Model at the aftershow reception wearing an Elvis Pompilio hat.

 

Amazing pieces by Nicolo Casas. 

 

Model Stephanie wears Aaron Trocola's Seed of Life.

 

A closer look at the Seed of Life. 

 

The Lotus Top, also by Aaron Trocola. 

 

Among several jewelry items was this amazing bracelet, designed by the Nervous System Design Studio. 

 

Speaking of jewelry, we caught a glimpse of this rather elaborate 3D printed ring on 3D Systems' Cathy Lewis' finger.  

 

Another set of 3D printed rings, perhaps not quite so elaborate, were found on MCOR's Deirdre MacCormack's finger. The "Matrix" is a dead giveaway for how it was produced. 

 

We managed to miss the 3D printed fashion show due to flight shenanigans, but some of the fashions were still on display, such as this cute hat. 

 

A full-size "dress" (?) hung in the 3D Systems booth, made of chain mail. Evidently this particular object was printed some years ago. 

 

A closeup view of the chain mail material. 

 

This, we felt, was the most amazing item: a 3D printed women's shoe found near 3D Systems' ZPrinter. It was not a "science fiction" shoe, but rather one that looked exactly like a real shoe you'd find in a retail store - until you pick it up and realize it's solid and unflexible. We can't emphasize how real this item appeared; even the bottom showed what looked like a new leather sole, with stitching, minor dents and perfect coloring. Simply amazing.  

 

Literally laying on the floor of the gigantic 3D Systems booth, this 3D printed guitar actually plays. 

 

Also in the 3D Systems booth was this unusual object, made from an internal structure wrapped with a white mesh. Of course, by the end of the show someone had punched a hole in the mesh by "testing its strength". Don't touch the objects! 

 

This fascinating study by artist Shane Pennington is entitled, "Leaving The Shade." Look closely, and you'll see 3D printed plants on the left, precisely replicating their real-life counterparts on the right. 

 

The team from Nervous System always produces amazing works, and this is no exception. It's entitled, "Laplacian Growth". "Form grown in software written by the artists that simulates dendritic solidification. Printed via SLS."

 

The Lavalume lamp by Brent R. Lang. 

 

Objet 3D printed and plated this brilliant Iron Man mask. 

 

MakerBot's Bre Pettis passed out these awesome "Keep It Awesome" stickers to everyone. 

 

Stratasys' newly launched Mojo 3D printer was actually one of the first production models, but upon arrival the unit didn't have a logo on it. A logo was quickly shipped from the factory along with this ingenious jig that precisely positioned the logo for fixing to the unit. Great use of 3D printing. But was the jig printed on a Mojo? 

 

This human jaw replication includes an embedded representation of a medical issue of some sort. Wait - how can you print multicolor objects like this on a 3D Systems printer? Easy, we were told - just crank up the power for the areas requiring highlighting and the plastic discolors a bit. Toasty! 

 

3D Systems displayed a number of stunning photo-realistic objects from their ZPrinter line. Above is a drill handle. It is NOT a real handle - it is 3D printed!

 

This multimeter appears to be totally real unless you look very closely. 

 

There were many, many more amazing sights at vendor booths during Rapid 2012. Some you'll see in upcoming posts - but for the rest, you should have attended! 

 

The shape of the case is the secret. While it appears to be an attractive lamp, aerodynamically its actually a propeller! It's mounted on a rotating axis connected to a tiny generator that produces power when the wind turns the propeller. 

 

Once again, something useful is created using the unique properties of 3D printing technology. 

 

Via Ponoko and Archello

  

First, the funding. Veloso opened a fundraising campaign on Indiegogo with a goal of raising USD$300,000 by May 31st. As of this writing, the donations thus far fall well short of that goal and it is highly unlikely it will be reached. It's unclear if the project will continue with the lesser funding. 

 

The second problem is competition. Readers may recall the B9Creator KickStarter project that provides fundamentally similar (and possibly superior) functionality. We suspect B9Creator could draw interest away from potentially investing in Veloso's project because of lower printer costs and most importantly the nature of the project: B9Creator is Open Source, while Veloso's (still unnamed) kit is intended to be proprietary. 

 

Once this style of technology is produced in open source form you can bet there will be multiple versions instantly emerging to compete with Veloso. Soon we'll see the price of resin-based 3D printer kits drop significantly and that's not the greatest time to try introducing a commercial proprietary version. 

 

Meanwhile, Veloso has released CAD renderings of his 3D printer in final form (above). The unit looks very attractive, but we'll see how the project proceeds in the next few months. 

 

Via Junior Veloso

 

Previously dentists would take a plastic impression of your teeth and then a technician would manually create products from it. Now the entire process can be done digitally, directly from your mouth to your braces, crowns, etc. 

 

How does it work? According to Cadent: 

 

 

In practice, the dental tech merely places the scanner above the tooth and a complete 3D model is captured almost instantly. 

 

We're wondering if this scanner could be used to capture detailed scans of other items? Perhaps, but likely the software is highly focused on teeth and not coins, jewelry, buttons or other small scannable items. 

 

Regardless, our advice is this: don't bite the scanner!

 

Via Cadent

 

Now with a staff of 125, the company has grown significantly since 2009 when its three founders were the only employees. Originated in the tiny "BotCave", they expanded to the "BotFarm" and now move to the Metro Tech Center in Downtown Brooklyn.

 

And what a move - they've leased an entire floor (the twenty-first) that holds a massive 31,000 square feet of work space. According to their press release, they'll be leaving 50 folks at the original BotCave to continue manufacturing MakerBots, while the remainder (75, if our math is correct) to the new location in downtown Brooklyn. The press release also says: 

 

 

Congratulations to MakerBot on their continuing success! Their design and marketing approach has not only built a great product, but created a huge number of new jobs so desperately needed. Well done, MakerBot! 

 

Via MakerBot

 

One of those few designs is the Vortex salt and pepper shakers, designed by Shapeways member moloko, "a team of industrial designers located in Frankfurt, Germany".  

 

What is so interesting about a pair of salt and pepper shakers? Aside from their simplistic beauty, they actually function - and they have no orifice other than the "vortex"-like opening at the top. This is where you fill the shaker. But where do the spices emerge when shaken? They come out the same vortex hole at the top, the same one used for filling. 

 

The designers brilliantly created a complex internal design that uses gravity to enable easy filling, but only metered release of salt/pepper during a shaking operation. 

 

Simple, ingenious and beautiful.

 

Via Shapeways and Core77

 

But now there may be a way to produce a particular kind of 3D feature that may prove very useful for 3D printing: the "Stitch Mesh". 

 

Developed by Cornell & University of Utah researchers Cem Yuksel, Jonathan M. Kaldor, 

Doug L. James and Steve Marschner, the "Stitch Meshes for Modeling Knitted Clothing with Yarn-level Detail" paper is a tour-de-force examination of how to produce 3D models of knitted garments. They've examined the world of knitting and transformed traditional concepts into usable mathematical models capable of generating a wide variety of stitch patterns. 

 

Using their technology, it should be possible to enable 3D modeling software to automatically wrap 3D models with highly realistic knitted fabrics. The rendered visuals are startling, and one's mind reels with the possibilities. 

 

Once 3D models are created in software, they can potentially be 3D printed. While an attractive concept, we see potential issues: 

 

• Slicing such a 3D model for printing may be computationally difficult. Imagine all the curves to analyze on a full-size knitted surface. Slicing may take an enormous amount of time or even crash less robust slicing software. In fact, the authors report the elapsed time to generate several of their models, the longest duration being 33 hours! Wait, it gets worse: the generation was done on a dual Intel Xeon X5690 CPU @ 3.46 GHz with 48 GB RAM. Not exactly your typical home machine. 
• The resolution of a given 3D printer may not be sufficient to resolve the fine details of a stitch mesh. In other words, all that computation may not result in anything other than a roughly textured print surface. 

 

Regardless of such potential problems, we predict 3D printed sweaters will be forthcoming. 

 

Via Cem Yuksel

 

Where does the 3D model come from? It all starts with LROC, the camera on NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. This satellite, launched in 2009, orbits our moon pole to pole at an altitude of only 50Km (30 miles), snapping images constantly. The objective is to produce a complete 3D map of the lunar surface.

 

That's where we get excited. Occasionally NASA releases an image containing 3D information that can be used in various ways. Image specialist Nathanial Burton-Bradford used the data to produce a visual 3D model, viewable with those kooky red/blue glasses. 

 

But there's another use: transforming the 3D information into a STL-format 3D model, which can then be printed on any 3D printer. At this point we're unaware of anyone who's done the necessary data conversion. Who's up for it?  

 

Via Universe Today and LROC