Prototypes That Last: Simple Tips for Making Durable Parts, Part 1
Translating basic concepts in engineering into surprisingly simple yet powerful parts design tips.
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3D Printing
The Emergence of 4D Printing
MIT researcher Skylar Tibbits recently revealed some of his fascinating work in the field of self-assembling structures, coined “4D Printing”. The four dimensions in question here aren’t all spacial — the “4D” aspect utilizes three spacial dimensions, in the form of 3D Printing, and an additional time dimension. The parts printed in this way are then submerged in water to facilitate self-assembly.
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Shapeways Introduces New Flexible Material
Yesterday, 3D Printing service Shapeways announced the availability of a new material in their already-impressive lineup, a flexible plastic polymer. Printing with this “Elasto Plastic” will cost $1.75/cm3, and like many of the other materials, is laser-sintered one layer at a time.
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3D Printing a Functional Boat with Post-Consumer Milk Jugs
Last summer a student organization based out of the University of Washington, WOOF (Washington Open Object Fabricators), successfully created the world’s first 3D Printed Boat. The boat was printed on a large-format FDM printer, which was hacked together from a plasma cutter, and prints with post-consumer milk jugs.
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Printrbot Simple Debuts at Maker Faire
If you were hoping to pick up Brook Drumm’s new Printrbot Simple at Maker Faire Bay Area this year, well…you’re too late. The Printrbot Simple beta edition sold out Saturday afternoon. Still, with alpha availability slate for June, you don’t have too long to wait.
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First to File? Nah, First to Blog!
Like most people out there, I sometimes have more ideas than time to implement them. So instead of keeping those ideas locked in a notebook somewhere unaccessible and not serving a purpose, I’m going to release them into the world as public domain in the hope that they might inspire, or at a very minimum keep an idea from being patented. You can do whatever you like with these, except for attempting to patent them yourself. It is my sincere hope that by releasing these ideas, more awesomeness and excellence will be brought into being.
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Inside 3D Printing: A Maker Reports
The Inside 3D Printing Conference in NYC gave us a clear look at the business side of 3D printing. Usual suspects, like 3D Systems, MakerBot and Stratasys, attended in full force. So did some up-and-comers like FormLabs, ZoomRP, Sculpteo, Mbot, and MakerGear. Shapeways (based in New York) was noticeably absent, though CEO Peter Weijmarshausen gave a keynote speech and announced that the company would receive $30 million in new investments.
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