Valentina Palladino

At the Wearable Futures conference, London designer and researcher Shamees Aden debuted a running shoe concept that will put your worn out kicks to shame. The shoes, which he’s developing with University of Southern Denmark professor Martin Hanczyc, are 3D printed from a synthetic biological material that can repair itself overnight.

The running shoes are the product of Aden’s study of protocells. The basic protocell molecules are not themselves alive, but can be combined to create living organisms. Mixing different protocells creates different properties, and allows them to be programmed to behave differently depending on heat, light, and pressure. The shoes’ unique construction allows them to be 3D printed to the exact size of the user’s foot, so they would fit like a second skin. While running, the shoes would react to pressure and movement, providing extra cushioning when needed.

Continue reading “London designer creates 3D-printed, regenerative running shoes from protocells” »

The science-fiction-like world of 3D printing is starting to get some very real attention from Wall Street. This week Jefferies initiated coverage on the sector with “buy” ratings on three of its five major players – 3D Systems, Stratasys, and ExOne – and “holds” on the other two, Arcam and voxeljet. These companies could revolutionize mass manufacturing, Jefferies says, and could even get competition from a bellwether of the traditional printing industry: Hewlett Packard.

In a comprehensive, 97-page research note, Jefferies analyst Peter Misek writes that while 3D printing has been around since the 1980′s, a confluence of factors ranging from improvements in printer speeds to a greater availability of software that produces the digital designs used to create 3D printouts have brought the sector into the mainstream, and it will only continue its climb in years to come.

“Our base scenario envisions an eventual expansion of consumer 3D printers from its hobbyist base into a prototyping tool for ‘creative consumers’ and for home printing of toys to become mainstream,” Misek writes, defining ‘creative consumers’ as those who might favor the craft site Etsy. He says that 3D printing could eventually take a $12.5 billion chunk out of the $22 billion U.S. toy market for its ability to recreate action figures, building sets, craft supplies and more. While some companies insist this development is around the corner — 3D Systems is trying to get a $500 consumer 3D printer on the market in time for the 2014 holiday season — Misek thinks such products won’t debut until 2015 or 2016 at the earliest.

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By Shane Taylor On Mon, December 9, 2013 ·

December 4, 2013 8:16 AM

Continue reading “‘The Hobbit’ and ‘Ender’s Game’ are making 3D printing Hollywood’s smartest new marketing tool” »

By Drew Prindle — December 6, 2013

For some odd reason, pizza always seems to be at the forefront of emerging technology. It was the first food you could buy via online ordering, the first food to legitimately be delivered via drones, and now it’s dipping its saucy little Italian toes into 3D printing.

Natural Machines, a startup out of Barcelona, has developed a prototype 3D printer called Foodini that can pump out decent, edible-looking pizza just like a normal 3D printer pumps out custom-made lightswitch covers and drain plugs.

Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan on Gizmodo

At the dawn of rapid prototyping, a common predication was that 3D printing would transform manufacturing, spurring a consumer revolution that would put a printer in every home. That hasn’t quite happened—-and like so many emerging technologies, rapid prototyping has found its foothold in a surprisingly different field: Medicine.

The following studies and projects represent some of the most fascinating examples of “bioprinting,” or using a computer-controlled machine to assemble biological matter using organic inks and super-tough thermoplastics. They range from reconstructing major sections of skull to printing scaffolding upon which stem cells can grow into new bones. More below—and look out for more 3D printing week content over the next few days.

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By Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was speaking at a government function in July when a man sitting a few rows behind him pulled a Liberator, the infamous 3D-printed gun that the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) recently defined as a “lethal weapon.”

The gun posed no real danger. The man bearing it was just a TV reporter trying to prove how easy it is to sneak a 3D-printed plastic gun past security checks that include metal detectors.

Continue reading “Law Banning 3D-Printed Guns Up for Crucial Vote” »

By Paul Rosenzweig
Monday, December 2, 2013 at 7:00 AM

For those who haven’t been following along, this recent story about 3D printing of plastic guns should be a revelation. 3D printing is one of those technologies where the reality is fast outrunning our imagination. It is, in essence, the ability to construct a product from feedstock using a readily available “printer” linked to a computer where the source code for the product is executed. According the Washington Post’s story, the new plastic guns are capable of firing lethal rounds and, naturally, they are beyond the detection of metal detectors.

But for every “parade of horrible story” about 3D printing there’s also one of great promise. For example, NASA recently announced plans to send a 3D printer to the space station. This development, combined with the development of printing for metal objects (from liquid metal feedstock) means that many of our concepts of logistics will go out the window. If a manufacturer can construct metal parts from an easily transported feed stock then, as Andrew Filo, a consultant with NASA on the 3D space station printing project, said: “You can get rid of concepts like rationing, scarce or irreplaceable.” That’s a truly extraordinary development.

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