The fourth edition of the 3D Printing Industry Awards takes place in November, and we are proud to announce the launch of this year’s Trophy Design Competition.
Digital manufacturing provider Protolabs returns to sponsor the event for a third time with 3D printer manufacturer Craftbot generously providing a prize for the winning design. The community-led competition challenges entrants to design a trophy that celebrates the unique capabilities of 3D printing.
Protolabs will turn the winning design into reality, producing the trophies for the 3D Printing Industry Award winners. The designer of the winning trophy will also receive a 3D printed model of their design.
The winner of the Trophy design competition will receive a Craftbot Flow IDEX XL 3D printer worth $3,999.
The Craftbot Flow IDEX XL is a large format FDM/FFF 3D printer that features two independent extruders – allowing for multi-color or multi-material 3D printing. Our engineering team put the Craftbot Flow IDEX XL to the test earlier this year and concluded that “a plethora of carefully designed features make this hidden gem a fantastic large-format 3D printer for professionals.”
MyMiniFactory, a 3D design and file-sharing community is hosting the Trophy Design Competition. Designs can be submitted until September 30th; the full brief is available at MyMiniFactory.
Read on for examples of previous designs.
3D Printing Awards trophy design brief
Past attendees at the 3D Printing Industry Awards include Dr. Adrian Bowyer, RepRap founder, Fried Vancraen, founder and CEO of Materialise, guests from the Manufacturing Technology Association, Innovate UK, and the U.S. Embassy in London. Plus, even a royal family member, His Highness Azzan Kais Tarik Al-Said of Oman.
This year the event is set to be bigger than ever, and the winning design will be presented in front of the biggest names in the 3D printing industry.
The winning trophy design will have full access to Protolabs’ state of the art additive manufacturing services – this year, we’ve broadened the range of technologies available.
Design brief and technical considerations
- Include a lattice structure
- Be designed for printing in two different materials, one part SLA and one part MJF or SLS
- Use internal channels
- Incorporate multiple features that are minimum 0.15-0.20mm in size (preferably in the same orientation) for SLA parts.
- Have a minimum feature size for MJF or SLS parts of 0.75 mm
- Be a min/max trophy size of 75x75x75mm/125x125x125mm
- Optimized for SLA and MJF or SLS
Top tips for entrants
- Think about your design(s) in relation to the brief and how best you might best optimize it for 3D printing.
- Make sure you read all the design constraints and download all designer resources to ensure you are on the right track.
- Since Protolabs can print in translucent/clear material, it’s worth thinking about how you can play with aesthetics. Adding internal cavities and features is an excellent way of making your design appear unique from the outside.
- Make sure to add a render to your submission to demonstrate your design’s internal features.
- Once your design is approved, post it on Twitter with the tags #3DPIAwards, @MyMiniFactory, @3DPrintIndustry, @Protolabs
Previous winning 3D Printing Industry Awards trophy designs
The 2019 3D Printing Industry Awards trophy design competition was won by Ferran Sánchez Monferrer, a Design for Additive Manufacturing student at Fundació CIM-UPC. Ferran’s ‘Optim’ trophy design was chosen as the winner because it represented the possibilities and variability of 3D printing elegantly. Having followed the MyMiniFactory website for years, Ferran saw the competition as “a great opportunity to become known in the additive manufacturing world.”
Sruthi Venkatesh’s Triumph Spire won the 2018 3D Printing Industry Awards Trophy Design competition. Created while studying at The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, Venkatesh’s trophy featured twists and turns that were designed to symbolize 3D printing itself.
The inaugural winner of the 3D Printing Industry trophy design competition was created by designer Morgan Morey. Based on a sculpture praised by ancient Roman art writer Pliny the Elder from 2nd century BC, Morey introduced low-poly elements to give the impression that the figure was making itself.
The 3D Printing Industry Awards 2020
Due to the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s awards ceremony will be an online occasion. Set to take place this November, the digital event will recognize leaders and innovators across the 3D printing industry, including applications, materials, academic advances, and hardware.
The nominations process closes next month – so don’t delay.
Winning a 3D Printing Industry Award is a two-stage process, with nominations followed by voting. Anyone can make nominations across 20 categories. Those with the most nominations will be included in the published shortlists. Readers will then be invited to vote for the winners of this year’s prizes, which will be announced at the awards ceremony in November.
In the second stage, shortlists are drawn up based upon nominations received, and
Nominations for the 2020 3D Printing Industry Awards are still open, let us know who is leading the industry now.
The fourth edition of the 3D Printing Industry Awards Trophy Design Competition is now underway. Enter your design for the chance to win a CraftBot Flow 3D printer.
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Are you looking for a job in the additive manufacturing industry? Visit 3D Printing Jobs for a selection of roles in the industry.
Featured image shows a Craftbot Flow IDEX XL 3D printer, the prize for the winner of the 2020 Trophy Design Competition. Image via 3D Printing Industry.
