Design

Protolabs’ sponsored 2018 3D printing industry awards competition closes March 31, enter now!

The 2018 3D Printing Industry Awards trophy design competition, sponsored by Protolabs and hosted by MyMiniFactory, is ending this week at midnight (GMT) March 31st. Submit your entries here.

The winner of the competition will see their design used as the official trophy given to award winners at the 2018 3D Printing Industry Awards, as well receiving a Wanhao Duplicator 9 3D printer

The challenge is an opportunity to have your work associated with the biggest names in 3D printing. Last year’s 3D Printing Industry Award winners included Desktop Metal, Zortrax, Siemens, HP and GE Additive.

Design brief – leverage Protolabs’ 3D printing capabilities to win

Trophy designs should aim to push Protolabs’ cutting edge additive manufacturing to the limit. Rob Lindsay, Head of Business Development at MyMiniFactory, said “designers are challenged to create a trophy that not only celebrates the capabilities of 3D printing, but also shows off the advanced digital manufacturing capabilities of Protolabs.”

With this in mind, entries should ideally:

  • Include a lattice structure
  • Include internal channels
  • Incorporate “micro-features”, design elements that are 0.15-0.20mm in size
  • Be optimised for SLA 3D printing
  • Be between 125x125x125mm and 75x75x75mm in size.

If you’re unsure about what any of this means, check out MyMiniFactory’s designer resources. To help, we have rounded up some more of the designs we think show the design brief particularly well.

Geometric cues from Protolabs’ logo

Tom Suggit’s (@3rddimensionCreations) has taken design cues from Protolabs’ logo, creating a trophy modelled around a hexagonal shape. A lattice structure with chamfered edges frame the trophy’s text.

Internal channels draw attention to the text, whilst creating the illusion of a cube within the trophy. For micro-features the inside edge is dotted with stars extruded by 0.2mm.

Tom Suggit's crystal trophy design entry. Image via Tom Suggit.
Tom Suggit’s crystal trophy design entry. Image via Tom Suggit.

Trigonometric curves

Tadashi Hattori’s (@JNimbus) entry emphasises smoothly changing surfaces. The “Aqua Tower” takes advantage of transparent 3D printing capabilities to show off a lattice structure and “aqua” themed design features.

A rhombus lattice structure is featured in the lower half of the trophy, whilst for the micro-feature cube patterns are inlaid in the base. The patterns lend the base the translucent look of frosted glass.

Tadashi Hattori's Aqua Tower trophy. Image via Tadashi Hattori.
Tadashi Hattori’s Aqua Tower trophy. Image via Tadashi Hattori.

“Bigbang” parametric sculpture

DM’s (@atomare) trophy features an LED illuminated core, surrounded by a fine tube structure. Taking inspiration from parametric structures and sunbursts, DM’s trophy is comprised of four parts: the main trophy, the LED light source, and the two metal printed plaques featuring the 3D Printing Industry logo.

DM's parametric trophy. Image via DM.
DM’s parametric trophy. Image via DM.

Pollen inspired design

Giaocomo (@ReCremesi) has based their design on pollen. A sphere featuring a hexagonal inlaid pattern features across the surface and is held up by three “arms” supported by a lattice structure base.

Giaocomo's pollen inspired trophy. Image va Giacomo.
Giaocomo’s pollen inspired trophy. Image va Giacomo.

3D Lattice cone

A novel entry this year comes from nTopology who have harnessed their powerful Element software to create a design based around form rather the companies normal focus on function.

nTopology (@nTopology) used generative design to create the lattice structure of this trophy, demonstrating the aesthetic potential of their design process.

We have rendered nTopology’s trophy with a semi-transparent cut-out to show the intricate lattice structure, which is otherwise not visible in its entirety.

nTopology's trophy. Image via nTopology.
nTopology’s generative design trophy. Image via nTopology.

Submissions close March 31st

Submit your trophy designs for this year’s 3D Printing Industry Awards trophy design competition before March 31st.

Only the first place winner of the competition will have their design used as the official 3D Printing Industry Awards trophy.

First and second place winners will receive a Wanhao Duplicator 9 3D printer, whilst all entrants will receive a 10 percent discount on any Duplicator 9 purchased before the 3D Printing Industry Awards ceremony on May 17th.

First and second place winners will receive the Wanhao Duplicator 9 3D Printer. Image via Wanhao.
First and second place winners will win the Wanhao Duplicator 9 3D Printer. Image via Wanhao.

Vote for your favorite 3D printing applications and companies in the 2018 3D Printing Industry Awards.

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