A LEGO brick designer turns a paper sketch into reality using an Objet 3D Printer.
Thursday, 16 February 2012
Monday, 6 February 2012
Medical Applications of 3D Printing Expand - a 3D Printed Jaw
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16907104
A 3D printer-created lower jaw has been fitted to an 83-year-old woman's face in what doctors say is the first operation of its kind. The implant was made out of titanium powder - heated and fused together by a laser, one layer at a time. The implant was built by LayerWise - a specialised metal-parts manufacturer.
As we pointed out in another article, with 3D printing, complexity comes for free. The Jaw implant is a complex part - involving articulated joints, cavities to promote muscle attachment and grooves to direct the regrowth of nerves and veins. Once designed, it only took a few hours to print.
"Shortly after waking up from the anaesthetics the patient spoke a few words, and the day after the patient was able to swallow again," said Dr Jules Poukens from Hasselt University, who led the surgical team. "You can build parts that you can't create using any other technique. For example you can print porous titanium structures which allow bone in-growth and allow a better fixation of the implant, giving it a longer lifetime."
Metal Additive Manufacturing is a new solution that enables designers to rethink the way complex parts are made. It is an additive technology similar to the conventional polymer Rapid Prototyping.
The advantages are that the surgery time decreases because the implants perfectly fit the patients and hospitalisation time also lowers - all reducing medical costs.
A 3D printer-created lower jaw has been fitted to an 83-year-old woman's face in what doctors say is the first operation of its kind. The implant was made out of titanium powder - heated and fused together by a laser, one layer at a time. The implant was built by LayerWise - a specialised metal-parts manufacturer.
As we pointed out in another article, with 3D printing, complexity comes for free. The Jaw implant is a complex part - involving articulated joints, cavities to promote muscle attachment and grooves to direct the regrowth of nerves and veins. Once designed, it only took a few hours to print.
"Shortly after waking up from the anaesthetics the patient spoke a few words, and the day after the patient was able to swallow again," said Dr Jules Poukens from Hasselt University, who led the surgical team. "You can build parts that you can't create using any other technique. For example you can print porous titanium structures which allow bone in-growth and allow a better fixation of the implant, giving it a longer lifetime."
Metal Additive Manufacturing is a new solution that enables designers to rethink the way complex parts are made. It is an additive technology similar to the conventional polymer Rapid Prototyping.
The advantages are that the surgery time decreases because the implants perfectly fit the patients and hospitalisation time also lowers - all reducing medical costs.
Friday, 3 February 2012
Impossible Creations and 3D Printing at the London Model Engineering Show
Impossible Creations were exhibiting at the London Model Engineering Show, Alexander Palace. The show is a regular annual event for anyone interested in the intersection between engineering and model making. Stacked full of model boats, trains, planes, tanks and trucks, the show is also host to a wide range of tool makers and engineering process experts, including ... Impossible Creations.
At the show I had the pleasure of meeting Ian Carter, founder, and was able to touch and feel various model parts that had been 3D-printed on their uPrint by Dimension 3D printers.
Dimension is a brand of 3D printers by Stratasys that offers CAD (computer-aided-design) users a low-cost, networked alternative for printing functional 3D models from the desktop. The printers build models layer-by-layer using ABS plastic, one of the most widely used thermoplastics in today's injection-molded products.
Ian Carter founded Impossible Creations after three decades of experience in product design in the automotive industry, and he now is aiming to bring these capabilities to a wider audience - including the hobbyist 'model maker' marketplace and offer a 'design and build' custom modelling service. For example, a model train enthuiast could use a computer to replicate an historic locomotive, and then 3D Print the plastic part as the body of a new engine for his model railway.
While at the Impossible Creations booth, one enthusiastic model maker was discussing the details of a small part which they had test printed using Impossible Creations service. They were brimming over with positive statements and were comparing the previous injection-molded part with the 3D Printed part. They claimed that "The 3D print is of much higher quality. I can see these parts to my clients. I often have to apologize to my clients for the injection-molded parts."
The company is now moving to dedicated offices and workshop in Essex and we wish them every success for the future.
At the show I had the pleasure of meeting Ian Carter, founder, and was able to touch and feel various model parts that had been 3D-printed on their uPrint by Dimension 3D printers.
Dimension is a brand of 3D printers by Stratasys that offers CAD (computer-aided-design) users a low-cost, networked alternative for printing functional 3D models from the desktop. The printers build models layer-by-layer using ABS plastic, one of the most widely used thermoplastics in today's injection-molded products.
Ian Carter founded Impossible Creations after three decades of experience in product design in the automotive industry, and he now is aiming to bring these capabilities to a wider audience - including the hobbyist 'model maker' marketplace and offer a 'design and build' custom modelling service. For example, a model train enthuiast could use a computer to replicate an historic locomotive, and then 3D Print the plastic part as the body of a new engine for his model railway.
While at the Impossible Creations booth, one enthusiastic model maker was discussing the details of a small part which they had test printed using Impossible Creations service. They were brimming over with positive statements and were comparing the previous injection-molded part with the 3D Printed part. They claimed that "The 3D print is of much higher quality. I can see these parts to my clients. I often have to apologize to my clients for the injection-molded parts."
The company is now moving to dedicated offices and workshop in Essex and we wish them every success for the future.
Monday, 23 January 2012
Aardman 3D-Print 8,000 mouths for Sony Pirates Animation
Aardman Animation studios have employed 3D Printing to produce 8,000 mouths of a Pirate Character for a new movie. You read that right, 8,000!
Traditional molding clay was still used to bring the characters in Sony's new movie "The Pirates! Band of Misfits" to life, but the animators happily embraced the new technology to make those figures speak.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/01/21/tech-and-moves-3d-printing-brings-new-angle-to-animation/
The 3D printing of all those different mouths helped speed up the animation process, allowing for more details and characters in the film.
“We’d still be shooting now if we had to sculpt all of these mouths,” key animator Whitlock at Aardman said. “Even with 3D printing, you can easily spend two to three months on a character. I probably did five or six characters in the space of 10 months ....You can get stronger individual animation styles to each face because of the way that they're made ....You retain the style very faithfully, so that's very helpful.”
Having read this story, one wonders how many mouths were printed at a time, on what printer and with what process?
Traditional molding clay was still used to bring the characters in Sony's new movie "The Pirates! Band of Misfits" to life, but the animators happily embraced the new technology to make those figures speak.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/01/21/tech-and-moves-3d-printing-brings-new-angle-to-animation/
The 3D printing of all those different mouths helped speed up the animation process, allowing for more details and characters in the film.
“We’d still be shooting now if we had to sculpt all of these mouths,” key animator Whitlock at Aardman said. “Even with 3D printing, you can easily spend two to three months on a character. I probably did five or six characters in the space of 10 months ....You can get stronger individual animation styles to each face because of the way that they're made ....You retain the style very faithfully, so that's very helpful.”
Having read this story, one wonders how many mouths were printed at a time, on what printer and with what process?
Wednesday, 18 January 2012
3D Printing means that "Complexity comes for free"
3D Systems was at CES 2012 talking about the capabilities of 3D Printing. Cathy Lewis, VP, Global Marketing, explained how "Complexity comes for free". How true! Watch the VentureBeat video below to the end and see for yourself.
Cubify from Venturebeat on Vimeo.
Cubify from Venturebeat on Vimeo.
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