Printing in 3D

Forgive us for the countdown drama, but our engineers have been working on something very exciting! It’s fun to have a big secret, and it’s even better to shout it out: Our new printer is so cool!

First of all, for a professional Fused Deposition Modeling system, Mojo is impressively compact. It fits in my humble cubicle. I know this because a 3D-printed prototype sat on this very desk for a few days last winter. FDM on a desktop. And why not? Independent research says 80 percent of 3D models...

The newest addition to the Stratasys family, Mojo, got a lot of attention when we introduced it yesterday. We'd love to hear your feedback!

How do you think Mojo will be used? Will it fit into your shop?

With the unveiling of our Mojo 3D Printer today, at Stratasys we’re feeling a bit like stars from all the media attention. While it may not be the paparazzi covering us, here’s a sampling of the coverage we’re seeing from some of our top industry media.

Leslie Langnau at Design World: “From my engineering perspective, this is a sweet system.” Get Your Motor Running

Desktop Engineering’s Jamie Gooch on a Mojo beta test: “In my mind, Stratasys had locked [Todd Grimm] in a room with a Mojo. The only...

Offering the rare treat of a smart choice that’s also super easy, our Dimension team has bundled its popular 3D printers with the materials and accessories that every user needs anyway. The option is called a Dimension 3D Print Pack, and it boasts a nice price incentive versus buying the items separately.

When engineers and designers decide to adopt FDM technology, it’s often because they need time and money savings. The last thing they want to deal with at that stage is surprise costs. Besides...

It's time for some all-too-rare shameless boasting on the part of engineers and designers. What's the coolest thing you've ever designed? Maybe it wasn't even your most successful product, or for whatever reason hasn't yet seen the light of day outside your workshop. But something about it gives you great gratification. 

What design or engineering project makes you the proudest?

Things just got easier if you’re thinking about buying a 3D Printer. After the introduction of “3D Print Packs” for its uPrint SE line, Stratasys has begun offerering a similar Print Pack for its Dimension line. The bundled system includes a 3D printer, a support-removal system and a supply of model material, support material, and other supplies needed to build parts. The complete start-up kit means customers won’t have any surprises. Package prices begin at USD $31,900.

Packages makes...

Sunday is Earth Day, when we reiterate the importance of using resources responsibly and cleaning up after ourselves at home and at work. One of my favorite benefits of 3D printing in general — and Fused Deposition Modeling in particular — is the opportunity to reduce waste.

How have you taken advantage of this? Do you catch design flaws earlier? Skip tooling when possible? Did you move from a subtractive to an additive manufacturing process, resulting in less wasted material?

How has 3D printing...

Recently, we've seen an increase in requests for various types of inserts in 3D prototypes and production parts. With Fortus 3D Production Systems, a build can be paused and objects can be inserted directly into a 3D printed part. You can then resume the build and when it’s finished, your object is embedded firmly into the final part; it can be partially exposed outside the part for functionality or completely enclosed within the part. The end result is some very cool looking and functioning 3D...

STL files are essential to 3D printing. An STL file is what you can export from your CAD software to proceed with the 3D printing process. Most or all 3D printers read the surface of the STL file to produce its geometries. Whatever your computer and CAD software capabilities are, exporting an STL file with the highest resolution will give you better surface finish and dimensional accuracy. In the past you may have experienced rigid surfaces or polygonal holes and thought you had a problem with...

Yesterday, Dimension 3D Printing announced the winners in this year's Extreme Redesign contest, which challenges college and high school students to reinvent products and works of art or architecture. This year's achievements include a continuous-flow hand pump and a library building that encourages community involvement. Check out the designs if you haven't already -- they'll make you optimistic about tomorrow's engineers and designers.

Did you have 3D printing technology available in your...

National Center for Manufacturing Sciences Senior VP Rebecca Taylor recently wrote about how FDM Technology mended a heartache. Her beautiful Corvette convertible, otherwise running great, was stranded for lack of one stupidly simple part: the tray that holds the engine computer.

With spring fast approaching, Taylor issued a distress call to the manufacturing community. Here's her account of how Stratasys Application Engineer Noah Zehringer delivered the joy that is a functioning convertible in...

Two years ago, we blogged about Dimension 3D Printing user Matt Bunting, who built a smart hexapod robot. Bunting has been hard at work on the device, which has taught itself to walk on its FDM legs using visual input. It can even recognize Bunting’s face.

The March 21 episode of Discovery Channel’s “Daily Planet” shows how Bunting’s bot behaves somewhat like a biological entity, adapting to its environment with the help of an artificial neural network. Five minutes in, see the Dimension 3D...

The time and expense to make conventional custom manufacturing tools means they're normally inventoried between uses. The need to inventory tools that are used infrequently comes with costs such as shelf space, managing and tracking the inventory, and time to locate jigs and fixtures when needed. Manufacturing tools made with additive manufacturing, on the other hand, can be made so quickly and inexpensively that it often makes sense to build them when you need them and discard or recycle then...

Around the Stratasys office, we often let FDM parts keep their natural 3D-printed beauty. But our engineers also experiment with various ways to smooth, seal or aesthetically alter surfaces depending on the application. (Our resource site provides guidelines for several finishing techniques.)

What about you? Does your 3D printing application call for surface finishing? What's your favorite method? Link to photos if you're particularly proud.

Don’t miss the uPrint SE 3D Printer in a cameo role on the spring premier of Fox TV’s "Bones." Airing at 8 p.m. Eastern (7 p.m. Central) next Monday, April 2, the show follows a forensic anthropologist, Dr. Temperance Brennan, as she uses her highly developed intelligence (and a few high-tech tools) to help law enforcement solve murder cases.

In Monday’s episode, "Prisoner in the Pipe,” the remains of a body are found in a sewer. According to the script pages we received, Brennan’s team uses...

RedEye On Demand, Stratasys’ digital manufacturing service business, has received AS9100C certification. Achieving this standard in the aerospace industry recognizes that RedEye meets the quality management standards required to provide 3D-printed production parts for aerospace manufacturers, following a rigorous audit process that began in March 2011. The AS9100C standard ensures that a dedicated process is set aside for the way in which manufacturers handle production parts. Interior parts...

Designers of jigs and fixtures made by conventional manufacturing processes are often forced to compromise on functionality and performance. That's because of the need to adhere to design for manufacturability (DFM) rules and to keep cost and leadtimes at reasonable levels. On the other hand, the design freedom offered by additive manufacturing makes it possible to create complex, freeform, feature-laden configurations that often deliver substantial improvements in performance without any cost...

This week, I had the pleasure of visiting a designer who uses FDM technology to build devices, test, redesign, check, try, and test again in a highly iterative process. His workshop is full of first-tries, concept models and experimental side projects -- physical evidence of the progress he's made. (You'll hear much more about this customer's heroic successes in the months to come.)

What about you? If you're an engineer or designer, do you work iteratively? I'm especially wondering whether you...

Many years ago I was given the opportunity to design my first product. The terms rapid prototyping, 3D printing, and 3D prototyping were foreign to me. Although I felt confident in my abilities to design a complex piece of equipment, I was ill-prepared when it came to making the parts I needed.

We had a large in-house machine shop and I was assigned a machinist to build my prototypes. I would bring him a drawing of a part I’d worked on all day. He would bring me the part and I would find an error...

The FDM 3D printing process can't be used to produce jigs and fixtures when metal is a must. But the broad selection of mechanical properties as well as chemical resistance and thermal resistance selection offered by the materials makes it possible to use 3D printing for a range of custom tooling applications.

"3D Printing Jigs, Fixtures and Other Manufacturing Tools" is a Stratasys white paper that talks about how plastic tools offer advantages over metal in many applications. Here’s the second...