PBS Ask "Will 3D Printing Change the World?" 

We say yes.

Today we are excited to announce a brand new Order Status Page!

What once was a bland and static page detailing your order has gone through a transformation and is now the almighty "Order Status Page". Why is it so awesome? Because it not only offers more transparency into the current status of your entire order, but also shows you what's happening with each individual item. In addition to being taken to this page immediately after checkout, you can also get here from the My Orders overview.

We've also added detailed information on refunds and credits on a per-order basis for all new orders. Additionally, this overhaul lays the foundation for some even cooler features that will be coming in the near future.

With that said, let us know what you think!

While shoe manufacturers have been using 3D printing to prototype shoes for years, this is the first shoe by a major manufacturer that plans to use 3D printing for the final product. The Nike Vapor Laser Talon is 3D printed using selective laser sintering to produce an ultra lightweight football shoe weighing only 159 grams (5.6oz) including cleats.  Nike designed the cleats specifically to help athletes quickly accelerate from standstill.

As mentioned in the previous post where we looked at the cost of injection molding vs 3D printing, the value of the 3D printed part is in the complexity, not just the material cost.  Nike are using this 'free' complexity to design the football cleats for maximum performance without being constrained by issues of manufacturability.  

“Nike’s new 3D printed plate is contoured to allow football athletes to maintain their drive position longer and more efficiently, helping them accelerate faster through the critical first 10 yards of the 40... Translated to the game of football, mastering the Zero Step can mean the difference between a defensive lineman sacking the quarterback or getting blocked... SLS technology has revolutionized the way we design cleat plates – even beyond football – and gives Nike the ability to create solutions that were not possible within the constraints of traditional manufacturing processes” 

Shane Kohatsu, Director of Nike Footwear Innovation. 

3D Printing is not only about mouse clicks and lasers, there is also a lot of hands-on work required to take an item from bits to atoms, that is why we are always looking for talented people to help make things real in our Eindhoven and New York offices.  Every model is lovingly removed from the various 3D printers, cleaned (sometimes dyed) and shipped around the world.  We do not always get to see what you then do to the parts, what post processing you undertake to make them even more beautiful, but when we do, it inspires us and makes all of the long hours worthwhile.

We recently featured Rachel Goth's work on the Shapeways blog but I thought it was worth taking another look based purely on the dying of the products that make her Marmalade Park designs look amazing.  Here are some images from her Flickr account to inspire you.

We often get asked 'at what point does it become cheaper to mass produce and item rather than 3D print it? at which point we have to ask what do you want to make, in what material and to what level of complexity or customization?  To approach a need and simply switching method of manufacturing misses the power of 3D printing.

A recent blog post by 3sourceful compared the cost of manufacturing two items using Shapeways 3D printing and Protomold to make injection molded parts.

"In this case, we prices out two different parts.  One, a very small bracket (~1cm^3) and one a larger jig (~50 cm^3).  To compare, we obtained quotes from Shapeways and Protomold.  And for simplicity, we just assume the cheapest material from each.    We then plotted out the total cost of production for different quantities.  As we would expect, the tooling costs of the molds resulted in 3D printing being cheaper at lower quantities in both cases.    But, in the case of the larger part, the cost of the 3D printing material meant that over 100 units, Protomold became the cheaper solution.  Where, for the smaller part, 3D printing was cost effective over 1000 units."

This is great for a simple equation for comparing the cost of a simple part required in bulk like their bracket, but if there is any level of complexity in the part or strict tolerances, the price to injection mold is likely to quickly increase, where as the price to 3D print would likely stay the same or may actually be reduced if the complexity is in the form of meshed or perforated features.  The larger item might not have taken advantage of the density discount on Shapeways that can dramatically reduce the cost of large parts.

The comparison does not take into account the upfront investment required along with cost to warehouse and distribute the injection molded parts with the liability of predicting sales and holding inventory that may not sell.  Customization and/or fast iteration is also an incredibly powerful advantage of 3D printing not so easily posible with injection molded parts. If you want to make 1000 components that are very similar but not the same, the cost to 3D print remains the same where as with injection molding you will need to invest in 1000 different molds, or at the very least, 1000 different mold inserts which would then need to be manually changed out after each part is manufactured.  

Same too with fast iteration, if you want to modify your design in any way to optimize your design there is no additional cost or delay with 3D printing where as with injection molding you would need to retool in most instances, adding greater cost that would need to then be amortized across the sale of your product.

The post title rightly sums up the equation cost = f(size, quantity, technology) + a whole lot more, where the 'whole lot more' is just as important as the rest of the equation.

image via 3sourceful

Since we introduced Sterling Silver to our material catalog we have seen a lot of beautiful 3D printed jewelry in the Shapeways gallery making the most of the beautiful material.  Our Sterling Silver is first printed in wax then cast in silver using traditional techniques so in the end you have pure Sterling Silver in a standard or glossy finish. 

What do you think of the Silver finish?  Have you printed any of your designs in Sterling Silver at Shapeways yet?

While this is pretty much a hot glue gun squirting out plastic, for $75 you can get yourself a 3Doodler, what they claim to be the world's first and only 3D printing pen. Legend has it that the first ever FDM (fused deposition modeling) 3D printer was invented by Scott Crumb when he 'printed' a frog for his daughter using a hot glue gun.  Scott Crumb went on to form Stratysys and the basic technology upon which the entire RepRap ecosystem is based, including desktop printers such as the MakerBot, Ultimaker and the Cube.

Now 35 years later you too can simply draw objects in thin air with the 3Doodler too.

While it is a cute idea and a relatively simple concept that might be a fun toy to get people started with a very basic start at making things with plastic, they state the pen is not suitable for children under 12 years old (270c of hot metal squirting plastic at your fingertips), most likely their ideal market. 

At the time of writing they have already raised over $145,000 from backers for their device with 33 days still to go so they have obviously found a market willing to give this novelty item a try.