The Shapeways Blog: 3D Printing News & Innovation
Shapeways Blog
Thursday, June 6. 2013
New Zealand Based Designer's XYZ Shoe Mixes 3D Printing & Traditional Materials
New Zealand based designer and Shapeways user Earl Stewart has designed the XYZ Shoe using a combination of 3D Printed Nylon and traditional shoe making materials such as leather and laces.
We have seen a number of 3D printed shoes hit the runway along with a few prototype sports shoes from Nike and New Balance but these are the first to use 3D printing in a more traditional, wearable style, and for men.
Our new Elasto Plastic may be the perfect material to usher in a new range of 3D printed and/or partially 3D printed shoes into the market.
Check out Earl's impressive portfolio featuring additional 3D printed footwear experiments and more.
Thursday, May 30. 2013
Introducing Maker Materials & the New Improved Elasto Plastic
The backbone of Shapeways is the 3D Printing materials we offer to our community. From the versatile Strong and Flexible Plastics, to the beautiful, hand-polished finish of Premium Silver, materials inspire everyone to create new products that no one ever dreamed of before.
Our mission at Shapeways has always been to enable anyone to make anything they want. First, we built a system to allow Makers to design and purchase models for themselves. Then we created Shapeways Shops to enable anyone to launch a business and sell their products worldwide. Now, we want to make it easier for Makers to gain access to the newest 3D printing materials on the market and test them with us. Think about it like one big, global 3D Printing R&D team.
We're excited to announce the launch of our first 'Maker Only' material: a flexible, rubbery plastic called Elasto Plastic! The finish, color, and properties are not yet ready for sale to a wider audience, but it's a perfect material for any Maker out there who can work with a textured surface and maybe a little extra powder arriving with their model.
The new, improved Elasto Plastic is a great option for Makers as it is an incredibly durable material with a lot of really interesting properties such as high impact resistance, flexibility and compression (depending on the geometry), along with a high level of static friction because of the surface texture. Though not strictly water-tight, it can hold liquids, but it does not like high temperatures or fire. It is a valuable addition to our 3D Printing material options here on Shapeways that we are sure you will find incredibly useful and fun.
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Thursday, May 16. 2013
Premium Sterling Silver 3D Printing Stays on Shapeways
The trial has ended, we asked your opinion and now we are happy to say Premium Silver 3D Printing is here to stay on Shapeways.
We will maintain the same design rules, pricing structure and lead time for Premium Silver 3D printing but we will continue to monitor and work to reduce the lead time and cost as soon as possible.
Following is a recap of the Pricing and design rules.
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Wednesday, May 15. 2013
The Beautiful Math of 3D Printed Mobiles
Beautiful, delicate, finely balanced mobiles 3D printed to dance on the breeze.
These 3D printed mobiles are the result of a collaboration between Marco Mahler and Henry Segerman, available 3D printed on demand through their Shapeways Mobiles Shop
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Tuesday, May 14. 2013
Ask Your 3D Printing Questions on Fridays at 5 with Shapeways Engineers
Fridays at 5 is our regular Google hangout where you get to ask Shapeways Engineers your questions about 3D Printing with Shapeways. Last week we talked about the upcoming launch of our new elasto material, how we 3D print our high detail acrylic and we set fire to a couple of Nylon and Full Color 3D prints to prove they are not suitable to put into a kiln.
Join us again this Friday to ask your questions or enter them in the comments of the blog so we can be sure to address them first. We are beginning to record these sessions so that we have an archive of answers to your 3D printing questions, thanks to Todd Blatt for the screen capture and 'interesting' questions.
Friday, May 10. 2013
Ask Shapeways Engineers Your 3D Printing Questions Today at 5pm
Do you have questions about Shapeways 3D printing materials and processes? Want to know how to optimize your design to ensure it gets 3D printed first time? Do you need advice on what software might be best to best make your ideas for real. Join us for a Google Hangout with Shapeways 3D printing engineers this Friday at 5pm NYC time and we will answer as many of your 3D printing questions as possible.
If you have a specific question ready to go, please ask in the comment section of the blog and we will try to address those questions first.
See you soon.
Wednesday, May 8. 2013
Shapeways is Heading to the West Coast
Hey Shapies - we're going to be hosting a handful of exciting events on the West Coast all of next week, and we'd love to see you if you're in the area!
Check out where to find us below.
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Should We Keep Premium Silver 3D Printing on Shapeways
We introduced beautiful jewelry grade premium silver 3D printing to Shapeways in early March and we have seen so many amazing designs in the Shapeways marketplace that we would like to continue premium silver as a permanent material on Shapeways but we need your input.
The current trial is set to end this Tuesday the 14th of May so you only have a few days left to get your orders in and give us some feedback before we make any changes to the design rules and pricing structure.
If you already have your design 3D printed in premium silver please share the URL for your product page in the comments on the blog so the entire Shapeways team (and community) can take a look. Also let us know what you think of the premium silver 3D printing, how it compares to our other silver and what you would like to see next.
Monday, May 6. 2013
Introducing MeCube: Easy 3D Modeling for iPhone and iPad
Mecube is an easy (and addictive) app to 3D design and 3D print direct from your iOS device. The intuitive interface is a simple 'voxel modeler' where you add cubes together to make a 3D form like assembling single blocks of Lego together. You can use the same process to cut away or even 'skew' cubes for some slightly more complex variations. Each voxel can be assembled as a solid color or you can go back and paint each surface, by touching a surface multiple times you increase the saturation of the color, this allows for quite a large variation of colors from such a simple interface.
When your design is complete you can upload your design to Shapeways to be 3D printed in any of our 3D Printing material options including full color.
Keep an eye out for the MeCube Game that will take the same principles into (an even more addictive) puzzle game that will also connect to the Shapeways API to 3D print prizes.
Check out the tutorial below.
Thursday, May 2. 2013
Wednesday, May 1. 2013
Basketball Fans, This is the Egg Cup For You: Nothing But Egg
This may be the first time basketball fans have had a way to celebrate their favorite game at breakfast thanks to 3D printing. The Nothing But EGG Holder by makerb1ocker holds your boiled egg and spoon so that you can slam dunk your breakfast. Perhaps you can even try for a 3 pointer and throw your egg straight from the pot and into the holder. Available in all of the Nylon color options on Shapeways this might even make the perfect mother's day gift for your basketball loving mother?
Monday, April 29. 2013
3D Print Sculptures of Your Flight Routes
Take your vacation memories to the next level with loci, a 3D Printed sculpture of your flights.
With loci, users are able to highlight important flights to them, such as their honeymoon or a memorable summer adventure, through a custom software. The software also connects to Tripit or Foursquare data to help make the tracking process a bit easier.
Each loci comes with a special card with a map featuring all the airports flown to in order to help the user visualize his or her travels. The card also displays a chosen title, total distance traveled, number of airports visited and the number of flights taken.
The product is currently a prototype made by Netherlands based interaction and sound designer Andrew Spitz, who also co-created a soon-to-be-released iPhone app called Flying. A large part of the app is the ability to track one's flights, so he hopes to eventually include loci directly in the app.
Check out the video below for more information!
Wednesday, April 24. 2013
Come meet Shapeways at the Westport Mini MakerFaire
Hey Shapies! If you're in the tri-state area this weekend, come and check us out at the Westport Mini Maker Faire!
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Tuesday, April 23. 2013
Advancing the Mission of Shapeways: 3D Printing for Everyone
Today marks a milestone for Shapeways. On behalf of the Shapeways team, we are truly excited to announce a new round of financing of $30 million led by Andreessen Horowitz, with Chris Dixon joining our executive board. Our existing investors – Union Square Ventures, Index Ventures, and Lux Capital – also participated in this round.
All of our investors believe, like us, that 3D printing has the potential to completely change the world. With this funding, we will grow our team (we’re hiring!), build more factories around the world, and solve challenging technology problems. Though many people have heard about 3D printing, we have a ways to come. We will make our service much easier to use. We will explore the frontiers of 3D printing materials, enabling YOU to make and purchase any product imaginable.
As we embark on this next phase in our company’s journey, we wanted to take this opportunity to look back at how far we’ve come.
3D Printing is Changing the World
When we started in 2007, very few people had even heard of 3D printing outside of the engineering and design communities. It was mainly used for prototyping. Today, 3D printing has taken the manufacturing industry by storm and everyone is talking about this groundbreaking technology. President Obama even recently called out 3D printing as one of the important technologies that can bring manufacturing back to the USA.
We believe that 3D printing is fundamentally changing the manufacturing ecosystem in its entirety – how and where products are made and by whom. For the last century, big companies were in charge: they determined what consumers wanted and made those products in large quantities using mass manufacturing. Now, thanks to 3D printing, those days are over. This technology enables everyone to create unique products on demand, putting the customer in control and localizing the manufacturing process.
How Shapeways Fits In
We founded Shapeways in 2007, but weren’t a typical startup: we made things. And we built our business around four key elements:
Creation
We want to enable everyone to turn their ideas into reality. We pioneered the first customization software called Creators, or 3D printing apps, and we’ve now made this technology accessible through our API. Over 1 million designs have been uploaded to Shapeways.com to-date. And not only can you work with a designer to customize a product, you can also create a product from scratch with easy-to-use templates.
Production
Back in 2007, 3D printing was expensive. We knew that if we wanted to make the technology affordable for everyone, the price needed to drop. We’re proud that we have already succeeded in lowering prices significantly, but we‘re not stopping there. Remember, the cost of an iPhone case was about $70 in 2008. Today, it’s below $20. We believe we can lower the cost much further and this will result in lower prices for everyone using Shapeways.
In the early days, in addition to higher costs, the variety of materials was limited and the quality of the products made was quite low. Today, we offer over 30 materials and finishes, including high-quality sterling silver and food-safe ceramics. We plan on adding many more.
Shapeways Shops
Shapeways Shops enable anyone to launch a business and sell products worldwide. Today, the Shapeways marketplace is comprised of over 10,000 shop owners. They are the future of small business: they don’t have inventory, they rapidly iterate on products, and they have direct access to customer feedback. We will continue to invest in tools and resources to ensure they become even more successful.
Community
Our community is a very important part of Shapeways. You share the belief that 3D Printing is incredible and are as passionate as we are about making products. In the forums and during meetups, you continually surprise us with the ideas that you bring to life. We are thankful for your passion and inspiration.
Onwards
Looking back, we are encouraged by how far we have come. But we are even more excited for the incredible journey ahead. We hope you will join us for it!
Monday, April 22. 2013
NASA Space Apps Roundup
This weekend we sponsored the NASA International Space Apps Challenge in New York. All around the world, over 9000 people collaborated to work on 50 different challenges ranging from a chicken farming in your backyard to lassoing asteroids.
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