Hasta La Gadget!

The year of 3D printers? It’s sure looking like it from where we’re sitting. There are more companies at CES 2013 promoting consumer versions of the technology than ever before. Of course, MakerBot’s not going to sit idly by and watch this all go down. The Brooklyn-based company is set to show off its Replicator 2X Experimental 3D Printer — the dual-extruding “big brother” to its recently released second-gen printer — at a press conference tomorrow. Hopefully pricing and available will be arriving on with it.

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3D Systems isn’t stopping with the release of one 3D printer at this year’s CES. Nope, the company’s launching a new, high-end model on our very stage. It’s calling the CubeX “the ultimate desktop 3D printer,” featuring a build platform that can handle prints up to 1,030 cubic inches (10.8 x 10.45 x 9.5-inches) — or as big as a basketball, hence the above image. The CubeX has three printing modes at resolutions up to 125 microns and three different print fill densities. Like its lower-priced counterpart, the printer can do PLA or ABS plastics and features a cartridge system for feeding in plastic. It’ll run you $2,499. More info can be had in the press release after the break — or by watching our stage interview with the company’s CEO.

Continue reading 3D Systems’ CubeX 3D printer does three color prints ‘as big as a basketball’

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While modern medical technology has not reached the stage where one is able to get a robotic prosthetics in the same vein as that of Anakin Skywalker when he received a lesson in lightsaber dueling against Count Dooku, we have arrived at the edge of the doorstep, where one might be able to print 3D cartilage constructs as and when required. This is what a bunch of researchers over at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine have demonstrated recently using a novel bioprinter that relies on a couple of low-cost fabrication techniques so that it can deliver a structure which is not only durable but biologically active.

An electrospinning machine will rely on an electrical current to generate the kind of extremely fine fibers required from a polymer, resulting in a strong and porous structure. Following that, a common inkjet printer will deposit layers of natural gel, while a solution of cartilage cells is also put into the structure. You end up with a hybrid synthetic and natural cartilage construct which does seem to resemble that of actual cartilage after eight weeks of implantation in mice under earlier experiments. Hopefully, humans will be next without any devious side effects.

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[ Need a New Knee? Print One copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

3D systems has filed a lawsuit against both Formlabs and Kickstarter for patent infringement. Formlabs is the manufacturer of a low-cost 3D printer called the Form 1. Thanks to the stereolithography printing technique, the Form 1 can achieve professional grade 3D printing in a small hobbyist printer. It quickly became a Kickstarter success. Yet, in 1997 3D Systems patented stereolithography applications and now wants reparation from Formlabs, and Kickstarter who promoted the printer.

The Kickstarter fundraising campaign topped $1.4 million in pre-orders in just under a week, making it one of the notable successes of the platform. Formlabs ultimately raised $2,945,885. Kickstarter is financially involved as it takes a 5 percent cut on each campaign, according to the BBC.

Instead of using traditional melting techniques, Formlabs has opted for the “gold standard” in 3D printing — stereolithography, a high-precision positioning system designed to solidify plastics. It allows you to use thin structures in your original 3D model and achieve a level of detail never seen in home 3D printing, especially for $2,299.

Similarly priced competitors, such as MakerBots, use a more traditional melting technique that doesn’t lead to the same rendering. On the other end of the spectrum, high-end competitors cost anywhere between $10,000 and $1 million. The Form 1 was the printer aiming at bridging the gap between those two categories.

But 3D Systems carefully patented stereolithography when it comes to 3D printing. According to the company, its patent portfolio is well-known in the industry, and feigning ignorance won’t be enough to defend the Form 1.

When we initially covered Formlabs’ Kickstarter success, the company claimed that it managed to keep costs low because a few patents had expired. Co-founder Maxim Lobovsky didn’t state which patent exactly, but 3D Systems believes that Formlabs infringed claims 1 and 34 of U.S. Patent No. 5,597,520.

Aside from direct patent infringement, 3D Systems claims that the crowd-funding campaign has caused “immediate and irreparable injury and damage to 3D Systems” by promoting the new printer.

Formlabs and Kickstarter declined to comment.

2D pictures are so yesterday. At least, they are in Japan. Rolling out on November 24th in Harajuku are 3D-printing photo booths called the Omote 3D.

Instead of flat prints, people will get miniature 3D figurines of themselves for a souvenir. It’s not as ‘instant’ as the former, since people will have to remain in their poses for about 15 minutes while an attendant performs a full body scan.

The 3D models are available in three sizes from four to eight inches, with prices ranging from appx. $258 to $516 (USD) per person, depending on the size of the miniature. Pricey, I know.

The booth will be open until January 14, 2013 at the EYE OF GYRE, so drop by if you happen to be in the Land of the Rising Sun.

[via CNET]