Made to Stick: Why some ideas take hold and others come unstuck.


Link to Amazon for review.

Solidoodle 2: Affordable, Out-of-the-Box 3D Printing

In a world filled with $1,000, $2,000, and even $40,000 3D printers, the Solidoodle 2 is an anomaly.  A 3D printer designed for the homes and desktops of hobbyists, its costs start at only $499!  

At Replicator World, we were curious about the Solidoodle 2’s price and capabilities, so we spoke with Sam Cervantes, the company’s founder and CEO.  First, we asked him about the conception of the Solidoodle 2.  “ When we first designed [it], we set out to create a printer that meets the needs of the majority of people.  We had three things in mind: quality, affordability, and ease of use.”

The Solidoodle 2 has all these qualities and more.  Once you order this mini-desktop factory, you can install its software package, and using Google Sketchup (as Mr. Cervantes demonstrates in the video above), a very intuitive modeling program, you can convert that Sketchup file into a file the printer will understand by sending it through the Solidoodle software.  Compared with other CAD programs many 3D printers utilize, such as Skeinforge, this process is a breeze.    

The original Solidoodle could only print 4X4X4’, but the Solidoodle 2 prints objects that are 6X6X6’. However, as Mr. Cervantes explains, “there are some slight limitations, such as overhangs [and other complex structures] (the limit is about 60 degrees) but aside from that the possibilities are limited only by your imagination.  Our customers are printing toys, new inventions, useful objects for around the house, and nearly anything else…” 

We also asked him about the printer’s phenomenal price: “We’re able to sell the Solidoodle 2 at such a great price [fully assembled] because of the great engineering design.  Using my background as an aerospace engineer, I applied world-class engineering and design principles to create a totally unique printer from the ground up.”

Mr. Cervantes then went on to discuss the sorts of people who would want to buy a Solidoodle 2.  “Our target customer is a designer, dad, or hobbyist who wants a printer at a great price that works well right out of the box…the majority of our customers begin printing in an afternoon.  We expect our future products to be even more efficient and easier to use.” 

And what sorts of things are these designers, dads, and hobbyists going to be printing?  Mr. Cervantes has a great example.  “My personal favorite creation with the Solidoodle 2 is the Star Wars Yoda,…I like it because it’s a great demonstration of what the Solidoodle 2 is capable of.”

Indeed, many of the Solidoodle creations are impressive.  Mr. Cervantes says that “Solidoodle users all around the world are sharing their ideas with each other on our Google group, forum, website, and with each other.  Already we’re seeing new innovative 3D designs emerge organically within our community, and the possibilities are endless.  We see a bright future for 3D printing and the open sharing of digital designs.” 

We at Replicator World couldn’t agree more with Mr. Cervantes.  We look forward to a world where 3D printing, like computers and cell phones before it, “is something that we can’t live without.”

Photos courtesy of Solidoodle.com                       

Measuring Creativity

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) - Performance Metrics – Customer Satisfaction Index - Attributes, Variable, Factors, Percentages and Ratios

Have you ever been tasked with designing and implementing a performance measurement management system? If you have or even if you are tasked to adhere to one, you’ll know there are pitfalls, do’s and don’ts.

But when it comes to measuring creativity, say in design or ideation or a marketing campaign; the house of balanced score cards often comes crashing on down.

For instance, I recall a shiny new penny CEO turning up at a rather well known Lighting Product company in the UK; demanding that all company processes be objectly measured. As the metrics came in I was asked to measure my man-hours spent on idea generation and conceptualisation. Then measure how much time on actual engineering development, and how much time spent on prototyping and testing the gadget.

Man months later after an operations review I was pulled in to a meeting to answer the question, ‘why do you keep going over the same sub-process (concept design) again and again? It’s a waste of valuable time.’

I said (in paraphrase), ‘Creativity is often an iterative process, where one hones and refines a design until it meets the technical targets. Then if it doesn’t, you take a day off to refresh the mind and start again on new angle, a different point of view to get to a new solution. And again the iterative process starts. And it’s not unusual to go through this start again process umpteen times.’

‘But that’s inefficient’ I was told by the CEO. ‘You must aim to get it right first time.’ The CEO gave the same edict to the rest of the 30 strong design department.

There is strong evidence that constraints like time pressure and tight budgets improves creativity, but the restraint of right first time, is fallacy. 

For example, I worked on a single design project for a number of years, then right at the last moment, a flash of inspiration took the design not only to a new level, but a completely new vector of design-space.

From that orienation, I won my second British Design Council Award (BDCA).

I went to the gala dinner presentation at the Savoy Hotel, London, with – yes the CEO and his team. At the cocktail party after the presentation the CEO came up to me and said ‘Let’s have look at your award.’ I passed it over and he admired my trophy. He then looked at me and said, ‘have you any more thoughts on how you should measure your time in design young man.’

I looked at the BDCA.

The 3D Advanced Rapid Manufacturing World Tips!

It’s funny really. I recall back in 1986, Charles Hull’s now famous ‘Stereolithography Machine’ being demonstrated on the BBC’s ‘Tomorrow's World’ program. I was just out of my engineering apprenticeship and saw some benefits in early stage prototypes in product design. But to be honest, it didn’t cross my mind unit the mid 1990s that 3D rapid prototyping and manufacturing would be something fundamental to the way we make things.

Then in 2006, I was asked to write a paper and carry the closing key note address at the TCT Rapid Manufacturing Conference, at the Heritage Motor Centre, UK.

That paper brought it altogether. I based my projections out based on empirical trends. In summary I said that:

Year 2012+: Frenzy: Multiplicative RM systems that build components and fully assembled end products comparable to off-tool parts will emerge. 3D printing boutiques will start to hit the high street and shopping mall. Increased sales of low-cost 3D printers take additive manufacturing mainstream to students, researchers, DIY-inventors, entrepreneurs and hobbyists.

Year 2015+: Zap: Yield in terms of cycle-time, precision, resolution, complexity, material performance and component variety will reach a critical point where, quite literally, will come to be known as ‘Instant Production Technology (IPT).’ The first integrated top-down multiplicative production systems appear, purchased by high-end manufacturers and specialist users, enabling engineers to design and test fully functional prototypes in extremely quick cycles: hours instead of days; days in place of months. Integrated component that merge from one materials to another start to emerge. That means electro-mechanical components - say a toroidal choke with integrated yoke produced all in one hit - become viable for the first time.

Year 2020+: Hocuspocus: Arthur C. Clark once wrote ‘any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’ And if the likes Hewlett Packard have their way, by 2020 completely assembled consumer durables and other sundry items - that‘s roller-skates, electronic calculators, pens, even TVs and eventually all consumer gadgets and gizmos (including the packaging) - will be designed, manufactured and assembled through so-called hybrid top-down IPT, just like magic. Expect to see seminal hybrid IPT integrating microlasers (sub-micron cut/etch), microminture transfer systems, miniature x-ray lithography, hybrid/smart fusion materials, and automated microscopy inspection. 3G nanofacturing begins. However, vast amounts of money is saved in manufacturing, distribution and warehousing.

Year 2025+: Just Add Water TVs: Complex organic multidimensional molecules - approaching that found in nature’s kitchen - will be created from the bottom-up, instantly. Nanofactories capable of producing high protein vitamin rich synthetic food will give hope to the remaining poverty stricken nations. With such IPT systems, the cost of manufacture is unrelated to the complexity of the product. 

Consumer countertop synthesisers will begin to revolutionise the way house hold objects are acquired. TVs and eventually all small domestic size consumer gadgets are printed out at home. The range of products will be limited far more by human imagination than by technological restrictions.  Products will be revolutionary by today's standards. For example, the capability to pack a supercomputer in a grain of sand will spring forth artefacts of mind-blowing extent. This combined with more capable sensors, displays and actuators will allow remarkable robotic devices produced quickly and efficiently. High performance product design, development and verification will still be very costly; but once designed, units can be manufactured in quantity - that’s Ferraris, SCRAM jets, up to and including beef-steak, milkshake in a glass and fries on the side - all for pennies per kilogram. This is the point where an artefact’s scale, resolution and complexity ceases to have a relative material economic magnitude.

Back to today: 3D additive printing is now a $1.3 billion market. And it will reach $3.1 billion worldwide by 2016 and $5.2 billion by 2020; says the Wohlers’ Report 2012.

The point is, all this begun in 1986 on Tomorrow’s World, with a market worth – well – ZERO at that time!

Below are a string of Posts that confirm my 2012+ forecasts from back in 2006. But I wonder if I’m going to be right again in 2015+; 2020+; 2025+.

If I am even half right, positive changes on scale not witnessed before will happen in every quarter of society. We may even begin to see the end of abject material poverty the world over!

Read on please you must. May the force be 3D with you!

  3D-Printed Dresses make it onto         Paris Fashion Week Catwalk

Stratasys' 3D printing technology has made into everything from prototype drone wings to robot exoskeletons for children, but the latest implementation is somewhat more... refined. 

Iris van Herpen — known for the elaborate dress worn by Björk on her Biophilia album cover — is presenting her Haute Couture show Voltage at Paris Fashion Week, and it features two 3D-printed ensembles. Voltage also includes a dress designed in collaboration with architect Julia Koerner and printed by Materialise.

Objet Connex 3D printing technology from Stratasys allows for single prints to contain multiple materials, meaning that it can be applied to things like clothes that require both hard and soft elements. It's not the first time van Herpen has been noticed for her 3D-printed dresses but the bright lights of the Paris runways signal broader mainstream exposure for the clothes themselves.

3D Print Yourself

Have you ever wanted to be an action figure?  Well, now is your chance. 

In the Harujuku district of Tokyo at the Eye of Gyre exhibition space, the Omote 3-D photo booth will open. This booth will take the likeness of its visitors and 3D print them into figurines. 

Customers will be asked to stand still and in position for about 15 minutes while a manually operated scanner records a full-body image.  This data will then be modified for finer detail before the 3D color print is created.  You can do single, double, or group portraits for a number of different sizes, the maximum being about 8 inches high.  The cost begins at around 21,000 yen.

There are limitations, however.  According to Wired.com, 'shiny jewelry and accessories are ruled out, as are stiletto heels, hoop earrings, anything with a mesh, fluffy sweaters, chiffon, trekking boots, stripes, glasses and bags.  Customers are also discouraged from pulling adventurous or particularly dynamic poses on account of needing to remain stationary for 15 minutes.'

As the technology improves, so will the Omote’s capabilities.  But for now, visitors will have to be content to amass miniature armies of themselves and friends.      

Can 3D Printing Change the World?

These's a new book by Christopher Barnett called 'Seven Ways to Fix The World.'

(expliningthefuture.com) 

Here's an outline and related links, to the new book publsihed on ReplicorWorld site

'3D printing is increasingly being heralded as the basis for a new industrial revolution. Not least, many now predict that personal manufacturing will democratize how many items are made, with crowdsourcing communities soon to able to compete with the monolithic manufacturing giants who currently produce most of the items in our lives.

Not least, many now predict that personal manufacturing will democratize how many items are made, with crowdsourcing communities soon to able to compete with the monolithic manufacturing giants who currently produce most of the items in our lives.

At present, much of the focus in 3D printing is inevitably on specific 3D technologies and the kinds of items they can help us print. Yet outside of 3D printing's own community, wider commentators are starting to recognize the technology's potential to help us respond to the looming challenges of Peak Oil, broader resource depletion, and climate change. For example, as explained by Mike Childs, Friends of the Earth is about to embark on a project that will in part identify how 3D printing and crowdsourcing could help ‘get us out of the precarious environmental position we find ourselves in’.

3D Printing to the Rescue?

So how exactly may 3D printing help us save resources? Well for a start, because 3D printing is additive rather than subtractive, it will allow us to consume and transport fewer raw materials. Many companies have already recognized this potential, with Rolls Royce now spearheading a European project called MERLIN that hopes to save materials by using 3D printing in the manufacture of civil aircraft engines. At present, using subtractive manufacturing methods, the production of a 1 ton aircraft engine can consume over 6 ton of metal. In contrast, using additive manufacturing techniques, it is hoped to produce engines with close to a 100 per cent materials utilization,

And talking of aircraft, another initiative, called the SAVINGS Project, has been investigating the use of 3D printing to reduce the weight of aircraft components. As it reported in February 2012, just by 3D printing lighter seat buckles, the project has demonstrated that 3.3 million liters of aviation fuel could be saved in the life of the average passenger aircraft.

In addition to delivering such savings, 3D printing will also allow many things to be produced far more locally. Today, most manufactured goods are transported long distances and contain components made in many parts of the world. Almost everything we buy therefore burns a significant quantity of oil in transportation. In fact, logistics and transportation account for about one in seven sales dollars spent. The mass application of 3D printing to enable local ‘materialization on demand’ could therefore help change this current wasteful reality by allowing objects to be transported digitally over the Internet, and then printed out in local stores or even at home.

Whenever the above argument is made there are those who counter that 3D printers will never be able to produce items using the same materials and with the same surface qualities as traditional manufacturing. To this I would simply counter that the promise of any transformative technology is not to produce old things in new ways, but to make new things in new ways. Before and after the Industrial Revolution -- and indeed before and after the consumer goods revolution of the 1950s and 1960s -- the nature of the products in most people’s homes was very different. 3D printers may never be able to print leather goods. But they can already print such products in new kinds of plastics to which future consumers will become accustomed.

Next-generation 3D Printing Supplies

Of course 3D printers do themselves consume raw materials, and at present these are often oil-based resins or plastics. This said, many 3D printers are already capable of producing objects out of a bioplastic such as polylactic acid (PLA). Recent developments in synthetic biology also mean that, within a few years, it will be possible to ferment bioplastics directly from corn, sugar beat or algae. By the time Peak Oil arrives, it may therefore be possible to  grow local 3D printing supplies. In ten or twenty years time, it may even be common for retail outlets and some homes to cultivate vats of algae and synthetic bacteria in their yards or gardens, and which will serve as organic 3D printing supplies.

As another alternative, it may soon be possible for 3D printers to manufacture new objects from household waste. For example, a fantastic project called Filabot is already working to create a system that will grind up waste plastics and turn them into 3D printing filament. By the time domestic 3D printing goes mainstream, such recycling technology may be built-in to many models. Both garbage and old prints will therefore be able to be recycled into new items. Once again, increasingly precious oil will be saved.

A Return to Product Repair

The final way in which 3D printing will help us cope with Peak Oil will be by facilitating increased product repair. Today, when just one part of something breaks, we usually throw the entire item away. This is incredibly wasteful, and in a Peak Oil world of reduced resources and diminished transportation will simply not be an option.

One of the great promises of 3D printing is not just the local manufacture of final products, but the local printout of spare parts. In theory, with a 3D printer available, almost any broken item will be able to be repaired. Either spare parts will be stored digitally online and printed out when required. Or else broken parts will be scanned, mended digitally in a computer, and a replacement part 3D printed. 3D printing will therefore help to reduce the number of nearly functional objects that are consigned to landfill.

Localization over Globalization

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, we have increasingly relied on complex and dedicated production technologies that have had to be centralized far away from where most people live. But as oil and other resources dwindle this will no longer be possible. One of the greatest promises and drivers of 3D printing may therefore be that complex, multi-purpose production technologies may soon be applied at a very local level.

A 3D printer may potentially never make the same product or component twice, so allowing local businesses to become highly effective Jills and Jacks of all trades. A few decades hence, broad-market local businesses with 3D printing facilities may therefore be able to meet a wide range of local customer requirements just as traditional craftspeople always did in the pre-industrial age. And almost certainly, some items -- such as toys, ornaments, basic spare parts and DIY fixtures -- will be 3D printed in many people's homes.

More information on how 3D printing may prove useful in fostering a more sustainable mode of living can be found in Christopher Barnatt's book Seven Ways to Fix the World.'

The Birth of 3D Printer Shops

For the last three decades when people said '3D printing shops,' they were referring to printing bureaus and prototyping agencies.

But now a new kind of 3D printing shop has arrived. 

The first of these is the MarkerBot Store in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. 

MakerBot Industries, producers of the Replicator desktop 3D printer, have rolled out a new 3D printer, the Replicator 2.0.  Aimed at the 'prosumer' market – that is to say aimed at either design professionals or hardcore hobbyists - the Replicator 2.0 costs $2,199 and is able to print objects in 100 micron thick layers, which is far more detailed than the 270 micron thickness the original Replicator was able to print in. 

Coupled with this new release was the grand opening of the MakerBot Store this past September. 

The MakerBot Store in New York

Most of the designs displayed in the store were designed by MakerBot's 3D designers, with the rest coming from Thingiverse, MakerBot's community sharing site. The store even displays 3D printed squirrels!  MakerBot envisions the store as a place where people can 'experience' 3D printing in person.

3D Printed Squirrels

Indeed, that is the difference between this new breed of 3D printer shops and 3D printing bureaus.  Not only do these shops sell people the actual 3D printers, but they also show them a view of the future. 

One they can touch.

And MarkerBot isn’t the only 3D printing company showing people that future, either.  Tucked away in a mall in Pasadena, California, twenty minutes from both CalTech and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, sits 'Deezmaker,' the first 3D printer retail store on the west coast.  Its grand opening came three days after the MakerBot Store’s. 

Deezmaker 3D Printer Shop

Founded by Diego Porqueras, Deezmaker sells the Kickstarted Bukobot, for $600.  The shop will sell other 3D printers as well. 

The future has arrived to a high street near you.

Glove One: Fully Working 3D Printed Cell Phone Glove

Even though I'm in the throws of writing a new book about the cusp of markets and technology, I'm sometimes guilty for forgetting how fast all this is going forward.

My post below (22 Jan) said printing a telephone out is restricted to 'technology permitting,' then I come across this:

In the midst of the hype about the iPhone 5 and all the new phones from the other smartphone manufacturers, there is a small community of people who are constantly trying to bend what is mainstream into what could possibly become the next generation technology when it comes to making mobile calls. There are a lot of concept designs out there that are both innovative and unique, and their only reason for not hitting the market is mostly lack of funding and refinement. Sure, there are a bunch of concept designs for predicted versions of what’s already out there too. Those are mostly rendered images of someone’s idea of where things are headed. Usually they turn out to be nothing more than just that, concept designs.

For the more serious innovators, things can materialize into something real that they are able to showcase to the masses. One such innovator is Bryan Cera who has been tinkering on something that could only be described as Iron Man‘s personal cell phone in a glove. It’s no surprise his concept is called Glove One and is a dial keyboard, SIM card holder and microphone speaker all in one.

It’s hard to determine whether this kind of approach to a cell phone is the path to the future, but it’s damn cool if you ask me. The ability to receive and make calls from a glove, which I am sure could have many more uses than just a cell phone, is pretty much science fiction. If anything, it’s one of those gadgets that will have you dream of other awesome tools á la Iron Man. I doubt we’ll see these in a store anytime soon, but I think Bryan is onto something quite extraordinary. I think if the glove had just a few more unique features to it, it could actually become something that could be used in all our lives. The question is of course whether or not you, the users, would settle for a cell phone like this instead of that Smartphone of yours.

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It's against the law to download a pirated £0.99 MP3. But it seems that printing your own £249.00 iPod is fine

That's one implication of this very useful paper on the state of UK law on 3D printing, by the excellent Simon Bradshaw.

The paper explains that under UK law, you can print an awful lot of things with no legal comeback. 

Some interesting points from the article: Printing a copy of a patented item for private, non-commercial use, does not count as infringing the patent. However, uploading an electronic file of a patent probably is illegal, since it provides others with a means to infringe the patent, which is specifically prohibited. Copyright, eg for artistic originals, largely is protected.

design rights have a similar exemption to patents. This may even be true if these users use a 3D printer in a public "copy shop". There's a further loophole in that it's less clear that providing others with the means to infringe a design right is illegal. So while patents and design rights stop companies from copying each other's products and selling them, they provide much less protection from home users. An interesting catch is that schools and universities, while non-commercial, aren't private, so while pupils may be able to print out their own iPhones at home, doing it at school would be patent-breaking.  

So, tech permitting, and if some reprobate sends you the specs, it looks like you can print your own iPhone**. Be prepared for interesting times in the world of IP. * Of course, most 3D printers now are pretty basic, and print in plastic. Printing a working iPhone is still some considerable way off. But 3D printers can print in more and more materials, at ever greater degrees of resolutions, so chances are these legal points will become relevant quite soon.