Rapid prototyping design studio Fathom 3D wanted to show off what Stratasys’ new Objet500 Connex3 multi-material, colour 3D printer can do, so they 3D printed a Henry Ford quote. Of course this post wouldn’t be very interesting if that’s all there was to it.
If you’re not familiar with the Objet500 Connex3, it’s the new full-colour multi-material 3D printer from Stratasys. The printer is pretty amazing, and having gotten the chance to hold this amazing shoe printed with it at 3D Printer World Expo I can tell you that it is downright incredible how seamlessly it combines the colours and materials.
As with most printers of this nature it is extremely well-suited to rapid prototyping, so it is easy to see why a rapid prototyping and design studio like Fathom 3D would want one. And what does everyone want to do when they get a new toy, show it off, of course. However, being a rather clever design studio, they decided to be a little different. Rather than print something showy and complex, they did something simple and clever — and threw in a little inspiration to boot.
They chose the following Henry Ford quote because they said that it was a reminder of their humble beginnings, their unique company culture and their recent growth.
“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”
The plan was to film the printing process, and have the quote slowly reveal itself during the build — showing off both the new printer’s precision, ability to blend colours and to actually build one material within another. In order to do this, they needed to design a CAD model that would allow each letter to appear sequentially during the build. By placing the letters at different heights within the 3D model and printing all of them within a clear cube, the quote slowly reveals itself throughout the printing process. Take a look at the video, including a time lapse of the entire build cycle:
That’s honestly a really clever build that perfectly shows off the amazing printing ability of the Connex3, and it happens to be a pretty fantastic quote that more of us could take to heart. I’d also say that it was rather clever to use a quote about people coming together to build something wonderful to show off a printer that relies on multiple materials coming together in order to build a pretty wonderful object.
