January 17, 2011 
Ashlee Vance from the New York Times just published an article giving a good outline on the WOW factor of 3D printers and printing services. Check it out at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/13/technology/personaltech/13basics.html
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Ponoko – The Worlds Easiest Making System
Ponoko is the an awesome new system for making things which incorporates everyone .Ponoko allows you to sell designs online, buy designs online and even make things online.
For example if your a punter who wants to get in 3D printing for example, then you can without even having a 3D Printing machine. Also if you wish to purchase a cool design but don’t have the time or the smarts to come up with your own you can buy others designs from Ponoko. BUT the coolest thing I think is that because the manufacturing is community based the products are produced locally by the closest supplier to you, let me break this down.
Jane in Australia falls in love with a lamp design by Sven in Sweden, now in the past Sven would have been manufacturing his 3D Printed and Laser cut lamps in Sweden and a massive jet would have to fly it 20,000+ km from Sven’s manufacturer in Sweden to Jane’s house in Australia. Enter the new digital era and Ponoko. Now with Ponoko Jane can still buy Sven’s lamp, but when she purchases it on Ponoko Sven gets paid by Ponoko and then the design is emailed to a Ponoko manufacturing partner just down the road from Jane, they build the lamp locally on their 3D Printer and Laser cutter, put the Lamp in the basket on the front of their push bike and deliver the lamp to a happy Jane. How awesome is that?
Read on for some more of Ponoko’s visual explanations.
Introduceing the Rapchick – RapMan’s sister
BFB has just released a new version of the Rapman at the 2010 Euromould exhibition. Dubbed the Rapchick, its a tweaked up version of the Rapman 3.1 with pink accents and custom branding. Continue Reading →
Seriously large 3D printer – Makes chairs!
I wish I had a robot arm so I could turn it in to a 3D printer. And this is exactly what Dirk van der Kooij has done. Continue Reading →
Ultimaker – Makerbots Dutch Cousin?
What do you get when you cross a makerbot with a BFB Rapman?? The Ultimaker! Continue Reading →
First Ever 3D Printed Car – the first of many?
A familiar name in 3D Printing Stratasys along with a Design and Engineering Company Kor Ecologic have come out with the worlds first ever 3D printed card. All of the body parts were made using 3D printing technology, even the perfectly curved glass panels were produced by a 3D printer. The Urbee is a super lightweight hybrid car that hopes to be the most energy efficient hybrid in the world.
3D Printing with light!
Its not really printing but the same principals apply. These guys have been able to capture virtual 3D words using an iPad and some long exposure photography. In a nut shell they model up some 3D letters, slice them using some custom software and then project the slices in sequence on an iPad as they drag it through space. As the photo/s are taken the 3D model is reproduced and you end up with 3D words in space. I’ll stop trying to explain it and let the video do the talking as it does a much better job of explaining it.
Concrete 3D printer?
Yes, thats exactly what the Loughborough University has developed with its Freeform Construction project. The ‘concrete printer’ can build concrete components up to 2m x 2.5m x 5m in size. Continue Reading →
A 3D Community at work
Andrew and Ezra just finished of building half of a Icosahedron dome in their very own back yard. The really interesting part is that the connectors to build the dome were “crowdsourced” from people all over the world with access to a 3D printer. Continue Reading →
Lego 3D printer!
This is seriously cool, not really a 3D printer (more of a 3D construction machine) but who cares because this is really really cool. Basically you design your own custom lego building using MLCAD (Mikes Lego CAD) and send the design to the printer which builds your design using bits of lego, block by block. I can’t think of any practical application for it but its still very impressive. I guess you could call it a 3D printer but at very low resolution!
