Hasta La Ideas

News: a group of libertarian activists in the U.S. plans to distribute open-source blueprints for homemade 3D-printed guns, provoking questions about the potential uses of the increasingly affordable technology.

Defense Distributed, the activist group led by Texas law student Cody Wilson, has just received $20,000 in funding for its Wiki Weapon project to create instruction kits for working guns. Individuals would be able to download the kits and use them to 3D-print their own weapons at home, sidestepping the need for a gun license.

News of the project comes just weeks after another American hobbyist became the first person to successfully build and fire a 3D-printed gun. Michael Guslick claimed to have fired 200 rounds from his .22 calibre pistol, which he made by fitting a 3D-printed plastic receiver – the only part of a gun that requires a license in the U.S. – to the other gun components, which don’t have to be registered. Guslick said he then adapted the components to make a semiautomatic rifle (below).

Anab Jain, founder of the collaborative design practice Superflux, drew attention to Guslick’s homemade gun and the legal and ethical questions it posed at last week’s Global Design Forum in London. Making guns with 3D-printing technology might seem “unsettling”, she told the audience, but it points to the dramatic changes that lie ahead as design expertise, technology and equipment become more accessible to individuals.

“The old rules and regulations about who is the designer, who is the manufacturer and who is the distributor change when people have the tools and opportunities to become the designer, manufacturer and distributor themselves,” Jain told Dezeen today.

“The problem is that sometimes we get so scared about new technology and just think about the worst case scenario, which is what happened with GM [genetically modified food],” she added. “It’s about making sure there is a possibility to debate these things instead of just becoming passive consumers and saying, ‘tomorrow I can order a 3D-printed gun if I want’.”

3D printing technology has become significantly more accessible recently, with retailers now offering the printers for as little as $600, but the legality of homemade guns remains an unresolved issue.

On its website, Defense Distributed states: “It is legal to produce any category of weapon you could ordinarily legally own, so long as you are not providing it for sale or are not prohibited from possessing firearms in the first place.” These rules would only be relevant to U.S. citizens, however. ”If you are in another country, proceed with the expectation that every bit of this is illegal,” the website adds.

Today the group made public a letter it had received from StrataSys, a company that makes 3D printers, cancelling their lease of a printer and stating that it was company policy “not to knowingly allow [its] printers to be used for illegal purposes.” Meanwhile, the group has announced that computer files for its ‘WikiWep’ prototype plastic handguns will be made available for download in the coming weeks.

Digital manufacturing and open-source design have dominated the debate at this year’s design fairs. Following Milan’s furniture fair in April, Dezeen’s editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs explored the new era of digitally driven production in a post for our series on technology and design. You can see all our stories on open-source design here.

We also recently reported on a robotic 3D printer that makes architectural structures from sand or soil – see all our stories about 3D printing here.

See all our stories about technology »
See all our stories about the Global Design Forum »

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for 3D-printed Wiki Weapons appeared first on Dezeen.

The first tailor-made 3D printed seats for wheelchair basketball are being used by competitors at the London 2012 Paralympics.

Developed by Loughborough University’s Sports Technology Institute alongside UK Sport, the seats are individually moulded each player’s body.

The customised seats consist of foam interiors and plastic shells, and are a kilogram lighter than conventional wheelchair basketball seats.

Participating athletes had 3D body scans to capture their movements and positions in their existing wheelchairs, then CAD technology was used to shape the outer layer of the seat to suit each individual player and help position the seat onto the frame. The seats were then built up layer by layer using selective laser sintering to accurately replicate the computer models. Four men and four women will use the seats at this year’s Paralympic Games.

The wheelchair basketball finals take place on Friday 7 and Saturday 8 September at the Basketball Arena and the North Greenwich Arena.

We’ve also featured wheelchairs designed to withstand heavy impacts for rugby and to be fast and lightweight for racing. See all our stories about design for Paralympic athletes »

Here is some more information from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council:

Innovative tailor-made seats will be used for the first time by Paralympics GB for the wheelchair basketball events this summer.

Using cutting-edge research the seats are individually moulded for each player to provide the best possible support. They will help the athletes to improve their speed, acceleration and manoeuvrability around the court.

The seats have been developed with UK Sport funding at Loughborough University’s Sports Technology Institute, which is supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

The new seats are revolutionary because they take the individual’s size, shape and particular disability into account. For example, a player with a spinal cord injury will have a seat that provides additional support around their lower back.

Harnessing a range of cutting-edge design and manufacturing techniques and developed in close consultation with the British men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball teams, these customised seats consist of a foam interior and a plastic shell. They are simply clamped onto the current wheelchair design in which the frames are already made to measure for the players.

You can find out more about the research from the team involved in an audio slide show.

“Within any wheelchair basketball team, both the nature and the extent of the players’ physical abilities vary considerably,” says Dr Gavin Williams, who has led the project.

“Traditionally players have had a very limited choice of seat designs and a tailor-made approach was not possible. The new seats, which include part of the back rest, are made specifically to accommodate each individual’s needs”.

Team members initially underwent 3D scans to capture their bodies’ biomechanical movements and their positions in their existing wheelchairs.

The seats are made up using cutting-edge design and manufacturing techniques
A moulding bag containing small polystyrene balls (similar to a bean bag style seat), was used to capture the shape of the player when seated. The seat was then made up by hand.

Computer-aided design (CAD) capabilities were then used to refine the shape of the outer layer of the seat to suit each individual player and help position the seat onto the frame.

Using this prototype the next stage involved quickly producing copies of each individual seat so that they could be further tested and amended if necessary following feedback. For this speedy production an additive manufacturing technique called selective laser sintering (otherwise known as 3D printing) was used to build up each seat layer by layer. This resulted in a final product that exactly replicated what was on the computer screen.

This is the first time anywhere in the world that these existing techniques have been harnessed together to produce a sports wheelchair seat.

Improvements in speed, acceleration and manoeuvrability for the players were achieved.

“The sprint tests, for instance, showed that the new seats enabled the athletes to shave tenths of a second off their best times,” says Dr Williams. “That represents a huge improvement in a player’s ability to reach the ball and move around the court.

The seats save a kilo of weight with the overall chair being two kilos lighter than the chairs that were used in Beijing because of other modifications to the chair itself.

“The advances we’ve made also have the potential to feed into improved seat design for wheelchair users in general,” says Dr Williams. “In particular, bespoke seats could reduce the problems with pressure sores currently experienced by a great number of wheelchair users.”

In total 8 players, four men and four women will be using the new seats at the Paralympics this year.

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for wheelchair basketball appeared first on Dezeen.

Competition: we are giving our readers the chance to win one of ten weekend passes to the 3D Print Show, taking place from 19 to 21 October 2012 in London.

Above: Voxel Posse by Universal Everything.
Top: A Wrong Mongrel Collection by Ross Barber.

London’s first live 3D print event will showcase a range of uses for the technology from architecture, medicine and archaeology to design in transport, homeware and fashion.

Above: Dominick by Sophie Kahn.

The event will feature demonstrations and activities such as live designing and printing, with workshops, seminars and talks running across the three days.

Above: Kafka by Neri Oxman.

Selected works on display will include sculpture, jewellery design, animation and interactive art.

Above: Stonecollar by Sofia Bjorkman.

The exhibition will be held at The Brewery, 52 Chiswell Street, London EC1Y 4SD and tickets are available here if you are not lucky enough to win.

Above: Groomer by Eric van Straaten.

To enter this competition email your name, age, gender, occupation, and delivery address and telephone number to competitions@dezeen.com with “3D Print Show” in the subject line. We won’t pass your information on to anyone else; we just want to know a little about our readers.

Above: Intersecting Arches by Joshua DeMonte.

Read our privacy policy here.

Above: Random Growth Series by Jonathan Keep.

Competition closes 11 September 2012. Ten winners will be selected at random and notified by email. Winners’ names will be published in a future edition of our Dezeenmail newsletter and at the top of this page. Dezeen competitions are international and entries are accepted from readers in any country.

The post Competition: ten tickets to 3D Print Show
to be won appeared first on Dezeen.

A bird’s skull inspired the hollow heel of these 3D-printed shoes by Dutch fashion designer Marieka Ratsma and American architect Kostika Spaho.

Ratsma and Spaho used the shape of a bird’s cranium for the front of the shoe, with the tapered beak as the spike of the heel.

The lightweight and efficient structure of the hollow skull allowed the shoe to be 3D-printed using less material.

Other 3D-printed shoes we’ve featured on Dezeen include ‘invisible’ and mirrored designs by Andreia Chaves and a bespoke pair by Marloes ten Bhömer.

See all our stories about shoes »
See all our stories about 3D printing »

Photography by Thomas van Schaik.

Here’s some more information from the designer:

The Biomimicry shoe is the result of a unique collaboration between Dutch fashion designer Marieka Ratsma and American architect Kostika Spaho. The idea for this shoe highlights the aesthetics and the shape of the bird skull, along with the characteristics of the lightweight and highly differentiated bone structure within the cranium. Such structure requires less support material, resulting in optimal efficiency, strength and elegance. Nature has been the main source of inspiration for the making and shaping of this shoe.

By looking at nature in a different way, she can open our eyes to ingenious systems and ways of life. Nature can inspire us towards inventive designs and productive, successful collaborations. Also for fashion, nature can be a great inspiration, especially for the use of materials and smarter constructions. Fast developing techniques such as 3D printing can help us by giving the possibility to approach nature’s shapes even more closely. Nature functions as no other in the use of sources, collaborations and bundling forces. The insight that nature gives us can be used for a new way of approaching design.

The post Biomimicry Shoe by Marieka Ratsma
and Kostika Spaho appeared first on Dezeen.

Dutch Design Week 2011: components for this furniture by Rotterdam designers Minale-Maeda can be downloaded, 3D-printed and assembled locally. 

Consumers can download the blueprints for each piece and alter the dimensions to suit.

The required connecting components could be 3D-printed locally and the sheet materials cut to size at a hardware store.

Each piece is designed for simple assembly and to explicitly display its construction.

Minale-Maeda aim to give consumers more control and reduce energy expended in transporting whole items of furniture.

The project is on show at After the Bit-rush: Design in a Post Digital Age curated by Eindhoven cultural institute MU, who also commissioned the Temporary Trees in our earlier story.

Dutch Design Week continues until 30 October. See all our stories about the event in our special category.

Here are some more details from the designers:

Designed specifically to be downloadable in order to reduce environmental issues related to transport, costs of stock keeping and explore collaborative design and distribution, this furniture can be edited in size and materials, is made on location or can be self-made by downloading the blueprints. The concept was to turn the pieces inside out to make construction simple, while brackets and structural details become distinctive and attractive features. The connections are 3d printed to suit various sizes of wood, and the crafting is minimal requiring only cutting to length and drilling.

Material: wood, polyamide

See also:

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Temporary Trees at Dutch Design Week	City Music at Dutch Design Week	Kids’ Furniture at Dutch Design Week