3D Systems created unique custom 3D printed prosthetics that have allowed Derby the dog, born with deformed legs, to run for the first time. Derby's new legs were created using a ProJet 5500X 3D Printer which allowed the company to use both rigid and flexible materials in the design.
Video courtesy of 3D Systems
Follow BI Video: On Facebook
Hershey's and 3D Systems are collaborating to make the candy of the future.
The chocolate company is planning to unveil a 3D Chocolate Candy Printing exhibit at Hershey’s Chocolate World in Hershey, PA, according to RetailingToday,
People who visit the exhibit will be able to print and purchase their own chocolate. They can also see what they look like as 3D chocolate molds.
3D printing has been on the rise and could become a $13 billion dollar industry.
"This exhibit is a great example of co-creation with consumers. They will be instrumental in shaping the future of commercially available 3-D chocolate printing," Hershey Co.’s chief research and development officer, Will Papa said in a news release.
3Ders.com reports that the exhibit will be open to the public on December 19, but until then, you can watch a video of the chocolate 3D printer in action below.
SEE ALSO: 3D Printing Is Going To Be Way Bigger Than What The 3D Printing Companies Are Saying
Follow Us: On Facebook
What happens when you’re in outer space and you suddenly need something you don’t have? It’s not like UPS makes regular trips to the International Space Station.
Normally, astronauts could have to wait up to several months for a specific tool to be delivered up to the ISS. But thanks to 3D printing, astronauts no longer need to wait.
In the first-ever case of “emailing” a tool into space to meet the needs of an astronaut, ISS commander Barry Wilmore was in need of a ratcheting socket wrench, so he had one emailed to the 3D printer that’s now aboard the ISS, Wired reports.
The 3D printer was designed and built by Made In Space, a California company.
Mike Chen, cofounder and chief strategy officer for Made In Space, says “this type of technology translates to lower costs for experiments, faster design iteration, and a safer, better experience for the crew members, who can use it to replace broken parts or create new tools on demand.”
Mind you, this isn’t the first time a 3D printed object was made in space — a total of 21 total objects have been made aboard the ISS. But this was the first time an astronaut needed a specific tool the 3D printer hadn’t made before.
Here’s the process: Made In Space designs the 3D-printed hardware in CAD software, which is then converted into a file-format the 3D printer can read. The company then sends the file to NASA, which is then transmitted to the ISS. The Space Station’s 3D printer can receive the code and begin manufacturing immediately.
All 21 objects that have been 3D printed in space will be brought back to Earth for further testing.
"We will use them to characterize the effects of long-term microgravity on our 3D-printing process, so that we can model and predict the performance of objects that we manufacture in space in the future," Chen says.
SEE ALSO: Elon Musk's Wild Plan To Revolutionize Transportation Is Moving Forward
It’s hard to catch all your favorite programming around the holidays — especially when your stomach is full of spiral ham and mashed potatoes.
But that’s where the KipstR wristband comes in.
Built by two British teenagers — Jonathan Kingsley, 14, and Ryan Oliver, 15 — the KipstR is like a TiVo remote in that it can pause and record whatever you’re watching. But instead of requiring manual activation, it can sense when its wearer falls asleep to then record what you’re watching, so you can continue your viewing once you wake up.
Kingsley and Oliver, who are both students at Manchester Creative Studio, were commissioned by Virgin Media, the company behind TiVo, to develop the KipstR, The Daily Mail reports. As such, it will only be available for Virgin Media customers in the UK; there are no plans yet for a global release, but if this device takes off, hopefully it’ll make it to the US soon.
“We jumped at the chance to work with the Virgin Media team on this project,” Oliver told The Daily Mail. “It was a brilliant challenge for us but we’ve learnt so much and are really pleased with the end result."
So how does it work? The KipstR prototype currently features a pulse-oximeter, which can measure your blood flow and the amount of oxygen circulating through it to know when you’re dozing off — basically, once the sensor notices any changes in your blood flow, it will start recording the program you’re currently watching.
The KipstR is powered by a lithium-polymer battery, and it comes with a push button, a sleep mode indicator, and a spark core chip to process all the data from the pulse-oximeter. The outside of the prototype was 3D printed using an Objet Connex 3D printer, which was able to turn out a resin called Polyjet that’s stronger than most rigid plastics created by 3D printers.
The two teenagers plan on giving the KipstR a trial run this Christmas, and they’re also exploring how other internet-connected devices in the home could take advantage of sleep control to help people save power, time and money.
SEE ALSO: How NASA 'Emailed' A Wrench Into Space
SEE ALSO: Elon Musk's Wild Plan To Revolutionize Transportation Is Moving Forward
Using a new technique known as 4D printing, researchers can print out dynamic 3D structures capable of changing their shapes over time.
Such 4D-printed items could one day be used in everything from medical implants to home appliances, scientists added.
Today's 3D printing creates items from a wide variety of materials — plastic, ceramic, glass, metal, and even more unusual ingredients such as chocolate and living cells.
The machines work by setting down layers of material just like ordinary printers lay down ink, except 3D printers can also deposit flat layers on top of each other to build 3D objects.
"Today, this technology can be found not just in industry, but [also] in households for less than $1,000," said lead study author Dan Raviv, a mathematician at MIT. "Knowing you can print almost anything, not just 2D paper, opens a window to unlimited opportunities, where toys, household appliances and tools can be ordered online and manufactured in our living rooms."
Now, in a further step, Raviv and his colleagues are developing 4D printing, which involves 3D printing items that are designed to change shape after they are printed. [The 10 Weirdest Things Created By 3D Printing]
"The most exciting part is the numerous applications that can emerge from this work," Raviv told Live Science. "This is not just a cool project or an interesting solution, but something that can change the lives of many."
In a report published online Dec. 18 in the journal Scientific Reports, the researchers explain how they printed 3D structures using two materials with different properties. One material was a stiff plastic, and stayed rigid, while the other was water absorbent, and could double in volume when submerged in water. The precise formula of this water-absorbent material, developed by 3D-printing company Stratasys in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, remains a secret.
The researchers printed up a square grid, measuring about 15 inches (38 centimeters) on each side. When they placed the grid in water, they found that the water-absorbent material could act like joints that stretch and fold, producing a broad range of shapes with complex geometries. For example, the researchers created a 3D-printed shape that resembled the initials "MIT" that could transform into another shape resembling the initials "SAL."
Dan Raviv / Scientific Reports
"In the future, we imagine a wide range of applications," Raviv said. These could include appliances that can adapt to heat and improve functionality or comfort, childcare products that can react to humidity or temperature, and clothing and footwear that will perform better by sensing the environment, he said.
In addition, 4D-printed objects could lead to novel medical implants. "Today, researchers are printing biocompatible parts to be implanted in our body," Raviv said. "We can now generate structures that will change shape and functionality without external intervention."
One key health-care application might be cardiac stents, tubes placed inside the heart to aid healing. "We want to print parts that can survive a lifetime inside the body if necessary," Raviv said.
The researchers now want to create both larger and smaller 4D-printed objects. "Currently, we've made items a few centimeters in size," Raviv said. "For things that go inside the body, we want to go 10 to 100 times smaller. For home appliances, we want to go 10 times larger."
Raviv cautioned that a great deal of research is needed to improve the materials used in 4D printing. For instance, although the 4D-printed objects the researchers developed can withstand a few cycles of wetting and drying, after several dozen cycles of folding and unfolding, the materials lose their ability to change shape. The scientists said they would also like to develop materials that respond to factors other than water, such as heat and light.
Follow us @livescience, Facebook& Google+. Original article on Live Science.
Copyright 2014 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
SEE ALSO: These Are 3 Breakthroughs That Bill Nye Thinks Will Change The World
CHECK OUT: This Is A Memory Champion's One Trick To Remember Everything
You should see this dog run. Derby was born with deformed front legs, but recently received a pair of 3-D printed prosthetics, which he is quite good at maneuvering in:
3-D printing experts often talk about how helpful printers are for rapid prototyping. That turned out to be true in Derby's case.
"Having these images on file on a computer and being able to print them is a lot quicker than having to hand-sculpt every single mold and rebuild these braces five, ten times," animal orthotist Derrick Campana says in the video, which was made by the company 3D Systems. Campana, who works for a pet-prosthetics company called Animal Ortho, designed the prosthetics' cup, shaped just for Derby's legs. Then he sent the cup's specifications onto 3D Systems for scanning and further design.
3D Systems decided on the prosthetics' loop shape, instead of the more straight up-and-down shape common in pet prosthetics (See Oscar the cat). Tara Anderson, a 3D Systems employee who took care of Derby as a doggie foster mom, worried a peg-like prosthetic would dig into the dirt. The loops seem to suit Derby just fine.
3D Systems' printer printed Derby's prosthetics all in one job, with a machine that is able to combine two materials in one print. The prosthetics use a stiff material for their loops and spokes, but a softer material for the cup where they attach onto Derby's legs.
This article originally appeared on Popular Science
SEE ALSO: 3D Printing Could Become A $13 Billion Industry
According to Jessica Rosenkrantz, “this is just the beginning”. As one half of perhaps the most innovative design duo in the world, Rosenkrantz is still basking in the acclaim for the 4D designer dress that has just been added to the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
“This dress may never be worn,” she told the Observer. “But the project is in part about a web application – Kinematics – that anyone can use to design a product that can be made very efficiently, requires no assembly and perfectly fits the body.”
The people behind the dress are Rosenkrantz and Jesse Louis-Rosenberg, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) graduates in biology and architecture, and mathematics respectively. Their design studio, Nervous System, is at the forefront of a movement that uses software to mimic processes and patterns found in nature.
The results are breathtakingly intricate designs, taken from the veins in leaves, crystal formations or the delicate radiating gills found on the underside of mushrooms, which are used to make products such as jewellery, lampshades and garden trellises. To create the dress, the designers took a 3D scan of the model’s body. The Kinematics app then rendered the image with tessellated or triangular patterns. According to the size, placement and quantity of triangles – each held with hinges – the garment can be made to move like fabric.
By uniting the garment into a single piece and compressing the design for printing – it required 2,279 printed panels interconnected by 3,316 hinges – the designers found that they could reduce the volume for printing by 85%. It has still cost $3,000 in materials and took two days to print on a commercial 3D printer, but the see-through cocktail dress has pushed design, fashion and manufacturing in new directions.
The theory of 4D printing describes making something in one shape that unfolds to become another – in essence, 3D printing with an extra layer of computational power. The biggest surprise, Rosenkrantz says, is that it actually works. However, she adds, the garment industry has always been at the forefront of new technology, from the weavers’ loom to the present day.
“We’re interested in creating complex objects that are one of a kind and customisable,” says Louis-Rosenberg, “and [we want] to use 3D printing to make products that have never been made before.”
The dress (seen in close-up) features intricate designs taken from the veins of leaves and crystal formations. Photograph: Steve Marsel Studio
Nervous System developed the Kinematics concept as a project for Google to publicise the company’s Android phones. The designers guessed that their technique for printing bracelets on domestic MakerBot 3D printers that folded like origami could be used for larger projects but were still surprised the dress came out as well as it did. “It feels like mechanical lace, somewhere between plastic and fabric,” Rosenkrantz explains. “We’d like to do a little more testing before we say we’re ready to market it.”
While technology companies are leaning towards fashion to glamorise wearable technology, or geek wear – Apple is expected to announce design collaborations with luxury brands when it launches the iWatch early next year – it is still relatively rare for that process to be reversed. The Dutch designer Iris van Herpen recently introduced clothes inspired by the Large Hadron Collider, the particle accelerator at the Cern laboratory in Switzerland.
Nervous System’s aim, though, is not to endorse fashion’s emphasis on exclusivity, but to return the power to design to the individual wearer. One of their chief influences is Skylar Tibbits, a research professor at MIT’s department of architecture, who focuses on self-assembly and programmable material technologies. That computational power can then be used to mimic designs found in nature – a fern, for instance, or an egg – under the label of biomimetic or organic design. Advances in what Tibbits calls “hyperform” might allow designers to make structures as fine as silk or sturdy as tweed.
Rosenkrantz and Louis-Rosenberg are reluctant to describe the dress as fashion. “This is fundamentally about harnessing computational power and new fabrication methods and placing that in the hands of people,” says Louis-Rosenberg.
They anticipate a return to artisanal craftsmanship, reached not through reverting to pre-industrial methods of manufacturing but through advanced technology – and a distinct shift away from the idea of mass production and luxury branding.
“We’re interested in things that are customised, that you design yourself and are made locally, affordably and ethically as part of your lifestyle,” says Rosenkrantz. “It’s not just about picking something off the shelf.”
Customisation and bespoke tailoring once existed only at the luxury end of the market but the MIT graduates argue that it is something mass-market consumers have always wanted but have traded for products that they could afford to buy. “It wasn’t as if we decided we all wanted the same T-shirt or chair because we wanted to look the same,” Rosenkrantz reasons. “It was because of price-point and efficiency.”
Now, with a backlash building against the consumer world of “product”, 3D technologies could point the way forward. The machine that built the Kinematics dress at the Shapeways “3D printing factory” in New York costs hundreds of thousands of dollars and is difficult to operate. Machines of this complexity are not going to be in our homes any time soon but the software and computational power is readily available.
“The ability to design and print your own products is something we think about,” says Rosenkrantz. “We want to bring back the feeling that what you have is what you actually want – not just the thing you settled for.”
New York’s Museum of Modern Art clearly believes the pair are on to something. It is planning to put the dress on display next month as part of a show highlighting advances in design.
“We really appreciate when new technology is used well and, we believe, will have an impact on the real world,” says Paola Antonelli, the museum’s senior design curator. “We think it’s an important stepping stone and an elegant manifestation of technology that allows the printing of textiles folded and offers enormous potential for the future of fabrication.”
This article originally appeared on guardian.co.uk
Paris (AFP) - 3D printing will revolutionise war and foreign policy, say experts, not only by making possible incredible new designs, but by turning the defence industry -- and possibly the entire global economy -- on its head.
For many, 3D printing still looks like a gimmick, used for printing useless plastic figurines and not much else.
But with key patents running out this year, new printers that use metal, wood and fabric are set to become much more widely available -- putting the engineering world on the cusp of major historical change.
The billion-dollar defence industry is at the bleeding edge of this innovation, with the US military already investing heavily in efforts to print uniforms, synthetic skin to treat battlewounds, and even food, said Alex Chausovsky, an analyst at IHS Technology.
Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have already invented "4D printing" -- creating materials that change when they come into contact with elements such as water.
One day, that could mean things like printed uniforms that change colour depending on their environment.
In the real world, the baby steps are already being taken.
Late last year, British defence firm BAE Systems put the first printed metal part in a Tornado jet fighter.
The company recently put out an animated video showing where they think such humble beginnings could one day lead.
It imagined a plane printing another plane inside itself and then launching it from its undercarriage.
"It's long term, but it's certainly our end goal to manufacture an aerial vehicle in its entirety using 3D printing technology," Matt Stevens, who heads BAE's 3D printing division, told AFP.
But the real revolution of 3D printing is less about the things you can make and more about where you make them.
Being able to take printers to a warzone promises a radical shake-up of combat and the defence industry, says Peter W Singer, an expert in future warfare at the New America Foundation.
"Defence contractors want to sell you an item but also want to own the supply chain for 50 years," he says.
"But now you'll have soldiers in an austere outpost in somewhere like Afghanistan who can pull down the software for a spare part, tweak the design and print it out."
This could lead militaries to cut out private defence companies altogether. And by combining 3D printing with assembly line robotics, those that remain will be enormously streamlined.
That sort of disruption carries huge political implications in places like the United States where defence firms are purposefully spread around the country and support millions of jobs.
"The Pentagon and defence industry have an incredibly tough time with innovation, but you don't want to wait to lose a major battle before you do it," says Singer.
3D printing could even change foreign policy, for instance by undermining sanctions.
"The US has sanctioned everything from fighter jet spare parts to oil equipment. 3D printing could turn sanctions -- which have been a crucial part of foreign policy for a generation or more -- into an antiquated notion," says Singer.
Then there are the scarier prospects that come with reducing the barriers to arms manufacturing.
"Think of master bombmakers in the Middle East making new designs that look like everyday products or a lone wolf operator printing a plastic gun he can get past security at the White House," says Chausovsky.
But all of that may pale in comparison to the security risks that 3D printing could trigger by revolutionising economies.
If anyone can print retail goods, economies that rely on cheap factory labour to make things like clothes and toys may find themselves in deep trouble -- with all the security consequences that go with that.
"If you want to know where the big threat of 3D printing is, think about how reliant China is on its low-cost merchandising sector," says Chausovsky.
3D printing -- invented in the 1980s -- is much older than many realise.
The recent upsurge in interest is tied to the fact that patents on the original technology are expiring -- opening the way for competition that will drive up quality and push down prices.
The first major patents to run out were in 2009 for a system that used plastics known as "fused deposition modelling".
But the next big ones, that expired in the first half of 2014, are related to "selective laser syntering" that prints metals such as aluminium, copper and steel, and with much greater definition.
And rather than working with solid lumps of metal, engineers can create complex new shapes that use much less material without losing any strength.
"You can't drill a curved hole," says Chausovsky. "With 3D printing, you're creating products that would never be possible with traditional methods.
The full implications are still hard to imagine.
"It's the first time in a very long time that there's been such a radical shake up in industrial engineering," says Stevens at BAE. "We're not just improving things -- we're re-writing the rule book."
Winsun, the Chinese construction company that 3D printed 10 one-story homes in a single day last year, just revealed two new 3D-printed projects: A five-story apartment block, and a three-story mansion.
Both buildings are proofs of concept, as they're stationed right next to each other in an expo area in Suzhou Industrial Park. They were both made using a special type of pre-mixed concrete created from "construction waste" and printed layer by layer, according to Chinese news site Caixin (via Tech In Asia).
The 3D-printed mansion covers an approximate area of 11,840 square feet, with all the walls and roofs built from the 3D printed material. Winsun used a 3D printer measuring 500 feet long, 33 feet wide, and 21 feet tall to print each part of the mansion.
The mansion's interior is undecorated, but it just gives a glimpse of what 3D printing can accomplish. Check out some more photos below, or view the entire gallery over at Caixin.
We just saw an amazing new product demo from Microsoft. It involves the surprise new device that Microsoft announced on Wednesday called HoloLens, new software called HoloStudio, and a 3D printer.
HoloLens is a headset device that's like a cross between Google Glass and the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. But unlike Glass, where all the virtual elements are localized to a tiny display that's right in front of one of your eyes, HoloLens lets you see virtual elements everywhere you look.
You will be able to use the device to create your own holograms, or virtual elements that will appear in the real world when you don the HoloLens. You won't be completely dependent on an app developer to write cool apps for you, however; HoloStudio is akin to movie editing software: anyone can use it.
Microsoft showed a demo of HoloStudio in action.
First you wear HoloLens...
Then you fire up the software. You can create a 3D object by pointing at choices the app offers: sticks and spheres and so on.
It turns out, she was building a drone helicopter-like thing.
And by hooking up to a 3D printer, the demo printed the 3D copter, turning an imaginary object into a real thing.
Microsoft's current version of Windows, Windows 8, already supports 3D printing. Windows 10 will support it as well.
To be fair, the demo didn't actually print the hologram on stage. It had been previously printed. But the demo was certainly enough to get the idea across. Amazing things are coming with the next generation of augmented reality computers.
It's not clear when these devices and apps will be available, much less the ability to 3D print your hologram creations.
When introducing the device on Wednesday, Microsoft's Alex Kipman (who helped build the original software for Kinect), vaguely said it would be available in the Windows 10 timeframe.
Windows 10 is expected to be out next fall, but Microsoft hopes to have early builds of Windows Holographic, the virtual platform that supports the HoloLens, available by this spring.
SEE ALSO: Here's Everything Microsoft Showed Today
3D printers will one day become common product-design and manufacturing devices.
But this isn't a moonshot industry. The 3D-printing market will already be significant, and cross the 1 million-unit threshold, within the next couple of years. By 2018, 3D printer shipments will increase tenfold from current levels, according to data analyzed by BI Intelligence. The trends all point to a significant opportunity quickly coming into focus.
Consider:
The 3D-printing trend will create a new generation of entrepreneurs who will purchase 3D printers to fuel start-ups, speed up innovation at established companies, and reduce manufacturing costs across many industries.
There are already online marketplaces where owners of 3D printers sell their services to businesses and individuals who want to create three-dimensional objects, including toys, tools, and molds.
For all our downloadable charts, data, and analysis of the Internet of Things and emerging-tech devices please sign up for a trial membership of BI Intelligence today. The full version of this article includes data on the revenue opportunity in the 3D-printing market.
They may look flimsy, but the materials printed with 3-D printing technology are one-of-a-kind, light-weight and super-strong.
Materials engineers at LLNL have created a material with a special 3-D printer that mixes hard metal, tough ceramics and flexible plastics.
“It can hold more than 100,000-times its own weight. In fact, even more than that," said Chris Spadaccini, a materials engineer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
“One of the benefits of this methodology is the ability to work with a wide range of materials," said Josh Kuntz, a materials engineer at LLNL.
“These are things that are generally not available in 3-D printing today,” Spadaccini commented.
The engineers create the materials with a sophisticated technology that creates 3-D parts layer by layer.
“Wherever it gets hit by light, it hardens and forms a layer,” Spadaccini explained.
The materials are so strong that they can remain stiff almost indefinitely and can hold up to at least 160,000 times their own weight.
“The connectivity is so high that the structure does not have an extra degree of freedom to bend under load," said Xiaoyu “Rayne” Zheng, a materials engineer at LLNL.
The materials could someday be used in products that require strong but lightweight parts such as automobiles, space vehicles and airplanes.
Check out the video, here:
SEE ALSO: Amazing New Material Is So Water-Resistant That Liquid Bounces Right Off
CHECK OUT: Freezing Liquid Nitrogen Creates Something Amazing
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: An Oxford Professor Has Unlocked The Mysterious Science Of The Guitar
You have to feel sorry for these engineering students who were ready to unleash their 3D-printed bicycle on the world.
The Carleton University second-years invited the media to view their bike in action, particularly how they had overcome the shortfall of 26cm plastic parts not being “a great structural material”.
Crack that, they thought, and we’ve moved a long way down the track toward creating the “IKEA of bikes”.
Before we go to the video, the bike’s creators James Nugent and Michael Mackay-MacLaren cut straight to the problem for the media afterward.
“Once we had attached wheels and a seat, we were ready to sit on the final product to see if it could withstand the weight of a person,” they said.
“Ignoring the known weaknesses, like the part where the printer had run out of plastic and not finished the print or the one with a small crack, we decided to go for it.”
So, let’s roll the tape:
The rider is the bike’s other co-creator, Gabriel Wong, and that was the first test run.
The bike snapped at the head tube and the trio admitted afterward it had been printed hollow, not solid. To be fair, they took it remarkably well in their stride, offering this upbeat statement:
“With the frame being tested we now had to examine the wreckage to identify the failure methods. As engineers we take failure as the optimal chance to refine and redesign any flaws we find in our original design. In the near future we will be testing again with the hope of finishing before the looping makes us too dizzy to think.”
So let’s put it down to the exuberance of youth. It’s purely an unfortunate accident and these types of stuff-ups plague tech demonstrators more than anyone. It’s the nature of the business.
But it also highlights the biggest hurdle the 3D printing industry has to overcome, namely convincing people to make the shift away from the certainty of their present life to something which just feels suspiciously cheap and appears too easy.
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: 14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do
At the International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago, Local Motors 3D printed a plastic car called the Strati.
Local Motors took the chassis, seats, door panels, and thousands of other components, and 3D printed all those parts into just one piece. The first phase of the process took just 44 hours.
"A 3D printed car like ours will only have dozens of components," Local Motors engineer James Earle told Business Insider. In the near future, he says, it could cost only about $7,000 to manufacture, perhaps the start of what will become a niche market for customized cars.
Produced by Will Wei
For more tech stories go to the BI: Tech YouTube channel
3-D printers have been used to create some incredible things over the past few years.
3-D printers have built houses, produced food, and generated all sorts of surprising objects. But they're not just for hobbyists and large-scale projects.; 3-D printers are capable of creating incredibly useful and clever household objects you may not have even considered in the past.
CGTrader, a marketplace for 3D artists, knew that there were plenty of useful things you could make with a 3D printer, so they gathered up these handy 3D-printed objects. We added a few creative yet useful additions from Makerbot's Thingiverse and Shapeways as well.
This is an update of a post originally written by Dylan Love.
People can't take enough selfies. A London college is teaching its students the art of taking a selfie, selfie sticks are selling out everywhere, and some people have even moved on to taking belfies. The next logical step, clearly, is 3D selfies. Artec has a machine called the Shapify Booth that lets you do just that.
Produced by Will Wei
Follow BI Video: On Facebook
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian researchers unveiled the world's first 3D-printed jet engine on Thursday, a manufacturing breakthrough that could lead to cheaper, lighter and more fuel-efficient jets.
Engineers at Monash University and its commercial arm are making top-secret prototypes for Boeing Co, Airbus Group NV, Raytheon Co and Safran SA in a development that could be the savior of Australia's struggling manufacturing sector.
"This will allow aerospace companies to compress their development cycles because we are making these prototype engines three or four times faster than normal," said Simon Marriott, chief executive of Amaero Engineering, the private company set up by Monash to commercialize the product.
Marriott said Amaero plans to have printed engine components in flight tests within the next 12 months and certified for commercial use within the next two to three years.
Australia has the potential to corner the market. It has one of only three of the necessary large-format 3D metal printers in the world - France and Germany have the other two - and is the only place that makes the materials for use in the machine.
It is also the world leader in terms of intellectual property (IP) regarding 3D printing for manufacturing.
"We have personnel that have 10 years experience on this equipment and that gives us a huge advantage," Marriott told Reuters by phone from the Avalon Airshow outside Melbourne.
3D printing makes products by layering material until a three-dimensional object is created. Automotive and aerospace companies use it for producing prototypes as well as creating specialized tools, moldings and some end-use parts.
Marriott declined to comment in detail on Amaero's contracts with companies, including Boeing and Airbus, citing commercial confidentiality. Those contracts are expected to pay in part for the building of further large format printers, at a cost of around A$3.5 million ($2.75 million) each, to ramp up production of jet engine components.
3D printing can cut production times for components from three months to just six days.
Ian Smith, Monash University's vice-provost for research, said it was very different to the melting, molding and carving of the past.
"This way we can very quickly get a final product, so the advantages of this technology are, firstly, for rapid prototyping and making a large number of prototypes quickly," Smith said. "Secondly, for being able to make bespoke parts that you wouldn't be able to with classic engineering technologies."
(Editing by Paul Tait)
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: Here's the unlikely story of how auto-tune was created
SOLS, the “future of footwear" that uses 3D printing to create orthopedic insoles for the patients of physical therapists, podiatrists, and orthopedic doctors, announced Friday that it has raised an $11.1 million Series B round of funding.
SOLS works by taking a few pictures of your foot to create a 3D printed model, and from that, the company builds you an insole. It gets printed and shipped within a week.
Instead of having to get your SOLS through a doctor, as the company has done in the past, SOLS now wants to sell its products directly to consumers.
SOLS' new funding will allow the company to expand into the consumer product side of 3D printed footwear with an emphasis on sports, a seemingly perfect fit for a startup that got its start creating orthopedic insoles.
SOLS was founded by Kegan Schouwenburg and Joel Wishkovsky in 2013. Schouwenburg was previously director of industrial engineering and ops at 3D printing marketplace Shapeways — that's where she she got the idea for SOLS, while walking around the factory floor in her black leather platform boots.
It's also experimenting with a 3D printed shoe prototype, called "ADAPTIV," which uses robotics and biomechanics that adjust to the body's every move.
"It was this great collaborative effort to design this shoe that had 3D printed exoskeleton, color-changing LEDs that match your outfit — you can take a selfie and have your shoes match that — and we talked robotics, putting cells on the inside that would inflate and deflate to detect movement," Schouwenburg said. "You can imagine being out on the court and coming down from a jump and having a shoe inflate around your foot. It's pretty awesome."
The new funding comes from previous investors Founders Fund and Lux Capital, and new investments by Tenaya Capital and Melo7 Tech Partners, which was cofounded by NBA star Carmelo Anthony and Stuart Goldfarb.
The company also announced Terdema Ussery, president and CEO of the Dallas Mavericks, will be joining SOLS' board of directors.
Schouwenburg, whose roots are in fashion and design, now finds herself immersed in the world of sports. "This is a whole new world for me," she told Business Insider.
"I'm really honest about it. I come from the design and fashion world, but design, fashion and sports — those three things actually go together and have this very interesting relationship. I definitely sit on the design-fashion side, but I'm learning every day.
"I get really excited about how we can use SOLS to enable people to live their lives and achieve whatever it is they want — and that could be a hardcore way, like in a professional sports setting, but it could also be in a much more casual way in that you just want to go for a run or jog around the block or play with your kids longer at the park."
This year, NBA All-Star Weekend happened at the same time as Fashion Week, a perfect storm for SOLS.
"Back in December, the guys at Melo7 approached us about this NBA Fashion Week, All-Star event — it was the first time that the NBA All-Stars game was happening at the same time as Fashion Week and everything was culminating at once," Schouwenburg told Business Insider.
"They did this show that looked at the future of wearable technology and what's going on in the sports landscape and what that could look like. A big part of that conversation has always been shoes because of Air Jordan. There's so much history there. I think the push toward data in sports and using analytics to inform what's going on on the court, there's really interesting stuff happening."
"We're taking what we've done to the insole and driving that forward, and not only launching into the consumer sector — enabling anyone, anywhere to have access to our technology at an affordable price, but hopefully one day actually taking the next step and using the insoles we've built as the first piece in a new definition of footwear," Schouwenburg said.
The startup previously raised $6.4 million in a Series A round in April from investors including Grape Arbor VC, FundersGuild, Felicis Ventures, Rothenberg Ventures, RRE Ventures, and Founders Fund. Since its launch in 2013, SOLS has raised $19.3 million in funding. The New York-based startup has 45 employees, and a network of 300 medical professionals providing SOLS to their patients.
SEE ALSO: 2 dozen millennials explain why they're obsessed with Snapchat and how they use it
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: How to make your commute less miserable
ADDITIVE manufacturing, as it is known to those who use it — or 3D printing, as the rest of the world more poetically calls it — is unlikely to replace the metal bashing of mass production anytime soon.
But for bespoke applications, even those that must meet tough engineering requirements, or "tolerances", it may oust more traditional methods surprisingly quickly. Building a machine's components a layer at a time means that complicated shapes can be made more easily than by starting with a lump of metal and removing what is not needed. There is also far less waste.
The latest straws in the wind come from the world's antipodes. In Britain Rolls-Royce, a large engineering firm, is testing the technique for making parts of commercial-jet engines. In Australia a group of researchers at Monash University, in Melbourne, has built an entire, albeit small, such engine this way.
Rolls-Royce's plan is to use 3D printing to construct the front bearing housing of its Trent XWB-97 engines. The bearing housing includes 48 aerofoil vanes which guide air into the jet's compressor. It is 1.5 metres in diameter, measures half a metre from front to back, and is made of an alloy of titanium and aluminium.
Engineers in Rolls-Royce's additive-manufacturing division, led by Neil Mantle, have been making experimental bearing housings for the Trent using a version of 3D printing that employs a beam of electrons to melt layers of powdered alloy. The melted alloy then solidifies and adds to the growing structure. On-the-ground tests are encouraging, but proof will come when a plane powered by the tweaked Trents takes off--which the firm hopes to try out later this year.
The Monash device, put on display in the closing days of February at the Australian International Airshow, is what is known as an auxiliary power unit. It generates electricity rather than thrust and is used, among other things, to help start an aircraft's main engines. It works, though, on the same principles as a jet that is designed to propel an aircraft.
Wu Xinhua of Monash's Centre for Additive Manufacturing (pictured, with a disassembled version of the engine) and her colleagues based their power unit on a model built by Safran Microturbo, a French firm with which they are collaborating. They used a laser, rather than an electron beam, to do the melting. The result — whose components are made from titanium, nickel and aluminium alloys — is 60cm long and 40cm in diameter when assembled, and weighs 38kg. Whether it works has yet to be determined, but a test is planned.
Like Rolls-Royce, Safran does not intend to print entire engines routinely. Some parts, such as the central shaft, remain easier to make by standard "subtractive" manufacturing. But both firms' interest shows that a technology which was, not so long ago, regarded by many as a bit of a toy, really is now ready for some heavy-duty work.
Click here to subscribe to The Economist
This article was from The Economist and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: 14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do
Black Eyed Peas star and wannabe tech entrepreneur will.i.am is terrified of the future of 3D printing, The Verge reports.
Will.i.am talked to Dezeen in an interview to promote his new range of eco-friendly lifestyle items (the slogan is "waste is only waste if you waste it").
In the interview, will.i.am expressed his concern that 3D printers could be used to print out actual human beings.
"I'm not saying I agree with it," he said. "I'm just saying what's fact based on plausible growth in technology."
Will.i.am expanded on his concerns about 3D printing, remarking "Moses comes down with the 10 commandments and says 'Thou shalt not ...'. He didn't say shit about 3D printing."
He's right there — there's no evidence in the Bible that Moses ever spoke about 3D printing, so we don't have a clear code of ethics on what people should and shouldn't print out. Will.i.am is worried that 3D printing could disrupt the way we create new life: "Before, when it was time to reproduce you had to mate. But now ..."
It's not unusual for tech CEOs to be worried about new technology. Elon Musk is terrified of artificial intelligence, for example. The SpaceX CEO has been posting in the comment sections of tech websites and giving talks in which he warns that robots are going to murder us all, and even his fleet of spaceships can't keep us safe.
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: This machine lets you take 3D selfies and it's already a big hit in the UK
