The 3D Printing Challenge: A Call for Ideas on How to 3D Print Our Way Out of the End of the World

As each day progresses, more and more people seem to conclude that our planet is heading for disaster. While a substantial segment of the world’s population remains blissfully unaware or uncaring, a split seems to be occurring between the citizenry. One part will keep on doing as they were, brakes be damned. The other part is increasingly worried about climate change, pollution, and waste. At a time when we have access to more information than ever before we seem to be diverging as a human race about what the state of the world is. Since only very recently can we genuinely communicate as, a significant portion, of the human race entire. Since only a few years ago we have the technology to give a large proportion of us access to the truth as we know it. Alas, right as this happens, the very concept of truth is eroding. Purposefully or not the one view of our future, the one collective action that could have been has been shattered. We would be able to learn and say so much, and I’m sure that we would agree on so much, but we seem to agree on so little. Manufactured consent has become manufactured dissent. We seem so far apart. But are our values, needs, worries, and dreams that far asunder? I think not. We are all fundamentally the same; it is just that the narcissism of minor difference has become weaponized to the point where the very concept of a universal humanism and belief in rationality is under siege.

Simultaneously the knowable shareable truth, so close to being near-universal has been taken apart, a million straws to every camel. A possible, (and yes somewhat idealistic) reaffirmation of universally held beliefs backed by knowledge and communication has been ripped to shreds. In the debate between Orwell and Huxley, both are winning. Censorship, a reduction in press freedom and expansion in naked authoritarianism are on the rise abetted by technological tools that make terror and oppression scalable and available at lower cost. We have democratized repression while the free press has eroded the business case for democracy in line with the erosion of their finances. Big Brother also wanted “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Technology will not save us and has instead been co-opted.

While reports of record species die off and carbon monoxide levels peek from behind the curtains, far more news is available about a feud between two beauty bloggers over supplements and friendship. I’m increasingly worried that the end of the world will be inane. Parts of Wall-E and Idiocracy are starting to morph into some kind of new horror sci-fi. We think of comments or cataclysmic wars as ending civilizations. What ended the human race? A combination of video games, YouTube, and microwave meals. Here lies humanity brought to its knees by ennui. And thus human civilization ended, and they all played Fortnite and watched cooking videos while Rome burned.

I don’t want to seem melodramatic. But, realistically, just between you and me, we’re not going to turn this thing around. It’s the eleventh hour, we’re sailing straight for the iceberg, and the captain is asleep in his bunk. We won’t be able to save this planet, and things are going to go horribly wrong for those who are in the wrong place when the water either comes or goes. I’m afraid that this planet is a write-off, and this is precisely why the smart billionaires are diversifying away from the earth asset. But, I’m damned if any of this is going to be my fault. I know we can’t save the earth, but perhaps we can save ourselves from some guilt as we all go down together.

Just the other day I was talking about the above with a friend, let’s call her Martha. Martha mentioned to me that the reason why Notre Dame fundraising and beach cleanups work is that they are simple cordoned off affairs that people can understand and measure. A trash challenge is like an ice bucket challenge, a fun discrete thing that you can do to share that thing, experience, and emotion with others. So, since my friend mentioned this, I’ve been thinking non stop about a measurable “3D printing challenge.” What is a thing that every and any 3D printing operator and company can do that could ameliorate their negative environmental impact? What one shareable thing could we all experience that would negate our damage on this earth? As far as I can tell, it would have to be:

  • Visual: so easy to capture.
  • Demonstrable: the easy to capture image(s) would show progress and completion of the task.
  • Shareable: the resulting visual would be exciting and arresting enough to share above and beyond the goodness of it or the significance of your relationship with the person.
  • Do good: lest we forget it should actually do good. Net good means that spools and some recycled filament are all fine and dandy, but that’s like drinking a glass of water in a house fire with a morally superior smirk.
  • Go viral: to indeed have an impact, there should be some “many to many viral elements” that propagates it especially if some end nodes were found or if churn/events/vacations would lead to it not being spread in a particular vector.

So knowing that we can’t all agree on anything. Knowing that there is no verifiable truth that can be universally held; what can we as a 3D printing community do to have a net good impact on this planet? Suggestions welcome.

[Image Michiel Jelijs CC Attribution 2.0 Generic & Daniel Dalledone Attribution Share Alike 2.0 Generic]

Maker and Veteran Tim O’Sullivan Completes Third Life-Size 3D Printed Movie Character Suit

O’Sullivan with Stan Lee (may he rest in peace)

A project that began as an ambitious therapeutic task for military veteran Tim O’Sullivan after he returned home wounded from combat has evolved into something so much greater. In 2016, O’Sullivan was looking for something to occupy his time after returning home from fighting overseas, and decided to try his hand at 3D printing. He purchased the files for a full-body Iron Man suit, and over the next eight months completed the 3D printed, wearable suit on his desktop Robo R1 +Plus. The end result was amazing, and O’Sullivan was hooked, telling 3DPrint.com at the time that the Iron Man suit would likely not be his last big project.

He took everything he’d learned from the 3D printed Iron Man suit, and by the summer of 2017, O’Sullivan had finished his next 3D printing project: a voice-activated War Machine Mark III suit from Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War. The life-size suit, 3D printed on his SeeMeCNC Rostock Max V3, featured some custom modifications to the files he purchased, and was made out of PETG, with fiberglass added to make the suit stronger. But this additional strength wasn’t for just any old reason – O’Sullivan was finally able to follow through on his original plan and wear the War Machine suit to visit sick children in the hospital.

Tim O’Sullivan with Anthony Daniels

Just like me, O’Sullivan happens to live in Ohio’s Miami Valley region, and I was lucky enough to meet him at the Dayton Mini Maker Faire not long after he completed the 3D printed War Machine suit, which I got to see in person. It was as cool as it looked in pictures, and to my great excitement, O’Sullivan told me that his next 3D printing project would be C-3PO from my beloved Star Wars series.

He reached out to us recently to say “mission accomplished,” and also to share some more exciting news – he and his 3D printed C-3PO suit made an appearance in Chicago for the Star Wars Celebration with George Lucas’s son Jet Lucas, and Anthony Daniels, the actor who portrays the golden droid in the movies.

“Was quite the reward after almost 10-12 months of hard work,” O’Sullivan told us.

“Alot of work went into the suit, much of the suit is a combination of 3D print, real brass accessories (Arm Pistons, eye grills and hand pistons etc.).”

O’Sullivan told 3DPrint.com that it was “an experience of a lifetime” when he was wearing the 3D printed suit at the Star Wars Celebration and got the chance to meet Daniels.

“It seemed to be well recieved based on his expressions,” O’Sullivan told us. “Unfortunately, I never got the chance to explain to him following the encounter on how the suit was made or how it had been a major part of my personal road to recovery.”

Two years ago, the military veteran turned maker told us that working on his 3D printed character suits has been the “best therapy” for him when he was having a hard time sitting still. O’Sullivan also really enjoyed wearing the 3D printed War Machine suit to visit kids in the hospital, and earlier this week he made an appearance at the Dayton Children’s Hospital in his 3D printed C-3PO suit.

“It was absolutely a touching experience for both the parents and children. We walked 2 floors of the hospital,” O’Sullivan told me in an email today. “The suit is the most difficult to wear and always leaves a few bruises, but well worth it.”


O’Sullivan’s detailed Star Wars droid suit is really something, incorporating a voice modulator and 25 watt amp that projects an emulation of the original C-3PO voice. In fact, it’s so realistic that it was accepted and certified by the Ohio Rebel Legion Apollo Base!

“For the upper torso, I had used a 3D scan of the original suit available on Thingiverse and then modified it using Zbrush to clean up imperfections,” O’Sullivan told 3DPrint.com. “I also used a high quality laser triangulation 3D scan of my body from a Human Solutions scanner to match my body frame. The legs were a challenge so I had commissioned Skylu Props who is actually a product engineer to design the 3D model of them to my body scan and have them function/articulate properly.”

O’Sullivan said that Kurt Heydenburg modeled the 3D printed arms of the suit, while Gordon Tarpley modeled the fingers.

“Almost all of the main body parts were 3D printed with the exception of the shorts and feet which were vaccum Formed plastic,” O’Sullivan told us.

To complete chroming on all of the suit’s 3D printed parts, O’Sullivan himself used a hydrochroming process (Angel Guilding Products), which is essentially “real silver sandwiched in between 2 layers of clearcoat on top of the 3D print,” with a layer of gold-tinted clearcoat to cover on the top.


While most of the 3D printing for C-3PO was completed on Rostock Max V2 and V3 printers, I learned that he has just upgraded to SeeMeCNC’s new Boss Delta system. I wonder what life-size 3D printed suit he’ll make with it…if he’s taking suggestions, I’m voting for Batman!

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

[Images provided by Tim O’Sullivan]

Interview with Zach Kaplan of Corazon Capital, mHUB and Inventables

Zach Kaplan

Zach Kaplan is the founder and CEO of the company Inventables, a 3D carving company offering a powerful machine, intuitive software, and unique materials that make carving easy and inspiring. Kaplan is also a member of the board of directors for mHUB, Chicago’s first innovation center focused on physical product development and manufacturing, and a founding partner at Corazon Capital. He has a vested interest in the entrepreneurial economy that can be afforded through 3D printing and product manufacturing as his company helps to enable entrepreneurs within this field.

Give us a bit of info on your background?

I got started in digital manufacturing at Glenbrook North High School.  That experience inspired me to get a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

What was your first experience as a maker?

My first experience as a maker was probably playing with construction toys as a child.  We had LEGOs, Construx, and cardboard brick blocks. The first electrical project I remember was a soldering an autonomous robot together in 6th grade.

Chicago has deep roots in manufacturing, what effect has that had?

Manufacturers in Illinois account for 12.6 percent of the total output in the state, employing 9.5 percent of the workforce. Total output from manufacturing was $103.75 billion in 2017. In addition, there were 572,700 manufacturing employees in Illinois.  I think that has helped us build an ecosystem to advance digital manufacturing.  

Chicago has been the center of gravity for digital manufacturing.  We’ve shown a lot of leadership when it comes to the growth in the movement. The Museum of Science and Industry was one of the first to have a fab lab.  Chicago was the first big city to build a large scale makerspace in a library. Pumping Station One started in 2009 before it was fashionable to build a makerspace or hackerspace.  Today mHub and DMDII are buzzing with activity and have brought together the traditional manufacturing industries, the startup community, with digital manufacturing technology. It’s a great place for Inventables to be.

X-Carve by Inventables

As a member of the board of Directors at mHUB, what excites you about developments within Chicago and the additive manufacturing sector as a whole?

mHUB was a glimmer of an idea 5 years ago when we first started talking about it at the GE Garage during Chicago Ideas Week. Today it’s a 63,000 square-foot facility that contains 10 fabrication labs, including electronics, plastic fabrication, metals, textiles and rapid prototyping, as well as a microfactory for small production runs.  What excites me is it’s buzzing with activity.

You have a manufacturing background but also have involvement within the VC world as a founding partner at Corazon Capital. Could you give some insight on what it means to go from an entrepreneur to an investor?

Going from an entrepreneur to an investor happens pretty organically.  As you go on your entrepreneurial journey other entrepreneurs start asking you questions or for feedback on fundraising.  I gradually started getting more and more deals sent to me and eventually started investing. Corazon has a team of people and I’ve become a venture partner.  My role is to help identify investments, evaluate them, and help other founders in our portfolio by making introductions or sharing my experiences. In terms of my own investment thesis I like to invest in people working on problems in big markets where the product is just starting to be defined.  At Corazon we invest in seed and early stage deals so the product is still evolving.

What advice do you have to people who are working with startups in the additive manufacturing space?

Fail often to succeed sooner.

What advantages does Chicago have in terms of the global maker scene?

Chicago is well connected in the global maker scene because of O’Hare airport.  Almost every city is a direct flight away. We sometimes take that for granted living here.  We have McCormick Place which brings the IMTS (International Manufacturing Technology Show).

International Manufacturing Trading Show

What are some trends to watch out for within the maker world?

Low cost distributed digital manufacturing with CNC machines is going to dramatically increase over the next 5 years.

 

Make a Raspberry Pi fortune teller that prints your future #piday #raspberrypi @Raspberry_Pi

Raspberry pi fortune teller l

Shared by Ash on howchoo:

Now you can shape your own destiny with this Raspberry Pi fortune teller!

The goal of this project is to print a random fortune at the push of a button using a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ and this mini thermal printer from Adafruit. In this guide, I’ll walk you through everything you need to get started. We’ll need some specific software, the printer needs to be set up, and then we’ll need to trigger our fortune-telling script with the push of a button.

Learn more!


3055 06Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!

Wikifactory Launches Beta: Social Platform for Collaborative Product Development

Rapid prototyping was the first really big application for 3D printing, as it allows product developers to quickly get a realistic representation of their idea at the earliest stages of development. Many businesses rely heavily on prototyping during the design process for new products, but that’s not all; developing a new product takes a lot of time, effort, and collaboration. But there’s a way to make the product development process faster and easier – just go to Wikifactory, the premier social platform for collaborative product development. The all-in-one workspace just released its beta platform this week.

“In ‘startup speak’ it may be tempting to call us a Github for hardware, but by rethinking how products are developed we’ve created a new kind of tool,” Wikifactory’s Co-Founder and CXO Maximilian Kampik stated in a press release. “Wikifactory as a platform is an accessible way to collaboratively design, iterate, and develop complex products.”

The more complicated modern products become, the more collaboration is necessary between people with a variety of skills. Each part of a product could require a completely different production process to make it, and the process isn’t going any faster or becoming any cheaper when hardware teams won’t get with the times and keep relying on things like Microsoft Excel and Dropbox (she writes while looking at the Dropbox icon on her computer screen…)

Established last June in Hong Kong, Wikifactory aims to change this, as it was designed specifically for open source communities in order to connect product developers to useful tools.

Henk Werner, the Founder of Shenzhen-based hardware accelerator TroubleMakers, said, “We are able lead more effective, collaborative working sessions with clients and collect feedback from manufacturers within Wikifactory. We are able to collaborate more effectively with clients and manufacturers thanks to Wikifactory”

Wikifactory is growing fast, and now has offices in both Madrid and Shenzhen. It’s on a mission to empower product developers, as well as small- to medium-sized product companies, to ramp up their development: by providing a service that gives customers easy access to many affordable collaboration tools in one online process.

The company launched its public alpha in September and provided all of its tools free of charge to the founding members. No surprise, the platform was adopted by the open source hardware community not long after, and calls itself home to major making and 3D printing initiatives like e-NABLE and the large FabLab movement.

“Wikifactory’s vision is to bring true collaboration to the design and development of hardware,” the company’s CEO and Co-Founder Tom Salfield said. “We hope to make product design and development more fluid, faster and lower cost. With CAD/CAE visualisation tools, version control, a clean and clear UX, we already have a treasure trove of collaboration functions online for our community.”

The beta platform will be offering paid subscription plans for both teams and individuals looking to work together in a single, private workspace. The launch is specifically targeting the PLM market, which the Wikifactory press release states is projected to become a 60 billion market by the year 2025. Subscription plans will give customers affordable access to agile PLM tools.

Camilo Parra Palacio, Product Designer and Founder of OttoDIY, said, “Its powerful version control made intuitive for product designers.”

The Wikifactory platform offers all sorts of helpful product development tools, such as a version-controlled drive, a 3D viewer, an issue and documentation tracker, and multiple permission systems and community tools to ensure easy collaboration. We’ll break these tools down a little further below.

Version-controlled drive allows users to spend less time organizing and tracking everything, as you can securely store files in the cloud; this also means it’s easy to access, or restore, older versions of files. You’ll be able to track and manage changes to product data, and improve the transparency of the overall process. The 3D viewer makes it possible for anyone with a mobile phone or tablet to visualize over 30 CAD/CAE formats in the browser, as well as inspect and explode assemblies, without the use of plugins.

The issue tracker and documentation editor allows for faster iteration, as you can embed 3D models anywhere, assign tasks and labels, and fix issues more quickly. Users can collaboratively share and improve upon project documentation, and there won’t be any more “overly bureaucratic change requests,” as Wikifactory puts it. Additionally, you can limit access to sensitive work when necessary, keep supply chain data in your own workspace, and build a community around your brand.

“Sharing links to 3D files on Wikifactory is infinitely easier than worrying about file size restrictions in emails, and has made communication between our distributed teams a breeze,” said Juan Laforga, the Head of Production & QA for Shadow Robot Company.

Starting at just $7 a month for unlimited private projects and $25 a month for teams, Wikifactory, which currently has over 3,000 product developers signed up for the platform, is priced for everyone. It even offers free unlimited public projects, and has vowed to always support innovation in the open source community by providing its tools for public use at no cost.

Discuss this story and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below.

[Images provided by Wikifactory]

N.B. 3DPrint.com Editor in Chief Joris Peels is on Wikifactory’s Advisory Board.

Virgin Orbit Researching Multi-Metal AM with NASA

Much like SpaceX, world-famous conglomerate Virgin is also diving head-deep into space exploration at the behest of a famous billionaire/entrepreneur. Richard Branson’s dynamic brand features Virgin Orbit, specialising is aerospace and launch solutions for small satellites. Now, they’re expanding into 3D printing research to further their outer-spacefaring ambitions. With the aid of NASA, Orbit will be […]

The post Virgin Orbit Researching Multi-Metal AM with NASA appeared first on 3D Printing.

Nike develops AR shoe-size recommendation app, Nike Fit

The American footwear company, Nike, has developed an app that uses 3D scanning to recommend ideal shoe size for customers. Nike Fit is a digital foot measuring software designed to solve the problem of choosing shoe sizes incorrectly. According to Nike, “60% of people at any given time are walking around in the wrong size […]

Voxeljet reports Q1 2019 financial results

German 3D printer manufacturer Voxeljet, has announced financial results for the first quarter of 2019 which concluded on March 31st. According to the report, total revenues for this quarter increased from 5,052 kEUR (€ in thousands) to 5,565 kEUR, a rise of 10.2%. Moreover, a gross profit margin decrease from 42.2% to 34.4%, was reported, […]

The Entrepreneurial and Maker Community

Maker Movement

What is the maker movement? The maker movement is a unique combination of artistry, circuitry, and old-fashioned craftsmanship. This is not new to us a society. Societal advancement has been predicated on people being able to create inventions that take us to the next level. We progress as humans due to our ability to make tools. I believe though that the recent resurgence of the maker community points toward some interesting implications overall for the global economy. In this article, I will point out my thoughts on the maker community as it relates to entrepreneurial activity as well as the global economy.

With the invention of 3D printing, people are able to create objects and parts with their imaginations. It takes a little bit of time to either find a part, or draw a part for production. With a couple of button presses we are able to create simple and complex geometries. These can then be leveraged for larger scale projects. People have the autonomy to build products for themselves and not need to be tied to any corporation that is making things. So what is important about that previous statement? Well, it shows that there can be a market for those who are able to create. There is a subtle shift when one learns that the means of production can be shifted from a large manufacturer to a consumer even if this is on a small scale. That leads naturally to people and smaller organizations questioning the status quo. This then can lead to entrepreneurial thought processes and new innovation.

2019 is the lowest global growth since the Financial Crisis

According to the United Nations, global growth is expected to remain at 3.0 percent in 2019 and 2020, however, the steady pace of expansion in the global economy masks an increase in downside risks that could potentially exacerbate development challenges in many parts of the world, according to the World Economic Situation and Prospects 2019.  The global economy is facing a confluence of risks, which could severely disrupt economic activity and inflict significant damage on longer-term development prospects. These risks include an escalation of trade disputes, an abrupt tightening of global financial conditions, and intensifying climate risks.

Here are some even more fascinating statements from the United Nations:  In many developed countries, growth rates have risen close to their potential, while unemployment rates have dropped to historical lows. Among the developing economies, the East and South Asia regions remain on a relatively strong growth trajectory, amid robust domestic demand conditions. Beneath the strong global headline figures, however, economic progress has been highly uneven across regions. Despite an improvement in growth prospects at the global level, several large developing countries saw a decline in per capita income in 2018. Even among the economies that are experiencing strong per capita income growth, economic activity is often driven by core industrial and urban regions, leaving peripheral and rural areas behind. While economic activity in the commodity-exporting countries, notably fuel exporters, is gradually recovering, growth remains susceptible to volatile commodity prices. For these economies, the sharp drop in global commodity prices in 2014/15 has continued to weigh on fiscal and external balances, while leaving a legacy of higher levels of debt.

I am going to analyze the following statements and relate them to the maker and entrepreneurial world:

  1. The global economy is facing a confluence of risks, which could severely disrupt economic activity and inflict significant damage on longer-term development prospects.
  2. Despite an improvement in growth prospects at the global level, several large developing countries saw a decline in per capita income in 2018. Even among the economies that are experiencing strong per capita income growth, economic activity is often driven by core industrial and urban regions, leaving peripheral and rural areas behind.

 

The first statement above refers to an underlying fear of global economic recession or depression from my analysis. The risks that this statement refers to are downside risks. Downside risks refer to estimations of a security’s potential to suffer a decline in value if the market conditions change, or the amount of loss that could be sustained as a result decline. Essentially if global growth stagnates and regresses, we do face global regression and depression possibilities. So why is this important for the maker community?

Democratized Product Development

Democratization of skills and making abilities is crucial for people within a depression or regressed state of economy. Jobs are cut thin during this time period for different institutions within global recessions. Those who are still very fortunate are the people who have the ability to create or make products as they can now be more efficient as well as build products that serve people at cheaper rates, as well as help to build up their own businesses. This can then lead to the market economy over time correcting itself. Then the cycle continues over time.

As outlined earlier in this article, I believe society progresses as innovation and inventions progress. This refers directly to the maker movement. In the times before an economic regression or depression, individuals who can leverage their skills to create are in less trouble than people who do not have these skills. The makers have the ability to transform society. Being able to create with the imagination and a couple of tools is the new means of production within the world. With individuals able to iterate with 3D printing, open source software, and a variety of info, it can revitalize an economy as these people may be employing others in the future due to their ability to create. Creation and innovation lead to a ripple effect. Value creation ensues when new products are made. We serve society when we are able to make. Hence it is important that makers are seen as the main drivers of the market economy if they decide to make their products for others and not just for themselves within their own environments. The ability to use items such as a 3D printer is immense. People and organizations in the maker community can now build. They are the ones who have the power in the market. If one wants to be ahead of the curve in terms of the macro-economy, it would be a strong argument for one to be versed in 3D Printing as the past, present, and future has always lied within people who control the means of production.