Just wondering if Shapeways has any plans to introduce WOOD as a material choice now that, ahem, one of your competitors has done so...?
Hi, Is it wearable material? Has it hygienic safety certificates? Can I wear WOOD bracelets on the beach and swim with it in sea? Thank you.
Seems to be a new pilot material there, and from the few pictures I found it seems to be similar to shapeways' Metallic Plastic with a sawdust filler instead of aluminum. (Does not look that appealing to me from their pictures - like a cross of miscolored FCS and tea-stained strong&flexible. Or salt dough gone wrong )
Actually it is more than a surface treatment; it is comprised of fine wood particle powder laid down and laser sintered to the previous layer.
Which is why I likened it to "metallic plastic" - surely this is not pure powdered wood but some cellulose-filled thermoplastic polymer if they are laser-sintering it.
This is their official description of the material: "Models printed in our wood material are constructed from a brown, very fine powder made from wood chips."
After some more reading, I think cellulose acetate (cigarette filters, artificial silk) would appear to fit the bill, and there has been some research into using selective laser sintering of this material to generate biodegradable tissue scaffolding for biomedical applications. So I stand corrected (but still do not like the visual appearance of that material - but if it is cellulose acetate it is probably easier to dye than shapeways' nylon). I am curious what would be the advantages of having this material ?
There was some talk about wood laced filament for home printers. Not sure how popular that ever became. I could see a woodish powder print having some advantages for sound related projects since it might dampen audio resonances better than plastic. Or it might take paints/varnishes better. It's probably weaker than WSF or aluminum plastic and more prone to breakage and handling damage. It has appeal for woodworker-like projects but it does look a bit egg cartonish. If it were 1/4 the cost of WSF with reasonable strength I could think of some practical applications like bird houses. Quite frankly if there were a low resolution much cheaper 3D printing process I wouldn't care much what the material was even if it was paper pulp made from ground up newspapers.
Yes, MrNibbles, I'm with you on that point, sadly, however, I don't believe it is a strong material. mkroker, I think that having more and more materials added to the Maker's arsenal is only for the better. For those who only print in metal they may say that WSF is a waste of time and what's the point, but we've got to start somewhere, right?
I am genuinely interested in what practical uses there could be for this material. Not so sure if offering a broad spectrum of new materials each with a very limited range of applications would be that useful, considering the capital and labor costs tied to each specialized printer. Shapeways has four (or five, if you count elasto that is still designer-only) new material pilots running already, why shouldn't the competition get to be first with some other highly experimental offer once in a while ?
Maybe, titanium would be more useful as pilot material? Competitor offer it too. Especially if polished titanium will be less expensive instead of competitors, It will excellent material offer on SW.
I could imagine that magnesium was selected as a cheaper entry to DMLS, once they are familiar with the process they can probably add other metals easily. Again, what would be a compelling property of the laser-sintered "wood" ?
Well, personally I see it being used in decorative items mostly, possibly some creative inserts in jewellery. Beyond that the fragility would rule it out for items like phone cases, etc. I would be interested to see what the user could do to it in post-process; i.e. staining, polishing.
A company called Jewelek was printing wood watched with filament printers plus added metal hardware to hold the wristband together. That material must be somewhat tough and moisture resistant to last more than a few weeks on a wrist. Wood might also be good for train model enthusiasts making pallets, fake logs, telephone poles, etc. I could also see some uses for custom decorative inside the house wood trim, if the price isn't too high. It always comes down to price.
If wood is something you want, Put a post in the suggestions section. Personally, I'd prefer something that mimicked wood grain look but be more durable than real wood. I think an awesome urban 3D printer would use moss, if you've ever seen the moss "graffiti" spray.