BMW Introduces 3D Printable and Bio-Degradable Concept Car

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BMW’s Maasaica concept vehicle is a sustainable, biodegradable 3D printable car designed to be locally manufacturable and maintainable in even the remotest parts of Africa.

Swedish designer Erik Melldahl created the concept and worked closely withBMW to create an eco-friendly car optimized for developing nations with less resources and less pollution standards than the West. As China and India face record economic expansion and the average citizen enjoys a much higher standard of life, pollution from emergent industry and an increased number of vehicles is becoming a much greater problem.

Maasaica – the Latin world for a Kenyan lion – was designed specifically for the needs and living conditions of the Maasai tribe in the Serengeti, however Melldahl believes the concept would be easily adaptable to other habitats. He sees the concept as a way to bring developing nations into the future without endangering the environment.

Melldahl explains “By taking advantage of traditional craftsmanship, new manufacturing methods and [the] existing African mentality of upcycling, the concept Maasaica is showing how the automotive industry could take part [in] the 3rd new sustainable industrial revolution. A revolution that would create an Africa that would have no negative effects on the environment.”

As you can see from this BMW rendering the Maasaica Concept car will have plenty of 
trunk space to keep your goat while you practice traditional tribal dance at the beach with your friend.

The frame of the car would have a simple 3D printable structure surrounded by an organic mushroom mycelium material that can be grown into the correct shape in a matter of days. Mushroom mycelium are the fibrous parts of a mushroom that grow underground and when combined with locally grown grass will create a strong and durable composite material. The organic car body would be 100% biodegradable while the surface would have a water collecting membrane stretched over it that would store water for recycling or to cool off the car during use. Additionally, solar collecting panels could easily be attached to the car to power an electric engine, however any type of engine could easily be used in the car.

The concept envisions a future with large 3D printer farms in parts in Africa where locals could come and purchase pre-made 3D goods, bring their own 3D files to be printed, or work with a designer to create something of their own design suited to their specific needs. Locals would purchase the plans for the car directly from BMW, take it to a 3D printer farm and have it constructed for them. And because everything is 3D printed, any customisations could be easily added before printing, and any needed replacement parts could be made in a matter of hours.

It is important to understand the conceptual nature of the Maasaica, which if it moves forward, is decades from being a reality, but it’s still a fascinating look at what the future of cars could be, and how modern technology could help developing nations expand without risking the environment. It could also teach us a thing or two about how easy it could be for us to start designing products that are sustainable and produce less waste.

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Electroloom Promises 3D Printed Clothing by Year’s End

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So, the Electroloom is still a twinkle in the eyes of its creators, but when it’s completed – supposedly by the end of the year – it’s going to be awesome!  You’ll be able to assume from the title that the Electroloom is a 3D clothing printer. And it’s meant to 3D print clothing that offers comfort unseen from previous 3D-printed ensembles, like the Dita Von Teese gown.

The Electroloom prototype, designed by Aaron Rowley and his team, is so far capable of printing polymer fabric as sheets and tubes, according to Fast Co. Design. At the moment, the fabric seems to resemble wisps of silk, based on the videos from their Facebook page. Rowley, however, hopes that they can produce more complicated shapes from fibers that resemble cotton. Because such organic materials can’t handle the printing process, the Electroloom will more likely use synthetics or composites of synthetic and organic material.  And Rowley hopes to achieve this goal by the end of the year, with the help of a small grant from Alternative Apparel.

The Electroloom team submitted their product to Alternative Apparel’s Sustainability in Design & Technology contest this past December, competing with four other entries. Beating out an urban farming project and “sculpture bike racks”, the clothing printer took home the Alternative Award, which included $1,000 and a membership to the hackerspace TechShop, home of Type A Machines. Part of the sustainability of the project comes from their take on the energy used to make clothing, with Rowley saying, “Something we are compelled by is embodied energy [which is] essentially the amount of energy that was used to take a raw material to a finished good. So a goal of this project is to reduce the amount of embodied energy in an article of clothing.”

                    The Electroloom takes home the grand prize for Sustainability in Design & Technology..

Over the next year, Rowley, et al. will produce a fully-functional prototype. After successfully demonstrating a proof-of-concept, they hope to change the future of clothing. Rowley anticipates that people will be able to download and print clothing or order it via a service like Shapeways. For those who aren’t CAD savvy, though, Rowley says, “We think it may also be practical to provide basic templates —T-shirts, beanies, and the like — for users who may not be entirely design savvy.” Unlike Tamicare, Rowley’s won’t first tackle 3D-printed panties, but, instead, Rowley suggest that they’ll first try a beanie.

Source: Fast Company

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3D Printing in Medicine: How Technology Will Save Your Life

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I would not agree that the technological revolution inspired by 3D printing has already become self-evident. Recently 3D printing has been treated as the hot mainstream trend, but, believe me when I say this, there are thousands of people who are still not aware of this mind-blowing invention.

Obviously, the technology is under careful surveillance by scientists, designers, futurists, and hobbyists. No doubt, it will change our lives. 3D printing is already reshaping them. Before mid-1990s, the internet seemed like something that surpasses the boundaries of imagination, similarly to how today we read about liquid metal and rocket parts that soon will be 3D printed and it looks too far out.

Practitioners, theorists, and media cannot just stay calm and observe, so they have already launched discussions on the topic: is it really something that is going to turn a world upside down or is it just too much ado for nothing? Some so-called columnists compare 3D printing to Michelangelo's marble carvings and I think this expression is too strong, even if this hell's machine does half of a job instead of the artist. All in all, 3D printing invades more and more spheres of our casual lives. So, I guess, it is about the time to announce the fact that - folks, future is now. Not tomorrow. There is no tomorrow nowadays.

The Body Shop Kevin Hand

Since the ancient times people are looking for anything that could guarantee the eternal life. Alchemists definitely found the philosophical stone, but never shared it with mortals. Philosophers and writers went totally crazy, trying to discuss a matter of life and death.

And here...The New Age has come, when the philosophical stone turns into a 3D printer. Using living cells instead of the usual plastic material in the cartridge leads to bioprinting. Some scientists started doing it, using a regular printer, but literally just now technology opens the doors to the real achievements.

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3D Printed Device to Track and Treat Heart Disease

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The futurists were right! Soon, we will be able to monitor the various biological systems that make up our bodies, tracking the health of various organs and preventing illnesses like precogs catching criminals in The Minority Report. A team of doctors at Washington University in St. Louis has developed a 3D printed device that can predict heart attacks and treat some cardiac ailments using printed electrical components.

(a) Graphical depiction of the key steps in device design and fabrication. Scale bar, 2 cm. (b) Images of a representative 3D multifunctional integumentary membrane (3D-MIM) integrated on a Langendorff-perfused rabbit heart. The white arrows highlight various function elements in this system. The electronics can cover both anterior and posterior surfaces of the heart (inset). Scale bars, 6 mm. (c) Magnified views of the functional elements in conformal contact with the epicardium. The images are recorded from the back side of the devices. Scale bars, 500 μm.

Start with a CT scan of a patient’s heart. Then, 3D print a silicon membrane to be fitted around the heart’s outer layer. Print sensors onto the soft and flexible membrane to track temperature, mechanical strain and pH, as well as send tiny bursts of electricity to the heart to treat an unstable heartbeat. Go in, wrap it around the heart, and monitor the heart’s vitals or measuring troponin levels, a key diagnosis for an impending heart attack.  Then, get your medicine on!

(a) Application of a 3D-MIM for temperature monitoring during cold perfusion. Left: image of a 3D-MIM with 4 × 4 temperature sensors array integrated on a Langendorff-perfused rabbit heart. Middle: temperature recordings from a representative sensor illustrated in the left inset. Right: temperature maps at representative time points in the middle inset with corresponding heart rate calculated from ECG. Each pixel in the colour map corresponds to recording from one temperature sensor. Scale bar, 1 cm. (b) Temperature measurements during an ablation experiment. Positions of the sensor array and cautery pen are shown in the left inset. Temperature map during ablation (upper right) and recordings from representative sensors (bottom right) are shown respectively. Scale bar, 7 mm. (c) Responses of a Si strain sensor under representative physiological conditions, compared with simultaneous ECG recordings. (d) Left: image of a 3D-MIM with μ-ILEDs array in optical mapping experiments. Inset shows a magnified view of area around a representative μ-ILED. Right: comparison of optical signals from a representative pixel (blue dot on the left inset) recorded during excitation using μ-ILEDs on 3D-MIM and external optical excitation, respectively. Scale bar, 3 mm.

Igor Efimov, from the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis, and a team of biomedical and materials scientists feel as though the above process is doable, having performed it on a reanimated rabbit heart.  Watch the heart below, beating with the help of “a nutrient and oxygen-rich solution”, according to the video’s description.

Dr. Efimov explains the advantage that the 3D-printed technique has over previous methods for tracking heart health, saying, “Each heart is a different shape, and current devices are one-size-fits-all and don’t at all conform to the geometry of a patient’s heart. With this application, we image the patient’s heart through MRI or CT scan, then computationally extract the image to build a 3D model that we can print on a 3D printer. We then mold the shape of the membrane that will constitute the base of the device deployed on the surface of the heart. Currently, medical devices to treat heart rhythm diseases are essentially based on two electrodes inserted through the veins and deployed inside the chambers. Contact with the tissue is only at one or two points, and it is at a very low resolution. What we want to create is an approach that will allow you to have numerous points of contact and to correct the problem with high-definition diagnostics and high-definition therapy.” Also essential to the new internal heart monitor is the transfer printing technique for imprinting the sensors, made up of silicon, gallium, arsenide, gallium nitride, metals, metal oxides,and plastics.  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign professor Dr. John Rogers is the research team’s co-leader, along with Efimov, having developed the sensor printing process.

(a) Calculated pressure distribution induced by a device with total thickness of 150 μm and effective Young’s modulus of 60 kPa under various conditions of volume expansion of a heart geometry. (b) FEM and analytical results of average pressure as functions of volume expansion (left), thickness (middle) and Young’s modulus (right) of the membrane.”

Efimov points out that Google’s new glucose monitor for diabetics, which is installed onto a contact lens, is a similar, if less sophisticated, version of the device his team has created. “Because this is implantable, it will allow physicians to monitor vital functions in different organs and intervene when necessary to provide therapy. In the case of heart rhythm disorders, it could be used to stimulate cardiac muscle or the brain, or in renal disorders, it would monitor ionic concentrations of calcium, potassium and sodium. This is just the beginning. Previous devices have shown huge promise and have saved millions of lives. Now we can take the next step and tackle some arrhythmia issues that we don’t know how to treat.”

Source: Washington University in St. Louis

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3D Printing Because You Can: Creating a 3D Printable Mechanical Pencil

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After being encouraged by a co-worker, maker and blogger Angry Monk took on the challenge of 3D printing a working mechanical pencil all in one print. The pencil is fully functional and is rather stylish as well.

The pencil, comprising four independently moving parts, was 3D printed fully assembled on a Stratasys Objet Eden500V in a white polypropylene material with a water soluble gel-like support structure. The holes along the side of the pencil are not strictly decorative, but actually allow the supports to easily be removed. At about 6.5 inches (16.51cm) the pencil is roughly the same size as any other mechanical pencil. It uses standard 0.9 mm lead, 0.7 mm erasers and has a small internal cavity that can hold additional pieces of lead.

Angry Monk found that trying to design a printable object from a standard mechanical pencil design was futile, as they relied too much on an internal spring and tight fitting parts. He essentially had to completely redesign his mechanical pencil from the ground up. Take a look at a video of Angry Monk explaining the design process and showing off the incredibly clever internal mechanism:

His design functions like a screw inside of the hollow pencil. You start by rotating the back of the pencil, turning the screw-shaped mechanism inside that extrudes the lead out 1.2mm at a time. The screw piece has twelve detents that click into place after each successful turn, and if you rotate it in the opposite direction the lead can easily be pushed back inside of the pencil. The lead is prevented from sliding out by three tiny fingers at the front of the pencil inside of the tip.

“I tried to retain all the core functionality of a mechanical pencil with this design. I believe I accomplished that. Moreover, it looks cool and functions well. I am glad with how this project came out.” The design has been placed up onShapeways, however it is not available for download or sale yet, as Angry Monk is still trying to verify that it can be printed without an industrial 3D printer like the Eden500V. You can find more information about how he made his pencil onhis blog, where he has also posted several other awesome 3D printing projects.

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MIT Students Make 3D-printed Ice Cream

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If your ice cream could look like anything in the world, what would you choose? A new machine could 3D print your ice cream in 15 minutes

MIT student project proves that 3D printing ice cream is a tasty possibility. Photograph: Kristine Bunker

Three students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have hacked together a 3D printer that can produce edible Mr Whippy-style ice cream in any shape.

Kyle Hounsell, Kristine Bunker and David Donghyun Kim developed the contraption – a modified version of an existing 3D printer connected to a “soft serve” ice-cream machine – as part of a graduate project in MIT’s additive manufacturing department.

“First, we needed to print into a cooled environment so that the ice cream would hold its shape once printed,” the students explained to 3Ders. “We bought a small upright freezer which was large enough to both put the Solidoodle inside and allow for the full build volume we were aiming for.”

Liquid nitrogen cooling system

The students built a cooling system using liquid nitrogen to fix the ice cream in place as it was squirted out of the 3D printer’s nozzle into the desired shape. The instant cooling allowed the printer to build up the ice cream layers just as a traditional extrusion-based 3D printer squirts down layers of plastic.

The student's setup in the lab. Photograph: MIT

“The main reason we feel an ice cream 3D printer is an important addition to current additive manufacturing technology is that it interests children,” the MIT students explained.

The students had to balance the accuracy and printing resolution of the printer to enable interesting shapes and creations with the speed of printing, as no one wants to wait 30 minutes for their ice cream to appear.

“We imagine this technology being marketable in ice cream parlours such as Dairy Queen where customers can order an ice cream treat, wait 15 minutes, and see the shape they chose be created,” they said. “Of course last, and more importantly, we aim to enjoy the ice cream after successful printing.”

The proof-of-concept printer needs refinement before it is likely to see commercial duty, but the technology could appear in an ice cream truck near you soon, if the students or a third party decides to continue developing the system further.

For now, ice cream 3D printed into a star shape is entirely possible.

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Researches Study the 3D Printing of Surgical Instruments for use in Long Space Missions

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Looking toward a future when space missions might occur at great distances over even longer periods of time, means being prepared for any number of emergencies or eventualities that could occur. While it would not be an ideal situation for someone to need to perform surgery in space, accidents or unexpected illnesses do occur and must be prepared for.

Imagining this future scenario, researchers Dr. Julielynn Y. Wong from the Center for Innovative Technologies and Public Health in Toronto and Dr. Andreas C. Pfahnl of Devicix, LLC in Eden Parie, MN undertook a study to examine the possibilities for 3D printing surgical instruments.  They shared their results in the journal  Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine. Should this prove to be a feasible mechanism, by which instruments can be created, having a 3D printer and filament on board would mean that instruments could be produced on an ‘as needed basis’, thereby greatly reducing the amount of preparatory supplies that would have to be loaded. In addition, this capability would expand the ability of any on flight medical team to respond to nearly any medical emergency.

What the researchers did to approach this problem, was to break it into several components. The first phase of understanding the possibilities for such a concept was to study the creation of 3D printed surgical instruments here on earth. In this case, they chose to evaluate Fused Deposition Modeling as a method for creating 10 surgical instruments from ABS plastic. They were particularly interested in gathering data regarding instrument fabrication times, the perceived functional performance of such instruments, and the optimal parameters for creation of the instruments using FDM printing of ABS plastic.

The research team used SolidWorks 2012 to model a towel clamp, sponge stick, scalpel handle, straight hemostat, curved hemostat, Adson’s toothed forceps, Debakey tissue forceps, smooth forceps, Allis tissue clamp, and right angle clamp, for a total of ten instruments. They chose this tool set because of the multiple functions that each tool performs, making it a likely candidate for any particular surgical intervention. As these tools are currently produced in stainless steel and in a disposable plastic version, there were models easily available for study. However, modifications to the original designs had to be made to account for differences in the material properties of ABS printed plastic.

The first phase of the investigation was to determine if FDM printing of ABS plastic would even be a viable manner in which to produce these tools, as otherwise the other two primary questions would be irrelevant. The researchers began by subjecting samples to a series of tests, designed to provide information about the material’s stiffness and yield strength. The data gathered through those tests was then applied to the design and fabrication of the actual instruments.

The STL files created taking the material properties data into account were then printed on a Dimension Elite 3D printer, using Stratasys CatalystEX 4.0.1 3D printing software. The layer resolution was set to 0.178 mm, the model interior to ‘solid,’ and the support fill to ‘sparse.’ Each instrument was printed at the orientation that would best serve its use. After each print, the instruments were assessed for functionality and further modifications to the design were made as necessary.

When the instruments had met the performance standards indicating the possibility for their creation, the researcher moved to the next phase of their investigation: experiential assessment. For this portion of the experiment, they reduced the number of instruments being tested to five. 13 surgeons were asked to complete a series of tasks with a set of traditional instruments and then with a set of 3D printed instruments. When they completed the tasks, they were given a survey designed to reflect their evaluation of the experience. In addition, the surgeons were timed during task completion in order to better understand the quantitative differences that the different materials might present.

As a result, the investigators learned that the strength and stiffness of the horizontally printed ABS plastic was decreased as a result of the FDM layering process. However, creating thicker instruments, especially in areas that receive high bending loads, worked to mitigate weakening. The print orientation must be transverse to the loading force direction in order to create instruments that will not break.

Looking at the study as a whole, it appears that 3D printing is an extremely viable method for creating surgical instruments on earth. All surgical tasks performed in the study were successful when using the 3D printed versions of the surgical instruments. A caveat, however, is the time that it takes to produce the instruments, approximately one and one half hour, renders them impractical for emergency situations. At this stage, it may be more realistic to imagine them as being used to replenish supplies. In addition, it is highly likely that redesigning smaller instruments in the short term can increase the speed of printing, and in the long-term 3D printing technology advances may increase the speed further.

Other advantages to 3D printing surgical instruments range from the ease of tool redesign (such as to accommodate a left hand dominate back up medical officer) to reduction in costs and improvements in the self-sufficiency of space missions. Therefore, there is great promise for further experimentation to be done in zero gravity environments.

Additional investigation is required to determine the sterility and sterilization of 3D printed ABS surgical tools. This study also raises a great number of questions for future research regarding the possibilities presented by 3D printing in conjunction with the operation of the International Space Station.

While it’s clear we have a long way to go before we can expect to travel to Mars and beyond, 3D printing may be bringing that day closer than it has ever been. 

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US Military Turns to Hollywood’s Legacy Effects to 3D Print Iron Man Suit

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Let’s say you’re the US military and you want to create an Iron Man-like suit in which to encase soldiers on the battlefield.  Who would you turn to help you make the thing? Why not try the team behind the actual Iron Man suit, Legacy Effects, the Hollywood FX firm behind Robert Downey Jr.’s heroic armor for theIron Man movies?

Legacy Effects – which has 3D printed a variety of props and special effects gear for movies like Pacific Rim, The Terminator, RoboCop, and Captain America – has found its latest project outside of Hollywood and on the stage of war.  Themilitary has commissioned the Hollywood FX artists to help them design and 3D print prototype components for an advanced suit to enhance soldiers on the battlefield, a program they call TALOS (Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit).  A sketch of TALOS includes: a cooling system for maintaining a comfortable temperature in the suit, a Google Glass-style style visor, and a built-in exoskeleton, designed by Ekso Bionics, to give troops the strength to carry hundreds of pounds of great.

The FX company will be joining a large team already at work on the project, made up of bioengineers, combat veterans, and technology specialists, as well as defense contractors Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and General Dynamics.  Legacy isn’t even the strangest addition to the team, if you include Mawashi Protective Clothing, which is studying the exoskeletons of insects and another group that is looking at how sumo wrestlers move so spryly while carrying such heavy payloads.  The reason for this last bit of research may spring from the fact that the military estimates the weight of the suit to be something like 400 pounds, 365 of which make up the batteries alone, needed to power all of the suit’s crazy features.

$10 million has been spent on the suit so far and the military plans to spend another $70 million to deploy TALOS by 2018.  Ironically, if all of this were taking place in an actual Iron Man flick, Tony Stark would probably end up fighting an army of TALOS soldiers to ensure that his technology didn’t get into the wrong hands.

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3D Printed FingerReader Ring Will Help the Visually Impaired “Rule” Over All Written Text

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There is a lab at MIT where they get to play with all the coolest and newest devices: AR tablets, Oculus Rift, Google Glass and lots of 3D printing — all used to find new ways for us to communicate with computers and for computers to make our lives easier. This is the Fluid Interfaces Group and their latest invention is a 3D printed ring that will help those with visual impairments read 2D printed texts.

Through the FingerReader even those with limited or no vision (that’s 285 million people worldwide, of which 39 million are fully blind, according to the World Health Organization) will be able to interact with all object descriptions anywhere, without having to necessarily rely on Braille text. Restaurant menus, billboards, bus or train schedules and, most of all, books will become accessible all the time.

The way the ring works can be seen clearly in the video below. The 3D printed prototype has sensors that recognize the shape of the text on the page, while helping the person wearing it move in a straight line though a haptic feedback system and a set of cues. For example a mild vibration will indicate the end and the beginning of a line.

All that the person wearing the ring has to do to read is point his or her finger at the written text. The FingerReader team said that they started from the concept that wearing a camera on your index finger would make for a natural interface, since people naturally point at things to ask questions about what’s around them. “About 2.8% of the population in the US has a visual impairment, and the solutions they use right now for reading text are far from optimal”, they explained. “We speculated that giving them a wearable device that is quicker to use and gives them real time feedback would make their lives easier”

The system is far from perfect (this is how it sounds at this stage of development) but its potential is huge. It has already been configured to read eBooks as well as paper texts but once the final version has been finalized, its software can and will evolve to include a wide range of new interface possibilities, such as real time translations or obtaining information without looking away.

Through each new 3D printed iteration of the prototype, it will become more wearable and eventually – as is often the case with MIT projects and graduates – it will go into production. MIT has not yet thought out a marketing and commercialization plan, the enthusiasm and media attention has been overwhelming and it looks like this is going to be another, new… “What’s that word? I have it on the tip of my… finger.” Oh, right: paradigm.

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3D Printed Bio-Bots Use Mouse Muscle to Move

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The study of soft robotics offer distinct advantages to yesterday’s metal clunkers, in that soft machines have greater locomotion and flexibility, with a potentially lower cost.  And, while some people – excluding Ray Kurzweil and friends – could harbor fears about a future in which such robotics are incorporated into human biology, bio-compatible machines have the potential to replace worn out parts of the body.  Recent progress has been made in stimulating engineered heart cells through the use of robotics, but we have yet to see much development in skeletal muscle, the primary means for movement in organisms, until now. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign have just published a paper detailing a 3D printed, artificial tendon controlled by real muscle cells.  Part 3D printed hydrogel, part mouse muscle, the bio-bots from U of I are miniature muscular cyborgs that might have a huge impact in the fields of medicine and soft robotics

The researchers sought to create soft robotics that did not rely on cumbersome hardware that might carry a risk of bodily rejection.  Their solution was to 3D print, using a 3D Systems SLA 3D printer, a flexible hydrogel skeleton with two protruding polls, between which they could seed mouse muscle cells. After placing the skeleton, coated with muscle cells, into a petri dish with a bi-polar electrical field, the team was able to stimulate the muscle cells to contract by giving them an electrical pulse.

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