In this edition of Sliced, we feature 3D printing industry news about Fishy Filaments, Chuck Hall, MinNature Malaysia, Team Penske, Stratasys, and EchoPixel.
Fishy Filament
Adidas has made headlines in the last year for their Ultraboost Parley shoe featuring recycled plastic from the sea. However, British man Ian Falconer is taking this one step further. He is collecting plastic fishing nets and converting them into usable plastic filament for 3D printing.
Based in Cornwall, England, Falconer’s Fishy Filaments project is currently crowdfunding, “to buy the professional-quality equipment necessary to produce a testable product and construct demo pieces from that product.”
Check out the crowdfunding campaign here.
3D printed dark matter
An art installation has created dark matter in 3D form using 3D printing. The Fabric of the Universe installation was part of a collaborative study between Isaac Facio from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Benedikt Diemer of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Diemer explains how observing dark matter in two-dimensions give a clear image of its structure. The ITC Fellow uses 3D printing so the phenomenon can be viewed in its true form.
Chuck Hull receives an award
The Western Society of Engineers has honored Chuck Hull, the “father of 3D printing”, with the Washington Award. The prestigious prize is given to an engineer “whose professional attainments have preeminently advanced the welfare of human kind.” Chuck Hull is co-founder of 3D Systems and currently Chief Technology Officer at the North American 3D printing company. Hull is considered as the father of 3D printing for developing the stereolithography process back in 1983.
Hull is the 98th recipient of the award and said,
It’s humbling to be in the company of such influential previous award recipients as Henry Ford, Orville Wright and Neil Armstrong, among others.
Team Penske partners with Stratasys
3D printing continues to find application in the automotive industry with Stratasys partnering with NASCAR and IndyCar racing Team Penske. The multi-year agreement will see the American 3D printing company offer manufacturing services to aid the design and development of racecars.
Team Penske President, Tim Cindric said,
Our strategic partnership with Stratasys should keep our manufacturing and engineering processes at the front of the pack. Stratasys is on the cutting edge of additive manufacturing technology for automotive applications. Utilizing their equipment and technical support will provide us with another means to put our ideas on the race track first.
Earlier this year, Formula 1 team McLaren signed a new four-year agreement with Stratasys. The British racing team will install Stratasys 3D printers at their base in Woking, UK. Ferrari have also been using 3D printing in the development of a new engine for the 2017 Formula One season.
EchoPixel create 3D print support for surgical software
EchoPixel, a software company located in Mountain View, California have added 3D printing functionality for their True 3D viewer software. The 3D medical visualization software can be used by doctors to get a better feel for a patient’s case. Now, the company have added the necessary features to take 3D DICOM files and print them on a 3D printer. DICOM is the file format used by the medical industry.
3D Printing Industry has seen first-hand how this technology is advancing the medical industry when we visited 3D Systems healthcare facility in Colorado, after they facilitated the 27 hour surgery of the McDonald twins.
Miniature Malaysia
A group in Malaysia has created a miniature exhibition using 3D printing. The 17,000 square feet space has 12 different districts and includes a working train railway line. The project took years to complete and is now open in Summit USJ, Malaysia.
In an interview Alvin Wan Cheng Huat, who helped bring the project to life, said,
My proudest one would be the Thean Hou Temple as it took me 2 days to complete the entire 1,536 part designs with all its intricate details. Its the only model in MinNature that is displaying its original 3D printed colors,
Featured image shows two-dimensional visualizations of dark matter structure via Benedikt Diemer, the .stl files are available here.
