Introducing 3D Printing Porcelain & Saying Goodbye to Our Current Ceramics

Hey guys,

Some of you with ceramics in your shops are already aware, but here's the big news for everyone! From Raphael's blog post...

NEW PORCELAIN MATERIAL!


3D Printed Porcelain R&D
For the past year and a half, we've been exploring new options for ceramics based on the feedback we've heard loud and clear from our community. You told us that you want ceramics that are faster, more durable, more functional, and more colorful. This material didn't exist, but that didn't stop us. We created an R&D taskforce who have been working hard in our secret lab to develop a new way of 3D printing beautiful, durable porcelain. This is our first major investment in end to end material R&D.

The new 3D printed porcelain is groundbreaking, with quality and detail that mirrors traditional ceramics processes and the design flexibility of 3D printing. Utilizing a castable porcelain body created by Dr. Stuart Uram of Core Cast Ceramics with the support of Albert Pfarr, we developed an innovative process for producing 3D printed porcelain products. By combining the SLS printers that produce our Strong and Flexible Plastic with an innovative porcelain casting process, we can create detailed and durable products that are fired and glazed just like conventional ceramics. Using the best of 3D printing and traditional ceramics, we're able to create the sort of quality you could only find in high end, handmade porcelain.

Here's what you can expect from 3D printed porcelain, only available at Shapeways:

Amazing Colors – From cobalt blue to matte black, 3D Printed Porcelain will be available in classic colors that call upon the porcelain tradition.
Durable & Functional – Porcelain is dishwasher, oven, and microwave safe. You can even make baking dishes and pizza stones!
Gorgeous Detail – Porcelain enables you to design with very high detail and thin, translucent glazes.
Big & Bold – The strength enables thick and larger products, so we'll be able to help you scale to the whims of your imagination.

Community R&D and Pilot

To start, 3D printed porcelain will be available in a limited pilot with the goal of improving our process and design guidelines. When we are ready to deliver amazing results to the masses, we'll open this up as a material available for sale to shoppers in our marketplace.

If you are an experienced designer and would like to be considered for the pilot, Sign up here. We'll start with a small group and expand as we learn more.

What does this mean for the current 3D printed ceramics?
You have probably noticed that ceramics has been plagued with problems for a while. For the last several months, our production partner for ceramics has been operating with significant delays. In order to ensure we set the right expectations, we've had to increase lead times from 13 days to 18 days to 22 days over the course of the last year.

At 22 days, our production partner was only shipping at 30% on time, which is simply unacceptable. We increased lead time to 45 days in October to set more accurate expectations, but whether you're creating products for your business or waiting for a gift, these delays are unacceptable.

Given the uncertainty and delays, we had to make a hard decision and, as of today, will stop offering the current ceramics materials for the foreseeable future. Designers selling in ceramics are in the loop and will be key partners for us in the pilot and future R&D. We're incredibly disappointed to have to take this step, but you deserve better.

Got an order in ceramics now?
It will still be produced, albeit with the long delay. It may even end up being made in the new porcelain material. You can not place any new orders as of now.

Still reading?
Our goal is to make 3D printing affordable and accessible so that you can make amazing products. Unfortunately, current 3D printed ceramics just didn't cut it anymore. We're excited to bring an entirely new material to the design community and more than anything else, we cannot wait to see what you make!

Short story?

If you are an experienced designer and would like to be considered for the pilot, Sign up here. We'll start with a small group and expand as we learn more.

Cheers!
Natalia

Yes!! Signed up!

I have a project for it right now

Edit: are the design guidelines available yet?

Not yet!

As soon as we have them, we will publish and invite people to start designing and testing (and breaking) them ;-)

That Vine video really looks amazing. Please send the team our congrats on the good work!

Seriously, I can't wait to learn more about this process...you're using the SLS printers to make porcelain?!? That sounds like some out-of-the-box thinking.

It sounds like this is going to have the material and machine space pricing mechanism. Or will it have two material costs? One for the SLS and another for the ceramic material?

The blog mentioned creating a "castable porcelain body" as one of the main R&D feats (not sure if that requires R&D or just a call to their salesperson), so my guess is conventional slipcasting with a mold created from a WSF master. Pricing is going to be "interesting" in that case - from what I read elsewhere, the previous ceramics material likely is/was done on a zcorp650 as used for FCS.

Hopefully they can store the "molds" so that that printing cost is not recurring every time another order rolls in. Does a mold technique demand less complicated designs? If they end up being multipart molds that could be a large impact on design techniques and rule checking.

My shot glasses should not be severely impacted and I would look forward to getting some in bright red for the strong stuff.

I doubt molds would work that way -- the whole point of 3DP is unmoldable objects. If they are using WSF with slipcasting I will bet $1 that they're using solvent and/or heat to demold parts. Nothing else would be foolproof enough for production.

I also doubt that's exactly what it is. But why speculate? We'll know for reals soon.

@Natalia remove ceramics from the listing of materials ? Or something ? Or replace it wit a notice of "no more".

Glad to see a new food safe material made and "real" life situation material that we can make real stuff with it.

The colors and finishing really looks perfect for mass consumption.

2015 looks bright!

PS: Now I can really think about some pottery and stuff! Next some food safe metals ? For fork spoons stuff ? kiddin`

For engineers it's never soon enough!

I'll try to hold back my conjecturizationizing.

The pink elephant standing in the room question is, will this new porcelain material be compatible with already established designs that were created for Shapeways' old ceramic material?

I think Bathsheba's suggested burn out method is most likely what they're doing since White Strong and Flexible is know to be usable as a low ash burnout material for lost was casting.

I just don't see the see the same item being cheaper in porcelain than WSF. Of course more conjecture.

I'm as excited as you guys for this!

I promise to share details about design guidelines and pricing as we solidify them, but for now, conjuncture away!

lol... porcelain more 'durable' than ceramics... how does that work?

"Utilizing a castable porcelain body..." implies a wax print that is then moulded and then slip cast.

Can't wait for the 'design guidelines' and rejections

Gonna get a big bucket of popcorn for this one.

ttfn
Paul

A different crystalline property resulting from different clay formulations and firing temperatures can dramatically affect the properties of ceramics - including strength and durability. If there's anything to be complained about (so far) it's probably money and effort spent on old ceramic pieces used for marketing and stuff.

If the porcelain process allows more geometry options, thinner walls with more engraving/embossing capability and better colors I might even upgrade my old ShapeJS shot glass script to a creator format.

Natalia, do you have a time estimate of when the first pilot designers (pick me! ) may get to order porcelain?

In an effort to give you a closer look at the glazes, I created this little video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyRozR2tpHc

Personally, I'm stunned and excited of how the surface details create darker and lighter areas thanks to the translucent glazes. Each color is unique on its opacity. Hopefully you see some of that in this video and in the pictures we put up in the (near) future.

The glazes do look nice, but they are not indicative of the capabilities of the printing process itself, if I may say so (except that they suggest that this material takes a different range of firing temperatures, allowing a wider range of glazes). Do you have any other models besides that teardrop vase that you could show us ?

will my ceramic stuff work in porcelin

Hi Guys,

We invited our first group of people into the pilot program yesterday and will be adding people each week. Yes Marcus you're on the list so hang tight for next round!

I'm THRILLED we have over 200 signups, but I will ask you all to please be patient, our capacity is low so we are limiting the number of people we can add each week. We'll get there, it's going to be fun experimenting with you all!

Loki, to answer your question, the design guidelines are somewhat different from the old ceramics, and they are very much in flux and subject to change as we learn by printing. As we test many prints we should have a better idea of what is possible. For this reason, the guidelines are not public yet, i would hate to have people designing for something that will change in the future.

Cheers,
Natalia