Help me build an international 3D printing community. Come here weekly to check out the latest trends, stats, and samples in 3D printing. Comments are welcome!

1. This Week in 3D Printing
Week of 10/6/2015

2. This Week’s Contents
! In the News
! Research Insight of the Week
! 3D Prints of the Week

3. In the News
Summary and Analysis of Headlines around 3D Printing

4. Penn State and 3D Systems Partner to Research Direct Metal Printing for DARPA
Pennsylvania State University and 3D Systems have announced the formation of a partnership to research
and develop direct metal printing technology at the Center for Innovative Materials Processing through
Direct Digital Deposition (CIMP-3D). CIMP-3D is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s
(DARPA) additive manufacturing demonstration facility. The team of direct metal printing experts from the
two organizations will continue developing 3D Systems current ProX Direct Metal Printing (DMP) technology,
with the goal of continuing to advance and develop the creation of high-resolution DP technology, and
provide training using 3D Systems existing DMP technology for use by the US defense and aerospace
companies. The first project is working with the US Air Force to incorporate DMP technology into the
manufacturing workflow of the largest provider of aircraft engines Honeywell Aerospace, focusing
specifically on the production and rapid qualifying of 3D printed metal parts.
Source(s): cimp3d.com
New Patent Filed for Inexpensive and Super Strong Graphene 3D Printing Materials
Graphene has been hyped as the material that will completely revolutionize every aspect of our lives. Yet,
it seems nothing has come of this ‘revolutionary’ material. This is primarily due to the difficulty of making
graphene, as well as the prohibitively expensive cost and large amount of toxic waste byproducts required
to produce a large quantity of graphene. But Graphene 3D Lab Inc., hopes to change all of this. The
company recently filed a non-provisional patent for a new process for the preparation and separation of
atomic layers of graphene. For the past few years, the company has been known in the industry for
exploring the creation of various 3D printable filaments using the super strong material. While not much is
known about the process being patented, the company says the process is an energy efficient way of
sorting and classifying graphene nanoparticles that will be non-chemically invasive and produce no toxic
byproducts. If Graphene 3D Lab is capable of brining the patent from idea to production, leading to
inexpensive large scale creation of graphene, our lives could greatly change over the next few years.
Source(s): 3DPrint.com

5. 3DPrinterOS Releases Educational and Premium Licenses
3DPrinterOS, a operating system commonly used around the world to operate 3D printers, has
released two new custom licenses to make it easier to use in settings with a large number of
users. One of the newly announced licenses is for a premium option that features more and
improves options over the free 3DPrinterOS license used by most people. The other license class
will be for educational purposes, appealing to universities and schools that extensively use 3D
printing, giving faculties the ability to easily distribute and track access of 3D printing
throughout a campus. The focus here will be to enable schools to invest in 3D printing without
requiring a costly staff to operate 3D printers and regulate the workflow.
Source(s): 3ders.org
Macy’s Introduces 3D Printed Selfies to Attract Millennials
Seeking to attract the lucrative 12-to-20 year old demographic, Macy’s Department Store
has completed a $400 million renovation of their flagship Herald Square store. The new
space, called “One Below,” prominently incorporates 3D printing into a variety of
showcases. Customers can 3D print jewelry and iPhone cases using a 3D Systems Cube
printer, but the real eye catcher will be a soon-to-be-revealed photo booth capable of
quickly 3D scanning customers in order to create a 3D printed selfie. If the photo booth
and selfies increase Millennial traffic, Macy’s may expand the option to their over 800
nationwide locations.
Source(s): Bloomberg.com

6. Autodesk Announces Next-Gen Design Platform
Autodesk Research, a spin-off of 3D design and engineering company Autodesk, inc., has created a new
state-of-the-art design platform that may revolutionize the way 3D designs are generated. The
Dreamcatcher system is a experimental design system geared towards helping users with the generation of
their 3D projects. A designer begins by inputting a projective, which includes information such as material
type, functional requirements, performance restrictions, cost restrictions, etc., which are then submitted
into Dreamcatcher. The information is processed within the design platform to self-generate a synthesized
design space that complies with the particular requirements of the project. Once the system evaluates the
self-generated solutions, a designer is able to go in and reconfigure the design solution if the outcome is
not exactly what they were aiming for. The is a one-of-a-kind program that is able to teach itself solutions
through machine learning, all the while teaching designers how to optimize their 3D models.
Source(s): 3DPrintingIndustry.com
U.S. Coast Guard Incorporates 3D Printer as handyman on icebreaker boat
For three weeks this past July, a MakerBot 3D printer was taken on a scientific mission aboard the Cutter
Healy Icebreaker led by the Coast Guard Research and Development Center in New London. Engineering
professor Ron Adrezin managed and operated the 3D printer, which the crew found as a invaluable
resource used to perform odd jobs such as kitchen and shoe repair. Adrezin’s job on the expedition was to
gauge the practical use of having a 3D printer on board a Coast Guard ship, seeing if the device could
help out on various projects by creating 3D-printed parts. Not too long into the voyage, the MakerBot had
its chance. The onboard dishwasher, tasked to go through 70 loads of dishes a day, broke. Adrezin used
the 3D printer to resolve the problem, leading crew members to approach Adrezin for help creating
solutions for their own technical issues.
Source(s): 3ders.org

7. Adobe Announces App that Turns 2-D Selfies into 3D models
Adobe, known for their Photoshop software, is expected to present a new and exciting application
known as 3-D Portraits at Adobe MAX Sneaks, the annual peek inside their development labs. The app
recognizes faces, eyes, mouths, and hair in 3D photographs, and effectively turns them into useable 3D
models. While technically currently possible within Photoshop, the same process requires a number of
complex and tedious steps with results that range in quality. 3-D Portraits effectively negates all of the
steps, creating a 3D modeling process that could quickly change a wide range of industries ranging
from game developers to art design. Research led by Menglei Chai, a PhD student from Zhejiang
University, and a team of Adobe Research scientist is to thank for figuring out how to largely automate
the process 3D modeling process.
Source(s): FastCoDesign.com
New York to invest $125 Million to Build World’s First Industrial-Scale 3D Printing Facility
The state of New York has announced plans to invest nearly $125 million to build the world’s first
industrial-scale 3D printing facility as part of a private-public partnership with Norway’s Norsk
Titanium AS. Groundbreaking for the plant is expected to begin in late October or November of
this year in Plattsburgh, New York, and is slated to be fully operational by the end of 2016. The
plant is expected to print large components for aircraft manufactures and weapons makers at
much lower cost than current technologies. According to inside sources, SUNY Polytechnic
Institute will manage the program, with the plant planned to be more than 200,000-square-feet.
Source(s): Reuters.com

8. Branch Technology Has Built the Tallest 3D Printed Object In America
Branch Technology, the 3D printing company known as the first company to successfully construct
3D printed walls, has printed the tallest 3D printed object in America. Branch has unveiled a 18-
foot-tall sculpture as part of the Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA)’s exhibit “Designers, Makers,
Users: 3D Printing the Future.” The sculpture is the result of a collaboration between Branch and
architect Keith Kaseman, best known for designing the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial in Washington,
D.C. The sculpture, known as TN-01, took a little over a month’s time, and was printed in several
segments and assembled on site a MODA. The sculpture has a volume of about 54 cubit feet, and
was created to demonstrate the potential of 3D printing in architectural applications.
Source(s): 3DPrint.com
Turning Smartphones into 3D Printers
Solido3D, a rapid prototyping and digital fabrication firm, has announced OLO, a device that
designers claim can turn any smartphone into a 3D printer. While the internal mechanics of OLO
are not yet known to the public, the design team has revealed that the battery-powered devices
consists of only 7 components and one motor. The app behind the printer will be free for users to
download, allowing them to upload and manager 3D models, the ability to send them to print, as
well as the option to share their models and skills to the overall OLO community. While the printer
will be relatively small and inexpensive, it will be interesting to see how users capitalize on such a
interesting device.
Source(s): 3DPrintingIndustry.com

9. Research Insight of the Week
Quantifying the 3D Printing Landscape

10. Deloitte Consulting estimates that 95% of
3D printed object are made with
professional grade 3D printers, with over
222,000 3D printers to be sold this year, an
increase of 100 percent over last year.
Source: Deloitte, 2015

11. 3D Prints of the Week
Showcasing some of the most interesting applications of 3D
Printing, from the amusing to the artistic to the innovative

12. 3D Printed Wheelchair Helps Kitten Walk Again
! Two 17 year old students, Josh Messmer and
Isaiah Walker, from Walnut Grove Secondary
School in British Columbia have created a 3D
printed wheelchair for a handicapped kitten
named Cassidy.
! Cassidy was found in a rural residency in British
Columbia without both of his back legs by
Shelley Roche of Tiny Kittens Society, who
nursed the small kitten to health. Roche then
turned to the public for help enabling Cassidy
to live a normal life.
! Touched by Cassidy’s predicament, Messmer
and Walker turned to 3D printing technology to
design a wheelchair for the kitten. After several
prototypes, a working 3D printed wheelchair
was created that Cassidy could comfortably
use and move around in. As it’s 3D printed, as
the kitten grows, the design can grow with him.

13. 3D-Printed ion Thruster
! João Duarte is a talented 3D printing enthusiast
who has built a 3D printed ion thruster and
made the instructions and files available for
others to build their own version.
! An ion thruster is a type of electrical propulsion
system currently used for spacecraft propulsion.
! Duarte hopes the project, which he calls
“project osmanthus,”has educational value that
demonstrated the process of accelerating ions
and the ion thruster working principle.