Core77 2013 Year in Review: Digital Fabrication, Part 2 – Materials, Processes and Business Developments
Posted in: Digital Fabrication
Core77 2013 Year in Review: Top Ten Posts · Furniture, Pt. 1 · Furniture, Pt. 2
Digital Fabrication, Pt. 1 · Digital Fabrication, Pt. 2 · Digital Fabrication, Pt. 3 · Digital Fabrication, Pt. 4
Insights from the Core77 Questionnaire · Maker Culture: The Good, the Bad and the Future · Food & Drink
Materials, Pt. 1: Wood
For the story of digital fabrication in 2013, it hasn’t just been the rise of the machines; we’ve also seen developments in materials, processes and business.
Materialise’s TPU-92A-1
For starters, Belgian digital fabrication company Materialise released TPU 92A-1, a new material for laser sintering. Durable yet elastic, the new stuff is a counterintuitive blend of flexible, durable, abrasion- and tear-resistant, and when sintered into a matrix-like form, has impressive shape memory. A certain fashion designer has taken to the material with a vengeance, but we’ll get around to actual applications in the next entry.
Shapeways’ Brass and Gold
On a more conventional front, Materialise competitor Shapeways brings two classic elements into their materials stable: gold and brass, now available through a combination of 3D printing, casting and old-fashioned hand polishing (and electroplating, in the case of gold). And unlike TPU 92A-1, which seems to be available only to industrial customers, anyone using Shapeways’ services can order the stuff.
LAYWOO-D3 Wooden 3D Printing Filament
From Germany came LAYWOO-D3, a 3D-printing filament made from 40% recycled wood bound together by polymer. Advertised as “cherry,” the stuff reportedly looks like wood, smells like wood, and can be sanded, worked and painted like wood once it’s out of the printer.
Modern Meadow 3D Printed Meat
A material for 3D printing that none of you may be clamoring for is… meat. Andras Forgacs and his Modern Meadow company are seeking to produce meat-based protein for human consumption by bioengineering the stuff and having it spit out of a printer; for the sake of—I dunno, authenticity?—they’ll reportedly keep the meat animal-specific, “Pig stays pig. Cow stays cow. Etc.” to “ensure purity.” Mmmmmmm. [retch]
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