We are starting to see a stream of really cool robot designs pass through the Shapeways space-time portal and I just wanted to take a moment to share some that I could find.

It would be really interesting if we could standardize a scale so that components from different robots could be interchangeable, with standard sizes for apertures in torsos for arms, legs, heads. Standard hand/grip sizes so that weapons/tools/whatever could be purchased from each other.  Please let us know if this is something you are interested in? what scale the robots should be? What size the hands, holes etc. etc. etc....

Until then, here are some of the robots currently on the site, in varying stages of realization...

Micro Tiny Mini Robot

RetroroBo

CBot-01

So you can get to know the people you are dealing with here at Shapeways we would like to introduce one of the newer members of the customer service team, Kevin Nichols.  From his introduction below you will soon learn Kevin has years of experience in customer service, a healthy sense of humor and the infectious enthusiasm that comes when you get to see the mind blowing designs that pass through Shapeways each week.  

Dear Guys & Girls, Ladies & Gents. My name is Kevin Nichols, an English man living in Grubbenvorst, a small Dutch village on the border to Germany. I am 35 years young, married to my teenager love Nicole and nuts about my boy Samuel.

I joined Shapeways in June 2010 and have quickly been infected by the unique spirit that thrives in our community and also in our office. From my first interview it was clear that Shapeways was the place to be. I have over 13 years customer service experience for several international companies. Having lived and worked in the Germany, England and now in the Netherlands. With experience in the metal, construction, finance, supply chain, security/safety products and paper industries I can confidently say….

…… I have never seen anything like this, never been so inspired by what our customers and I do every day.

When I’m not thinking about Shapeways I spend most of my free time with my family getting out visiting friends and family. Apart from my Shapeways infection I was infected by Rock & Metal and the age of 12. Luckily I have not found a cure and am blessed to keep on Rockin’!!!

But that’s another story. Anyway, Can’t wait to see your orders coming in and check out your newest creations!

See you around in our inbox, forum or livechat, Kevin

Are you a student and ready for an 'Extreme Redesign 3D Printing Challenge? Or at least a T-Shirt?

Stratasys have just launched their Seventh Annual "Extreme Redesign" Contest through Dimension 3D Printing.

Nine student winners will claim either $2,500 or $1,000 scholarships in the categories of:

• High School Engineering
• College Engineering
• Art & Architecture.

 To be competitive the submission must:

• Describe the value & benefit of your Extreme Redesign in video or written format
• Have sound mechanical design / part integrity
• Be creative
• Useful (unless in art & architecture category?)
• Beauty (if in art & architecture category)

Curated by Max Fraser in partnership with the Crafts Council, Lab Craft: Digital Adventures in Contemporary Craft will look at the use of technology as an extension to the capabilities of the human hand at Tent London as part of the London Design Festival. 

Lab Craft will challenge the relationship between the hand and machine in contemporary craft. It will focus on tangible outcomes through the examination of new practice, while exploring the impact of technology within craft practice and will feature the work of 26 designers including Tord Boontje and Michael Eden.

Shapeways user Juniortan was recently placed in a situation where their child had to have an IV placed in it's hand while in hospital.  Never a nice thing to see your kid, or any loved ones in pain when a simple change in procedure could help.  Juinortan noted that the process used meant:

 

1. No protection for the top of the wrist where the IV was, causing much anxiety on my part on whether the dude was gonna knock his wrist against anything and dislodge the IV needle, etc (wince!)
2. Total lost of dexterity in the hands due to the support block

Rather than sit by wincing in helpless emapthy, Juniortan designed a Medibrace prototype in an attempt to ease the suffering.

Shapeways received over 70 high quality entries in the 100% Design Contest and the difficult task was for Mark from Despoke to choose five finalists which we will 3D print, then the winner will be chosen at our stand D27 at 100% Design in London. 

In the end, with so many great designs to choose from, the task was too much for Mark so he chose seven finalists instead of five! (just like Whystler)

If you would like to see the finalists come and visit us 100% Design, September 23rd to 26th, Earls Court, London. And/or look below... Who would you choose to win?

We have had quite a few requests to find a way to share a design with specific people without making the design public.  In the last round of website updates this is now possible with a hidden model view state. It is relatively easy to do and means that you can sell the object to a customer whom with you share a private URL that includes a security code to access but still allows you to include (and conceal) your mark-up.

Follow the steps below.

Friday again and more first-rate items FFFFound in the It Arrived! forum.  If you would like to be included in next weeks make sure you post clear images to the It Arrived! forum.

 

crsdfr did a tweak on an original design by Bathsheba to illuminate the geometric pattering.

PadFoot is a stand for the iPad by Michiel Cornelissen

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Caricature Dalek by DrJekyll

You are all now well aware of Noah Improbablecog Beasley's Open Source Jewelry project on Kickstarter, and you may know of Thingiverse, where Makerbot(ers) share there files to be extruded from hot gooey plastic, you may even know of Content Central, where Solidworks types (or just anyone) can upload/download 3D models of just about anything (mainly mechanical parts).

Shapeways has had the 3D Parts Database for a while, but now sharing your 3D files on Shapeways has just gotten a whole lot easier.