Objective3D | BLOG

The power of a physical model is the tangible communication of your idea to collaborators, stakeholders, and clients. A 3D printed concept model is your vision made real, evoking excitement and facilitating feedback.  Geoff Stuart the owner of Brandname Properties , a packaging design agency based out of Sydney, approached Objective3D Direct Manufacturing with a new advanced design for a sports shoe that he had designed and patented. The goal was to create a a new shoe with a unique sole which has been designed to reduce ankle injuries common in many sports. Geoff’s new design was very unique, and he wanted to 3D print his shoe with the fabric, colours and sole design all reproduced so he can take this project to boardroom table discussions with potential investors. Geoff’s biggest challenge was the high cost in producing shoes in small prototype runs just to get samples to take to potential investors where minimum orders are required as well as the need to make multiple sizes...

Today, a majority of consumer products and production parts are made from thermoplastics. Thermoplastics are typically used in manufacturing techniques like injection molding, compression molding and machining, but with the invention of 3D printing, they became available for additive extrusion and sintering processes. A new door to advanced manufacturing has opened with 3D printing materials similar to the conventional thermoplastics familiar to engineers and designers. Thermoplastics are plastic materials, or polymers, that become pliable when heated to a specific temperature and solidify upon cooling. Types of thermoplastics include acrylic, ABS, Nylon, PLA, polycarbonate (PC), polyethylene and other specialty, high performance materials. If your part requires strength, rigidity or high temperature tolerance, then thermoplastics are a great option to fabricate your production component or prototype. Using 3D printing, engineers can make parts with the most commonly used thermoplastic...

Leverage the benefits of the Smart Factory Stratasys recently announced a new program to integrate its 3D printers in production environments with the factory floor via the GrabCAD® Software Development Kit (SDK). Each SDK package includes a complete set of application programming interfaces, documentation, and code samples that enable development partners and manufacturing customers to establish two-way connectivity between Stratasys FDM® 3D printers and enterprise software applications. The program gives customers the power to integrate, manage, and support additive manufacturing for production of end-use parts. “Additive manufacturing enables almost anything to be manufactured almost anywhere quickly, and that is the kind of agility our customers need in a world of supply chain disruption” Stratasys has previously introduced support for MTConnect , an industry-standard protocol that enables customers to communicate factory data. However, while good for collecting execution data, t...

The award-winning, stop-motion animation creators at LAIKA make no secret that the thousands of faces used in each film are 3D printed. Animators of such films as “Coraline” and “ParaNorman,” “The Boxtrolls” and “Kubo and the Two Strings,” have counted on the additive technology to provide naturalistic facial animation for the stop-motion puppets that give the films their distinct look and feel. “The idea was to harness the power of the computer and these emerging 3D printing technologies to try to push facial performance, or push a character’s performance into a whole new realm,” said Brian McLean, director of rapid prototype at LAIKA. For more than a decade, the additive technology has been a creative mainstay at LAIKA, ever-evolving with LAIKA’s increasingly ambitious artistic vision and rapid advancements in 3D printing and software. “It’s really kind of an insane process that we’re doing, where we’re taking 3D printing and we’re fusing it with this really old t...

3D Printing is about digital disruption in manufacturing, doing things faster, better, cheaper and leaner. This is the promise that 3D Printing makes, and it's the premise that 3D Printing is built on. It's about customisation, it's about meeting demand as needed, when needed and where needed. The days of any colour you want as long as it is black have gone. It is no longer only about optimising your production line to make the same things faster and cheaper. It is about designing your supply chain to meet the particular needs of the individual consumer or unique business. Businesses used to design products and processes around Personas, groups of people or businesses with similar needs and behaviors. With the advent of big data, this is no longer the case as we can now drill down to the unique needs of just one consumer or one business. 3D Printing provides the ability for companies to use all that information and all that digital knowledge to create a product or a serie...

MU Form Furniture Design is an Oakland-based company that designs, manufactures and distributes furniture products for the modern home and business. The company is never short of orders since good and original design is sought after by architects and interior designers. The main material MU Form works with is high-quality bent ply, which is one of the most widely used materials in this industry due to its ability to create a variety of shapes for chairs, stools, and tables. The company’s specialists seek to create great designs that pose a challenge for other manufacturers to copy or replicate. The V Dining Chair in red and grey, designed by MU Form’s Po Shun Leong. “Our designers are tasked to develop furniture designs that require a significant amount of trial and error by developing physical prototypes of chairs and stools,” says Mark Leong, CEO of MU Form. To produce a new original piece of furniture, MU Form would normally ship a physical prototype model to a factory ...

AMTIL has established a new Additive Manufacturing Hub in partnership with the Victorian State Government, to help connect Victorian businesses with breakthrough additive manufacturing (AM) technology. The AM Hub was officially launched on 3 September at the headquarters of Objective 3D in Carrum Downs, in an event attended by Minister for Industry and Employment Ben Carroll and Sonya Kilkenny, the local member for Carrum. The AM Hub will be delivered by AMTIL, and supported by $1.85m from the Victorian Government. “3D printing is a game changer for manufacturing, which is why we’re backing the technology so more local companies can reap the benefits,” said Minister Carroll. “This new Hub will help local manufacturers innovate, become more productive and excel in future industries.” AM is a breakthrough technology for advanced manufacturing, helping businesses design and make new high-value products that are not possible using traditional methods. Capability in this fo...

When it comes to leveraging the power of additive manufacturing, commonly known as 3D printing (3DP), having a versatile family of 3D printers to choose from is essential, but making the most out of what they can do is what really matters. 3D printing has always been a perfect fit for rapid prototyping and will continue to serve this application very well. But the real beauty of 3D printing is that it removes the constraints associated with traditional manufacturing, providing a blank canvas upon which creative minds can develop new applications. To help expand your knowledge of the potential of 3D printing technology, we address six manufacturing applications typically associated with traditional production techniques. Objective3D is hosting a series of Professional 3D Printing and 3D Scanning Workshops  in October and November 2018 where you can learn how to identify and fully leverage the benefits of 3D Printing technologies.  Use 3D Printed Jigs and Fixtures fo...

Objective3D, the leading provider of Stratasys and Desktop Metal 3D Printers has today announced the appointment of Arron Jack as the new Technical Services Manager. Arron, a highly experienced technician will be working with the Objective3D technical services team to empower its customers by more efficient usage of their Professional 3D Printers as well as to strengthen Objective3D’s drive and growth for greater market share in both Australia and New Zealand. Arron is well known to product designers and manufacturers across Australia and New Zealand having spent almost two decades in a variety of technical roles in the 3D printing industry, the most recent with Fuji Xerox Australia. Objective3d Managing Director, Matt Minio, said: “We’re very pleased to have Arron join our team. Arron’s technical experience spans the wide range of 3d printing technologies including Stratasys FDM and PolyJet. “After sales service and support for professional 3D printers are critical. Arron ...

Like so many businesses, your company is exploring 3D printing and additive manufacturing. Maybe you have the perfect design, and the innate benefits of 3D printing has caught the attention of your team. But while the benefits may be clear, operational costs and implementation may not be. Perhaps your company has considered buying a 3D printer, but aren’t sure about the costs involved and technological expertise needed. Then the question occurs, would it be better to buy a printer or outsource our 3D printing needs? These internal debates have existed for years in the manufacturing realm and especially the 3D printing arena. Fortunately, the field has expanded in such a way that owning a printer and outsourcing don’t always have to be mutually exclusive. Below we’ve highlighted four important considerations when thinking through these options: 1. Advanced Equipment and Materials Prototypes are just a percentage of the parts produced in major 3D printing services bureaus...