Category Archives: 3d printing

First Football Cleat to Be Built Using 3D Printing Technology

Nike is taking its forty years of experience and innovation to create the first ever football cleat built using 3D printing technology.

Nike Football debuted the Nike Vapor Laser Talon. The plate of the cleat is 3D printed using Selective Laser Sintering technology (SLS). The shoe weighs only 5.6oz and is designed to provide optimal traction on the football turf. This should help athletes excel in the 40-yard dash although I can’t pretend to be an expert in American football. I am however, more than half way through season one of Friday Night Lights. give me another few weeks and the next few seasons and I should be up to speed.

The Dark Side: 3D Printed Gun Available To All

It was reported last week that the first gun made with 3D printing technology was fired with success in Austin Texas in the US. the gun was created and fired by a controversial group Defense Distributed. the gun was made out of ABS plastic. only the firing pin was made of metal.

Now they have made the blueprints available online. the blueprints have been downloaded over 100,000 times.

With guns becoming undetectable and untraceable, don’t you just feel slightly less safe? No? Me neither, but excuse me while I go write the next post from under my bed.

Barack Obama On 3D Printing

In February US President Barack Obama gave his Stare of the Union address as he does every year. In the speech, he recognises the potential of 3D printing.

Our first priority is making America a magnet for new jobs and manufacturing. After shedding jobs for more than 10 years, our manufacturers have added about 500,000 jobs over the past three. Caterpillar is bringing jobs back from Japan. Ford is bringing jobs back from Mexico. And this year, Apple will start making Macs in America again.

There are things we can do, right now, to accelerate this trend. Last year, we created our first manufacturing innovation institute in Youngstown, Ohio. A once-shuttered warehouse is now a state-of-the art lab where new workers are mastering the 3D printing that has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything. There’s no reason this can’t happen in other towns.

So tonight, I’m announcing the launch of three more of these manufacturing hubs, where businesses will partner with the Department of Defense and Energy to turn regions left behind by globalization into global centers of high-tech jobs. And I ask this Congress to help create a network of 15 of these hubs and guarantee that the next revolution in manufacturing is made right here in America.

The US president makes a State of the Union address every year to report on the condition of the nation and to outline their legislative agenda.

It’s always good to see the government recognise the potential of a technology and help it along. Even if it’s not my government.

Building Bytes: 3D Printed Ceramic Bricks

In keeping with the ceramic 3D printing theme, I want to talk about Design Lab Workshop who have come up with Building Bytes. During a six week residency at the European Ceramic Work Centre, they focused on 3D printing ceramics for large scale construction. Using desktop 3D printers, they created these printable bricks.Each Building Byte can be unique without complicating its fabrication process. The Building Bytes were made from a liquid slip cast recipe of earthenware ceramics typically used for casting molds.

A desktop 3D printer was connected to an extrusion system made up of plastic cartridges and air pressure. The only change to the 3D printer was a material extrusion head requiring minimal change to the printer.

Building Bytes from design lab workshop on Vimeo.

3D Printed Ceramic Water Filters

Design studio Unfold, based in Belgium, created a ceramic filter for an open source water boiler and purifier to be used in the developing world. The reason I’m writing about this is because the ceramic filter was 3D printed.

How was it made? This machine was first designed by Jesse Howard in collaboration with Thomas Lommée as The WaterBoiler. This design was passed on to Unfold who adapted the design by replacing the PET bottle with a cut through glass bottle holding the 3D printed ceramic water filter.

The WaterBoiler created on OpenStructures design principles.

The original WaterBoiler created by Jesse Howard and Thomas Lommée

Source: OpenStructures

Making Tools and Spare Parts Using Moon Rocks

At NASA’s request, a team from Washionton State University investigated whether it was possible to use lunar rocks for 3D printing. Supplied by NASA with simulated Moon rocks (or lunar regality simulant) the researchers used a 3D printer to make small objects out of the melted rocks.

Supplied by NASA with simulated moon rocks (lunar regality simulant), the researchers used a 3D printer to make small objects out of the melted rocks which then resolidified. The team’s finding have been published in the Rapid Prototyping Journal in 2012.

If there was ever an effort to colonise the moon, being able to use resources already present there to print out spare parts or tools needed would be quite valuable due to the high cost of transporting everything needed. Using 3D technology and lunar rocks would mean only the digital files would be needed.

Source: BBC News

3D Printing Skyfall’s Aston Martin DB5

Last year’s Skyfall (by far the best James Bond film made in years) saw the return of the Aston Martin DB5. To save having to blow up the priceless classic car, the makers of the film 3D printed three one-third scale replicas.

Propshop Modelmakers, in charge of creating the prop, commissioned Augsburg-based high-tech company Voxeljet to create the three Aston Martin DB5 models that double for the priceless original vehicle from the 1960s. The cars were printed in 18 parts layer by layer using plastic particle material.The parts were then sent to Propshop Modelmakers in Pinewood Studios near London for its assembly, finishing, lacquering in the original colour, chroming of certain components and the application of realistic bullet holes. Well, colour me impressed.

3D Printed Shells for Nokia’s Lumia 820 and 520 Handset

In January, Nokia released design files allowing owners of 3D printers to make their own custom-designed cases for the flagship Lumia 820 handset. In February, the Lumia 520 joined in the fun when the CAD files for its shell were also released. 3D printing still being in its infancy, I don’t think it was ever intended for anyone other than hobbyists but it’s nice to see to ability of some phone personalisation. Have any of you managed to print the case out? And possibly more importantly; has it been durable?

An Intro into 3D Printing

While not all TED videos are made equal, some of them are fascinating and I think this one is a great introduction into 3d printing and its potential to change the manufacturing process, the way we tackle medical problems and how it could lower our carbon footprint. If my mind hadn’t already been blown by 3d printing, it would have been now.

Filmed in November 2011, Lisa Hauroni, the co-founder of Digital Forming, explains that while 3d printing (or additive manufacturing) has been around for 30 years, it is only recently that it has become efficient and relatively cheap enough to even sit on your desktop. It works when a 3d printer takes CAD data, slices the design into two-dimensional layers and prints the design layer by layer. This does not just let us make and copy things we have made otherwise but also let’s us produce things once difficult or impossible otherwise.

3D Printing: REPLIKAT3D, The Beginning

When I first heard of 3d printing and realised its potential, I was quite excited. I’m not sure I ever imagined growing up that such a thing would exist and be accessible to you and me. “Replicators” were just a thing out of Star Trek. So on this site, I’ll be posting news of 3d printing technology, good 3d designs and hopefully other interesting content. Definitely more to come…

REPLI-KAT-3D

3D Printing News, Design and Discussions