As the company kicks off its exciting new material, Formlabs is also launching a pop-up factory from today until June 25th during the O’Reilly’s Solid Conference at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. The pop-up factory will consist of a manufacturing line, along with a wall of Formlabs 3D printers, creating 3D printed wearables.
Designed by Marcelo Coelho, the Alike Bands communicates the common interests of people via sensors and LEDs within the band. This social networking wearable, limited to a 500-unit run, is meant as a smart icebreaker that O’Reilly’s Solid Conference attendees can pick up at the show, available on a first come first serve basis. Coelho’s wristband, shown in the video below, perfectly combines the conference’s themes of Hardware, Software, and the Internet-of-Things.
David Cranor, Associate Chair of O’Reilly’s Solid Conference, said of the pop-up factory, “A real-time micro-factory of this scale has never been attempted before at a conference like Solid. We are proud to partner with Formlabs in this unprecedented endeavor to demonstrate 3D printing’s vital role in the new world of agile global manufacturing where hardware, software, and the Internet of Things intersect.”
Formlabs’ Will Walker added, “This exhibit illustrates the real power of 3D printing. We’re manufacturing 500 one-of-a-kind electronics for conference attendees to wear. This level of customization is really difficult through normal mass manufacturing. We’re really excited to push the boundaries of how we think about making things and Solid is the perfect place to showcase this idea.”
Also at the event, on June 25th, Formlabs lead engineer Ian Ferguson will give a talk titled “Around the block again: Tricks and tools learned in the trenches building a follow-on product.” Along with their new material, a really awesome Rube Goldberg machine, and this pop-up factory, it sounds like Formlabs has had an exciting week.
