New 3D printing jobs at Verashape, Thales Group, RP Support, and Create it REAL

3D Printing Jobs is growing day-by-day, providing the freshest opportunities from top enterprises across the industry. Today, we highlight open positions for sales engineers, plant directors, and software engineers. Start looking for your additive manufacturing career and apply for vacancies here for free. Do you need new 3D printing specialists for your company? Create a […]

Arcade Button Door Bell #3DThursday #3DPrinting

hermanrock shares:

Made the back solid, Installed the guts to an old Garage Door remote. Had to use a button plug and drill a hole in it for a smaller button – not deep enough for standard Arcade button with the added electronics in box.Used PETg with active cooling fan turned off

download the files on: https://www.thingiverse.com/hermanrock


649-1
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!

VGA connector for USB charger #3DThursday #3DPrinting

IonutF shares this great charging cable accessory!

VGA connector for my Samsung Galaxy note 4 USB charger!

download the files on: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3014450


649-1
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!

A New 3D Printing Process CODE: 3D Printed Ceramics with Functionally Graded Materials

Several different methods have been developed for the 3D printing of ceramic materials, and one of those is CODE, or Ceramic On-Demand Extrusion, a recently developed extrusion-based process for the fabrication of dense, functional ceramic components. In a paper entitled “Fabricating Functionally Graded Materials by Ceramic On-Demand Extrusion with Dynamic Mixing,” a group of researchers discusses using the CODE process to create functionally graded materials, or FGM.

Functionally graded materials are defined by the researchers as “characterized by gradual variations of material compositions over volumes, which allows for a combination of materials or material properties not typically achievable in monolithic materials.” There has been a lot of interest in alumina-zirconia  (Al2O3/ZrO2) components for applications such as prosthetic ball joints. In these components, the tough zirconia core provides high strength and reduces the risk of cracking, then transitions to an alumina surface, which provides long life within a human body.

“Additive manufacturing (AM) processes are especially advantageous for fabricating FGM components due to the layer-by-layer nature of the processes,” the researchers state. “Considering that the melting temperatures of ceramics are usually too high for thermal-based melt deposition and the fact that the ink jetting-based ceramic AM processes are subject to high porosity, material extrusion-based AM processes are the most favorable method for fabricating ceramic FGM components.”

In the study, the researchers developed a dynamic mixing device for the CODE system for the fabrication of FGM components. Two materials – alumina and zirconia – were extruded through separate extruders into the mixing chamber of the dynamic mixer with controlled flowrates. The mixer then blended those pastes into a homogeneous mixture, which was deposited through nozzles to create FGM components with planned material compositional distribution. The components were then post-processed and characterized to assess the functionality and accuracy of the dynamic mixing device.

Some deformation occurred in the sintered components, to the point of cracking and delamination. Deformation was also observed after the bulk drying of components, and the researchers chalk this up to the mismatch in drying shrinkage of the two pastes. The deformation during the sintering process, however, was attributed to the mismatch of sintering shrinkage and thermal expansion of the two materials.

“Larger differences in material composition between layers lead to larger stresses caused by the mismatch of material properties, which explains the fact that the larger step of changing composition led to larger amounts of deformation,” the researchers state. “A smoother (reduced) gradient of material composition is likely to reduce the amount of deformation and the risk of part failure. Adjusting the inherent properties of the raw materials to reduce the mismatch of shrinkage could be another effective way of mitigating the stress and deformation.”

Vickers hardness was also measured and was shown to decrease as the volume percentage of zirconia increased.

Overall, the study shows a promising method of 3D printing ceramic functionally graded materials. Although the printed components were not perfect, further steps can be taken in the future to reduce deformation and failure.

Authors of the paper include Wenbin Li, Austin J. Martin, Benjamin Kroehler, Alexander Henderson, Tieshu Huang, Jeremy Watts, Gregory E. Hilmas and Ming C. Leu.

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

 

Acoustic Nozzles Improve the Performance of 3D Printed Parts

Usually when we’re talking about 3D printing in terms of acoustics, it has to do with making a good set of speakers. But, recent research has determined that acoustic signal processing could be used to monitor the build quality of a 3D printed part while in progress. There are 3D printable sound-shaping super-materials, and 3D printed objects have even been implanted with sound data for tagging purposes. New research out of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore looks at using acoustics to manipulate microparticles inside the actual 3D printing ink itself to improve the final object’s performance and functionality.

Properly orienting and aligning the fibers in a polymer matrix could help transfer loads from critical areas for better performance, and creating 3D scaffolds with a controlled hierarchical structure at the nano- and micro-scale levels could increase their mechanical strength, which is good for cell and tissue regeneration and load-bearing bone defect repair. In addition, using surface acoustic waves to focus microparticles inside the microchannel could delay accumulation on the wall, which can improve extrusion-based 3D printing.

Schematic diagram of experimental setup.

Researchers from NTU recently published a paper on their 3D printing work with acoustics, titled “Cells alignment and accumulation using acoustic nozzle for 3D printing.”

The abstract reads, “Arrangement or patterning of microparticles/cells would enhance the efficiency, performance, and function of the printed construct. This could be utilized in various applications such as fibers reinforced polymer matrix, hydrogel scaffold, and 3D printed biological samples. Magnetic manipulation and dielectrophoresis have some drawbacks, such as time-consuming and only valid for samples with specific physical properties. Here, acoustic manipulation of microparticles in the cylindrical glass nozzle is proposed to produce a structural vibration at the specific resonant frequency. With the acoustic excitation, microparticles were accumulated at the center of the nozzle and consequently printed construct at the fundamental frequency of 871 kHz. The distribution of microparticles fits well with a Gaussian distribution. In addition, C2C12 cells were also patterned by the acoustic waves inside the cylindrical glass tube and in the printed hydrogel construct. Overall, the proposed acoustic approach is able to accumulate the microparticles and biological cells in the printed construct at a low cost, easy configuration, low power, and high biocompatibility.”

Morphology and distribution of the cells in 5% GelMA without the acoustic excitation on (a) day 1, (b) day 4, (c) day 7, and with the acoustic excitation on (d) day 1,(e) day 4, (f) day 7.

The team numerically and experimentally studied the structural vibration of a cylindrical tube, as well as the patterning of the microparticles and cells inside of it.

“Firstly, the resonant frequency was numerically predicted and validated with experiment,” the researchers wrote. “Subsequently, the distribution of microparticles and biological cells inside the cylindrical tube and printed construct was investigated. Lastly, the growth of biological cells undergone the acoustic excitation was monitored for up to 7 days.”

During an acoustic excitation, a mixture of C2C12 cells embedded in 2 ml of 5% GelMA was printed on a 4″ petri dish, with the nozzle perpendicular to the print bed. The researchers discovered that during the excitation, most of the microparticles that were initially suspended in fluid ended up accumulating at the center of the glass tube. There seemed to be a good overall agreement between the experimental results and numerical simulation of the excitation frequency, along with the location of pressure nodes in the glass tube.

The researchers further evaluated their acoustic nozzle’s performance using C2C12 muscle cells, and determined that without the excitation during printing, the distribution of the cells in the tube was very random.

Microparticle distribution in the cylindrical tube (a) without and (b) with the acoustic excitation at 877 kHz.

“Results of simulation and experiment are agreeable with a slight difference in the resonant frequency (< 2%). In the experiment, microparticles were accumulated at the center of the nozzle and consequently printed construct. The distribution of microparticles fits well in a Gaussian curve with a standard deviation of (V = 0.16 mm). Furthermore, the acoustic excitation could also be used for patterning biological cells in the 3D printed construct of GelMA,” the researchers concluded. “Subsequently, the distribution of cells was quite dense at the center of the printed structure, and accumulated C2C12 cells had greater growth and differentiation in comparison to the suspended ones in the control group.”

Co-authors of the paper are Yannapol Sriphutkiat, Surasak Kasetsirikul, Dettachai Ketpun, and Yufeng Zhou.

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

3D Printers Open New Opportunities for Co-Working Space

In New York’s Brooklyn Navy Yard is a community of more than 100 companies, co-located in an area of over 84,000 square feet. This cluster is called New Lab, and it is home to designers, entrepreneurs, engineers and others working to develop new manufacturing technology through robotics, IoT, 3D printing, blockchain and more. The facility used to be a factory that built battleships, and it has been repurposed in an ingenious way, with several member-access fabrication shops giving member companies space to prototype, design and iterate. One of these member companies is 3D printer manufacturer Ultimaker.

“When Ultimaker joined New Lab as a member company, we brought with us a fleet of our latest-model professional desktop 3D printers and hundreds of spools of free filament that we made available for members to use with full 24-hour access at no charge for the first year and a half,” said Matt Griffin, Ultimaker’s Director of Community for North America.

After Ultimaker arrived with its 3D printers, New Lab was able to eliminate some higher-cost, higher-maintenance industrial FFF 3D printers, boosting their fabrication capability and capacity.

“For the members who might be interested in 3D printing, and in integrating 3D printing into their workflow, the largest barrier was that they either assumed that 3D printing could do anything, or that it couldn’t do the thing they needed it to,” said Alexander Susse, New Lab’s Director of Additive Manufacturing. “The way to get people to truly understand the usefulness of 3D printing is to just give them the tools and let them start trying to print things. You can’t really do that with some of the more industrial options.”

New Lab’s 3D Printing Lab currently has 12 Ultimaker 3D printers, available to be reserved for use at any time of the day or night. According to 10xBETA CEO Marcel Botha, it’s more useful to have numerous desktop 3D printers than one industrial printer – and it costs about the same.

Marcel Botha

“With our Ultimakers, we can finally use 3D printers for experimentation on the fly,” said Botha. “The original aim of iterating and rapid prototyping is, at the end of the day, to prototype – not to produce costly artifacts at each stage. When I print using SLS or high-end FFF solutions, I feel the parts that cost so much to produce are precious – but the only requirement for the printed parts is that they are something my team and I can look at for five minutes and then throw away. We’d rather buy three more Ultimakers than one $9k entry-level industrial-grade machine.”

Tony Kauffmann, Product Development Engineer at Voltaic Systems, has been able to use the 3D printers to eliminate several of the middle steps that slow down production.

“It definitely speeds things up,” he said. “Timelines overall have shrunk, but I’d say the real advantage for us is that it allows us to improve the quality of our products.”

Tony Kauffmann

Eric Forman of Eric Forman Studio uses Ultimaker’s 3D printers to complement the other tools he works with.

Eric Forman

“I would say three-quarters of what I print is probably to assist with another tool,” he said. “…And now that I’ve expanded to using the actual 3D-printed parts in the final piece as the material itself, and not just as a helper, it’s a whole different ball of wax.”

Freelance mechanical engineer Arya Tabatabai has learned a lot from using the 3D printers at New Lab. He has discovered the usefulness of creating 3D printed prototypes that look just like the final parts, as he can give them to the industrial designers he works for to get immediate feedback. Of the many tools available at New Lab, he finds the 3D printers to be the most user-friendly.

“The Ultimakers are great tools for prototyping in general,” he said. “I’ve done a lot of research on desktop 3D printers, and from what I can see the Ultimakers are one of the best, if not the best in terms of the FFF category. It’s a strength to my work just using them, being able to think up something, CAD something up, and get it in front of you. Whether it’s in an hour or a day, that speaks for itself as to how beneficial it is.”

After getting so much use out of New Lab’s Ultimaker 3D printers, several member companies have considered getting their own 3D printers or to think about prototyping in new ways. Having 3D printers as a part of a collaborative community like New Lab has sparked a lot of creativity and allowed the member companies to make faster progress than they would have without these valuable tools.

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

[Source/Images: Ultimaker]

 

Victrex Partners with University of Exeter to Develop Next-Generation PAEK 3D Printing Materials

According to this year’s State of the Industry Annual Worldwide Progress Report on Additive Manufacturing, Wohlers Associates, Inc., additive manufacturing grew at ~21% last year, as the industry continues to create and develop the materials and technology to support it.  Polyaryletherketone (PAEK) is the name of a family of high-performance thermoplastics that includes polyetheretherketone (PEEK), and until recently has been mainly used in manufacturing technologies like injection molding and machining; another promising material is polyetherketoneketone, or PEKK.

Earlier this summer, UK material supplier Victrex , which specializes in high performance, high-temperature materials, announced that it had developed new PAEK 3D printing materials. Now, the company is collaborating with the University of Exeter to develop more next-generation PAEK polymers and composites.

“Victrex is keen to help overcome barriers to adoption and realise the full potential of PAEK/PEEK-based parts produced using AM technology. In order to open up the AM supply chain, we need to continue to work together to develop an eco-system that can address unmet industry needs and accelerate the adoption of PAEK/PEEK for AM technologies,” said Ian Smith, the Marketing Director at Victrex. “This cooperation with the University of Exeter is one part of Victrex´s efforts to construct that eco-system.”

Driven by Victrex R&D and the university’s Centre for Additive Layer Manufacturing (CALM), the two signed a strategic partnership to develop PAEK materials, while also working, according to Victrex, to improve “the performance of the underlying AM processes.”

“We are excited to start this partnership and continue our R&D work on development of high performance materials and AM processes for today’s and future needs and applications,” said Professor Oana Ghita, the leader of CALM at the University of Exeter. “The new PAEK polymer based materials will give designers and developers the opportunity to use the best performing polymers within AM processes and help make this dream a reality, transforming AM into a high-performance production tool.”

CALM, which specializes in the use of high-temperature and high-performance polymers and composite 3D printing materials, provides technical support and independent research for both academia and industry to develop next-generation AM materials for engineering. It actually began working with Victrex in a consortium, with funding from Innovate UK, to carry out R&D efforts for the advancement of 3D printing technologies, with a focus on affordable, high-temperature composites like PAEK for 3D printed aerospace applications.

Aerospace is one of the two main industries that Victrex believes will particularly benefit from its efforts during the initial adoption phase. PAEK and PEEK 3D printing materials can allow multiple parts to be consolidated in a single design, along with the production of new part designs that are too hard to machine. In terms of the medical sector, PAEK 3D printing will make it possible to make medical devices for the production of patient-specific implants.

Demo bracket 3D printed with PAEK resin

By improving technologies for the 3D printing of Victrex PAEK materials, design engineers can be privy to a wide range of new possibilities. Some of the potential benefits of using PAEK polymers for 3D printing include digital design and fabrication of parts for rapid prototyping, more design freedom for engineers who want to use the technology in high-performance applications, and improved economics, thanks to better material use in filament fusion, a decrease of machining waste, and better refresh rates in powder bed fusion 3D printing. Additionally, 3D printing solutions that have a higher performance can make it possible to produce customized, complex PAEK components.

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

[Source: Medical Plastics News]

Customizable 3D Printed Contactors Give Disabled People Access to Technology

3D printing has become an invaluable way of helping people with disabilities. It’s an inexpensive method of creating assistive devices that can be easily personalized to the user, and many people, from professional occupational therapists to everyday makers, have taken advantage of the technology to create inventive devices to help those in need. Pôle-Ergo is a group of French occupational therapists dedicated to improving the lives of disabled people through assistive devices and other alterations to daily life, and in the past has taken advantage of 3D printing to create some of those devices: a wheelchair joystick, for example, and a universal wireless switch.

Now Pôle-Ergo has taken on a new project: an adaptable switch or contactor, which is a button commonly used for people with disabilities to access electronics. The button transforms motor gestures without precision into signals that can be interpreted into signals used by computers, tablets, mobile phones or other devices. These contactors are frequently used in the occupational therapy field, but according to Pôle-Ergo they can be difficult to use when they aren’t designed to meet the specific needs of the individual user.

Thus, Pôle-Ergo created a 3D printable contactor that can be modified according to the user’s motor characteristics, habits or tastes. The various parts of the contactor assemble like Legos, with a series of options that allow it to respond to any potential situation.

“As an occupational therapist, I regularly use commercial switchs, however, if they are suitable most of the time, I have sometimes difficulty finding the right one hence the idea of being able to personalize them according to the particularities of the people concerned,” Guy Ehretsmann of Pôle-Ergo told 3DPrint.com.

The project offers several options, all available on Thingiverse. There is an ergonomic edge and multiple options for ergonomic buttons, as well as a GoPro mount. Users can easily try out different designs before deciding on one that is right for them. Some inexpensive hardware is required: an internal button and mini jack cable will cost about $2.00, while the GoPro supports could run anywhere between $10 and $30.

Assistive devices like these are remarkably easy to make, and innovative makers and designers are coming up with new options every day. Competitions have even been launched for the purpose of sourcing new ideas for assistive devices, both basic and advanced. The ideas that people come up with for these competitions are truly remarkable, and could really change lives if they were implemented. Outside of these competitions, however, there are still plenty of people who are coming up with designs on their own, like Pôle-Ergo.

The 3D printable contactor they came up with isn’t fancy or flashy, but it could give disabled people access to all sorts of technology. For those without disabilities, it is difficult to imagine the frustration of struggling to do something that others do easily without a thought, and especially the frustration of struggling with assistive devices that are meant to help but aren’t customized to one’s specific needs. Pôle-Ergo’s project allows people to have access to technology in a personalized way, to create something that fits their needs and optimizes their comfort.

You can learn how to assemble the contractor below:

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

[Images: Thingiverse]

 

3DHubs Killing Off Its Community? 3D Printing Company Commits Suicide for No Reason.


3DHubs has grown by having a unique premise and idea. The 3Dhubs community of 3D printer operators from all over the world can sign up to 3DHubs and offer their 3D printers to others. I can send a part to 3DHubs, and it will be 3D printed locally by a neighbor or someone that lives close to my work. In this way, 3DHubs has been a vital connection point in the 3D printing community since its inception. The company has tens of thousands of people signed up to its network. So far 3DHubs has not really been imitated and copied, so it alone competes directly with Shapeways, i.materialise, and Sculpteo as a unique company. 3DHubs is different since it is a distributed manufacturing platform of independent operators across the world. This lead to support for 3DHubs stated goals of localizing manufacturing and making it more efficient.

It seems that the company is now turning its back on its roots and will focus solely on working with professional service bureaus to fulfill orders as per October 1st. A radical departure from the previous path and a radical going back on its community has confused many. The value of 3DHubs is in its community; the community gives it granular local presence and a barrier to entry. Now it is just like any 3D printing service upstart and will lose its community entirely. I’ve always liked 3DHubs, although I have been very skeptical of their Trends Report I like the company and what they’re doing. I liked the idealism coupled with business. I’ve also personally met with the founders who I consider to be nice and more importantly very capable 3D printing people. People who now have decided to create their own new Coke moment. I can not think of a business rationale for this nor can I fathom why they would do this in this way. Even if 3DHubs thought that the future of its business is in working only with 3D printing services, then it can still support its community? Why wreck a marketing and possible monetization instrument like that? It could through content, product sales, courses, support or any number of ways profit and help its existing community of tens of thousands. So even if it would move to service bureaus, then I would still recommend that they coddle and keep the one thing that makes them unique.

I’m not the only one that is confused by this; these are just some community member responses today:

MikByte @viperz28
Why? Don’t you plan on screwing over the 3d printing community due to greed.

“With #3dHubs dropping smaller independent printer hubs starting Oct, what are other comparable P2P options out there? #3Dprinting #makersgonnamake

2lol555@2lol555
A big F you to @3DHubs today! Switching over from “Locally sourced 3D prints” to the “Closed manufacturing program” basically… This was a big reason for me to own a 3d printer… now it’s all gone!

Buildingthings

“Dear 3DHubs, Get f-ed. That is all.
Sincerely,

The People you stepped on to get to where you are today.”

The company today emailed any nonqualifying people and told them that they could not be active after October 1st.

I’ve quoted from the email people got below:

“On Monday, October 1st, 2018, we’re going to completely switch our 3D printing service to the Fulfilled by 3D Hubs
offering. This means that it will no longer be possible for Hubs outside the Manufacturing Partner Program to receive
orders on 3D Hubs.

This email explains why we’ve decided to make this switch, what this means for you, and the options you have going
forward.

Why are we doing this?
3D Hubs’ mission is to make manufacturing easier and more accessible. Since we started we have produced more
than 1.7 million parts for customers through our online platform and global network of manufacturing Hubs. We’ve
noticed that as our platform has improved over the years, the customers who order most often are businesses. As we
discussed back in February in this blog post, it has become more and more essential for 3D Hubs to deliver a highly
reliable and consistent manufacturing service to our customers.

To achieve this we started building Fulfilled by 3D Hubs at the end of 2017. We tested the impact of a more controlled
and consistent manufacturing service and customer feedback has been so overwhelmingly positive, it is hard to
ignore. Since launching this service, we have seen significant growth in the usage of our 3D print service, particularly
by the professional user group. We’ve seen customer order value doubling since January. Therefore, over the past year
it has become clear that in order to best serve our growing number of professional customers, 3D Hubs has to double
down on standardisation. That’s why we are taking the hard decision to move away from our original peer-to-peer
model and become fully B2B focused.

What does this mean for you?
As of Monday, October 1st, 2018 Fulfilled by 3D Hubs will be the only option for ordering 3D Printed parts on 3D Hubs.
On this date, the following services will be discontinued:
Platform Orders to non-manufacturing partners
Embeddable Order widget orders
Individual Hub profile pages

Unfortunately, based on your 3D Hubs order history you don’t qualify to become a Manufacturing Partner. This means
that you won’t be able to run your 3D Printing service on 3D Hubs from October 1st, 2018.
If you’re not looking to run a commercial 3D printing business but still want to offer your 3D Printing services locally,
you can consider joining our Talk Maker Forum. On this new subsection of Talk, Hubs can freely connect with local
makers, hobbyists and students interested to get their projects 3D printed. While this is by no means a full blown
replacement of our peer-to-peer platform, we hope we can keep supporting makers, hobbyist and students to keep
printing locally.

It’s unclear how they want to support a peer to peer program by effectively ending it. The company has one data point it relies on, “We’ve seen customer order value doubling since January.” Since 3DHubs is not great at statistics, I could point out that across the board in 3D printing customer order values have increased dramatically over the past months since more companies are using higher value materials and also turning more and more to metal 3D printing which 3DHubs also offers. Generally, all projects of all of my clients, for example, have increased in complexity and size as 3D printing is going from something for the business development team to a business process or implementation. This is something that I’ve been tracking in a number of areas and to me seems independent of 3DHubs but just a general market development. We are maturing as an industry, and higher order values is a result of this. Simultaneously if we go from bulk PLA to all sorts of specialist models while also increasing the print volume of systems dramatically then order values will increase. It’s kind of if Mercedes would see a rise in customer spend due to perceived economic growth and decide to get rid of the A class. In this case, I think they’ve completely misinterpreted the data, and even if their conclusion was what it was, they shouldn’t have done it. They could have spent less money on the A class for example or released fewer models but killing it outright would damage their portfolio overall.

3DHubs also states, “it has become more and more essential for 3D Hubs to deliver a highly reliable and consistent manufacturing service to our customers” just at the time when desktop 3D printers are starting to equal or come close to equalling the dimensional accuracy and surface quality of some industrial systems. Just when newer more advanced desktop systems are reaching consumers, 3DHubs gives up on them? Also for certain materials such as flexible materials, desktop 3D printers outperform industrial systems both in the fit and finish of the part and the strength of the part. Part costs are lower on desktop systems as well with the material prices 30 to 10 times less per kilo. 3DHubs would have always won a price war with all service bureaus, until now. Skill levels of operators and improvements in machines have also increased the reliability and repeatability of desktop systems to the point where many more builds succeed, and more things can be printed in one build. Effectively for a year or so, 3D printing has a lower “cost” in terms of time for the desktop 3D printer operator.

Then the killer quote, “the hard decision to move away from our original peer-to-peer model and become fully B2B focused.” These two things are not mutually exclusive. Especially with higher quality 3D printed parts and more educated 3D printer users the business to business focus of the company could still be served by skilled amateurs with good machines. Or the company could have just had two service levels, well explained and kept on tucking. Now, 3DHubs has gone from a unique company with tens of thousands of people to a service bureau. It goes from having a unique value proposition of being the only company to be able to manufacture locally globally to being just another service bureau. It goes from having a unique message of being able to make efficient low carbon 3D prints everywhere on earth to be a kind of Shapeways but ten years later. Instead of growing a community now the company is going to have to out-execute Materialise and Shapeways directly. It could have won in the long run, but it would be almost impossible for them to either be higher quality than Materialise or cheaper at scale than Shapeways. They’ve gone from unique positioning, unique value proposition and unique competitive edge to a competitive no man’s land. I’ve never been more thoroughly confused by a move in business than this one. I’ll reiterate, they could have easily concluded that the future was through service bureau partners and just not have killed off the community but have kept them. This large platform of users around the world could have been incredibly valuable. No words. I can only describe this a business unforced error.

uDiamond Filament Improves Print Speed With Nanodiamonds

Helsinki-based Carbodeon are no strangers to nanodiamond filaments. The company has previously shown how the presence of nanodiamonds within thermoplastic filament can improve thermal conductivity and tensile strength, among other properties. Now, they’re back with a new uDiamond filament with the help of VTT, who helped test and develop the nanodiamond properties. Nanodiamonds are spherical inserts […]

The post uDiamond Filament Improves Print Speed With Nanodiamonds appeared first on 3D Printing.