London 3D Printshow- 10.20.12
Here’s the latest from our London based editor, Justine Aw, sharing her discoveries at the first London 3D Printshow - she came back with lots of pics, and our NOTlabs director, Shawn Sims will help explain it all below!
We’ve been following 3D printing closely as it picks up momentum faster than ever the last year… I made my first 3D print back in 2006 at Pratt, and have been fascinated since. We printed the F.U.C.K. Adapters with an Objet which uses a method called Stereolithography, also known as SLA. This particular process uses a photosensitive resin or liquid that is hardened into place by ultraviolet light. Recently we unboxed the Makerbot Replicator which uses a technique called Fused Deposition Modeling or FDM. It works by squeezing out a thin heated filament, usually plastic, which hardens once extruded. These two methods make up nearly all of the DIY and desktop 3D printers that you have been seeing. This week has been quite the week for 3D printing, with both the Shapeways Factory of the Future opening in NYC as well as the London 3D Printshow!
The 3D Printshow is a unique mix between a hardware trade show and an art gallery of selected works from sculptors, jewellery designers, animation and interactive artists all working with 3D form. We even got to see the much anticipated Form 1 3D Printer from the Kickstarter superstar FormLabs of MIT in person. It is great to see how they are bringing the art of 3D printing to the masses, helping it transcend being a prototyping/manufacturing level tool… perhaps it could truly become a reality for every home to have one much like an ink printer in the near future. Check out the variety of 3D printers and art pieces we saw on the next page!
DREKHINO, a miniature 3D printed zoetrope by Tobias Krawutschke.
Spotted at the 3D Printshow, for what may be the first time in the wild, was the Form 1 3D Printer from the Kickstarter superstar FormLab of MIT.
Here you can see the ultraviolet light hardening the pool of liquid into form.
The latest from Makerbot, the Replicator 2 is a new and improved upgrade from their first version. It also is a bit sleeker with its powder coated black frame.
The UltiMaker DIY kit is new, but is a bit like how Makerbot started, where you could order a kit of parts and assemble the machine yourself. This is always fun and a great learning experience for finding about the guts of a 3D printer.
Here’s what looks like another DIY kit printer.
Cube is a newer printer with a simple design and great looking software. As far as I know they are the only ones with wifi printing… no USBs necessary here.
The Mcor Matrix 300 is one of the more unique machines in the 3D printing industry. They actually use paper as their base material. The machine will pre-print color onto each sheet before sending it to the cutting chamber. Each layer is cut to shape and then glued into the stack. Definitely a fascinating way to recycle scrap paper!
It’s also amazing to see 3D scanning technologies and 3D printers come together here, showing people the entire process of measuring existing shapes and parts with high accuracy and using those to make new parts or make copies. Here a guy demos a Europac laser scanning device that can produce a digital model of a physical object.
This room was setup for structure light scanning. The system projects moving horizontal lines from multiple projectors and cameras record the way light moves across 3D surfaces. From that information a 3D model can be reconstructed and then 3D printed.
Augmented reality and 3D printing together!
Eat your own brain? Inition created silicone molds of their brains from MRI data to create life size chocolate brains.
Check out some of the amazing 3D printed pieces from the show!
Stacking Bull from David Van Ness.
Gorgeous Nautilus Seashell from INNER | LEAF.
Virtual City by Sang Un Jeon.
Dominick, Hand, Foot (Fragment) by Sophie Kahn.
Prototype for a 3D house by Softkill Design in SLS nylon.
3D printed paleontological specimens from Louise Leakey’s AfricanFossils.org allowing students to explore and handle iconic specimens printed in resin or laser cut in cardboard.
Nice article with great pictures. It is amazing how the 3d printer scene have progressed. It is 2014, 2 years from this article, and we have so many brands now, amazing!
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