This Week in 3D Printing

Week of 8/172015

This Week’s Contents

! In the News ! Research Insight of the Week ! 3D Prints of the Week

In the NewsSummary and Analysis of Headlines around 3D Printing

3D Printing Batteries to Power our Digital Lives

In the ever present quest to develop new batteries capable of powering our digital lives, Professor Craig Banks, Associate Dean for Research and Professor in Electrochemical Nanotechnology at Manchester Metropolitan University has worked tirelessly over the past three and a half years to develop a desktop printer capable of creating batteries, supercapacitors and energy storage devices to power using graphene ink. Graphene was discovered at the University of Manchester in 2004, and is 200 times stronger than steel and a highly efficient conductor of heat and energy. Banks and his team naturally incorporated the material seeking to create an optimized 3D structure designed to increase the amount of power storage a battery is capable of holding. While promising, Banks says there is still some details to iron out before there is a seamless ‘Plug n’ Go’ experience with 3D printing batteries.

Source(s): 3Ders.org

Medical Team Develops 30 Cent 3D Printed Stethoscope for Developing World A emergency physician currently working in the Gaza strip has created a stethoscope using a 3D printer that cost only 30 cents, and is just as effective in practice as a professional device. Tarek Loubani sought to change the lives of his patients, and was inspired by his nephew’s stethoscope toy. Loubani brought together a number of experts in the medical profession and worked to develop the design used today at a total cost of $10,000. The effort has led to an open source medical hardware initiative called the Gila Project, who’s goal is to produce and release high quality free/open medical hardware to increase availability to those who need it.

Source(s): 3Ders.org

New 3D Printing filament May Transform the World of Lighting and Filters

VIVASA Design, a company headquartered in the Czech Republic and founded by Ondrej Vinter, has developed a new 3D printing material called Eco3D filament that may transform the world of lighting and filters. Vinter and his team sought initially to improve light distribution via 3D printed materials. They developed the new material for FDM printers based on PLA is known as a light diffusion filament composed of biodegradable additives. When used in signs, Eco3D is beneficial as it evenly and smoothly distributes light in a proper LED setup, and when used in electronics requiring filters, the 3D material can be used as filters for diffusion. Essentially the team has developed a filament that displays an outstanding rate between the light transmittance, diffusivity, and mechanical endurance in relation to transmittance.

Source(s): 3DPrint.com

Student Creates Heart Monitor Using 3D Printing 17 year old Fank Nguyen has developed a 3D printed heart rate alert monitoring device, called HelpWear HeartWatch, to help people around the world monitor their lives. Nguyen was inspired to create the device when his mother, Lan Nguyen, health began to decline. The device contains two microcontrollers, eight gigabytes of memory, and a messaging system which utilizes both cellular networks and GPS driven by two rechargeable lithium ion batteries. The unit uses a small green which flashes against the wearers skin, which is then reflected back to a censor that uses a algorithm to determine a patient's heart rate using changes in voltage that the censor receives. Nguyen has developed a way for the device to alert 911 when a user’s heart rate falls outside a preset range. Source(s): 3DPrint.com

Parents 3D Print Five Prosthetic Hands for 8 Year Old

When their son Luke was born with developing symbrachydactyly, a congenital abnormality of the hand, Gregg and Sam Dennison decided to personally find a solution to make Luke’s life easier. Due to the condition, prosthetics are generally not available. The Dennison’s worked with e-NABLE, an organization that works to join groups of volunteers to 3D print and assemble historic amounts of 3D printed items and prosthetics ,to obtain design files so they could customize to print five prosthetics using their own 3D printer. By using 3D printing, the Cincinnati, Ohio couple can design any customized size, design and color Luke can imagine, expanding and increasing his quality of life.

Source(s): 3DPrint.com

NASA Developing 3D Drone Capable of Space Flight

NASA is moving to expand the ability and usefulness of 3D printing aboard the International Space Station through 3D printed robot drones capable of further exploring space. Researchers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida have announced a ‘Asteroid Prospector Flyer’ Drone which comes in just under 5-foot wide, and has the potential for autonomous flight based upon a particular deployment plan. This reduces the need for dedicated pilots and expands the area scientist will safely be able to research.

Source(s): 3Ders.org

Researchers Announced Ability to 3D Print with Silicone

Germany’s Wacker Chemie, one of the world’s largest manufacturers and suppliers of silicone for a wide variety of applications, has turned to additive manufacturing to develop a process to 3D print with silicone. The company has announced that they have developed a new process that does not require the traditional use of molds to create custom silicone products. Instead they focused on those creating prototypes, enabling rapid and flexible modification on a small series to meet demands, where tiny droplets from a nozzle are placed by a robot arm side-by-side to build up a silicone object layer-by-layer, solidified by a UV light flashed upon the material.

Source(s): 3Ders.org

3D Printed Breadboards Expand Electronic Prototypes

Les Hall turned to 3D printing to create a electronic breadboard. Breadboard is the name given to the construction base used when prototyping electronics, and device gets it’s name from the history use of actual kitchen bread boards as the base for a variety of projects. The board itself is typically laden with tubes, wires and a variety of censors. By 3D printing a breadboard, Hall is able to customize the size and scope of his electronic prototypes, even printing using graphene filament to expand into a new territory of electronic creations. The best part is that anyone is capable of printing Hall’s design and begin their own electronic tinkering. Source(s): 3DPrint.com

8-Year-Old Uses 3D Printing To Create Child Development Kit

8 –year-old Omkar Govil-Nair recently showcased his 3D printed O Watch, dubbed as ‘the first programmable watch for kids developed by a kid.’ The O Watch is an Arduino-powered watch, with a 3D printed housing that features a number of apps and uses for kids ranging from time-telling to a compass or thermometer, as well as a variety of games. Omkar wanted to create something that would help other kids his age start using 3D printing and electronic programing. Just another amazing example of the potential 3D printing and ingenuity have to expanding the minds of our future generations.

Source(s): 3DPrint.com

3D Print Custom Rubber Bands

The limit to builders imagination seems almost limitless. A instructables user, “icecats,” has found a novel but powerful use for NinjaFlex flexible filament, the rubber band. Using Autodesk Inventor, IceCats was able to create a 3D model of a perfect rubber band. Once printed, the rubber band is flexible enough to hold together a variety of items, and strong enough not to break while doing so. This novel use of an existing filament and traditional modeling software showcases the potential breadth of projects 3D printing can help tackle.

Source(s): 3DPrint.com

Research Insight of the WeekQuantifying the 3D Printing Landscape

In a recent survey of more than 100 industrial manufactures,

two-thirds were already using 3D printing in some aspect

of their product line.

Source: PwC, 2015

3D Prints of the WeekShowcasing some of the most interesting applications of 3D Printing, from the amusing to the artistic to the innovative

Endangered Formosan Black Bear

! Taiwanese artist Amao Chen has developed two 3D printable designs of adorable Formosan Black Bear and Rhino that carries an important message about endangered species.

! The Formosan Black Bear only lives in Taiwan, and due to the growth of the island has been placed on the endangered species list.

! Someone can find the design for the animals online, and print the cube-like design for construction.

3D Printed NASA Mars Curiosity Rover

! NASA has released free 3D printable files of the Curiosity Mars Rover.

! The file includes intricate designs of every aspect of the Curiosity Rover, from the wheels to the body itself.

! Those interested can download the necessary files directly from NASA’s website, but it is advised to set a considerable amount of time aside for trial and error in printing.