out the benefits of Fused Deposition Modelling:

"Our goal in designing it was to be as 'green' as possible throughout the design and manufacturing processes. FDM technology from Stratasys has been central to meeting that objective. FDM lets us eliminate tooling, machining, and handwork, and it brings incredible efficiency when a design change is needed. If you can get to a pilot run without any tooling, you have advantages."

The implications for building prototypes are obvious; you go straight from computer to finished part in a lot less time. But imagine a few years down the road, when everyone might order up the car body of their choice from a catalogue and just bolt it on a standard chassis. Ding the side? Just print up a replacement.

Skin Cell Spraying Bio Printer Can Heal Burn Victims in Three Weeks

by Brit Liggett
from http://inhabitat.com/

Recently we showcased a 3D printer that creates human body parts ready for transplant, and now our frankenstinean fascination with making body parts has unearthed another amazing device. This new bio-printer sprays skin cells on burn victim’s wounds, promoting healthy recovery. The printer is mounted onto a frame that is wheeled over a patient’s hospital bed. A laser reads the depth and shape of the wound, and with the help of a computer the device sprays a precise layer of skin cells that can heal infection-prone wounds in just three weeks.

The skin-spraying project is being developed by scientists and students at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. They are planning to team up with U.S. Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine to use the device to help wounded soldiers returning from overseas. The process starts as skin cells are separated and purified. They are then placed in a nutritious solution that helps the cells multiply. They are then loaded into the device, sprayed on the skin in layers and voila! Burns are healed. So far they’ve only tested the process on mice, and they were able to successfully heal burns after just three weeks.

Traditionally the only way to fix severe burn wounds is a skin graft. Skin grafts are highly painful and generally leave huge scars. With this new process scientists include some stem cells in the mix which allows hair follicles and sebaceous glands develop in the new layers of skin. It seems that when the cells are sprayed on the wound they know exactly what they are supposed to do, and they develop as naturally as a your own skin would. Eliminating the mass amount of medical rehabilitation involved in getting burn victims back on their feet by spraying on skin cells will eliminate much of the painful process and cut down on the chemical-based medicines used to help them heal.

Via Reuters

Reduce Paper Trash with "Pencil Printer"

The refined Pencil Printer part II comes with detailed explanations and a better understand of saving the environment from paper trash and permanency of Ink! In here we see how the lead shavings feed the cartridge toner and prints effortlessly on paper. Mistakes are easily erased, and once the crappy memo is done with…you can erase all the gibberish and re-use the paper. A true test of erasing skills!

Designers: Hoyoung Lee, Seunghwa Jeong & Jin-young Yoon

World's first 3D office photocopier launches

Photosimile: the world’s first “office photography machine”

By Alan Brandon

From: http://www.gizmag.com/

The Ortery Photosimile 5000 desktop photography studio

Image Gallery (6 images)

Imagine if you could take professional-looking photos and create 3D product animations as easily as using the office copier. Ortery’s Photosimile 5000 system aims to bring that capability to the office by enabling even non-photographers to create high-quality images just by pressing a few buttons. The Photosimile 5000 is a PC-controlled desktop photography studio that integrates a light box, a DSLR camera, automated camera positioning, and specialized workflow software to simplify and automate business photography.

High-quality images are a powerful part of a company’s web presence and marketing collateral. Ortery's desktop studios are designed to make it easy to create professional-looking product photos for use on web sites, in print, and in email for daily business communications. Crisp, well lit images are essential for ecommerce websites, and the Photosimile 5000 adds the ability to produce 3D, 360-degree product animations as well.

The camera and light box connect to a PC using USB. The Photosimile 5000 software controls the studio, camera location, turntable movement, camera settings, picture taking, and post processing. Simply place an item inside the light box then compose your image using the preview, zoom, and crop commands in the software. With one click, the picture automatically downloads to the PC.

Often the difference between professional photography and amateur work is the lighting. The Photosimile 5000 starts by providing consistent, even lighting for shadow-free images and accurate color. The system uses four daylight bulbs providing 6500K illumination. The Photosimile 5000 also includes a Canon DSLR mounted on a mechanical track. You control the position, tilt, and zoom from the PC. The subject of your photo sits on an Ortery turntable, which the company also offers separately. For 360-degree imaging, the camera position is controlled automatically. The Photosimile can accommodate objects up to roughly 22in. (56cm) on each side. For 3D images the maximum size is somewhat smaller.

The Photosimile 5000 synchronizes the position of the turntable and camera to photograph objects from multiple angles in one or more planes. The combination of the turntable and the mechanical track allow the Photosimile 5000 to shoot up to 72 pictures per 360-degree rotation, at nine unique angles from 0 to 90 degrees. The resulting images can be automatically stitched together to create 360-degree product animations. These 3D views can be saved as GIF or Flash files, or exported to Ortery’s Real3D format. Real3D allows you to compose 3D Silverlight animations with mouse control and zoom capabilities. Ortery says the software can combine images to create 360-degree spherical or hemispherical or animations.

The Photosimile 5000 software controls every aspect of the studio including the camera settings, the camera positioning, turntable movement, picture taking, and image post-processing. The software displays a real-time live preview while you compose your picture with the preview, zoom, and crop controls. The software also provides a complete workflow for annotating, masking, and batch processing files including naming, resizing, watermarking, and saving.

Although the system was unveiled in 2008, Ortery recently announced that the Photosimile 5000 is now shipping. Ortery doesn't list pricing, but at least one dealer on the Internet lists the Photosimile at around US$17000.

For more information and some cool 3D samples, visit Ortery technologies at ortery.com.

University lab demonstrates 3-D printing in glass

Enlarge

This is an object printed from powdered glass, using the Solheim Lab's new Vitraglyphic process. Credit: University of Washington

A team of engineers and artists working at the University of Washington's Solheim Rapid Manufacturing Laboratory has developed a way to create glass objects using a conventional 3-D printer. The technique allows a new material to be used in such devices.

The team's method, which it named the Vitraglyphic process, is a follow-up to the Solheim Lab's success last spring printing with ceramics.

"It became clear that if we could get a material into powder form at about 20 microns we could print just about anything," said Mark Ganter, a UW professor of mechanical engineering and co-director of the Solheim Lab. (Twenty microns is less than one thousandth of an inch.)

Three-dimensional printers are used as a cheap, fast way to build prototype parts. In a typical powder-based 3-D printing system, a thin layer of powder is spread over a platform and software directs an inkjet printer to deposit droplets of binder solution only where needed. The binder reacts with the powder to bind the particles together and create a 3-D object.

Glass powder doesn't readily absorb liquid, however, so the approach used with ceramic printing had to be radically altered.

"Using our normal process to print objects produced gelatin-like parts when we used glass powders," said mechanical engineering graduate student Grant Marchelli, who led the experimentation. "We had to reformulate our approach for both powder and binder."

By adjusting the ratio of powder to liquid the team found a way to build solid parts out of powdered glass purchased from Spectrum Glass in Woodinville, Wash. Their successful formulation held together and fused when heated to the required temperature.

Glass is a material that can be transparent or opaque, but is distinguished as an inorganic material (one which contains no carbon) that solidifies from a molten state without the molecules forming an ordered crystalline structure. Glass molecules remain in a disordered state, so glass is technically a super-cooled liquid rather than a true solid.

In an instance of new technology rediscovering and building on the past, Ganter points out that 3-D printed glass bears remarkable similarities to pate de verre, a technique for creating glassware. In pate de verre, glass powder is mixed with a binding material such as egg white or enamel, placed in a mold and fired. The technique dates from early Egyptian times. With 3-D printing the technique takes on a modern twist.

Enlarge

Grant Marchelli, a UW mechanical engineering graduate student, removes a new object from the Solheim Lab printer. Marchelli led development of the first method for 3-D printing in glass. Credit: University of Washington

As with its ceramics 3-D printing recipe, the Solheim lab is releasing its method of printing glass for general use.

"By publishing these recipes without proprietary claims, we hope to encourage further experimentation and innovation within artistic and design communities," said Duane Storti, a UW associate professor of mechanical engineering and co-director of the Solheim Lab.

Artist Meghan Trainor, a graduate student in the UW's Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media working at the Solheim Lab, was the first to use the new method to produce objects other than test shapes.

"Creating kiln-fired glass objects from digital models gives my ideas an immediate material permanence, which is a key factor in my explorations of digital art forms," Trainor said. "Moving from idea to design to printed part in such a short period of time creates an engaging iterative process where the glass objects form part of a tactile feedback loop."

Ronald Rael, an assistant professor of architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, has been working with the Solheim Lab to set up his own 3-D printer. Rael is working on new kinds of ceramic bricks that can be used for evaporative cooling systems.

"3-D printing in glass has huge potential for changing the thinking about applications of glass in architecture," Rael said. "Before now, there was no good method of rapid prototyping in glass, so testing designs is an expensive, time-consuming process." Rael adds that 3-D printing allows one to insert different forms of glass to change the performance of the material at specific positions as required by the design.

The new method would also create a way to repurpose used glass for new functions, Ganter said. He sees recycled glass as a low-cost material that can help bring 3-D printing within the budget of a broader community of artists and designers.

Source: University of Washington (news : web)

$750 well spent: MakerBot 'Cupcake' DIY 3D printer

The MakerBot CupCake CNC 3D printer caught my eye from all the way across the room, and MakerBot founder Bre Pettis didn't seem all that surprised that his seemingly cobbled-together DIY Frankenmachine made from wood, acrylic plastic, PCB and messy wires was drawing a crowd. After all, it was artfully melting lumps of ABS plastic into 3D marvels. For $750, it could do the same for you.

The machine gets its name since you really won't be able to make anything larger than a cupcake. But, oh, what you can make. Pettis showed us a replica of the Empire State Building (sans antenna — thanks Matt Buchanan) made from images found on Google, which was rendered with impressive detail. Pettis also showed a more practical use for the 3D printer, when he made a working lens cap for a camera.

If you're squeamish about building it yourself, you can also buy a pre-assembled CupCake for $2,500. There are also plans at MakerBot to develop a 3D scanner, so you can faithfully replicate complex objects.

Get a closer look at the MakerBot CupCake down below, or click Continue to see a high-res image of that model building. It's also worth the trip over to Gizmodo, where you can see it in action.

Just check out that detail (click it to make it big):

Via MakerBot

Jay Leno’s 3D Printer Replaces Rusty Old Parts

Jay Leno has a lot of old cars with a lot of obsolete parts. When he needs to replace these parts, he skips the error-prone machinist and goes to his rapid prototyping 3D printer. Simply scan, print and repeat.

By Jay Leno

Photographs by John Lamm

It’s an amazing way to fabricate parts. The 3D scanner next to Jay creates a digital model of this flanged nut from Jay’s EcoJet supercar. The nut takes 20 minutes to scan and reverse model and 3 hours to print in plastic.

One of the hardships of owning an old car is rebuilding rare parts when there are simply no replacements available. My 1907 White Steamer has a feedwater heater, a part that bolts onto the cylinders. It’s made of aluminum, and over the 100-plus years it’s been in use, the metal has become so porous you can see steam and oil seeping through. I thought we could just weld it up. But it’s badly impregnated with oil and can’t be repaired. If we tried, the metal would just come apart.

So, rather than have a machinist try to copy the heater and then build it, we decided to redesign the original using our NextEngine 3D scanner and Dimension 3D printer. These incredible devices allow you to make the form you need to create almost any part. The scanner can measure about 50,000 points per second at a density of 160,000 dots per inch (dpi) to create a highly detailed digital model. The 3D printer makes an exact copy of a part in plastic, which we then send out to create a mold. Some machines can even make a replacement part in cobalt-chrome with the direct laser sintering process. Just feed a plastic wire—for a steel part you use metal wire—into the appropriate laser cutter.

Inside the printer, the print head goes back and forth, back and forth, putting on layer after layer of plastic to form a 3D part. If there are any irregularities in the originals, you can remove them using software. Once the model is finished, any excess support material between moving parts is dissolved in a water-based solution. Complexity doesn’t matter, but the size of the object does determine the length of the process. Making a little part might take 5 hours. The White’s feedwater heater required 33 hours.

Any antique car part can be reproduced with these machines—pieces of trim, elaborately etched and even scrolled door handles. If you have an original, you can copy it. Or you can design a replacement on the computer, and the 3D printer makes it for you.

People say, “Why not just give the part to your machinist to make?” Well, if the machinist makes it wrong, you still have to pay for it. The scanner allows you to make an exact copy in plastic, fit it and see that it’s correct. Even when you take plans to a machinist, it can be tricky. Say the part must be 3 mm thick here and 5 mm there. You get it back and then, “Oh no, it doesn’t fit; it’s too thick,” or “It’s too thin.” My setup lets you create the perfect part. And you could press the button again and again—and keep making the part—twice the size, half-size, whatever you need. If you have a part that’s worn away, or has lost a big chunk of metal, you can fill in that missing link on the computer. Then you make the part in plastic and have a machinist make a copy based on that example. Or you can do what we do—input that program into a Fadal CNC machine; it reads the dimensions and replicates an exact metal copy.

Some guys are so used to working in the traditional ways. They’re old-school. So they’ve never seen this new technology in use—in fact, they’re not even aware it exists. When you work on old cars, you tend to work with old machinery like lathes, milling machines or English wheels. When someone tells you that you can take a crescent wrench, for example, scan it, then press a button, copy it, and make a new wrench, these guys say, “Well, that’s not possible. You can’t make the little wheel that moves the claw in and out. You’d have to make it in two sections.”

But they’re wrong. You can duplicate the whole tool.

They stand in front of the machine and watch a wrench being made, and they still don’t believe it. It’s like The Jetsons. George Jetson would say, “I want a steak dinner.” He’d press a button and the meal would come out of the machine, with the roasted potatoes and everything, all on one plate. We may not have the instant steak dinner yet—but my NextEngine system is like the car-guy equivalent.

A 3D printer uses the data from the 3D scanner to build a plastic replica.

If you had a one-off Ferrari engine, you could scan each part and then re-create the entire motor. Right now, we’re scanning a Duesenberg body. It’s a classic example of high tech melding with old tech. There are cars sitting in garages around the country, and they haven’t moved in years for lack of some unobtainable part. Now they can hit the road once more, thanks to this technology.

My 1907 White engine would never have run again because its slide valve (or D-valve) was shot. We built that part, and now the car is back on the street.

Let’s say you have an older Cadillac or a Packard, and you can’t get one of those beautifully ornate door handles. You could go to the big swap meet in Hershey, Pa., every day for the rest of your life and never find it. Or you could take the one on the left side of your car, copy it, use the computer to reverse it, and put that new part on the other side.

It’s an amazingly versatile technology. My EcoJet supercar needed air-conditioning ducts. We used plastic parts we designed, right out of the 3D copier. We didn’t have to make these scoops out of aluminum—plastic is what they use in a real car. And the finished ones look like factory production pieces.

When I was in high school, a friend’s father bought the new Pulsar LED watch. He paid $2200 for it. It had a red face; you pressed a button, it lit up and gave you the time. The next year I bought a similar watch from Texas Instruments for $19.99. I went over and showed it to my friend’s dad, and he was sooo angry.

The NextEngine scanner costs $2995. The Dimension uPrint Personal 3D printer is now under $15,000. That’s not cheap. But this technology used to cost 10 times that amount. And I think the price will come down even more.

These machines are not suited for mass production, but they work well for rapid prototyping. Just as eBay has made many swap meets go away, this machine could eliminate the need to go to eBay for parts. Think about it: What old part do you want to make?