Objective3D | BLOG

Will 3D printing revolutionise manufacturing? By Peter Day With the creation of many products, including building materials, now possible at the touch of a button, will 3D printing sound the death knell for mass production? In a way there is nothing new about 3D printing. For several decades it has been called "rapid prototyping": a quick way of making one-off items from fused plastic or metal powder, using expensive computer-controlled lasers that are at the heart of the "printers". But now 3D printing is coming into its own, and is being taken seriously as a manufacturing process by very big corporations. Read the entire article here .

Well Done Joss ! It is a credit to this innovative Australian Company that their Supercar features in this month's issue of Top Gear. The prototype of the JP1 was on display at this year's Melbourne Motor Show, as showcased in a story by Performance Drive (July 2, 2011). Now Top Gear are giving this Aussie Supercar it's due credit. RapidPro proudly built the wind tunnel prototype which featured alongside the full size vehicle at the 2011 Melbourne Motor Show. The wind tunnel model was built using RedEye Australasia's Australian FDM Build Centre. The model was made from ABS-M30, with a sparse fill interior. This ensured minimum cost for maximum return. The ABS-M30 prototype was then finished by JOSS to look like the full sized Super Car. The total size of the completed prototype was 1000x400x300mm. It was built in six parts which were then chemically welded to ensure accuracy and strength for the extremes of wind testing. To read more about JOSS visit their website , an...

Check out this 3D printer which uses the Sahara sun instead of a laser! Markus Kayser's "Solar Sinter" is a working 3-D printer that uses the sun's rays to sinter solid objects of out desert sand. Markus Kayser - Solar Sinter Project from Markus Kayser on Vimeo . "In this experiment, sunlight and sand are used as raw energy and material to produce glass objects using a 3-D printing process that combines natural energy and material with high-tech production technology," he writes. Sintering is a technical term for "melting powder into solid objects," and selective laser sintering is a common 3-D printing technique. Kayser realized that the world's most powerful laser is right above our heads, and to conduct his experiment at maximum sintering strength, he dragged his rig out into the Sahara Desert near Siwa, Egypt, and got to work. The results aren't going to win any industrial design awards: the sintered sand congeals in craggy layers tha...

From an impressive line-up, Curve has highlighted just a few of the twenty-eight Gold IDEA winners for 2011. To view the winners click here: Curve Online Here's one that stood out to us: Poetree by Margaux Ruyant, from the DSK ISD School of Design in Pune, India, won Gold in the student category. So what is it? Well, ashes are placed in the Poetree urn and covered with soil. The family takes the urn home, or to a desired location and plants a tree in it. The tree and urn are planted, and over time all that is left is the ceramic top and tree, a living, permanent memorial to your loved one. Well done Margaux, it is a wonderful, thoughtful idea with an environmental edge.

In a recent article on imaterialise , a FDM printed modular coffee table was featured. The Module, designed by celebrated designers WertelOberfell–Platform is printed in one piece on a Stratasys FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) Maxum machine. The coffee table is based on fractal growth patterns in trees and designed specifically to minimize waste. Individual Module coffee tables can be intertwined in order to get just the size of table you need. To watch the build click on the link below. The machine used in the video is the Stratasys FDM Maxum, one of the largest 3D printers in existence with a build volume of 600 x 500 x 600 mm. Redeye Australasia has a Maxum on the premises and can make large scale prototypes in a single piece within Australia, reducing waiting time for parts to a maximum of a few days. The Stratasys 900MC in RedEye's American Build Centre is capable of building prototypes as large as 914 x 610 x 914 mm and can supply them direct to Australia through the Australa...

The promise of 3D printing has finally taken off with the development of a drone that takes just a week to create. The plane parts took just two days to design and a further five days to print, making "Sulsa" as it is called, a one-week plane. And customising future variants of this ready made design would take only minutes on automated design software, says Jim Scanlan of the University of Southampton. Describing the Sulsa's maiden flight, Scanlan said, "We have witnessed some technomagic today. It's very hard to believe this aircraft was just a pile of dust last Friday." Read the whole story at New Scientist .

We recently stumbled across this project on a Slovenian 3D prototyping website. 3Dt.si had built a model of the Soraya 46, a luxury cruiser, for a boat show. Their pictorial story accurately highlights the benefits of ZCorp plaster composites as form models and the amazing finishes that can be achieved. Take a look below. 1. The Cad Drawing 2. The ZCorp Plaster model in two parts 3. The completed model proior to painting and finishing 4. The Finished model ready for the show. Well done 3DT.si. This story really showcases teh strength sof ZCorp plaster 3D printing for models, architectural building and any other project where clients woudl like to see what the finished item will look like. To see if 3D plaster printing is suitable for your next project, call RapidPro on 1300 559 454.

We would like to congratulate Adam Weaver from Convert Studio's, one of our valued client's, for making it into the top 15 finalists in this year’s Launch Pad 2011 Design Awards. His Tip Stool design (pictured) will be judged alongside 14 other worthy products next week, with the winner to be announmced during a VIP night in Sydney. Launch Pad is an Australian Design programme which helps emerging designers get their name out to both national and international audiences. Click on the following link to view the finalists online. You can view the finalists in person at Saturday in Design , August 19 and 20. For more details click here . Congrats Adam - we will have our fingers crossed!

Check out this video. It is a 3D printed ZCorp skateboard that is solid enough to be used as a functional prototype. As you watch this, remember - this is made from plaster! RapidPro also uses ZCorp printers to create rapid prototypes in plaster composites. They can be printed in full colour, up to a build size of 380 x 250 x 200 mm in a single build or larger when built in pieces. Plaster is the most cost effective prototyping available, so call to see if it may be suitable for your next project.

Outerspace are celebrating industry recognition at the AIDA last Friday night. In the Housing & Building Category, the Desert Eco Adapt Advanced urinal cartridge won a Good Design™ accolade for its broad compatibility and ease-of-use. The Quest duō also won a Good Design™ accolade in the Business & Technology category for its unique versatility. The Outerspace Packaging Division was excited that the Golden Circle juice bottle for Heinz won both a Design Award™ in the Consumer category and a place in the Powerhouse Museum collection. Products were assessed by an international panel on form, function, quality, safety and sustainability. RapidPro is proud to work alongside Outerspace during the prototyping phase of their projects. For more information on Outerspace design visit their website at: www.outerspacedesign.com.

Whilst this is not a service RapidPro currently offers, it would be nice. Check out this article that recently appeared on Mashable and The Age online . British taxpayers will no doubt be tickled to know that the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the UK government’s leading funding agency for research and training in engineering and the physical sciences, has produced this video about chocolate printing. As the scientists explain, consumers who download a piece of software will easily be able to sketch the kind of chocolate they’d like to make. Then they can send the 3D CAD file to a machine in a local shop and pick up their chocolate 10 minutes later. Of course, as we all know, printing doesn’t always go as smoothly as advertised. And a jam in this case could be especially messy. It's quirky, but clever!

This is an article to interesting to miss. Manufacturing, 3D Printing and What China Knows About the Emerging American Century by Mark P Mills Read the story by clicking this link FORBES . So what do you think? Email us your comments at: enquiries@rapidpro.com.au

Anno is an online design competition for students with dreams as vast as their talent, and for the industry heavy-hitters looking for the next generation of superstars. The competition and showcase encompasses the disciplines of advertising, architecture, fashion design, graphic design, illustration, industrial design and photography. Anno is open to anyone currently studying and graduates from 2010 - 2011 in any of these categories at a tertiary level. Work is voted on each month with the Top 25 in each category being showcased for ongoing industry and public viewing. RapidPro's own Jesse Leeworthy is in the runnning again to be showcased in this year's book with his innovative Chair - Vitis, which is an exploration into the philosophy of sustainable growth and evolution by up-cycling waste into a usable form and function. Vitis is constructed of discarded newspaper, steel and fiberglass. To vote for Jesse visit Anno Here .

On Friday July 22 the winner of the Australian International Design Awards will be announced, but don't wait until then to check out the finalists. Get online now and take a look at the projects and designers who are in the running for the top prize. Over the years we have worked on many prototypes that ultimately end up as products in the AIDA, and with many of the designers involved with this years awards. We would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone the best of luck. Check out this years finalists click here .

On a recent trip to the USA, RapidPro was fortunate to meet up with Dan Mishek, Managing Director of Vista Tek, an American based Rapid Prototyping and Tooling business, and get a tour of the facility. Dan Mishek is a huge advocate for advanced prototyping technologies and company automation. Below is a recent article published on pddnet.com about his companies move from SLA to Objet (Polyjet) printing. The Myth of The Gold Standard: Making the leap from SLA From 1900 to 1971, U.S. currency was based on the gold standard, meaning the U.S. treasury literally held enough gold in reserve to act as collateral for all the nation’s cash. When Nixon lifted the gold standard in 1971, many predicted a financial apocalypse that never came. Nixon and the Fed [Federal Reserve] educated the financial community about the false necessity of the gold standard and the markets quickly adjusted to a new reality. Similarly, rapid prototyping service bureaus have relied on stereolithography (SLA) machines ...

According to The Age Drive and an article by Barry Park , we are again set to export our Commodore Ute to the US. The article is as follows: US website rallies to GM's Twitter call of 'If you ask for an El Camino ute, we'll do it'. An off-the-cuff quip from General Motors' newly appointed chief marketing officer could be just the thing to help Holden's cause to sell the Commodore ute in the US. Joel Ewanick, who made the jump from Hyundai to the US car maker late last year, recently joined the social networking service Twitter. He soon started interacting with Chevrolet fans, with many of them asking for the car maker to re-introduce a vehicle based on a cross between a truck (ute) and a car. In response to one passionate request for a new-age El Camino, Ewanick wrote: ''Well, we need you and 100,000 more of your best friends.'' Advertisement: Story continues below That was enough for US motoring website Jalopnik, which is now on a campaign to co...

Zbrush has taken the design industry by storm. A digital sculpting and painting program, Zbrush has revolutionized the 3D industry with its powerful features and intuitive workflows. Used by animators, studios, artists and designers, a 3D model is easily created on screen. However, these can also be built, or printed, using rapid prototyping technology. Building a physical 3D model is different to creating a 3D image on screen. On screen it doesn't matter if parts do not actually touch. When building a physical model, this is paramount. All items must touch, they must be able to be physically built and weighted to stand (if necessary). An excllent article about this can be found at Zbrushcentral.com Josh Harker, in an article at Zbrush Central, suggests 10 key factors when using Zbrush to create models for 3D printing: 1. Avoid extreme “wrinkles” in your mesh that overlap into a mess of polygons. Your surface does not need to be smooth but take care not to compromise the skin into ...

RapidPro and RedEye Australasia have just had Daryl Baumgartner, a service engineer from Stratasys, to our build centre to service all the FDM machines. This major service is part of our Quality Control Program. We feel very fortunate to have had someone of Daryl's calibre to our build centre because not only does he work for Stratasys in the United States, he actually wrote the service manual! Try FDM for your next prototyping project and rest assured your project is being built by professionally serviced and maintained machines operating at their optimal capacity.

Additive Manufacture (AM), also referred to as 3D printing, is now playing an ever increasing role in a range of industries such as aerospace, automotive, medical and defence because of the many benefits if offers compared to traditional subtractive technologies. The 1st Pacific Additive Manufacturing Forum (PAMF) aims to bring together industry professionals, engineers, researchers, and equipment and material suppliers to hear the latest developments and trends in Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology from international speakers and local industry players. The one-day Forum in Melbourne will serve as the opening for half day presentations in Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane from 8 to 15 June 2011 organised in partnership with the Defence Materials Technology Centre. Registrations and information: http://www.pamf.org.au/

RapidPro now accepts online payment of invoices via credit card to make paying invoices even easier. To process a credit card payment via PayPal, simple click on the contacts and fill in the details under the PayPal link. The payment will be securely processed via PayPal. Of course, you can still call us direct if you would prefer to process a payment over the phone by calling 1300 559 454.