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Artists Exhibiting 3D Printed Works Fabricated on Mimaki’s Full Color 3DUJ-553 System

In 2015, Japanese company Mimaki Engineering announced its venture into the 3D printing world and began developing its own full-color system, which entered the commercialization phase in 2017. A little over a year ago, Mimaki USA, an operating entity that manufactures digital printing and cutting products around the world, installed its first full-color 3DUJ-553 3D printer in the Americas.

The UV-cure inkjet Mimaki 3DUJ-553 3D printer, based on patented technology with a maximum build size of 508 x 508 x 305 mm, is a fully ICC-compliant, color-managed device that offers high-quality, precise 3D printing, and has numerous enhancements so it can produce full color, realistic objects up to 20″ x 12″ with fine detail and high definition. The system offers over 10 million color combinations for photorealistic output, and can also achieve 90% of SWOP colors.

The 3DUJ-553 is able to produce color-accurate prototypes and objects without using manual coloring by hand, which allows users to majorly decrease finishing times. Because it offers so many colors, Mimaki’s 600 kg 3D printer is perfect for applications such as sign-making, prototyping, architectural elevations, modeling, short run fulfillment, and stunning, detailed artwork.

3DPrint.com recently heard from 3D printing specialist and Post Digital Artist Taketo Kobayashi, from the Ultra Modelers community, about an art exhibit he’s helping to organize that will soon be held in Japan and features colorful, 3D printed works created on Mimaki’s 3DUJ-553 by other members of the Ultra Modelers community.

“This is not just a art exhibit but also showing the future of entertainment field such as figure merchandise with using 3D printer,” Kobayashi told us.

“It is a great opportunity to actually experience the possibilities of full color 3D printing…”

According to Kobayashi, Ultra Modelers is made up of people who are actively participating “in CG art, design, entertainment and additive manufacturing.” The creative community’s purpose, in addition to exhibiting their collective pieces of art, is to be a “communication hub of artists, students who are learning CG, schools and corporations.”

“Ultra Modelers will create “connections” between those CG artist,” Kobayashi told 3DPrint.com. “Connecting dots will create synergy which energize CG and additive manufacturing industries, and will create opportunity of learning from each other.”

Ultra Modelers held its first exhibit in Osaka in November of 2018, and due to its “favorable reception,” the community, which currently consists of a dozen members, will be hosting a second exhibition. Tomorrow, March 15th, Ultra Modelers is holding a one day limited exhibit of its members’ colorful, 3D printed pieces at Mimaki Engineering’s showroom in Gotanda, Tokyo.

“There’s so many diverse way to output digital artworks now. Art, digital molding, animation,” Kobayashi told us. “11 top creators from different field of CG gathered for this exhibit and they will create original brand new artworks. 12 artworks schedule to be exhibited.”



All of the 3D printed pieces of art in this week’s exhibit were fabricated on Mimaki’s 3DUJ-553 3D printer. In addition to the exhibition, three seminars will also be taking place at Mimaki’s showroom, two of which will be focused on 3D modeling using ZBrush.

What do you think? Discuss this story and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below.

[Images provided by Taketo Kobayashi]

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3D Printed Prosthetics, Surgical Planning, and Modeling at AMS 2019

The second annual Additive Manufacturing Strategies (AMS) summit, “The Future of 3D Printing in Medicine and Dentistry,” was co-hosted by 3DPrint.com and SmarTech Markets Publishing and held in Boston just two short weeks ago. In addition to two separate tracks for medical and dental 3D printing, keynote presentations on the democratization of medicine and 3D printed medical devices, two pre-conference workshops, and a startup showdown, there was also an exhibition floor at the event with about a dozen booths to visit.

“It’s great,” a representative at the Trimech booth told me when I stopped by to ask how the event was going on the first full day of the summit. “So far really exciting, good conversations happening.”

The table at Trimech’s booth had all sorts of prints sitting out, including a colorful, detailed human skull featuring brains and veins that I was told had been 3D printed on the Stratasys J750.

Ultimaker‘s booth was busy, and I was told that there had been plenty of “good quality” conversations at the booth. On the first day of the summit, the Ultimaker team had been 3D printing a uterus model in white material, with fibroids printed in red material; however, they ran out of white by the second day and so were instead 3D printing a bone model in red.

I stopped by the Trumpf booth, which had some examples of 3D printed dental solutions on display, to speak with the representatives there for a few minutes.

“Of course medical in additive is a big thing,” Trumpf’s Technical Sales Manager Dave Locke told me. “So we’re interested in participating in these activities.”

Graham at the SLM Solutions booth also confirmed that good conversations were being had in the exhibition hall at the summit, and showed me some of the dental applications that they had on display…I saw a lot of 3D printed teeth made out of cobalt chrome in Boston.

While the r.Pod desktop dental 3D printer at the Arfona booth had been busily 3D printing dentures on the previous day, it was just on display during the last day of the event due to a small thing that needed to be fixed.

“We have a few different materials that are all for dental applications, but kind of the core product is this nylon, which we use for partial dentures. So this is a long term dental nylon,” the Arfona rep told me, showing me some completed dentures that had been through post-processing. “Those are all using just procedures that are kind of typical for a dental lab technician.”

I learned that Arfona could 3D print a set of dentures in about two hours, and finish the necessary post-processing in about another 20-30 minutes.

“It’s pretty fast. I mean, that’s something that typically would be spread out over…I mean, using conventional processes, over 4 or 5 dental appointments. And now it can be done in two.”

Anything that reduces the amount of time one has to sit in the dentist’s chair is aces, in my humble opinion.

I attended a few other sessions during AMS 2019, including one on 3D printed prosthetics that was moderated by Asimov Ventures’ Tyler Benster. Matthew Griffin, the Director of Community for Ultimaker North America, and Maria Esquela, the founder of 501c3 non-profit Alliance for Project Based Learning Solutions (APBLS or e-NABLE Alliance), both spoke on the topic.

Griffin shared a short clip from a 2017 Ultimaker video for “Hands for Haiti” about setting up 3D printing workshops in developing countries so the community can benefit from high-tech, 3D printed prosthetics. He also discussed how e-NABLE is not an organization, but a movement, and then Esquela “picked up Matt’s story a bit,” noting that she and her daughter were actually volunteers #71 and #72 for the heartwarming prosthetics network, which now has over 11,000 volunteers that work to provide 3D printed prosthetics to the millions of people who don’t have access to this kind of care.

Benster moderated the question session, but also asked one of his own. He wanted to know if Griffin and Esquela had any tips or suggestions for attendees with a business background about how to harness this type of creativity without feeling threatened by it. Griffin noted that there are lots of opportunities in the healthcare industry for testing out ideas earlier, and that people are “leaning on things,” such as community-based projects, in order to solve a problem, which then incites a feeling of empathy, “which you can then build on” when working to tackle a problem together.

I stayed on the medical track to attend a panel on 3D printing being used in surgical planning and modeling, which was moderated by SmarTech’s Scott Dunham. Alyssa Glennon, a Principal Engineer for Business Development at Materialise, and Carolyn DeVasto, the Global Vice President of Communications at medtech company BIOMODEX, were the speakers on the panel.

Glennon presented a case where a surgical team used 3D printed guides and bone models to test out different surgical options for an adult. This helped the virtual plan translate better in the operating room, and as a result, the patient was able to bend his arm just ten days after the surgery, which he had not been able to do for seven years.

Glennon detailed some of the many benefits of using 3D printing in a medical setting, such as interdisciplinary collaboration and better surgical preparation, but also noted that the regulatory environment is a major challenge for the medical 3D printing industry.

Glennon asked, “So how is Materialise providing a safe environment in hospitals for medical 3D printing?”

The answer: a solid understanding of the regulatory environment. The company offers an FDA-approved certification program for 3D printer manufacturers to have their products tested and validated for use with Materialise’s FDA-cleared Mimics inPrint software, which converts medical images into 3D print-ready files.

DeVasto, who explained that BIOMODEX is focused on the neurovascular field, stated that there are many challenges when it comes to biomechanics, since human tissue is so complex. According to her presentation, 36% of operating room errors could be avoided with the help of planning, which is what drives the company.

She noted that surgeons rely on sight and touch. The company’s algorithm builds 3D printable composite materials  that are designed specifically to provide important tactile feedback. DeVasto explained that 3D printing is so important in healthcare planning because it can help enable better patient outcomes.

During the Q&A, Dunham asked if they saw any specific niches where a specific type of planning or rehearsal model could match with a specific method of 3D printing. Glennon said that this came down to two specific factors: cost and purpose.

“The guides and models I showed are sintered nylon orthopedic parts,” Glennon said, explaining that short-term, low value parts used in surgery need to be made out of material that can hold up in an autoclave, but also be cost-effective.

DeVasto said that the answer to Dunham’s question “comes down to materials,” noting that BIOMODEX is very specific in what its algorithm can print with.

Don’t forget, the third annual Additive Manufacturing Strategies summit will be held from January 29-30, 2020 and will include a metal 3D printing track. To keep up to date on registration information and everything else for AMS 2020, sign up for our newsletter here.

Discuss this news and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the comments below.

[Images: Sarah Saunders]

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Cooper Hewitt’s National Design Award Winner Joe Doucet Always Places Sustainability at the Forefront

Artist: Joe Doucet / Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
Photo: Donatello Arm

For world-renowned designer Joe Doucet, using 3D printing to create products that have a minimal environmental impact was never an afterthought. To Doucet, sustainability is key to the future of design.

“I’ve always been interested in new technologies, particularly ones that have the ability to be transformative in terms of manufacturing,” Doucet told Shapeways. “If you look at it from the fact that 3D printing allows each and every object to be unique and customized completely without creating the waste — both in terms of excess material and freights and shipping — it’s just a fundamental shift in the way that we create and consume products.”

Launching his 3D design career

Doucet is no stranger to the world of 3D design. He began using 3D printing for his first project back in 2000 and hasn’t stopped since. Shortly after that, Doucet discovered Shapeways and saw how cost and time efficient the company was when it came to prototyping (“I used Shapeways…to visualize what the final product would be like,” he said). So when it came time to launch his company OTHR, it only made sense to partner with Shapeways.

“We’ve had a long history with Shapeways. During the launch of OTHR, we formalized a partnership and a relationship with Shapeways to be really one of our main suppliers and partners.”

And now, National Design Award winning designer Doucet is using Shapeways to help curate a current exhibition in New York City that is open through April 14, 2019.

Tableware through the centuries on display


Artist: Joe Doucet / Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
Video: Donatello Arm

The exhibition — which is titled Tablescapes: Designs for Dining, and is currently open to the public — confronted Doucet with a challenge: How do you use design to create solutions for the decrease in resources we see in the world? As resources get more limited, how do you make that less dystopian? How do you take these resources and make them into a beautiful experience of eating?

The exhibition is broken up into three sections: One depicting dining ware in the 19th century, another in the 20th century and a final section focused on dining and tableware in the 21st century. The 19th-century room is an artistic masterpiece bringing viewers back to the time of Napoleon III. The 20th-century room, on the other hand, shows the shift that occurred towards mass production of products. And finally, the 21st-century room paints a picture of the sustainable future we see a glimpse of today.

“When we were tasked to design the tableware and dinnerware for the 21st century…obviously to me, the decentralization of manufacturing and the addition of technology, being able to reduce the carbon footprints and allow infinite customization, was key to representing what the 21st century will be,” Doucet told Shapeways.

Partnering with Shapeways to find the perfect materials

Once Doucet was aware of the way he wished to construct each section of the exhibit, he went back to Shapeways to find the best materials and printing processes to use.

“We partnered with Shapeways quite early on in the process to explore different manufacturing techniques in terms of 3D printing to be able to create all the final pieces you’ll see at the exhibit. Shapeways is the sole producer of the tableware and cutlery.”

He adds, “It was a very hands-on process and Shapeways was closely involved. There were five or six different materials and processes that were considered in the beginning, and we essentially prototyped everything with all of these different available materials and printing techniques. We met at the Shapeways headquarters in New York and went through all the benefits and different quality levels that we were able to achieve.”

After much time spent on reviewing each material and printing option, calculating the benefits of each, Doucet and the Shapeways team were able to agree on the best way to create the products for the exhibit.

“I think we were all incredibly pleased with the results and quite surprised with the level of execution that we were able to achieve with the products that are on display now. They’re really stunning.”

Producing completely functional products

A highlight of the exhibit lies in Doucet’s vision to create products that can be used for cooking, serving and storing food. In the 21st-century room, the place settings can be used for all three functions, “as opposed to having three separate sets of containers for each step in that process. We decided it was best to eliminate as much as we could.”

Artist: Joe Doucet / Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
Photo: Donatello Arm

“You’ll notice that on the objects, there’s this raised pattern, and it’s there not just to be a decorative element but they, in fact, would act as heat sinks to be able to distribute heat quickly in terms of the cooking process and then to quickly dissipate in the serving process,” Doucet said. “So you could take something from a microwave and put it on the table and the vessel would become cool to the touch very quickly.”

If anything, Doucet’s experience partnering with Shapeways and curating the Tablescapes: Designs for Dining exhibition was yet another clear indication of where the future of 3D printing lies.

Doucet explains, “It should be, at this point, fairly easy to see how 3D printing is going to fundamentally revolutionize how things are made. And I think companies like Shapeways, and Shapeways in particular, are really [game changers] in making this industrial revolution accessible to [anyone] at the touch of a button.”

Joe Doucet’s “Tablescapes: Designs for Dining” exhibition is on view now at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum through April 14, 2019.

Want more exclusive interviews with leading 3D designers? Sign up to our email list

The post Cooper Hewitt’s National Design Award Winner Joe Doucet Always Places Sustainability at the Forefront appeared first on Shapeways Magazine.

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Cooper Hewitt’s Designer of the Year Joe Doucet Always Places Sustainability at the Forefront

Artist: Joe Doucet / Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
Photo: Donatello Arm

For world-renowned designer Joe Doucet, using 3D printing to create products that have a minimal environmental impact was never an afterthought. To Doucet, sustainability is key to the future of design.

“I’ve always been interested in new technologies, particularly ones that have the ability to be transformative in terms of manufacturing,” Doucet told Shapeways. “If you look at it from the fact that 3D printing allows each and every object to be unique and customized completely without creating the waste — both in terms of excess material and freights and shipping — it’s just a fundamental shift in the way that we create and consume products.”

Launching his 3D design career

Doucet is no stranger to the world of 3D design. He began using 3D printing for his first project back in 2000 and hasn’t stopped since. Shortly after that, Doucet discovered Shapeways and saw how cost and time efficient the company was when it came to prototyping (“I used Shapeways…to visualize what the final product would be like,” he said). So when it came time to launch his company OTHR, it only made sense to partner with Shapeways.

“We’ve had a long history with Shapeways. During the launch of OTHR, we formalized a partnership and a relationship with Shapeways to be really one of our main suppliers and partners.”

And now, after being named Cooper Hewitt Museum’s Designer of the Year, Doucet is using Shapeways to help curate a current exhibition in New York City that is open through April 14, 2019.

Tableware through the centuries on display


Artist: Joe Doucet / Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
Video: Donatello Arm

The exhibition — which is titled Tablescapes: Designs for Dining, and is currently open to the public — confronted Doucet with a challenge: How do you use design to create solutions for the decrease in resources we see in the world? As resources get more limited, how do you make that less dystopian? How do you take these resources and make them into a beautiful experience of eating?

The exhibition is broken up into three sections: One depicting dining ware in the 19th century, another in the 20th century and a final section focused on dining and tableware in the 21st century. The 19th-century room is an artistic masterpiece bringing viewers back to the time of Napoleon III. The 20th-century room, on the other hand, shows the shift that occurred towards mass production of products. And finally, the 21st-century room paints a picture of the sustainable future we see a glimpse of today.

“When we were tasked to design the tableware and dinnerware for the 21st century…obviously to me, the decentralization of manufacturing and the addition of technology, being able to reduce the carbon footprints and allow infinite customization, was key to representing what the 21st century will be,” Doucet told Shapeways.

Partnering with Shapeways to find the perfect materials

Once Doucet was aware of the way he wished to construct each section of the exhibit, he went back to Shapeways to find the best materials and printing processes to use.

“We partnered with Shapeways quite early on in the process to explore different manufacturing techniques in terms of 3D printing to be able to create all the final pieces you’ll see at the exhibit. Shapeways is the sole producer of the tableware and cutlery.”

He adds, “It was a very hands-on process and Shapeways was closely involved. There were five or six different materials and processes that were considered in the beginning, and we essentially prototyped everything with all of these different available materials and printing techniques. We met at the Shapeways headquarters in New York and went through all the benefits and different quality levels that we were able to achieve.”

After much time spent on reviewing each material and printing option, calculating the benefits of each, Doucet and the Shapeways team were able to agree on the best way to create the products for the exhibit.

“I think we were all incredibly pleased with the results and quite surprised with the level of execution that we were able to achieve with the products that are on display now. They’re really stunning.”

Producing completely functional products

A highlight of the exhibit lies in Doucet’s vision to create products that can be used for cooking, serving and storing food. In the 21st-century room, the place settings can be used for all three functions, “as opposed to having three separate sets of containers for each step in that process. We decided it was best to eliminate as much as we could.”

Artist: Joe Doucet / Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
Photo: Donatello Arm

“You’ll notice that on the objects, there’s this raised pattern, and it’s there not just to be a decorative element but they, in fact, would act as heat sinks to be able to distribute heat quickly in terms of the cooking process and then to quickly dissipate in the serving process,” Doucet said. “So you could take something from a microwave and put it on the table and the vessel would become cool to the touch very quickly.”

If anything, Doucet’s experience partnering with Shapeways and curating the Tablescapes: Designs for Dining exhibition was yet another clear indication of where the future of 3D printing lies.

Doucet explains, “It should be, at this point, fairly easy to see how 3D printing is going to fundamentally revolutionize how things are made. And I think companies like Shapeways, and Shapeways in particular, are really [game changers] in making this industrial revolution accessible to [anyone] at the touch of a button.”

Joe Doucet’s “Tablescapes: Dining Through the Centuries” exhibition is on view now at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum through April 14, 2019.

Want more exclusive interviews with leading 3D designers? Sign up to our email list

The post Cooper Hewitt’s Designer of the Year Joe Doucet Always Places Sustainability at the Forefront appeared first on Shapeways Magazine.

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Two French Companies Collaborate to Make the Country’s First 3D Printed Mechanical Metal Watch

While there are those who have used 3D printing to make their own watch cases, watch bands, and watch chargers, others have taken the next step and actually made 3D printed watches, from kid-friendly to sophisticated, wooden to gold and plastic, and even timepieces that can tell you if you’ve had a little too much to drink. For years, I rocked the same black, Velcro, digital sports wristwatch every single day. Looking back at old photos, it was definitely functional, but not at all attractive. My friends joked that they would have to pry it off my wrist on my wedding day…which they did not, I might add. I decided on my own that a watch with a Velcro band and light-up screen didn’t really say ‘elegant winter wedding.’

But a new 3D printed watch that’s the result of a collaboration between French special metals distributor STAINLESS and watchmaking company UTINAM Besançon might be the perfect accessory for a fancy event.

“…we worked in 2018 with a well-known French watchmaker, Mr Philippe LEBRU (who built giant clocks in France, Switzerland and Japan) to build the first watch developed for metallic additive manufacturing,” Jean-Baptiste Sepulchre, the Marketing and Communication Officer for STAINLESS, told 3DPrint.com. “This project is our way to celebrate our 90th birthday, STAINLESS having been created in 1928.”

[Image: STAINLESS]

The timepiece, conceived of and assembled at French watchmaking capital Besançon, is said to be the first automatic, mechanical 3D printed watch made in France. The two project partners are both well-known for their technical expertise and reliability: UTINAM Besançon was founded by monumental clock and original watch creator Lebru, as mentioned above, and STAINLESS distributes special metals to demanding industries, like aerospace and medical.

[Image: L’Est Républicain/Ludovic Laude]

The two companies were committed to having as many of the watch components as possible manufactured within the boundaries of Franche-Comté, a traditional province in eastern France; one of the only exceptions was the Japanese timing mechanism. A 100-year-old factory in Morteau made the watch hands, and a craftsman from Besançon created the hand-sewn, genuine leather bracelet.

The watch case was entirely 3D printed, using laser melting technology, out of stainless steel 316L powder on a Renishaw AM250. Apprentices from the Besançon training center at the UIMM “Creativ Lab” 3D printed the case.

The project came about from a STAINLESS initiative to showcase its values in honor of its 90 years in business. To do so, STAINLESS wanted to complete a project that was regional, innovative, and historic, and reached out to Lebru with a proposition to combine their separate expertise on a collaborative piece.

The collaboration itself can be considered something of an innovation, given that both participants focus on very different end products: Lebru and UTINAM Besançon designs and manufactures original watches and clocks, while STAINLESS supplies raw metal materials, including metallic powder for 3D printing.

Joëlle Verdier, STAINLESS president, and Philippe Lebru, UTINAM Besançon watchmaker [Image: STAINLESS]

But because both of the companies were open-minded, they were able to get past the typical relationship between customers and suppliers and transcend to one based on, as STAINLESS put it in a press release, “mutual confidence and trust,” which resulted in a lovely, 3D printed metal watch.

At last month’s MICRONORA Exhibition in Besançon, STAINLESS displayed the 3D printed watch at its stand. Starting at the end of the year, it will be on sale at the UTINAM Besancon boutique, which is opposite the Musée du Temps.

Discuss this project and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the comments below.