When it comes to fashion and design, terms such as “design,” “form,” “function,” and “style” come to mind. Now, as technology continues to impact the design of the garments we wear, other terms such as “wearable,” “kinetic,” “biometric,” “organic,” and “connected-self” are becoming more common as well.
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What Is 3D Printing?
3D printing, also known as desktop fabrication, or additive manufacturing (AM), is a process for making three-dimensional objects or models. 3D printing has been quoted in the Financial Times and by other sources as potentially being larger than the internet. Applications of 3D printing continue to emerge everyday, as this technology continues to penetrate more widely and deeply across industrial, maker, and consumer sectors. By 2018, the 3D printing industry is expected to grow to $16.2 billion, according to Canalys.
What is a 3D Printer?
The 3D printer is not like your personal home printer – it offers a way to translate digital rendering, drawing, and ideas on computer screens into real-world, tangible items. On a 3D printer, the object is printed in three dimensions and a model is built up layer-by-layer. This process is referred to as “rapid prototyping.” On average, a 3D printer can cost anywhere from $500 up to $5,000. In recent years, the costs have subsided, allowing 3D printers to be more accessible to the public. To get a better understanding of current 3D printer models available, check out Engadget’s comprehensive guide.
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Why Is 3D Printing Important?
Designers claim that 3D printing removes the constraints set by traditional manufacturing and that it will revolutionize the design process. 3D printing is based on an advanced technology that additively builds up parts of a model – without requiring manufacturers to stick to restrictive templates that limit product design, development, and creation. Without needing to subtract materials, designers can reduce material waste by up to 90%. This flexibility allows designers to cut their lead-to-market and production times and reduce their costs.
The Benefits Of 3D Printing
Mass Customization: 3D printing allows designers and brands to provide their customers the ability to personalize products. Given the layers enabled by additive manufacturing, the sky’s the limit on the types of products that can be created at very little additional process cost. Athletic wear brands such as Nike, Converse (a Nike-owned brand), Adidas, and New Balance have already seen success through 3D printing, enabling customers to customize anywhere from 4 to 12 features of their sneakers at a fixed, flat rate cost.
Kinematics from Nervous System on Vimeo.
Design Complexity: 3D Printing enables designers and manufacturers to create much more complex and intricately detailed products that could not otherwise be physically produced. A great example is Nervous System Jewelry founded by MIT Graduates Jessica Rosenkrantz and Jesse Louis-Rosenberg. Nervous System is a generative design studio that functions (in 3D and 4D) at the intersection of science, art, and technology, integrating natural elements of the world into their designs. “Our work is not simply about mimicking biological forms but trying to understand the processes by which those forms come about. We then abstract those processes into a distinctly non-biological context to create designed objects,” says Co-Founder Jesse Louis-Rosenberg.
Cost Control: In traditional manufacturing, product development is the most time, cost, and labor intensive part of the design process. 3D printing alters the entire product development process, eliminating many of traditional tools needed to create products, and thus lowers costs on all three fronts. According to 3DPrintingIndustry.com, “3D printing may also enable designers to create things, whether locally or overseas, specific to their geographic regions, thus eliminating huge inventories and unsustainable logistics for shipping high volumes of products around the world.”
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Is 3D Printing Worth The Investment?
If you’re interested in learning more about 3D printing and exploring if it can or should be used in your production process, there are a number of online (and free!) resources that can help you determine if it’s the right fit for your business. Several design databases offer a plethora of information and free CAD libraries for inspiration. Of these, we suggest you look into the following:
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GrabCAD: A design community and resource that offers over 140,000 CAD designs for users.
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Google 3D Warehouse: 3D Warehouse is a design and production distribution platform for items designed on Google Sketchup. Home/Interior product designers such as Steelcase, Brizo and Kohler have found great success with this tool.
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Ponoko Product Plans: Ponoko believes that people should download their products from the Internet and make them locally. They offer a comprehensive product offering that anyone can print.
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Shapeways 3D Parts Database: Shapeways is an end-to-end design and manufacturing solution for a small businesses and designers.
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MarketBot’s Thingiverse: Thingiverse is the world’s largest 3D printing design community for discovering, making, and sharing 3D printable items. In the spirit of maintaining an open platform, all designs are encouraged to be licensed under a Creative Commons license, meaning that anyone can use or alter any design.
Designers tend to start with free 3D modeling softwares such as:
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Google SketchUp – Google SketchUp is fun, free, and easy-to-use design tool. To build models in SketchUp, you draw edges and faces using a few simple tools that you can learn in a short time. With with Push/Pull tool you can extrude any flat surface into a 3D form.
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3Dtin - A very simple 3D software, 3Dtin allows you to draw directly from your browser.
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Blender – Blender is a free, open source 3D content creation suite that’s available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License. The powerful program contains features that are characteristic of high-end 3D software.
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OpenSCAD – Free software and available for Linux/UNIX, MS Windows and Mac OS X, OpenSCAD is a software for creating solid 3D CAD objects. The software focuses on the CAD aspects of 3D modeling rather than the artistic aspects.
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Tinkercad – Tinkercad is a new and quick way of creating designs for your 3D printer. It has three basic tools from which you can create a wide range of products. Once your project is ready, simply download the STL file and print it.
Expert Advice: To gain a more comprehensive understanding of 3D software, check out 3D Printing For Beginners’ free software and paid software lists. Also, download MakerShed’s Guide MAKE.
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The first step to considering if 3D printing is right for your business is research. Once you’ve researched the initial startup and investment costs cost of 3D printers, software costs, and design templates, compare these costs to your current manufacturing costs. Then, overlay your materials and design manufacturing costs. Compare your current costs to those powered by 3D printing. Does one outweigh the other?
Once you’ve determined if you should explore 3D as a manufacturing option, speak to other designers and look for industry expert opinions on the long-term viability of the business model in order to establish if this process is in fact beneficial to your business.
Images courtesy of NERVOUS SYSTEM, ENGADGET, Shapeways, and August Australian edition of Harper’s Bazaar