2014 Maker Faire New York

I recently attended the 2014 Maker Faire in New York. Over the weekend, September 26-27, 85,000 people attended the event to see 830 exhibits, presentations, performances and attractions. On display was an astonishing array of offerings from young entrepreneurs to large corporates; including countless 3D printers, a portable laser cutter, a flat pack CNC foam cutter and inject printer for electrical circuits. 3D Printings was a popular highlight at the show. Dremel launched its new mass market 3D printer, a 3D-printed fully-electric car was unveiled, as was a 3D delta printer machine capable of printing parts over 4.5 meters high. For me, a modest project caught my eye. An African 3D printer made primarily from e-waste. Miles

CNC Foam cutter

An more printers

3D printers everywhere

e-waste printer

e-waste printer

Massive 3D printer

3D print car

3D print car

3D print car

Dremel 3D printer

3D Printing discussion on FBI radio

FBI radio interviewed Brandon Gien and myself as a flow up from the Design week panel discussion.

You can link to audio mp3.

Miles

 

 

The Hype curve – 3D printing

Meanwhile, Gartner research say, “consumer 3D printing is around five to 10 years away from mainstream adoption”, but business and medical applications will have the biggest impact in the next few years. Are we about to enter the Trough of Disillusionment?

Don’t Believe the hype – Sydney Design week talk

On Tuesday for Sydney Design week I was on a panel discussing the future of 3D printing with Dr. Brandon Gien, Good Design Australia, Robert Beson, Director, AR-MA and Kate Dunn, COFA.

KnifeGuard – 3D printing in a design process

The design development of KnifeGuard is an example of an efficient and effective design process utilising low-cost 3D printing.

KnifeGuard is a new product designed by Miles Park and tested by our first year Industrial Design students. The product is now being manufactured in volume and will be distributed by Draftex

The product was developed in response to a need for an improved finger safety shield for use when cutting with a steel straight edge and utility knife.

3D printing enabled a range design concepts to be prototyped accurately and efficiently. These initial prototypes were built in ABS plastic, reflective of material qualities envisaged for the production pieces, and without the need of a workshop.

In addition, 3D printing enabled the batch production of 65 KnifeGuard prototypes. These were disturbed to year 1 students as part of their technical materials pack.

The design went through further refinements and a final prototype was 3D printed for approval for mass production.

UP+ 2 and mac software challenges

The Up+ printer is a great little machine that prints robust models in ABS. But, the user experience could do with some refinement. The machine flashes and beeps like a cheap child’s toy, and has none of the theatre such as the subtle blue lighting of the MakerBot Replicator 2 or the sci-fi ‘R2D2’ voice of the Ultimaker servo motors. But these are minor gripes.

The biggest gripe is the Mac printer slicing software. The latest UP print software for Mac just refuses to load on the various Macs that I have access to. A workaround solution is to use software from Afinia – which does work on some macs. (Afinia is a rebranded UP+ for the North American market.)

One advantage of the latest print software is that it enables the printer to self-calibrate and level the bed. So with the software successfully loaded, the next challenge was to actually to get the machine to self-level ….. nothing happening! Fortunately, this is a common problem that can be solved by trimming a side of the sheath of the calibration cable mini-jack to remove interference, when plugged in, with the printers case. [see pic].  The value of a help forums and blogs are vital to keep these machine working!

 

 

 

 

Ultimaker – some advice, tips and reflections

Year 3 ID student Katherine Kawecki has had the Ultimaker printer to play around with over the Christmas break. She offers her advice, tips and reflections on wrestling with the Ultimaker into shape. A great read and useful resources! Well done Katherine.
Ultimaker Analysis Report (4).pdf

Form 1: first impressions

The overall product and software of the Form 1 is a very impressive package. The printer itself is beautifully detailed and proportioned form, in addition to its clean and intuitive layout for ease of use. Likewise, the software is equally well formed and a delight to use, espically compared to the clunky and buggy UP+ printer software. The Form 1 development team obviously have a talented design team who understand the value of creating a good user experience. This is an outstanding achievement, give that this is the first production model of the Form 1 and the first low-cost stereolithography machine on the market. Again a credit to the team behind its development.

The form 1 has a default resolution of 0.05mm! An extraordinary fine tolerance which promises ‘step’ free surfaces as usually accepted with the filament based printers that we have been testing over the last few years. The less than ideal aspects of this printer are the finishing kit and post print processing. Removing the support material can be tedious and time consuming, as well as using, proportionally, a fair bit of the expensive resin. The clear resin that comes with the product has thankfully a low VOC with slight almond scent, and sets clear with a slight flex. However, parts soon yellow and harden when exposed to sunlight. 

Initial test prints included the Eiffel Tower to see how the lattice structured would render and a Bracelet to see how organic forms render.

3 generations of 3D printers

In just a few years we can see a rapid evolution with low cost 3D printing. From Makerbot of 2010 to the recently arrived Form 1 desktop stereolithography machine.

Antigravity 3D Printing

Via the excellent Guardian technology website  – http://tinyurl.com/p7e6cr5