In the first episode of Shapeways Ask An Engineer we look at the strength of 3D printed wires at different thicknesses to better understand how to design for 3D printing. 

Using a spring of the same size 3D printed in Nylon (WSF) using selective laser sintering, we look at the difference in strength and memory (bounce) of wires at 0.9, 1.0, 1.2, 1.5 and 2.0 mm. By understanding how much stress the material can take at different thicknesses you can design your parts to be much stronger with a very small increase in thickness. A wire 3D printed at 0.9mm has almost no memory, meaning it compresses under its own weight and is fairly fragile compared to a wire at 1.2mm (and additional 0.3mm or 0.01 of an inch) is much stronger and has considerable memory. As you can see in the video, at 2.0mm thickness (0.078 inch) the 3D printed Nylon is VERY strong, has great memory and flexibility.

If you have any 3D printing questions you would like answered by our 3D printing engineer Matthew Hagan please email askanengineer(at)shapeways(dot)com

For more information on Shapeways 3D printed materials visit our materials hub and and more design tips take a look at our Design for 3D Printing 101.  

For the latest news on 3D printing and the Shapeways community visit the Shapeways blog

If you want to understand the new frontier of 3D printing Copyright, Patent and Trademark law, Public Knowledge's new white paper: So, What is the Deal with Copyright and 3D Printing? is a perfect resource to understand exactly where the law stands now.

The paper is a follow up to their previous 3D printing whitepaper It Will Be Awesome if They Don't Screw It Up: 3D Printing, Intellectual Property, and the Fight Over the Next Great Disruptive Technology.  Where as the previous paper focused on the broad connection between intellectual property law and 3D printing, What's the Deal? focuses on the relationship between copyright and 3D printing.

This is an extremely helpful paper for those creating works that lie between sculptural and functional works and copyright does not cover functional objects but can in some cases cover aesthetic aspects of the functional objects. What we like to call, 'the grey area'.  With this distinction the paper also clarifies a really important point which has been confusing for many people, a Creative Commons license cannot be used to legally protect a functional object.  We have seen many people share their functional 3D files with a Creative Commons license in a number of places online,  although this is not legally binding, it does offer a social construct that should be respected, a way to communicate the way in which you would like to share, and a possible framework for the future.

Take the time to read the paper, it is an incredibly useful resource for all of us navigating through unchartered waters. 

The paper is shared under a Creative Commons license, of course... Great work by Michael Weinberg and his team. 

Some people give roses, some people give 3D printed jewelry, some people give their undying love but in Japan, you can give your lover your chocolate head so they can bite into your cranium as the ultimate valentine sentiment. Powered by 3D printing

Nokia has become the first major manufacturer to release 3D files so anyone can download and 3D print parts for their own phone.

Nokia have made the rear shell for the Nokia Lumia 820 available to download from their developer site as an STL that can be uploaded and 3D printed by Shapeways or a STEP file that can be opened and parametrically modified by a variety of CAD software such as Solidworks and Inventor.

The Nokia Lumia 820 has a simple clip-on interchangeable back which makes it possible for people to change the color of their phone.  By releasing the CAD file, people can now download and modify the basic design to add any feature they like, be it a functional like a folding stand, bike mount, cable wrap, or something cosmetic like branding, images or patterns.

What makes this really important is that a major manufacturer is making it possible for their customers to add value to their products without any cost to the manufacturer.

We have seen the seeds of this when Teenage Engineering made accessories for their synthesizer available for download and 3D print, but this is the first time one of the big guys has come to the world of 3D printing.

One thing to note is that the 3D file is quite fine, and will not suit all forms of 3D printing. We have uploaded the part to Shapeways and made it available for download. We are also doing some test prints at Shapeways this weekend to ensure printability in Nylon (WSF), but we do not recommend 3D printing components such as this in Acrylic as it may be too brittle and Nokia recommend no steel, ceramic or sandstone parts.

The file may also be challenging for Desktop FDM machines as the wall thickness and direction of the stresses may make this a fragile part.

This is a fantastic first move by Nokia, we asked who would be the first manufacturer to make the move to 3D printing in a previous blog post. Nokia get the prize for being the innovator, now let's see who follows in their path and if they can raise the bar. 

Please read Nokia's terms and conditions, and sharing protocol. 

You can now turn your Facebook social graph into a 3D printed sculpture thanks to three new apps curated by The Creators Project and produced by Hyperhyper that plug into the Shapeways API.

The project in collaboration with Softlab, Sosolimited and Sticky Monster Lab accesses your Facebook profile to create a visualization of your interaction with family and friends, your likes and sharing patterns, so you can see yourself as others might see you, abstracted though the lens of the three artists and their applications.

In my youth, when I was backpacking around the world I spent a few months in Seattle but I never got to see the peak of the Mt. Rainier until the day that I flew out of Tacoma airport, and there above the clouds was the peak of the mountain.  It is an image burnt into my memory, of a time in my life of freedom and wonder.

Of course as time passes, memory fades and one forgets or exaggerates the past, so it is always nice to have a little something to hold the memory fast in one's mind.  A postcard may act as a trigger, but it is so one dimensional, and could never capture 'that view'.  Now TinyMtn comes to the rescue with, tiny 3D printed mountains.  Now I can have Mt. Ranier 3D printed on my desktop, and when I want to reminisce, I can drop some dry ice in a glass of water for an impromptu cloud, pull out my iPhone with an Olloclip attachment and fly it around the mountain, peering into the screen just like I peered out of the window in awe of the mountain peak, so many years ago. Thank you TinyMtn...

Alan Hudson, Shapeways Director of 3D Tools, has been working on a tool to make it easy to create 3D objects from 2D images. Think of it as the next generation of our 2D to 3D. We've gotten the software far enough along that we're ready to show off to a larger group. After your feedback we'll fix it up and then release it as open source software.

If you've got an interest in 3D printing and can wrangle a 2D image then we've got something for you to try!

On January 15th at 7pm at Office Nomads in Seattle we'll be letting you play with the software, have some drinks and discuss 3D printing.

If you'd like to run the software during the session then please bring a laptop and some image software. We've been working with Illustrator, Photoshop, Inkscape and Gimp so far. The software takes in JPEG or PNG images. A good resolution to use 300 DPI images.

RSVP via Meetup to enter the third dimension!

It's Friday, your mind is on the weekend instead of the work at hand, a hot cup of coffee from a 3D printed Curios Cat Mug for that extra feline hit of catfeine... 

Often the most meaningful gifts are the ones that you make yourself for the one you love.  Buying a bunch of roses and a teddy bear from the gas station on the way home on Valentine's Day although efficient, is not exactly romantic.  Shapeways community member jrey made a beautiful gift for his wife for their second wedding anniversary.

Jrey's wife is from the Bahamas so he designed a sea shell ring and set of earrings to remind her of home and had them 3D printed in Sterling Silver by Shapeways.  The jewelry looks beautiful and she absolutely loved them.  Now this is the only jewelry of it's kind in the entire world, made especially for one woman designed for her alone by her husband.  This is the kind of gift that will be passed on for generations, with the grandmother telling the granddaughter the story of it's creation, and the depth of meaning that far exceeds any item bought off of the shelf.