Friday, March 28, 2014

Harvard Researchers Print Functional Heart Tissue


In a report delivered to the American Chemical Society, Harvard researchers state they’ve created a printed tissue that mimics natural heart muscle – working in a petri dish and when implanted in animals.


One of the biggest problems facing patients with heart damage is the fact that the organ’s tissues can’t be easily replaced. Often times a heart attack victims’ only option for treatment is dangerous organ implant surgery.


In an effort to provide cardiac patients with more options, a team of physicians and researchers from the University of Sydney, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Harvard Medical School have developed a new 3D printed artificial cardiac tissue that can be used to repair damaged hearts.


“Our hearts are more than just a pile of cells,” said Ali Khademhosseini, a Ph.D. at Harvard Medical School. “They’re very organized in their architecture.”


Read more at ENGINEERING.com




by Site Admin via Fabbaloo

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

City X Project Establishes First Regional Partner in Singapore

Guest Posting by Matthew Straub, Communications Director of the City X Project



We at the City X Project – a 3D printing and design thinking workshop for kids sponsored by 3D Systems – are quite excited to announce that we’ve established our first regional partner in the city-state of Singapore. Our parent organization, IDEAco, now recognizes the educational development organization Clanworks as Singapore’s regional for-profit partner for bringing the City X Project curriculum in Singapore.


The City X Project design thinking toolkit for teachers will still be absolutely free for educators around the world. Our partnership with Clanworks is part of a broader initiative to professionally train regional partners around the world on the ins and outs of teaching 8-12 year-old kids design thinking and creative problem solving in the context of our story-based curriculum.


When members of our team travel to train a regional partner, we’re able to go far beyond explaining the goals and ideas behind the City X Project in person. We’re able to relay teaching tips, share details about our experiences, answer questions, and, of course, facilitate or provide feedback on a workshop locally. This enables our partners to continue to facilitate the City X Project workshop locally, whether for profit or not. As an ever-improving workshop, it also allows us to test and collect feedback of our curriculum in a greater variety of educational, geographic, and cultural contexts.


This approach to licensing the curriculum around the United States and abroad is an avenue to empower as many kids as possible with the tools and processes necessary to make, solve problems, and get their hands on 3D modeling and 3D printing technologies.


We couldn’t be happier to have local representation in Southeast Asia. We want to reach and empower as many kids as possible with 3D printing and lessons in creative problem solving. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you’d like to learn more about licensing the City X Project locally and becoming a certified regional partner!




by Saskia via Cubify

Friday, March 21, 2014

SLM Solutions Set for an IPO?


Germany’s SLM Solutions has hired Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse to prepare a potential initial public stock offering.


With the hype surrounding 3D printing higher than it’s ever been, SLM could potentially dive into a market with few publicly traded competitors and a glut of shareholders clamoring for entry into the lucrative additive manufacturing market.


Unlike 3D printing giants Stratasys and 3D Systems, SLM Solutions uses a selective laser melting technology to create objects from a metal powder. Because their technology relies on more durable materials, SLM looks to be a player in the automotive, aerospace and durable goods market.


Read more at ENGINEERING.com




by Site Admin via Fabbaloo

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Win a Free 3D Printed Flexible Bag

kipling bag overview.jpg

Conventional bag-maker Kipling has done the unconventional: created a 3D printed bag - that you might get for free.


They’ve teamed up with Materialise, a large commercial 3D print service to develop a new 3D printed bag based on their “Monkey Madness” collection. The new design was printed with Materialise’s using two different processes: new flexible laser sintering material, TPU 92A-1 and an existing epoxy material using stereolithography.


kipling detail.jpg

How can you get one? It’s a contest, but unlike other contests that require you to do a lot of design work, this one simply asks that you enter your information. They’ll pick a (presumably small number of) winners to receive the free bag. Enter before April 3rd, when the contest closes.


Via Kipling and Materialise (PDF)




by Site Admin via Fabbaloo

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Free Educator 3D Toolkit Coming Soon

Guest Posting by Matthew Straub, Communications Director of the City X Project.


After 16 design thinking workshops in three countries and 547 inventions by kids ages 8-12 – all of which were made in 3D modeling software – City X Project Director Libby Falck announced this week during a talk at SXSW edu that all of our work will be culminating in a free toolkit for educators, to be released on our website on April 8th.



The City X Project is a 3D Systems-sponsored and Common Core-aligned workshop that uses a story-based curriculum, 3D printing technologies, and the Stanford d.School Design Process to empower kids to become inventors and changemakers. Our free, downloadable toolkit will include everything a teacher or other educator needs to run the workshop in their own school, including designer workbooks for students, City X citizen cards, and documents with tips and tricks for 3D printing and 3D modeling with kids.


Thanks to the support of the Pearson Foundation, our workshop aligns with several Mathematics and English Language Arts Common Core Standards, and we’ll feature several add-on activities that will allow teachers to explore the world of design thinking and City X even deeper and across various subjects, such as science and social studies.


You can sign up to receive a one-time email the day the City X Project toolkit is released here.




by Roxanne via Cubify

Friday, March 7, 2014

Local Motors to Debut 3D Printed Car in September

3DP Car Local Motors.jpg

Local Motors recently announced that it has agreed to produce a 3D printed vehicle for the Association For Manufacturing Technology (AMT), which will debut at the International Manufacturing Show (IMS) this coming September.


Local Motors, whose business model has focused on the development of small-run, customer driven, crowd-sourced automotive design, is quickly becoming a force in the world of additive manufacturing. In collaboration with the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Local Motors is employing both additive and subtractive manufacturing to develop vehicles designed specifically for a local environment.


Read More at ENGINEERING.com




by Site Admin via Fabbaloo