The Ekocycle printer will be available from Cubify for $1,200 later this year, and will use filament cartridges that contain at least three recycled 20 oz. PET plastic bottles, but the material still retains the flexibility and durability of standard 3D printer filament.

Unfortunately, because Will.i.am is the Chief Creative Officer of 3DSystems, which has designed the printer, the recycled filament material will only be available in a "curated" color palette of red, black, white, and natural. Limiting, but it’s a safe assumption that other colors will eventually be made available.

But if you can’t wait, remember that Coca-Cola has already come up with a clever way to recycle its bottles that’s far more useful than yet another iPhone case. [3D Systems via designboom]

Photos by designboom

Source: Gizmodo.com

The product just launched on Kickstarter and has surpassed its goal of $30,000. The extruder itself should work on most major 3D printers including RepRap machines and Makerbots. The extruder itself attaches to the standard extruder tip of the printer and then you have to set the specifications for various substances, including the aforementioned Nutella.

The extruder costs $249 for early birds and uses disposable syringes to hold the pastes. Rubber tubing carries to paste to the machine which is then pushed out like the standard plastic filament normally used by these printers.

Created by Charles Mire, John Mardlin, and Andrew Finkle of Waterloo, Ontario, the product is a reaction to the dearth of usable paste extruders. “Paste printing is a difficult problem. Many attempts at an affordable paste extruder have been made previously,” they write. “By focusing on reinventing only the parts of the printer that are involved with the delivery and extrusion of the material means that we’re able to move faster, and develop a better product.”

The product will ship in October.

Source: Techcrunch.com

The company behind the project is called Biozoon Smoothfood. It’s using liquified ingredients—vegetables, carbs, meat, etc.—in the place of the ink or PLA that a 3D printer would normally use. Ingredients are inserted into the cartridges of the printer, and with the help of a binding agent, they come out as food that pretty much melts in your mouth. For now they’re making six foods: cauliflower, peas, chicken, pork, potatoes, and pasta. But more food is on the menu for the future.

The food can come out in whatever shape the software of the program has dictated. Remember, this is 3D printing we’re talking about, so the user is afforded a lot of freedom. However, Biozoon is making food items in their shapes, so it’s not much of a break from what these elderly people would probably prefer to be eating in the first place. (Read: regular food or a normal consistency).

Right now the food is made off-site, and sent to homes. But the goal is that eventually, Biozoon will be able to place printers directly in the homes. Many elderly people really need this, as they suffer from dysphagia, a condition that often plagues stroke victims, causes trouble swallowing, and could result in choking. And if 3D printing makes it so your dear grandmother never has to eat pureed beets again, we all win.

Source: Gizmodo.com

The 60-page, advert-free publication explores advances in 3D printing across a range of topics including fashion, food, design, architecture and even weaponry and archaeology.

Written by the Dezeen editorial team, Print Shift is the result of extensive research into a field of technology that is developing at exhilarating speed. We have spoken to architects, designers, scientists and researchers around the world, travelled across Europe and visited some of the leading studios and factories at the cutting edge of a technological revolution.

Source: Www.blurb.co.uk

Images above and top by Albert Sanchez.

Designed by Schmidt and generated by Bitonti, the floor-length nylon gown was made using selective laser sintering (SLS), where material is built up in layers from plastic powder fused together with a laser.

The rigid plastic components are fully articulated to create a netted structure that allows for movement. Spirals based on the Golden Ratio were applied to a computer rendering of Von Teese’s body so the garment fits her exactly.

Draped over a nude silk corset, the black-lacquered dress is cinched in at the waist and exaggerated at the shoulders, and embellished with 12,000 Swarovski crystals.

It was unveiled during an event at the Ace Hotel in New York earlier this week, as part of a showcase of products organised by 3D printing marketplace Shapeways, who printed the dress and were also behind the 3D-printed bikini we showed a couple of years ago.

Other 3D-printed fashion we’ve featured includes Iris van Herpen’s outfits shown at Paris Fashion Week. Recently 3D printing has also been used for a road-ready car design and studs for American football boots.

Photos are by Jeff Meltz unless otherwise stated.

For the first time anywhere, a work of fashion conceived and engineered in powdered nylon by the revolutionary process of 3D printing can move like a textile. On Monday evening, March 4, 2013, style icon Dita Von Teese will appear at Ace Hotel New York as a futuristic vision of the femme fatale in a gown fully realized and rendered by computers—and one that moves with all the sensuality and fluidity of its wearer. Neither pen and paper, nor needle and thread were used by designer Michael Schmidt and his high-tech collaborator Shapeways.

This groundbreaking flexible “fabric” printed straight from a computer was the result of countless hours between Mr. Schmidt and the highly expert talents of architect Francis Bitonti. “Francis was able to take my sketches for the dress, which I created specifically for Dita, and render those in the specialized language of the software,” says Mr. Schmidt. “The fluidity of the joints is all 3D-printed, layer upon layer of fine powdered nylon within the preheated chamber, based on information by the CAD file. The laser ‘sinters’ the nylon into form, a process known as select laser sintering, or SLS. It’s an articulated fabric built into the 3D print itself. It’s something that’s never been done. What Francis and Shapeways have achieved here is truly remarkable.”

That motility engineered into the sintered nylon is what sets this example of design apart from the innovative work by fashion designers who have been exploring 3D printing. Mr. Schmidt was able to realise fluidity with the very powdered nylon that has long been the hallmark of modeling by architects and industrial designers.

Forward-thinking science intersects with beauty classicism in this historic dress. “It all comes down to mathematics,” Mr. Schmidt notes, “beauty realized through mathematics.” His template was the Golden Ratio theory by 13th century theorist Fibonacci, whose formula for beauty continues to be applied by artists and scientists alike. At the core of the theory is that the spiral exists throughout nature, from a human ear to the pinecone to the galaxy.

Mr. Schmidt, in conjunction with Mr. Bitonti, applied the spiral formula to the computer rendering of the dress, in a mesh that would undulate around the body in the most feminine way possible. For this reason, Mr. Schmidt tapped longtime friend and muse Dita Von Teese, whom he deems as the consummate classical beauty. While the shape was built over a nude silk corset, most of the architecture of the silhouette, from the voluminous shoulders to the cinched waist, is the result of the hardened nylon powder. The floor-length gown moves and expands according to Ms. Von Teese’s body contours because of the netting pattern.

The printer produced 17 sections that were then hand-linked together into the dress. (Much of Mr. Schmidt’s work in sterling mesh and other materials over the years involves this time-consuming rocess.) The 3D-printed dress was then painstakingly polished and lacquered black, and then 12,000 black Swarovski crystals were hand applied to give the overall effect that finishing touch of uber glamour.

This project is featured in Print Shift, a print-on-demand magazine by Dezeen with publishers Blurb about how 3D printing is changing everything in architecture, design, fashion, food, medicine and more.

Source: Www.dezeen.com

3D printing remains a nascent market, despite high levels of hype around the technology’s potential – such as, most recently, news that astronauts will be using a 3D printer in space next year. The hype may be a little overblown but there’s no doubting the technology’s trajectory. Enter analyst Gartner with a new report, which predicts worldwide shipments of sub-$100,000 3D printers will grow 49% this year, to reach a total of 56,507 units.

That rate of growth is forecast to rise to 75% in 2014, fuelling shipments of 98,065 units. It’s the first time Gartner has put together a forecast for the sub-$100,000 3D printer market so that’s something of a rite of passage for the technology too.

“The 3D printer market has reached its inflection point,” said Pete Basiliere, research director at Gartner, in a statement. “While still a nascent market, with hype outpacing the technical realities, the speed of development and rise in buyer interest are pressing hardware, software and service providers to offer easier-to-use tools and materials that produce consistently high-quality results.”

“As the products rapidly mature, organisations will increasingly exploit 3D printing’s potential in their laboratory, product development and manufacturing operations,” he added. “In the next 18 months, we foresee consumers moving from being curious about the technology to finding reasons to justify purchases as price points, applications and functionality become more attractive.”

The analyst expects the price of 3D printers to be driven down by competitive pressures and higher shipment volumes over the next several years, helped by increasing numbers of large multinational retailers selling 3D printers through their physical and online stores. By 2015 it’s predicting seven of the 50 largest multinational retailers will do so.

“Office superstore Staples is already in the market, and other superstores and consumer goods retailers, such as Yamada Denki, are prime candidates to sell printers and finished 3D printed items. Their presence in the market will have an impact on average selling prices, forcing providers into low-margin sales of consumer 3DP by 2017,” Basiliere added.

Combined end-user spending on 3D printers is predicted to hit $412 million this year, up 43% from spending of $288 million in 2012. While the analyst expects spending to increase 62% next year, reaching $669 million. Gartner’s forecast shows enterprises continuing to dominate 3D printer purchases over the next few years, with enterprises spending more than $325 million in 2013 vs $87 million in the consumer segment; and $536 million in 2014 vs consumer spending of $133 million.

Gartner noted that current enterprise uses of 3D technology focus on “one-off or small-run models for product design and industrial prototyping, jigs and fixtures used in manufacturing processes and mass customisation of finished goods”. But as advances in 3D printers, scanners, design tools and materials reduce the cost and complexity of creating 3D printed items, it said applications of 3D printing technology will expand further – drawing in other areas such as “architecture, defence, medical products and jewellery design”.

The analyst expects 3D printers to have the biggest impact on industries, including consumer products, industrial and manufacturing, and a “medium impact” on construction, education, energy, government, medical products, military, retail, telecommunications, transportation and utilities. Low impact industries include banking and financial services and insurance.

“Most businesses are only now beginning to fully comprehend all of the ways in which a 3DP can be cost-effectively used in their organisations, from prototyping and product development to fixtures and moulds that are used to manufacture or assemble an item to drive finished goods,” said Basiliere.

And while earlier buyers of 3D printers will continue to be makers and hobbyists, rather than average consumers, Gartner reckons the former group will contribute to the development of a 3D printing ‘killer app’ – some form of “plug and play” tool – that will be key to driving consumer sales in future.  ”We expect that a compelling consumer application – something that can only be created at home on a 3D printer – will hit the scene by 2016," Basiliere added.

Source: Techcrunch.com