Using a pair of 3D-printed scissors, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg cut the ribbon last week on Shapeways' Factory of the Future, a 3D printing facility being built by in Long Island City, Queens.
Shapeways, a marketplace and community that encourages the making and sharing of 3D-printed designs, plans to extend its reach with a physical facility stocked with industrial-sized printers. Its aim is to give small businesses, entrepreneurs, inventors, and DIY enthusiasts an easy and accessible way to turn design concepts into physical products.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg used a 3D-printed pair of scissors for the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Shapeways factory. (Source: Shapeways)
The 25,000-square-foot space will house 30-50 high-definition, industrial-sized 3D printers. The goal is to print 3 million to 5 million objects annually, making it the world's largest consumer-facing 3D printing manufacturing facility. The factory will deliver manufacturing, post-processing, cleaning, and sorting services. There will also be a Shapeways Lab dedicated to research and development of materials, post-production techniques, and community experimentation.
Set to open in January, the factory will be equipped with a variety of state-of-the-art 3D printers, including equipment from EOS, Project UV, and 3D Systems. Plans call for Shapeways to add full-color sandstone printing and other techniques as it refines and builds its production capabilities.
According to a Shapeways blog post on the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the company wants to redefine the concept of the factory and to foster local innovation and production.
Historically, the word factory brought up connotations of assembly lines and jump suits and iron and cement. It reminded us of the factory Henry Ford created and has been replicated time and time again...
We are giving the word factory new meaning. One that replaces mass manufacturing with mass customization. One that empowers the independent business, the craftsperson, the hobbyist, and the entrepreneur. We are building a factory that gives everyone the ability to create, where the only barrier to entry is imagination.
We are seeing more 3D printing companies take steps to introduce the technology to a wider audience. We've reported on Makerbot, one of the pioneers in consumer 3D printing kits, which recently announced a flagship retail location in Manhattan, to introduce the general public to 3D printing and to sell 3D-printed goods. We've also reported on Deezmaker, a California 3D printer and goods store started by Diego Porqueras, the maker of the Bukobot open-source 3D printer.
@PrintGuyInk: Definitely agree with your scenario. I think as the costs of these printers come down and the functionality gets better and cleaner, you will definitely see them set up in stores to produce certain types of goods on a mass customization, not mass production, basis.
For the monment, I think we are all deluding ourselves for the one simple reason that printing something at a resolution that compares with an injection molded or machined part takes a very very long time.
I've had stuff done on a $60,000 Dimension 3D printer that while great for demonstrating a concept was no where near the quality of a milled part.
I recently had a job quoted and milling was cheaper.
The finer the resolution needed, the slower the printing becomes, where as with traditional milling you just change tools to do course or fine bits.
Don't get me wrong, this technology definitely has its place but until we have intantaneous replicator technology ala Startrek, a 50c part out of an injection molding die in 5 seconds will trump a $5 printed part in 1 hour out of a 3D printer. Basically we have production = (conventional + inventory) and prototype = (maybe 3D)
I've been watching the advances in 3-D printing for about 20 years. Although there will likely be a time it's used for mass production, it was originally, and still is for the most part, considered a means for rapid prototyping. One of the first solid object modeling units I saw was using a sort of paper and layered at around .003", the 'model' was the USS Enterprise starship. At the Machine tool show, next to the 'paper' unit was a polymer liquid/laser curing machine with about 10x10x8" capacity. This was in about 1994, even then resolution was quite good at about .002".
Pretty impressive even then, and there never was meant to be a comparison to milling or other types of machining.
What they need to do i make a 3d printer that can print molds for rapid production. Could they use a welding gun, layering the metal like the plastic is layered, to produce molds for rotational molding or plastic injection molds? would that make it more feasible?
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