Tag Archives: 3D printing

Phillips’s new pendant lights are 3D-printed from recycled fishing nets and delivered in 8 days

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Designed by the Signify Global Design Team, the Philips MyCreation droplet pendant lamp is a unique product that combines sustainability and beauty. Hanging from the ceiling with an aesthetic that’s equal parts modern and rustic, the lamp employs 3D-printing processes, which give it its shape and texture. The lamp’s raw material, however, comes from recycled fishing nets, gathered directly from harbors on the Cornish coast. Made locally and manufactured on-demand, each lamp explores a variety of coastal-inspired texture styles and comes with a gradual gradient that goes from turquoise to a light lemon yellow, creating a beautiful hue in the process that’s only further accentuated by the irregularities in its design created by the 3D printer.

Designer: Signify Global Design Team

The recycled nature of the lamp’s material lends a level of unburnished imperfection to it, making it unique. The material and the 3D-printing technique create their own minor irregularities that help give the lamp its bespoke appeal. When the light inside it is switched on, these imperfections take on a character of their own, making the lamp look much more beautiful than something polished and mass-manufactured.

The lamps’ designs borrow from their marine origins too, with patterns that pay homage to the sea. The cross-hatched design (shown below) is reminiscent of the fishnet, while the wavy pattern (above) references the ripples seen in the sand at the bottom of an ocean-based on water currents. Each lamp is made to order and takes roughly 8 days to be printed and delivered. Aside from being recycled, the lamps are further recyclable too, allowing the plastic to be reused in a variety of other formats.

The Phillips MyCreation Drop Pendant Light is a Gold winner of the International Design Excellence Awards for the year 2022.

The post Phillips’s new pendant lights are 3D-printed from recycled fishing nets and delivered in 8 days first appeared on Yanko Design.

Top 10 3D-printed designs that every sustainability lover needs to incorporate in their life

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3D printing has well cemented its place in the design industry as a technique that is innovative, efficient, and economical. And it’s definitely making waves in all the areas of the design world – whether it be furniture, accessories, or even footwear! It’s a technique that is being widely utilized in product design, owing to its simple and innovative nature. And not to mention it is sustainable, flexible, and economical. But designers aren’t employing 3D printing only to create basic models, they’re utilizing this technique in mind-blowing ways as well. And, we’ve curated a collection of 3D-printed designs that truly explore the potential and versatility of this amazing technique. From an electric violin with a 3D-printed body to 3D-printed chairs that bring an element of sustainability + flexibility to your living room – the scope of this reliable technique is unlimited. Dive into this collection of humble yet innovative 3D-printed designs.

1. 3D-printed Seats

Designed by Johannes Steinbauer Office For Design, these 3D-printed chairs are produced using additive manufacturing and are created without using fabrics, springs, and foam! And they still manage to be super functional and comfortable. These chairs utilize rigid parts, instead of the typical racks from chairs.

Why is it noteworthy?

The design is simple enough with four legs, a round seat, and a single bar at the back. But if you want to add other components like more racks or even textiles, these can also be added through 3D printing. The different parts are easy to assemble and disassemble and once it reaches the end of life, you can dispose of the different parts separately and recycle them accordingly.

What we like

  • Super easy to assemble and disassemble
  • Sustainable design

What we dislike

  • No instruction on having a space saving version of this design

2. The Cozy Cleo Table Lamp

Based in Germany, the design studio EveryOtherDay designed a 3D-printed lamp called the Cozy Cleo table lamp. The table lamp was made using recycled plastic bottles and cardboard. This sustainable product perfectly exemplifies circular design, minimalistic design principles, and simple functionality.

Why is it noteworthy?

The Cleo table lamp is a holistically sustainable product defined by minimal aesthetics, clean lines, an intriguing geometric shape, and a captivating visual language.

What we like

  • Built using 3D-printed materials
  • Innovative attempt to tackle the excessive wastage of cardboard

What we dislike

  • No complaints!

3. Karen Ultralight Electric Violin

The Karen Ultralight Electric Violin isn’t the most interesting name for a musical instrument, but it’s definitely one that will grab your attention! Designed by Anima Design for Katahashi Instruments, the Karen Ultralight is a dynamic and innovative electric violin that features a rather eye-catching and unique form.

Why is it noteworthy?

The violin comes with a relatively hollow body made through generative design, which still provides strength with minimal use of material. The 3D-printed generative frame sits on a carbon fiber body, with a birchwood fingerboard for an elevated yet familiar playing experience. Working just like an electric guitar, the Karen Ultralight has a 1/4-inch jack output, but even sports an internal 9V battery and a headphone jack so you can ‘silently’ play music directly into your headphones without disturbing the neighbors!

What we like

  • Uses a popular design technique called generative design
  • A slot on the back lets you put in a 9V battery and plug your own headphones into the Karen, giving you the ability to play silently, right into your ear

What we dislike

  • Old-school music lovers may prefer the traditional guitar design

4. Create

Designed by Naya, Create is the keyboard that will ensure you don’t need additional peripherals on your desk! It is a highly customizable product designed to perfectly cater to every person’s individual self-expression. It eliminates the issue of a cluttered desk, which can often occur when you constantly need to switch between different peripherals.

Why is it noteworthy?

The split keyboard with the customizable form factor and various configurable modules onboard can seamlessly fit into any workflow. Thus, it intends to become a go-to option for casual keyboard enthusiasts and serious creative professionals.

What we like

  • The keyboard is split and customizable
  • The creator in you can leverage the convenience of 9 degrees of freedom with the 3D navigator

What we dislike

  • Some users may find Create more complex to operate than a conventional keyboard
  • Seems like a space-consuming design for your desk

5. The ADD-APT Pen

The ADD-APT pen looks nothing like the usual pens. Designed with a replaceable refill design that’ll let you hold on to it for ages, the ADD-APT is elegant, eye-catching, and innovative. And not to mention it’s also 3D-printed, which reduces the waste produced during the pen’s production process!

Why is it noteworthy?

The ADD-APT name comes from its unique design, which adapts to every user’s style. The pen’s artistic form factor has a unique teardrop-shaped cross-section that be ergonomically gripped by both left-handed and right-handed users (it even allows neutral and inverted-neutral holding styles), and the notched grip provides the right kind of texture needed to provide the reliable amount of friction without requiring a separate rubber/silicone sleeve for a grip.

What we like

  • Sustainable and waste-reducing design
  • Infinitely reusable nature

What we dislike

  • No complaints!

6. Tiny Furniture

Nicolas Gold trained with Zaha Hadid, before building ‘Sheyn’ with his partner Markus Schaffer. And the brand Sheyn focuses on creating “Tiny Furniture”. Tiny Furniture is homeware designed by architects! The homeware has been infused with an architect’s tendency to fuss and mull over “the tiniest details of furniture and fixtures”.

Why is it noteworthy?

The Tiny Architecture collection comes in a variety of fourteen different colors, with each variant made using a partly recycled material, that adds an element of uniqueness and individuality to them.

What we like

  • Created using a light and sturdy recyclable bioplastic made from corn
  • Nuanced yet loud designs

What we dislike

  • Caters to quite a niche audience

7. Hula

“Inspired by the ways in which lighting affects well-being, Felix Pottinger created Hula as an answer to the shrinking spaces inevitable to city living. The light that flows up through the top of the diffuser, creates an illusion of higher ceilings while the light that comes through the bottom brings a warm glow on any surface,” said Gantri, the maker of this intriguing lamp.

Why is it noteworthy?

The name Hula comes from the ring-shaped lampshade that rests around the lamp’s body, like a hula hoop around a person’s waist. The lamp’s design comes from the mind of German designer Felix Pöttinger, who’s developed his own unique style of combining form with emotion.

What we like

  • Comes in three interesting variants
  • Add their own distinct subtle flavor to any interior or tabletop surface

What we dislike

  • The form of the lamp is rather plain and simple

8. Weaver+

We|aver+ or Weaver+, for example, 3D prints something that is akin to knitted fabric, except it uses elastic TPU as the material. The shoes that it prints out actually look more like chainmail rather than conventional fabric, and it’s not without reason.

Why is it noteworthy?

The hollow-loose knitting structure gives the shoes the flexibility necessary for supporting the growing feet of children. At the same time, however, the shoe also offers stable support to make sure the heels don’t lose their suppleness in the long run.

What we like

  • Designed to feel great but also look distinctive
  • The design allows the shoes to stretch in one direction while also providing stability in the perpendicular direction

What we dislike

  • No complaints!

9. The Blizzfosser

Customized to each person’s interdental crevasses, the Blizzflosser is the brainchild of Chris Martin who has already made us fans with the weirdly productive toothbrush-sponge.

Why is it noteworthy?

The Blizzflosser comes with soft floss lined according to an individual’s denture. It is washable and reusable. The floss aligned on the contraption is thin to glide through into the gaps between the teeth and does not hurt the gums. Getting one of these tailored for you is simple; Blizzbrush sends a double-sided special paste tray to you that you bite into to leave about 5mm deep impressions of your upper and lower dentures. You then snap pictures of your production and send them to the company that based on the images customizes and 3D prints a complete denture flosser for you.

What we like

  • Replicates the manual flossing techniques

What we dislike

  • Not an easily portable or space-saving design

10. Mini Clutch Bags

These mini clutch bags are evidently inspired by organic patterns and structures, like something from underwater flora and fauna. Such designs are extremely difficult and expensive to produce using traditional methods.

Why is it noteworthy?

Ironically, it is more expensive and more wasteful if complicated designs like these are produced in small amounts. These kelp-inspired fashion accessories, however, are not only intricate but also sustainable, and they are made possible using yet another marvel of human ingenuity, the 3D printer.

What we like

  • The organic patterns are based on 3D scans of natural topologies from kelp collected from the Malibu coastline in California
  • The voids created by the patterns not only let you have a slight view of what’s inside the bag, but it also makes it more lightweight

What we dislike

  • No complaints!

The post Top 10 3D-printed designs that every sustainability lover needs to incorporate in their life first appeared on Yanko Design.

From Prototype to Reality: Here’s how a Hollywood Concept Designer used the Nexa3D Ultrafast 3D Resin Printer to create magic

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Can you remember a time before 3D printers? If you’re under 30, probably not. 3D printing’s seen quite an explosion since it debuted as a consumer-centric technology with the MakerBot back in 2009. While the technology has existed for a while before that too, the Cambrian explosion that occurred post-2009 made 3D printing an essential part of almost any industry you can think of – Design, engineering, architecture, medicine, aerospace, even concept art.

We’ve covered Nexa3D’s XiP Ultrafast Resin 3D Printer in great detail in the past, but today we get to talk to Rob Wiggins, a former Hollywood prop maker who’s worked on massive franchises like Marvel, Star Wars, and Transformers, and even as a contractor for toy and game company Hasbro. Rob now works with the Nexa3D team, helping them design, better, faster, and more efficient 3D printers that can be used by consumers, hobbyists, studios, and massive industries. He created the world’s largest 3D-printed chess set using the XiP, featuring a highly intricate collection of chess pieces that sit on a massive backlit chessboard. The interview highlights Rob’s career journey, his workflow, how he designed the chess set, and why the XiP may just be the most innovative 3D printer ever. Stick around till the end and you’ll even get to know how to improve your own 3D prints, and how to be a concept artist just like Rob!

Want to get your own 3D printed xRook to see what Rob’s (Nexa3D’s) 3D printers are capable of? Snag one here.

Yanko Design: Hey Rob, tell us a little bit about your background and how you came to pursue such an interesting career line!

Rob Wiggins: Grew up in NYC and was a commercial artist, taking any gig I could get. I’ve done paintings, playbills for musicals, comic book covers and fan art. My passion for fan art and pop culture landed me a freelance job working with Hasbro toys, which led to movie studio work and what I do today.

YD: Do you remember some of the most memorable projects you worked on? Anything iconic that we’ve all seen?

RW: I’ve been fortunate to work on many memorable projects. Probably the ones that have been seen the most were several Transformers films including the upcoming Transformers Rise of the Beasts this summer! Some of the unseen work was made for a couple Disney+ shows like last year’s Obi Wan Kenobi show.

YD:. I’m assuming prop-making for Hollywood requires a lot of modeling and 3D printing. What’s your usual workflow been? What sketching and CAD software do you use? Which 3D printer do you find the industry relying on most?

RW: With prop-making speed and efficiency is most important. So, 3D modeling and 3D printing is in a great place right now. Most times my workflow consists of 3D sculpting and 3D sketching with programs like Maya, Blender, or ZBrush right away, bypassing traditional sketching and painting. If and when the need arises to sketch or paint, Photoshop has been my go-to 2D software.

I don’t think the film industry relies on a specific 3D printer “most” in general. There are many 3D printing technologies from FDM to mSLA, and I’ve seen that most prop masters and design teams will use whatever they feel is right for the job at the time. Also, most teams will use whichever 3D printer and print tech (FDM / mSLA / SLS) they are familiar or most comfortable with.

YD: What’s working for Nexa3D been like? How different is the culture as compared to your past role?

RW: Working for Nexa3D has been F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C!!! It has been a dream to have access to such amazing technologies. From the unparalleled speed of Nexa3D’s print platforms to the incredible materials Nexa3D provides, to the freedom our CEO has entrusted me with as Head of Creative Services. I could not be happier with the Nexa3D team and culture here at Nexa3D!

The culture here at Nexa3D is very value-centric, in other words, we think about how our endeavors will add value to the end user experience. I’ve found that the culture here at Nexa3D embodies humility and graciousness. People here are very grateful and hardworking!
In Hollywood prop-making, people are definitely hardworking! However, the work can tend to be a bit thankless, and most times you won’t have as much creative freedom, considering you’re working on a pre-determined intellectual property.

The 3D-printed chess board on display at Formnext 2022

YD: We’re in absolute awe of the chess set you created! What was the process like? Did you have a theme in mind? Which software and printer did you use?

RW: Wow, thank you very much!!! The process was a lot of fun, since our CEO encouraged me to let loose creatively. One of my first projects for Nexa3D was creating the Nexarator prop helmet. Keeping that design in mind, the theme I tried to develop for our chess set was matching the detail and complexity of our xRook while helping to showcase some of our new resin materials that we have been eager to release.

The software I used was Maya, Blender and ZBrush. The printer I used almost exclusively was our XiP desktop printer. I also used our NXE 400 printer for some of the larger pieces like our King and Queen.

YD: How long did the entire printing process take? Was there post-processing required after the job was complete?

RW: Oh boy… The printing process was hefty. Considering it also included the 64 tiles of the chess board along with 32 chess pieces and their own multiple pieces/prints. Overall, it was over 100+ prints in 7 days, along with a week to post-process and paint all the pieces.

YD: What benefits do you see with the Nexa3D Ultrafast Resin Printer? Which sorts of products do you find it prototyping better than others? What industries do you recommend the printer for?

RW: I think Ultrafast says it all! Thinking about our chess set. There would be no way I could’ve completed that set in 2 weeks without Nexa3D! Completing a similar project would’ve taken a month or more even with multiple teams helping to print and post-process.

Nexa3D printing technology can be used in prototyping pretty much anything you can think of, with the limits really being your imagination; ok well maybe not printing food or cloth material 😊.

I’d recommend Nexa3D for any industry looking to seriously upgrade your prototyping workflow. Whether it is speed; in realizing your new upcoming or current product in the fastest time possible or bypassing the manufacturing process altogether. No matter what, Nexa3D will have a great solution for your industry.

YD: Do you have any trade secrets for how to get spectacular results from your printer every time? What features of the Nexa3D do you love the most?

RW: Print orientation is my best-kept secret. Knowing how or why to orient a part on the build platform can save you time or make your post-processing way easier. 3D print orientation can also help to minimize supports or enhance your parts’ mechanical/material properties. It all depends on what your project needs. I recommend that everyone take time to research, test and improve their 3D print orientation to find the best results for their project.

With Nexa3D I just LOVE the speed and resin material properties. The resin materials we use here at Nexa3D are the best I’ve ever worked with. Coming from creating a studio maquette that took days to print and was so very fragile, to printing something similar within work hours (6 – 8 hours) that withstood multiple drop tests on a hardwood floor, is like night and day!

YD: What are some other projects you’re currently working on?

RW: We’ve got some great projects just on the horizon here at Nexa3D. As with most parts of my professional work experience, I’m not allowed to talk about them until after the fact. But keep a close eye on Nexa3D’s social media outlets and I promise you’ll be among the first to know!

YD: I’m sure many of our readers will be interested in knowing more about your work and how they can become concept artists and prop-makers for Hollywood too! Any tips and secrets?

RW: It’s a very tough industry to break into. If you ever take the time to sit through the credits of most Hollywood productions, you’ll notice you see the same names over and over again in the producers, directors, art department leads, while at the same time you’ll notice new smaller studios (where work is outsourced) names frequently change. Producers, directors and art dept heads tend to stay the same, while a lot of work gets outsourced to smaller studios that bid for work. Your best bet is to build a body of work that will get you noticed and get that work in front of the right people. It’s an intricate balance, being a creative (concept designer/prop-maker) and also networking (sales) with others. But find your niche and be resilient when it comes to showing your work, taking feedback and improving from it. If you’re persistent and don’t give up, something will work out; look somebody greenlit Shark-nado!!

Want to get your own 3D printed xRook to see what Rob’s (Nexa3D’s) 3D printers are capable of? Snag one here.

The post From Prototype to Reality: Here’s how a Hollywood Concept Designer used the Nexa3D Ultrafast 3D Resin Printer to create magic first appeared on Yanko Design.

Don’t buy a 3D printer… Do this instead.

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Look around your house and tell me if you’ve got a printer at home. Yeah, your own printer. The 2D kind that takes sheets of A4 paper and spits out printed emails, docs, and tickets. No, right? A stunningly large percentage of people just don’t own their own printer because it’s so much easier to get a printout locally than to own the machine. Unless you’re required to print every day, you don’t need to own one… and that’s exactly the strategy that the folks at Xometry believe in. You shouldn’t need to own your own 3D printer either. On the off chance that you want to print a prototype of a product for a special project or client, or if you want to make a one-off design or gift for someone, you can just go to Xometry instead.

Click Here to Get an Instant Online Quote

Based out of Maryland and operating globally, Xometry has a network of over 10,000 CNC manufacturers, 3D printers, molders, and more. All you do is access their online dashboard and use their Instant Quoting Engine and you can choose from a variety of services, materials, and finish qualities. The dashboard instantly spits out a quote and a delivery timeline, saving you the hassle of worrying about printers, filaments, acetone baths, and all those extra steps associated with making prototypes.

Xometry’s unique global network and dashboard make it an Amazon of 3D prototyping. The company simplifies the prototyping process to a handful of steps and gives you exactly the kind of quality you need, going from basic single-color prints to even providing prints with as many as 600,000 colors (including those from Pantone, RAL, HEX, and CMYK libraries). Its PolyJet printers allow it to replicate a staggering variety of materials using 3D printing. Unlike extrusion or SLS printers which have their own limitations, PolyJet printing gives you micron-level control over textures, resulting in impeccable surfaces. Xometry’s PolyJet technologies also allow it to print in color, layer by layer. This makes it easy to replicate a whole catalog of materials, textures, and finishes. You can replicate woven fabrics, wood grain, and even elusive granite or marble finishes that are tricker than you’d think. While most 3D printers focus just on 3D forms, Xometry’s PolyJet printers dive deep into the details of replicating textures and colors too, giving you a prototype that looks rubbery, satinesque, glossy, or wood-finished, with different parts showcasing different materials. The best part? Xometry prints and ships the parts right to your door, often within days, making the process as smooth and convenient as ordering a part from an e-commerce website.

Xometry offers its services to a wide range of professionals, including designers, architects, automotive specialists, engineers, planners, artists, decorators, and culinary specialists. Their 3D printing services are even favored by larger companies like Bosch, BMW, Dell, General Electric, and NASA who use Xometry’s platform to quickly prototype ideas to perfection without investing heavily in 3D printing equipment. After all, unless you’re a hobbyist or a small business that 3D prints every single day, you shouldn’t need to own an expensive 3D printer… just the same way you shouldn’t need to own a car when you could just Uber instead. Visit Xometry’s website to upload your 3D models and get an instant quote today!

Click Here to Get an Instant Online Quote

The post Don’t buy a 3D printer… Do this instead. first appeared on Yanko Design.

These 3D printed chairs bring an element of flexible, sustainable options to your living room

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3D printing is bringing about a lot of innovations in various industries and that includes furniture design and manufacturing. While there are still a lot of things that need to be improved before we can actually go into mass or commercial production, we’re seeing a lot of new things not just in terms of design but also sustainability, flexibility, and even new features. It’s an exciting time to be experimenting with this technology and designers in particular are having fun with their creations and the production itself.

Designer: Johannes Steinbauer Office For Design

This new manufacturing technique from Oeschler brings about pretty interesting things to these 3D printed seats designed by Johannes Steinbauer Office For Design. Because of additive manufacturing, you can actually remove things like fabrics, springs, and foam and still get an actual chair that should be functional and still feel comfortable. To be able to get a stable piece of furniture, it uses rigid prints instead of the usual racks from chairs.

The design is simple enough with four legs, a round seat, and a single bar at the back. But if you want to add other components like more racks or even textiles, these can also be added through 3D printing. The different parts are easy to assemble and disassemble and once it reaches end of life, you can dispose of the different parts separately and recycle them accordingly. The fact that it is both sustainable and also easy to assemble adds to the appeal.

While it doesn’t look to be the most comfortable of chairs, at least from the photo perspective, there are a lot of things that can later on be improved and experimented on in terms of design and functionality. 3D printing for furniture is an interesting innovation for the industry and it’s exciting to see what designers and manufacturers will come up with in the next few years.

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XiP brings Nexa3D’s Ultrafast Industrial 3D Printing Technology to your Desktop

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Armed with a 4.8L resin vat and industrial-grade 9.3″ 4K Monochrome LCD that gives you incredibly crisp and fine details on your prints, XiP is an advanced ultrafast resin 3D printer that brings professional-grade 3D printing to designers and engineers, offering speeds 6x faster than SLA printers and more than 10x faster than filament 3D printers. XiP is built for professional designers and engineers, and packs Nexa3D’S industrial LSPc technology into a compact desktop package measuring 16.5 inches wide, 14 inches deep, and 21 inches tall. LSPc (Lubricant Sublayer Photocuring) was developed for Nexa’s NXE 400Pro industrial 3D printer and is a combination of industrial light engine and proprietary vat / membrane that allows for ultrafast 3D printing and exceedingly complex geometries without the need for excessive, hard-to-remove supports.

Designers: Nexa3D and Mocu Design

Use Coupon Code “YANKO500” to get $500 off!

A metric of any good resin printer is its light engine, but also its build quality. The XiP Desktop 3D Printer shows off its sturdy billet aluminum enclosure, complete with rigid parallel linear rails and a precision ball screw Z-axis platform that moves the build plate upwards as the resin cures. The resin sits in a large 4.8-liter vat with Nexa3D’s proprietary Everlast-2 membrane, right above a 9.3-inch 4K LCD with a 52 µm pixel size, giving you incredibly fine details. The build plate’s high-precision drivetrain also has it move as little as 0.002 inches at a time, giving you a 0.05mm layer thickness (which is fairly impressive for a 3D printer).

XiP’s highly precise printing capabilities are only further enhanced by its open materials platform, which allows XiP to work with a wide variety of resins. XiP’s makers, Nexa3D, have a growing network of material providers, the likes of Henkel, BASF, and Keystone, and the company develops its own in-house resins to aid various applications, including standard resins for rapid prototyping, model and splint resins for dentistry, biocompatible resins for medical applications, and even high modulus, durable, or elastomeric resins for specialized industrial use. The 20+ validated resins for XiP include three high-performance analogs of the thermoplastics ABS, PP, and PEEK. Each resin is packaged 1-liter recyclable aluminum smart cartridges that auto-fill resin throughout the print.

As advanced as its features and capabilities sound, XiP is first and foremost a user-friendly device. It comes with an easy-to-assemble internal architecture to let you load the resin of your choice and a 5.5-inch touchscreen display that guides you through the printing stages. XiP supports inputs using ethernet, USB, or even over WiFi, letting you send print commands even over your home network so you don’t need to have the printer in the same room as your computer. To maintain the integrity and quality of each print, XiP houses its own air purifier and filter that traps any dust that may otherwise get into the machine. Once your prints are ready, XiP’s wash and cure station lets you easily clean up your print with minimal mess.

Use Coupon Code “YANKO500” to get $500 off!

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This trekking backpack is the world’s first to ever incorporate a 3D-printed cushioning mesh

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In 2017, Adidas made waves by building the first shoe with a 3D-printed midsole. Oechsler’s Trekking Backpack is bringing that game-changing technology to a new domain. Bags and shoes have quite a few areas of overlap. They’re both designed to take on load, and are built for comfort… so it only makes sense that innovative tech in the footwear industry make its way to the backpack industry. It seems like that’s finally happening, with Oechsler’s Red Dot Design Concept Award-winning Trekking Backpack. Although rather simply named, the pack comes with a unique additively-printed TPU lattice structure that helps provide a cushioning surface between the bag’s back panel and the human carrying it. Designed to be ergonomic, lightweight, and use lesser material than an actual cushion, this unique detail uses a special Ultrasint® TPU01 material that “provides strong, flexible, and ultra-durable part performance while maintaining excellent surface quality”.

“Thanks to the design flexibility enabled by 3D printing, the back pads and hip fins can be produced in a single piece out of one material. This significantly reduces assembly steps, time and cost”, say the designers at Oechsler, a Germany-based polymer innovation company. “The printed part no longer requires gluing or sewing. Moreover, unprocessed powder gets fully reused in subsequent print jobs and printed parts are 100% recyclable at the end of their lifecycles.”

The Trekking Backpack is a winner of the Red Dot Design Concept Award for the year 2022.

Designer: OECHSLER AG

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Bring your creative designs to life with this fast and smooth 3D printer

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3D printers have definitely turned many industries on its head, providing access to production capabilities that are usually only reserved for big companies. These impressive machines have opened the doors to smaller players and individuals, allowing them to move from idea to finished product in days rather than weeks. When it comes to creating something in this fast-paced world, time is always of the essence, and there can be no second lost or wasted, even when it comes to producing prototypes. 3D printers already take the middle man out of the equation, but there’s definitely a lot of room for improvement. That’s where the Flashforge Guider 3 Plus comes in, offering a 3D printer that keeps you agile and responsive by 3D printing your ideas and designs in no time flat.

Designer: Zhejiang Flashforge 3D Technology

Click Here to Request Free Sample Printing

The first 3D printers already seemed like a miracle in their ability to make something appear almost out of thin air without requiring costly molds and large production lines. They seem less magical, however, when you start waiting for them to finish with their task, though it still manages to significantly reduce the waiting time compared to traditional manufacturing methods. That waiting period will still cost you time and money, which is why the Guider 3 Plus 3D printer delivers that much-needed speed boost without sacrificing quality, stability, and safety.

The 3D printer’s CoreXY structure can support high-speed printing at 250mm/s, a 50% speed increase compared to ordinary 3D printers. Despite that speed, however, the Guider 3 Plus still manages to keep the noise down to below 50db. More importantly, it also operates stably and smoothly even if you’re printing 24/7. With its speed, it can print a 29*27*43cm architectural model with an irregular shape in just 72 hours, halving the time it would usually take other 3D printers to finish.

Print results from different dimensions.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg, though, since the Flashforge Guider 3 Plus can do more and print bigger models. In fact, its ability to print models up to 350*350*600mm in size means it can meet the requirements of many prototyping models, not to mention finished products. Although it’s superb for prototyping, this 3D printer is also capable of producing models with quality surface finish, high level of detail, irregular shapes, and geometric accuracy. Its open material system also makes it compatible with different kinds of filaments from third-party brands, which means you can print almost anything you need for your next big project or product launch.

Flashforge also has a wide range of 3D printing solutions for different needs. The Guider 3, for example, is great for companies that need to produce small batches of products, while the Creator 4 is a large IIDEX 3D printer capable of building high-end application parts. If you have a small or medium-sized business, a personal studio, or a university lab, then the Guider 3 Plus’ agile and flexible features will be your bread and butter. Whether it’s prototyping a design for verification or printing finished parts or works of art, the Flashforge Guider 3 Plus ensures you will spend less time waiting and more time getting things done.

Click Here to Request Free Sample Printing

The post Bring your creative designs to life with this fast and smooth 3D printer first appeared on Yanko Design.

3D Printed Meat Is Coming to a Supermarket Near You

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3D printed meat: just the thought alone probably has your mouth watering right now. I know mine is, but I’ve eaten nothing but saltines for the better part of a week because I’m too lazy to go to the grocery store and too poor to order delivery. But enough about my stomach eating itself; food company Redefine Meat is hard at work making 3D-printed meat a reality.

Redefine Meat’s New-Meat product is supposed to be delicious, good for the environment, and kinder to animals. The last two are almost certainly the case considering it’s lab-grown and 3D printed, leaving only its deliciousness in question. Send some my way for a taste test! Just let me know when it’s supposed to arrive, so it doesn’t sit on my front porch for a week and start to rot (I always enter the house through the garage).

The first video, compared to the second, shows a drastic improvement in the technology already. If companies can nail the taste and price, I’m really curious to see how all this lab-grown pans out. Hopefully medium-rare, with a nice sear and topped with herb butter!

[via Reddit]

3D-printed clay air humidifier is created out of recycled ceramic powder, reducing waste

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There are a lot of air humidifiers in the market out there especially in the past couple of years when we had to spend a lot of time indoors and needed some extra humidity in our spaces. Most of these are electric and some are even smarter than others. But of course, it would be better if we could have something that is more sustainable and can be created using sustainable materials. There have been some experiments out there and this one is a 3D-printed, non-electric one that uses recycled industrial waste.

Designer: Jiaming Liu

This concept is called Print Clay Humidifier and can be created through 3D printing using recycled ceramic powder. This non-electric humidifier is made up of two main parts. The upper part is the one where water is absorbed and then it evaporates it. The lower part is where you pour and store the water and it is glazed on the outside. The structure was created in a way that you do not need to separate it and it can be printed in just one piece.

The main ingredient used for the 3D-printed clay is recycled ceramic powder with a ratio of 1:3. Not only is it able to shape the curve formations of the humidifier but it can also improve the water absorption, which is an important thing for this device. And after the life cycle of the humidifier is finished, you can use it as recycled clinker to create other 3D clay-printed products. This makes the product truly sustainable, from how you created it, what you used to create it, and how you dispose of it is one entire life cycle.

Depending on how small or large of a space you need the humidifier, you can use it individually or combine it with other Print Clay Humidifiers. Design-wise, it tries to mimic the shape of a regular humidifier but because of the material, there is more texture to it. The product render shows you can even use the top part as a vase or a pot in case you want to add a bit of color or decoration to the otherwise plain-looking device. I don’t know if you can add color to the material itself, in case you’re not a fan of clay’s natural color. Some may say that the shape and design is a bit phallic but hey, if it works as a humidifier, then so be it.

The post 3D-printed clay air humidifier is created out of recycled ceramic powder, reducing waste first appeared on Yanko Design.