This year the Open-Source and maker Community Hub, centered around RepRap 3D Printing has a great line-up of companies and individuals you would be very foolish to miss.
The show is on for two days starting September 30th at 9:30AM - to 17:00PM
The Main Open-Source RepRap Community Hub all of Stand J42
If you want to meet up with me or anyone else please come to the show and visit J42 and the surrounding stands, it always great to see people from the maker community, talk about projects, ideas and generally discuss 3D printing in all it's glory and spectacular failures.
RepRapPro Ltd. - Adrian Bowyer and the team are back with the new Fisher Delta printer, and many new RepRap updates.
Think3DPrint3D - New Duet Electronics revisions, Kossel mini Kits and a lot of 3D Printing knowledge
Semi-Utilitronic Industries is on the Hub with a rather nice version of my 3DR Delta printer design and lots more RepRap pares and advice.
ANDORNOT - will be back on the Hub with the finished Spatial One Delta printer - Andrew had the prototype on demo at the show last year, this time it's all ready for sale - Open-Source and very well built.
Shouting out a few companies close and around the community hub, sorry if I missed you off this post, (Just too many awesome companies to mention everyone) I do plan to visit every single exhibitor at the show to see what's new and interesting.
E3D (BigBox and LittleBox) - will be on stand J41 with what they tell me is the all new and improved BigBox 3D Printer design - looking forward to seeing the changes and print quality. Obviously all the great E3D hot-ends and materials will be on display and to buy during the show.
RepRapWorld is opposite the Community Hub, On stand J39 - Designers of the Megatronics electronics, and many other very cool things for RepRap 3D Printers - do give them a visit.
BCN3D Technologies is next on Stand J37 - you really do not want to miss the fantastic Sigma dual 3D Printer, it's just about the most impressive dual carriage printing FDM machine for the price you will see at the show.
Recreus and the Amazing FilaFlex materials are on H47 - I have been using a lot of FilaFlex recently, it's really great TPU material for 3D Printing. Steve wood of Gyrobot will also be demonstrating a rather fantastic program for auto-generation of custom Filaflex insoles. That's well worth a visit.
MatterHackers are at H42 InnoFil3D - H40 Rigid Ink - H38 We Do 3D Printing J35 Floreon J34 BQ - G42 Kuehling & Kuehling H32 - Probably one of the most business-ready capable FDM based 3D printers in recent years.
Mass Portal G30 - I was blown away in Berlin by this little Delta printer - it manages some of the finest looking prints I have ever seen.
Filament Print - H41 Cinter - G40 3D Print UK - G36 STRUCTUR 3D Printing - H36
Look out for many others scattered around the show -
3DFilaprint - C39 - Selling all manner of materials for 3D printers.
BuildTak - B22 - build platform sheets that really work well.
ColorFabb B36 - Some of the finest 3D printing filaments available.
German RepRap - E35 Hawk 3D Proto - H14 Markforged -G39 Mcor Technologies D14 Ultimaker J24
And so many more....
I am looking forward to see the Formlabs FORM 2 3D Printer - recently launched. Still quite a lot of money, but they are setting the bar for Desktop SLA based Resin printing in my opinion. Formlabs are on D44
Another interesting development in the SLA market will be Photocentricgroup, launching a new LCD based SLA printer (low cost) and offering both daylight and UV based resin formulations.
I'm imagining their LCD based printed just uses daylight resins, but I will find out more and update on this and anything else I discover.
Hope you can visit us at the Community Hub, looking forward to another two days of highly interesting discussions with all of you.
I'll have more updates (and Intro video) on the new OpenSLA project too. Please join and contribute to the Google+ Community over here.
The 3D Printshow in London had a rather fantastic mix of everything this year.
I spent three days up at the show, met lots of great people and took far too many photo's.
Kerry and the team running the 3D Printshow have such an immense job, it's almost impossible for anyone who just visits to see what goes into a show like this. Ultimate respect for the team, and next year with an even more ambitious schedule all around the world, it's going to be even more work. They are recruiting if anyone wants to take on the challenge !
I made a short but fast video & slideshow to show some of the great parts of the London 3D Printshow 2014 - I hope it gives you a taste of the way both the consumer and professional 3D Printing industry is progressing. The 3D Printshow team is off to Paris again, very soon.
I would also strongly recommend viewing it directly on YouTube as it's in HD - direct link here.
Along with the 3D Printshow team, I need to say such a big thank you to the team at Fabbaloo, who made my time at the show so much fun. We were all on the Knowledge bar stand with a mission to help anyone that asked us anything at all about 3D Printing (or anything else for that matter) - we had some really great questions and discussions this year.
One thing that's really clear this year was that people from all walks of life have figured out that 3D Printing can and will help them in one form or another. The media hype is dying down and I only had two conversations about 3D Printed guns this time!
Many questions last year started with, how does it work? what can it do? or what can it make? This year most of them started along the lines of I work in X industry and we want to use 3D Printing to help us do X, what do I need to know? - that's always a good sign that things are moving along.
Another really great signal is that lots of people wanted to know how to get involved in the '3D Printing industry', many of these were school age or about to go into further education. It's obviously not all that clear what skills you need for a career in 3D Printing. And to to be honest, as things evolve and 3D Printing takes on more avenues in various industries. Maybe it'll start to look more like an enabling tool rather than a specific industry anyway.
So many good things happened at the show, lots of great people and companies with missions and goals, shaping this industry into something really very special.
When I got home and the dust had settled, one company really stayed in my mind. They are using 3D Printing and other technology for further education and learning, with our next generation of creative minds - the kids.
But not only that. It involves parents and a wider net of influencers to show with creative technology, education can be fun and rewarding, on so many levels. That company is I can make - I would encourage anyone to take a look at what they are doing and get involved or spread the word.
Accurate sections of London Bridge - show mechanisms and construction to assist with learning and exploring the real world.
It's going to be really interesting to see where I can make takes this. If the education system responds well and also parents get involved I can see a very bright future. Very best wishes from me, and I'll do whatever I can to help.
Collaboration -
Not all that much new technology was in force at the show this year, it was very hard to find even a single delta printer at the whole show. Yes, some new low-cost SLS machines were around. But what was happening was a clear joining of forces between companies who have been around for a little while and are starting to figure out what it's going to take to succeed in this consumer landscape.
Fuel3D and Ultimaker announced a cooperation to bundle the Fuel3D scanner with the Ultimaker 2.
Colorfabb and Eastman have joined forces and seem to be planning to take over the world :)
3D Hubs are working with a lot of people and are experts in sharing and cooperation for mutual benefit.
Lots of other things are also going or are about to happen, but I can't tell you about them at this time, sorry. It's certainly an exciting time for the industry and we have even more thrilling times ahead.
Services -
We have always had 3D Printing services, and this year was no exception, what was more 'on-show' was a strong focus to provide more as a service. Se we still have actual 3D printing by the likes of Shapeways and i.Materialise, But many more now are offering design services, verification and a whole host of 'cloud 3D printing' - many who didn't even seem able to explain what it was they were offering. "it's cloud based" was all I got from one. I didn't ask any more.
One great UK company (with real people who care and are not up in a cloud) who has always gone that extra mile for the client is 3D Print UK if you are not already aware of them, do take a look.
3D Hubs was swarming with people for the entire show, I only managed to get to talkto them on the last day. They featured local hubs who got a chance to talk directly with the very people who they work remotely for through the Hubs network. They also announced a $4.5M funding deal to make 3D Hubs the only real choice for networked printing on the planet. Many others are now trying to get into this area. I must have had five or six different start-ups talk to me about a 3D Hubs like network of users, One even claimed to have the world's biggest network. Then re-stated we hope to have the biggest, one day. Getting people on your 'platform' is going to be a hot focus over the next year.
Art and fashion -
Was in full force at the show. This year the organisers had hundreds of budding hopefuls apply, and they had to turn down most of them for not making the grade. It seems Artistic use of 3D Printing is now a solid form in it's own right. Fashion is still trying to work within the limits and it's doing a very good job indeed.
There was far too many fantastic works to put down here (watch the video above) - but here are a few that I was drawn too.
One of my favourites at the show was the 3Doodler dress by SHIGO - Yes, I know it's not '3D Printed' get over it, it's awesome !
Francois Veraart had a stunning piece on show - Dutch masters of dance, it's great fun and wonderful to look at.
Another one that struck a chord with me was the stunning work by Shane Hope - these pieces have so many features and detail, it's unlike anything you have seen before. It brings a whole new dimension to artwork and although I myself have done some simple 'melted Art works' before this was something else, something spectacular.
It was a real pleasure to meet Shane and talk about his ideas for future work, I'm sure you will see a lot more of Shane's work to come.
Photo's and even video do not do it justice, it's just the sort of thing you need to see in person, study, explore and feel the creation of each piece.
PussyKrew was another example of stunning computer imagery brought to life with 3D printing and lots of hard work - these prints used Ultimaker printers and hand finishing to great effect.
I just realised I want to add about another 30 more, but that's going to make this post massive, so watch the video for more amazing works.
One I can't leave out is the fantastic model of Big Ben by Mark Durbin (AKA MakeALot), Printed on Ultimaker and Delta Tower printers with Colorfabb materials. More of the scale and design in the video above.
Another personal achievement was listening and meeting Enrico Dini of D-shape (the man who prints houses) he is an inspiration for me and it was a joy to see his work and hear his story fist hand.
Other than houses, one of the things D-shape prints are these fantastic Artificial reef modules in real stone (dolomite), once in place fish and marine life take to them. 3D Printing is the only real way to make such complex structures like this.
And last but not least - What was the general Hype level?
Quite low really... Thankfully.
The only thing that really grated on me was that all Makerbot staff had t-shirts on with the following "I CAN MAKE ANYTHING" - Any of you who were at my presentation on the Saturday of the show, would have heard my response. Hype and misleading marketing is generally not a good thing in my view. We have all worked hard to get across a realistic view of what current 3D Printing can do for people, and that's a lot already.
And I'll leave you with something not to do with 3D printing. I didn't add to the video, but has a deeper meaning to me and many more -
Here we have some stunning images of the 888,246 poppies around the Tower of London moat to commemorate and represent all the British Military Personnel who died in the first World War, which broke out 100 years ago. The last poppy will be planted on 11th November.
Every single poppy is made in ceramic and is hand planted in the grounds, it's breathtaking.
So far it's been a summer of festivals and exciting 3D printer developments, lots of new machines announced and more people than ever, openly working to make technology for this great industry. Lots of other things to also report on as soon as I get a chance - here is a taster of things to come -
3DR - A 3D printed RepRap Delta printer, much more on this shortly - (see above)
Experimentation with Laybrick -' it's a bit like printing with stale chewing gum' but a very interesting material (and also finally Laywood too)
Better mixing of multiple materials and many more colours - (method show above is using a base colour, in this case white and many feeds of colour, mixing in a single nozzle)
Trials with PVA. (using some exciting new printers)
Nylon 645 Printing
Taulman Nylon 645 (both colour and natural printing - it's a more clear material so very nice for light pipes!)
Stainless steel hot-end experiments - more updates soon.
And here's the Really BIG News!
A rather exciting RepRap community announcement -
If you remember last year - I reported on the TCT show looking through 'makers' eyes, upset a few people, (not the intention) but it also helped make a lot more positive progress with all the the others and even the Show organisers. I also reported on the show in 2011, if you want to see how things are starting to evolve. After last year, the TCT Show asked me to get more involved with trying to make this an event for both the established additive manufacturing suppliers and the wider maker, developer, designer community.
In association with the RepRap Magazine I'm pleased to announce that in partnership with the TCT Magazine and Personalize we have organised a very exciting opportunity for the whole RepRap community.
In September this year the TCT magazine has its annual Additive manufacturing and 3D printing show at the NEC in Birmingham (UK) The TCTShow is in its 18th year and attracts big names from the industry, businesses and individual makers from all over the world.
The Show has an exciting exhibitor list and in recent years has embraced the Maker and RepRap communities with the Personalize sections of the show and the fantastic bright minds initiative. This attracted many maker based companies including Ultimaker, Makerbot, Leapfrog, Electrobloom and MiiCraft along with many other open source and proprietary developers to last year’s event.
This year the TCT Show and Personalize have further collaborated with the RepRap and maker community, providing a significant and dedicated space for the two days of the exhibition.
This space will be a dedicated RepRap community hub, where makers, designers and developers from all over the world can come and talk about RepRap and all the many aspects of 3D Printing. We can share our passions and developments, 3D printing experiences and ideas with each other and visitors to the show. I'm even more excited to announce that joining the RepRap Magazine on this RepRap community hub will be the Inventor and father of all things RepRap, Dr Adrian Bowyer. I'm still rather stunned this is happening, and I hope you are just as excited. Joining Adrian on our stand will be the RepRapPro Ltd. Team, they plan to have a complete RepRap production facility to fully demonstrate the self-replicating nature of this great project. The RepRapPro Ltd. team are all highly accomplished developers and designers in the RepRap community and will be showcasing their unique Tricolour Mendel and Huxley printers along with offering advice and discussion about RepRap and 3D printing for the whole community. And, yes there's more... Also set-up on our community hub will be the ever amazing Faberdashery Team, who will also be expertly on hand to offer advice about materials, 3D printing and all things colourful and Maker related.
We have a considerable space for use at the show - RepRap HubStand G54 - please see the master floorplan for the entire show space.
This is a globally recognised event and a great opportunity to get involved and spread the RepRap mission. And on that note here is where we need your help -
I'm attempting to coordinate efforts in the UK and need to hear from anyone that wishes to sponsor or contribute in making this a really fantastic hub for the RepRap community.
We have a lot to do and are looking for, individuals and companies who want to help make this a great resource for the RepRap community.
And if you can operate a 3D printer, or would like to print some awesome things for the event, please get in contact at the e-mail address below.
This will be what you help make it, so please do get in contact for more information and if you can assist or even just to let us know you are going to visit the show, we want to hear from you – let’s make this a RepRap meeting event to remember.
For further information about the show, please go to the TCT Show website
If you would like to help out in any way with the event, or just want to show support, please e-mail us - and I will get back in contact - tctshow@reprapmagazine.com
Please do also take a look at the great work being done for the Bright minds program, a really great part of the two day show designed to get children into 3D printing, design and innovation. The fact that the TCT show are backing this Bright minds program is one of the main reasons I'm giving my time to help make this show something good for the community I hope you will want to do the same.
In other news - Makerbot got sold to Stratasys today - So much has already been written about this today, I don't want to add to the noise, but I can highly recommend reading this by Joris Peels and Al Dean's spot-on take of events here. :)
I don’t
normally do wider 3D printing industry news on this Blog as it’s a technical
resource, but quite a few big things have happened over the last few weeks,
that have made many people look in a slightly different light on the whole 3D printing
industry. (Makerbot's decision to close source is discussed below)
I visited the TCT Liveshow at the NEC in the UK this week.
Todd Grimm opened the show with his presentation of where the 3D printing and Additive manufacturing industry is in it's life-cycle in a nutshell, "we are not yet ready for consumers using 3D printers"
I had an
interesting & mixed experience at this years TCT show – Quite a different
one from last year, let me explain –
So last
year I visited TCT in a professional capacity with suit, shirt and tie, this
year I decided to go along as a Maker – Jeans and a Woolly Jumper – general
enthusiast to see what reception I would get from all these many (different
sized) companies looking to sell machines for the next desktop industrial
revolution to the ‘general public’
I’m calling
my dress code the ‘maker test’ would I get any attention at all from these companies?, I’m sad to say
generally most of the companies failed, ignoring me for people in suits that
actually had very little interest in their product offerings.
Last year,
only Bits from Bytes and A1 technology were representing the lower-end market
sector and entry level machines.
This year
was very different.
The A1
technology stand was empty; they didn’t turn up on Day 1.
3D Systems - Cube -
My very
first stop was on the 3D systems stand, just by accident, but the Cube was on
display at the front of the stand with the Cathy Lewis guarding the Cube
printer.
(Cathy
lewis is the 3D systems representative in the Cnet video shown lower down in this post, in an
interview with Makerbot on the Replicator at CES2012)
The Cube
was trying to print, but unfortunately very badly, the drive mechanism looked
like it was partially blocked resulting in terrible surface quality with lots
of little holes and pips where variable extrusion was occurring. It was also
printing very slowly and at one set speed (I estimate about 20mm/Sec), with
only slightly faster travel speeds.
What is it doing with that bridge? and why is the surface quality so bad. And why has it wasted Raft material on sections with nothing on them! - Poor software!
I stood
looking at the Cube for many minutes, many other people in suits asked the same
things time and time over, how much is it “$1300” says Cathy, do you have a
brochure, “no, sorry we don’t” – How much are the cartridges “$50 each, and they
can print about 10 of these” – pointing to a 1.5” high chess piece.
Finally,
after everyone else had gone I said to Cathy it was nice to see a big company
doing a reasonably low cost machine “yes, some people think we are crazy”.
I asked if
she likes the printed cases (pointing to a number of Raspberry Pi cases
scattered around the Cube printer) – “yes they are wonderful, people really
like them”
Do you know
who designed it? I ask, no says Cathy, Well I had a hand in it’s design, really
says Cathy, not really believing me. How did we get hold of it then asks Cathy...
Well, you
would have got it from Thingiverse, I said. At this point Cathy’s face says it
all, she looks really uncomfortable and clearly wants to stop talking to me as
soon as possible. We then briefly discussed what a Raspberry Pi actually was,
Cathy had no interest whatsoever, and I was left wondering how they were going
to sell and support this machine to the general user and enthusiast?
In many ways it was
worth going to the show just to see her face, in that moment and short conversation.
Makerbot
had the Replicator V1 at the show, I didn’t see it actually printing anything
all day, everyone else had running machines.
If you want to be a Makerbot Distributer, the Minimum order quantity is 10 machines and for that they will give you 25% discount, Makerbot has two resellers in the UK, and they were very keen to sign up more on these terms.
I was
fortunate enough to be standing on the Makerbot stand when Todd Grimm asked the
Senior American Makerbot Sales representative a few interesting questions, the
response coloured by recent events and the Replicator 2
launch.
Todd asked
about the Replicator 2, what makes this machine a pro grade (prosumer) machine
and how is it different from Version1?
Makerbot –
It’s now 100micron layer resolution and we have tightly controlled PLA printing
materials that deviate less than 100micron in size.
This
machine is PLA only, we have removed the heated bed so users can get printing
faster and we have a simple 3 point levelling system.
It’s also a
single extruder system only.
I was
thinking – That’s a lot to remove, why is it then so much more expensive than a
Replicator V1? And can’t a Replicator V1 do 100micron? It should be able?
When pushed
on the reason it was now a Pro machine, the support staff were talked up as the
main reason for Makerbot being different at the lower-end machines –
Thingiverse was also mentioned a lot in the conversations and is obviously very
important for them -
Makerbot –
“Some people will not like that we have gone closed source, but they all use
Thingiverse whether they like it or not, we have the biggest community”
The
discussion continued, I moved on.
Sadly, they
also failed the Maker test; I was reasonably ignored every time I went on their
stand. I didn’t pick up a Makerbot sticker… Where would I put it now?
Maketbot
are obviously seeing a change on Thingiverse, they are trying to focus on the
Terms of Service questions that also sparked up debate and fractures in the
community along with the bigger issue of going closed source – They even have their Lawyer trying to explain that ‘everything will be ok’ Trust us.
Can people
in the community trust a company that changes one of its most fundamental founding
principal’s?
Will
Makerbot’s new Pro-sumer customer appear, and will 3D Systems now be free to take
the entry level sector with the Cube? Do any of us now really care?
It’s never
a dull moment with 3D printing.
Remembering back - On
3Dprinting.com the blog post in Jan2012 stated this about the video below –
“This is a great
interview that shows the development in the personal 3D printer market and the
differences between the open-source product of MakerBot and the closed-source
product of 3D Systems.”
I
do now wonder how different 3D systems and Makerbot will look in Jan2013 at the
next CES?
If it's consumers or pro-sumers they are after then maybe the closed source 3D printer war has now started, while the open source community just marches on regardless, I hope Makerbot does not regret it's decision.
Also look
out for the comment about the Replicator case looking wooden, I bet they was
the point Replicator V2 got a metal overcoat!
Here are some really great things I spotted at the Show -
3D printed Mug - Bits From Bytes had a separate bigger stand (last year just a corner of 3D systems) I spotted Ian Adkins and Ed Sells (Sells Mendel) walking around; they were doing a lot of research by the looks of things.
Another one from BFB, they ignored me and so failed the 'Maker test' this time around.
There was a lot of 3D scanners at the show, this chap with the beard was being 3D scanned with a hand-held unit.
This is a Prop for a Film printed with a Voxeljet 3D printer - they can print 4m x 2m objects!
Voxeljet printers are used by Car companies to make massive prototype parts.
Propshop model-makers Ltd - Passed the 'Maker test' with flying colours, he even showed me some secret new massive 3D printed models for a new film coming out on his iPad.
Another Voxeljet print
Ultimaker -
Yea! Ultimaker! - Always had their machines running all day! - They had the busiest stand out of almost everyone, including many of the really big names.
Very friendly people and amazing quality things on display, thanks Ultimaker you made my Day!
I also met Paul Candler on the Ultimaker stand, he has made some of the finest profiles for Netfabb. Ultimaker users are enjoying resolutions down to 20microns!
Needless to say Ultimaker passed my Maker test.
Leapfrog -
It's big, slow printing and looks like a BFB printer with a metal overcoat. I could not find out much more about it as they didn't talk to me :(
Fabbster -
Fabbster have a Closed source printer (Sintermask) that operates in a similar to most RepRaps, it has no heated bed at the moment and uses Rafts for prints. Quality is reasonable.
They have a patented stick deposit system, this is basically Injection moulded plastic sticks of material that are loaded into a magazine and snap together as they exit into a PTFE tube onto it's way to the extruder.
They have many materials including a flexible (soft PLA style) that was very nice to handle.
The machine is big and well built. They were very nice at the show and passionate about people using their printers and materials. They passed the Maker test and we chatted for some time about the machine.
MiiCraft -
I ended up with a very bad photo of the Miicraft printer, so I'll just show some of the printed objects.
Very nice people and happy to tell and show you everything about their resin based 3D printer.
Ships from Taiwan, UV resin is quite expensive, machine is $2200 but the results were stunning! - Very good, Maker test - pass
PP3Dp -
The PP3Dp printers are looking a little old now, but still performing well, if not a little slow to print.
Didn't talk much, they were not really communicating with the people showing interest.
They had some free samples of screw-pots and a few different machines. Maker test - Poor (D-)
Mcor -
Inside an Mcor 3D printer (not really a printer, it cuts models out of sheets of office paper)
They are all paper. I'm not sure it that's a good thing or not. They must be selling machines? and I expect they will do well in the movie industry, props, and animation maybe even some product design etc. but I can't quite see a good use as functional models and certainly not with consumers.
Very friendly and animated about their machines and low-cost process. Maker test - Pass
Lots of other companies were at the show, some interesting, others looking very dated. Most of the others ignored me.
