3D printing moves beyond industry

The Materialise Group, based in Belgium, has one such division – MGX – which is specifically for designer-led rapid manufacturing.

Sofie Jacobs, sales and marketing manager at MGX, says the division does two things: offer 3D printing designers who want to create something as a one-off project, and hires designers to add to an in-house collection of lighting which demonstrates what the technology can achieve.

The in-house lighting collection has attracted worldwide attention and examples are currently displayed in the Centre Pompidou in Paris, New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and at the Victoria & Albert (V&A) in London. Prices for the lights – which are made in epoxy or powdered nylon – range from €140 to €3,500.

Peter Jansen is a sculptor who started using Materialise’s services several years ago when the company when they asked him to create some lighting designs.

Jansen then used Materialise when creating pieces in polyamide and epoxy resin for his ‘Strange Attractors’ collection, which is based on mathematical formulas from chaos theory.

He says 3D printing offers artists techniques that are impossible to achieve with traditional sculpting methods, as well as being “less time consuming and less dirty”.

However, other companies, such as the Netherlands-based Shapeways, are letting any old member of the public – people without any training in plastics or design - to get their hands on this technology.

Shapeways, which launched in Q2 2008, allows customers to upload a design that the company manufactures using additive manufacturing technology.

Manager Rian Gemei told European Plastics News that 90% of the content on the Shapeways website is about customer led design. The cost depends on the material for used, and prices start at $1.50 (€1) per cubic centimetre.

The company wants to make “personal production available for everybody”, so offers guidance in the form of tutorials and blogs. If users have no 3D modelling skills, they can make use of a co-creator platform, where they can personalise pre-designed objects or get help from a designer, says Gemei.

Another company that is targeting consumers is Digital Forming, which launched in the UK this year.

Lisa Harouni, one of the founders of the company, says the concept, as with Shapeways, is all about co-design.

“The software doesn’t allow customer total freedom, meaning he or she won’t ruin the design,” she says. “They won’t be able to design an egg cup that can’t hold an egg, or a lemon squeezer that won’t squeeze lemons, for example.”

Interested customers simply go to the company’s website, find the software and indicate which design then want. They can then look at the product in 3D – spin it and turn it – and even emboss or decorate the product, says Lisa.

“Most other printing services use CAD file format and SPL files, and most people find these hard to understand,” says Lisa.

Digital Forming is so confident its technology will take off that earlier this year it organised a special exhibition at the Science Museum in London. At ‘Create and Make – Print in 3D’, museum goers were invited to play with software which allowed them to design household objects such as lemon squeezers.

One inventor has taken the customer-led design concept even further, as Dr Adrian Bowyer, a senior lecturer at the University of Bath, has created the RepRap, a rapid prototyping machine.

Unlike other models on the market, the RepRap can create its own parts – it is self replicating.

“We created it because we thought everyone should have access to this kind of technology,” says Bowyer. “In fact, we hope that RepRap’s users will adapt and improve the machine’s design.”

The machine currently prints about 55% of itself, excluding nuts and bolts, but everything it doesn’t print is “available easily and cheaply”, he adds.

A new model out soon will also be able to print multiple materials, for example it will be able to print a hard plastic box with silicone hinges.

So while no-one is claiming that 3D printing technology is perfect – cost is still a factor, as is the limited variety of materials that can be used – those in the business agree that in a few years we are all likely to have a 3D printer on our desks.

Jacobs, for one, can see a very definite future for customer led design.

“One of the reasons we started the MGX business was because we had a vision of 3D files being like MP3 files,” she says. “Everyone would have their own printer and use a 3D file to make the object at home.”

Materialise is currently working on a “very secret” project in this area, the details of which will be released a later date, she says.

Harouni from Digital Forming agrees, saying: “3D printers have been evolving since 1986 – soon everyone will have one on their desk, perhaps as soon as in 10 to 15 years. For example, someone who needs more cutlery because guests have unexpectedly come to dinner will be able to print them.”

One of the lamps on display at the 3D Printing exhibition at London's Science Museum earlier this year