Help I Need Somebody...

  ...not just anybody....

I love that old Beatles song, and it leads into my real life plea for assistance here. Of course, not just "anybody" will do. I need help from architects, engineers and individuals who have an interest in the Rapid Prototyping/Additive Manufacturing/3D Modeling and the 3D printing space. If you are using these technologies either in-house, or through one of the many service bureaus - or are considering these technologies; then we would appreciate you help with the following survey. Please consider spending about 5 minutes to complete the survey by clicking the link below...

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=UzoYbbTF3hOfIPoYPPQxVA_3d_3d

Now for some background on this topic, I thought you'd find it interesting for me to recap some of the more unusual milestones that happened  this past year. If you found some product,  some event, some service or somebody that caught your eye that I missed, please add it in the comments. For more details on each of these points, check back often and I'll post more background on each of these highlights later.

In no particular order, here's a few milestones for the past year:

  1. Last year around the holidays, I talked about the JuJups site that allowed people to customize 3D ornament and have it printed and delivered. It wasn't a new idea, the trend began with Figureprints and their printing of World of Warcraft characters. ZCorp helped with the launch of Rockband characters. And who knows what characters you'll be able to custom print soon. The marketing also grew with the launch of other companies like Shapeways. The direction of this 3D print market bazaar has big implications beyond the consumer space, and is creating new ideas which include the exchange and marketing of the designs of 3D model templates, along with the printing service itself. Services are being created to broker the 3D print job to the many service bureaus available today. Did you know there are over 900 service bureaus today providing these types of services?
  2. Nothing this past year renewed my enthusiasm for rapid prototyping more than Bentley's SmartGeometry conference. Watching how iterations of designs evolved and some of the final models produced was impressive. Of course, the creative, mathematical mindset of the SmartGeometry crowd is a perfect match for the 3D model creation world.
  3. Bentley development was busy this year also and announced a set of tools in the MicroStation V8i (SELECTseries 1) release to better support 3D printing and to streamline creation of physical prototypes. The improvements in mesh modeling, push-pull solids, freeform surface creation and parametric tools for complex geometry all added to the ease of creating 3D models
  4. I, like many others, have been hoping the price would come down on 3D printing machines to make them more affordable for the mass market. I pre-ordered  the ultimate poster child for this market - the desktop 3D printer from Desktop Factory. Unfortunately  they ran into funding problems and had to return all those deposits. However, other vendors did hit new price points for desktop 3D printers including Stratasys uPrint at the $15k level.
  5. Of course, if you want to build-it yourself, the hobby and Open Source movement continued to grow. Companies like RepRap and Fab@Home created amazing devices that you build yourself. These homegrown devices also can work with a variety of materials including sugar, play dough, frosting, silicon, peanut butter, plaster, hot glue and even cookie dough.  I expect more of these hacker, DIY projects to continue next year.
  6. Standards, standards, standards. You know a technology is reaching a maturity phase when groups are formed and interested in defining standards - even in terminology for the market it is defining.  Earlier this year, I attended the first meeting at ASTM for Additive Manufacturing Technologies - better known as ASTM F42... http://www.astm.org/COMMIT/COMMITTEE/F42.htm

    This group meets twice a year and the last meeting had 70 members in attendance all working toward forming subcommittees, structure and work items for development of testing process, materials, design and terminology. The next meeting is in November.
  7. Several people saw the article and video clip from Popular Mechanics featuring Jay Leno and how he manufactures replacement parts for his old cars. When self manufacturing of parts reaches celebrity status - you know we have arrived. Here is a clip that walks through the whole process from scanning the part to printing it.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggvzcGdZsTc
  8. It's always interesting to see the stats and growth in the market place. No one tracks this market closer and provides better insight than Terry Wohlers. At the Rapid conference this year, he discussed the double-digit growth in China/France and Germany, while at the same time Japan saw a huge decline in their market.  A snapshot of the numbers is below, but if you want to get the full story see the bible for the Rapid Prototyping/Additive Manufacturing produced by Terry every year. This annual publication is the most comprehensive coverage of the worldwide market for the Additive Manufacturing industry. You'll find all the top players, all the stats, all the trends and information, all the Research - just about everything you could possibly want on this topic - in this annual publication.
     See...
    http://wohlersassociates.com/2009report.htm

    Wohlers Growth and Decline
  9.  Also at the RAPID show in Chicago this year was the story of the efforts to produce a 20 ft x 30 ft 3D model of the city. City modeling is something, I've done in the past and added 2D barcodes codes on the models to make it interactive. But nothing seems more impressive than a 20ft x 30ft model of a city. Catherine Tinker explained to the RAPID audience the entire process of building this model which includes buildings like a 3 foot Sears Tower. The ChicagoModelCity is now on display at the Chicago Architecture Foundation.
    http://www.architecture.org/exhibitions.html
  10. And this last one may seem minor, but the release of the zp150 composite material from Z Corporation. It does produce tougher 3D printed parts, richer colors and whiter whites (this always sounds like a detergent commercial). I only wish it would work in our Z510, but one can only hope for upgrades and general improvement in materials used with all Fab Printers.

So what did I miss? What do you think was important this year in the Additive Fabrication/Rapid Prototyping/3D printing market. Please take the time to take our survey and then add your thoughts below.