BigRep 3D Printers Used to Make Replicas of Apollo 11 Capsule for Oscar-Nominated Film Last Man1/25/2019
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BigRep 3D Printers Used to Make Replicas of Apollo 11 Capsule for Oscar-Nominated Film Last Man http://bit.ly/2Tf9mZ7 It’s safe to say that in Ohio at least, winter is here with a vengeance. But while I’m already sick of the ice and snow that come part and parcel with the season, I do actually like winter for another, very different reason: the movies. We are now deep in awards show season, with the Golden Globes and the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards in the rear-view mirror, the SAG Awards this weekend, and the 91st Academy Awards coming up at the end of February. Even though I’m a little salty that not a single female director was nominated this year, I’m looking forward to once again taking over the television for the night (sorry, husband!) on February 24th and following along with the televised awards ceremony to look at all of the amazing dresses and see who gets to take home an Oscar. But the Academy Awards aren’t just about glamorous red carpet looks, or even about celebrating and acknowledging the work of excellent actors, directors, and writers in making great films. They are also about awarding the achievements of those who work behind the scenes with cutting-edge, modern technology…like 3D printing. For the last few years, 3D printing has played a part at the Oscars ceremony, as the technology is now used to help make the dazzling statuette. 3D printing has also been used to help make multiple Academy Award-nominated movies in recent years. Designer and Shapeways community member Igor Knezevic was part of the Art Department team for the movie Passengers, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Production Design in 2017. In the same year, the stop-motion film Kubo and the Two Strings was nominated at the Oscars for Best Animated Feature Film and Best Achievement in Visual Effects, winning the latter award. Oregon-based animation studio LAIKA used 3D printing to make two characters for the movie – a 400 lb, 16-foot-tall Skeleton Demon puppet and the flying Moonbeast, which was the studio’s first fully 3D printed character. This year, another movie that utilized 3D printing techniques during production was once again nominated for an Academy Award. Oscar-winning director Damien Chazelle was at the helm for the 2018 film First Man, a biographical drama that counts Steven Spielberg as an executive producer and stars Ryan Gosling as astronaut Neil Armstrong in the years leading up to the groundbreaking Apollo 11 spaceflight that resulted in man walking on the moon for the first time. Coincidentally, this week marks the 50th anniversary of that amazing moment in history when Armstrong uttered those famous words on the surface of the moon: that’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. The movie, which also stars Claire Foy as Armstrong’s wife Janet, is a biopic spanning the years 1961-1969 and explores the sacrifices that Armstrong, his family, and the nation, had to face during and leading up to the dangerous space mission. According to IMDB, Armstrong’s sons Mark and Rick said that the film was “the most accurate portrayal” they’d seen of their parents.
During production for First Man, the team called on large-scale 3D printing company BigRep for help in creating a scale replica of the Apollo 11 capsule, along with some other iconic replicas as well. The film’s production team used the massive BigRep ONE 3D printer for the job, and had two of the systems running for six months, around the clock every day, in order to finish the job in time. All of this hard work resulted in some very lifelike 3D printed replicas from a major moment in American aerospace history. 3DPrint.com asked Michel David, a BigRep 3D Printing Specialist, some questions about the company’s work in Hollywood, including what materials were used to create the 3D printed historical replicas.
We also wanted to know about the amount of post-processing work that had to be completed before the 3D printed replicas were ready for their close-ups.
An important aspect of any manufacturing job, whether it’s making a movie or making airplane cabin components, is sticking to the budget. So we also asked David if using BigRep’s 3D printers helped save on the cost of fabricating the replicas for the film.
First Man was nominated for four Academy Awards, all in the technical categories: Best Achievement in Sound Editing, Best Achievement in Sound Mixing, Best Achievement in Production Design, and Best Achievement in Visual Effects. The film is up against some stiff competition, such as Black Panther, Ready Player One, and Bohemian Rhapsody, another biopic. I know who I’ll be rooting for come February 24th. Discuss this news and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below. [Images provided by BigRep] Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com January 25, 2019 at 02:18PM
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3D Printing Twisting and Rotational Bistable Structures http://bit.ly/2RjVbjW In a paper entitled “3D printing of twisting and rotational bistable structures with tuning elements,” a group of researchers points out that most 3D printed structures so far have been “static structures with fixed shapes and functions.” They then go on to introduce bistability to 3D printing – particularly twisting and rotational bistable structures. They use shape memory polymers (SMPs) to do so; SMPs are smart materials that can memorize a permanent shape as well as have multiple temporary shapes.
Using tunable SMP elements embedded in twisting and rotational components, the researchers were able to adjust twisting or rotational angles and control the overall shape of the bistability-energy diagram. These tunable bistable components can be used for simplified motion control in actuators or for mechanical switches. A Stratasys J750 multi-material 3D printer was used to 3D print the components. The researchers introduced special joints to construct twisting and rotational bistable components without post-assembly. Ball joints were used in twisting components, and pin joints in rotational ones.
Bistable structures have two stable states that are separated by an energy barrier.
A bistable structure remains stable over time without energy consumption because it is in a stable-energy position. Small disturbances do not change the stable position, the researchers continue, so an open-loop motion control system is adequate for accurate motion control. Introducing SMPs into bistable components can potentially enable stimuli-responsive motions that are useful for smart and programmable sensors and actuators, according to the researchers. SMPs can be used to enable active reconfiguration in bistable structures. Authors of the paper include Hoon Yeub Jeung, Soo-Chan An, In Cheol Seo, Eunseo Lee, Sangho Ha, Namhun Kim and Young Chul Jun. Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below.
Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com January 25, 2019 at 11:36AM Microlight3D Introduces New Altraspin 3D Printing System for High-Resolution Microscale Parts1/25/2019 Microlight3D Introduces New Altraspin 3D Printing System for High-Resolution, Microscale Parts http://bit.ly/2Wiw6Jy As you can probably guess by its name, French 3D printer manufacturer Microlight3D specializes in ultra high-resolution 3D microprinting systems. The company’s two-photon polymerization direct laser writing technology, which includes proprietary software specifically tuned for faster direct laser writing speeds with sub-micron resolution, allows a laser to move freely in three dimensions, performing uninterrupted 3D printing inside a polymer resist. This week, Microlight3D launched the next generation of high resolution, microscale 3D printing with its new turnkey system – the compact Altraspin, a 3D printer that can produce extremely complex micro-parts with sub-micron resolution.
The Altraspin can achieve a sub-micron resolution down to 0.2µm, which means it can 3D print micro-parts with a resolution that’s 100 times smaller than a single strand of hair, which is great news for applications that need a high-quality surface finish and exact precision, such as cell culture, micro-sensors, metamaterials, micro-optics, tissue engineering, and 3D printing shapes that can fit inside microfluidic devices. The company’s technology uses a proprietary continuous print flow technique, which is how it manages to not be constrained by the typical layer-by-layer method that limits most 3D printing resolution to 25µm. It’s able to fabricate micro-parts that are so smooth they don’t need any post-processing, which can save manufacturers both time and money. When designing the new Altraspin 3D printer, Microlight3D focused on its ease of use. As soon as the user designs a 3D model with CAD tools and picks a polymer material, the company’s algorithms will calculate the laser’s path. A laser pulse then writes directly inside the printer’s liquid-material bath in order to very precisely solidify the path it’s taking. The laser can build complex architectures, since it’s able to move around freely and continuously, and a solvent washes away the excess monomer at the end of the process, so users can handle the print immediately upon removal. The Altraspin has high-writing resolution and precision, along with high-writing speeds, for complex 3D structures, and also features a new TPP slicing tool. Due to its compact design, it’s well-suited for use in clean-room and sterile environments, along with laminar flow cabinets. Additional tech specs for the Altraspin include:
Next week at the two-day SPIE BiOS expo, which is part of the week-long Photonics West event in San Francisco, Microlight3D will be exhibiting its new Altraspin 3D printer at its booth #8136. VIDEO Discuss this news and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below. [Source: Optics/ Images: Microlight3D] Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com January 25, 2019 at 01:12AM BEEVERYCREATIVE Continues Work with ESA: New ISS 3D Printer to be Developed http://bit.ly/2RQUrrB BEEVERYCREATIVE first established an outer space connection in 2016, when the Portuguese company was asked by the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop a breadboard, or prototype, 3D printer for the International Space Station. Project Manufacturing of Experimental Layer Technology, or MELT, was successfully delivered to the ISS last May as a fully functional 3D printer prototype capable of 3D printing in microgravity conditions and utilizing engineering polymers with high end mechanical and thermal properties. Now BEEVERYCREATIVE has been recruited by the ESA again. Project Imperial, like Project MELT, will be carried out by an international consortium of organizations. It will be led by OHB System AG, one of Europe’s three leading space companies. OHB System has been heavily involved in space manufacturing over the last three years, having participated in Project MELT as well as a study called URBAN, which involved the conception of a lunar base using 3D printing technologies. The goal of Project Imperial is to design, develop and test a fully functioning 3D printer model that can perform under the requirements of the International Space Station. The printer will use engineering thermoplastics and alleviate build volume constraints. In order to demonstrate the 3D printer’s functionality, several parts will need to be 3D printed and tested. The printed parts, according to BEEVERYCREATIVE, will demonstrate the capability of in-space manufacturing to enable new maintenance and life support strategies for human space flight.
Also involved in the project will be German space company Sonaca Space GmbH and Ireland’s Athlone Institute of Technology. Project Imperial is the latest endeavor to advance in-space 3D printing, a long-term project with many participants that began with the first 3D printer delivered to the ISS in 2014. A lot of the news surrounding 3D printing in space relates to that 3D printer and its follow-up, the Additive Manufacturing Facility, manufactured by Made In Space and sponsored by NASA. While NASA grabs many of the headlines, however, the ESA is plenty busy with the development of 3D printers capable of performing in zero gravity, as demonstrated by Project MELT and now Project Imperial. Regardless of who is building the 3D printers, however, the fact is that in-space manufacturing is thriving, with 3D printing becoming the go-to technology for creating spare parts, medical supplies, and other needed items for astronauts on board the ISS. In-space 3D printing has come a long way since that first 3D printer was delivered, with ISS printers now capable of printing with engineering-grade materials and growing more advanced with every iteration. Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below. [Images: BEEVERYCREATIVE]
Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com January 25, 2019 at 12:30AM
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TU Delft Researcher Worked with Ultimaker to Investigate Intent-Based 3D Printing http://bit.ly/2Tf35wr Joost Kuitert is a master’s student of Integrated Product Design at TU Delft in the Netherlands. According to Kuitert, 3D printer users have many action possibilities to choose from when 3D printing, but these have not been translated into easily understandable controls that match their intentions. For a final graduation thesis, titled “Intent-Based Material Extrusion 3D Printing: Moving from process-driven to intent-driven 3D printing,” Kuitert collaborated with Ultimaker to design a way for other 3D printer users to match their intended outcome with the final 3D printing, in what is referred to as intent-based 3D printing. In this study, intent means a representation of a mix of several actions that an actor, or multiple actors, might need to complete to achieve a goal. Kuitert believes that “3D printers are part of the next generation of enabling devices which empower professionals in their work,” and chose Ultimaker because it’s a leader in the 3D printing market and works to create a seamless 3D printing approach through its software, hardware, and materials. Based on desk research about Ultimaker (material extrusion, 3D printing workflow, etc.) and user experiments, which analyzed what role user intent plays in the workflow, Kuitert developed eight different design opportunities for intent-based 3D printing approaches:
Kuitert limited testing to control of goal-oriented settings and component-level manipulations, and concluded that user guidance, in addition to “the educative experience of print preparation,” can be improved by using component profiles in print preparation. Beginners are more confident that they’ll achieve their desired part qualities, and while expert users may feel like they have less control with the objective plugin, they can still be confident that their print will come out the way they intended it.
The goal of the study is to give 3D printer users the means with which to better voice their intentions during the workflow, along with a system that can identify these intentions and provide the user with meaningful, important feedback.
The thesis discusses the ins and outs of material extrusion 3D printing and the 3D printing workflow, before moving on to who is using Ultimaker 3D printers, and in what context they’re being used. Then, Kuitert investigated and analyzed the 3D printing market and trends, and two chapters are dedicated entirely to intent, before getting to the eight design opportunities for intent-based 3D printing.
Kuitert also explained the process behind making a prototype of the Cura plugin for intent-based 3D printing, which would “test the user interaction of assigning component profiles to parts of the model in order to achieve intended results.” Later, two user tests were conducted to validate the plugin prototype model.
Kuitert finished up with some research recommendations that would help further develop this concept of objective, intent-based 3D printing.
Discuss this research and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com January 25, 2019 at 12:18AM 3D Printed Robotic Mesh Structures Controlled by Magnetic Fields http://bit.ly/2B1HtN4 Researchers at North Carolina State University have created a new kind of robot – one that floats on water and can be controlled with applied magnetic fields. These 3D printed flexible mesh structures can grab small objects and carry water droplets, allowing them to mimic creatures living on water surfaces. They can also potentially serve as tissue scaffolds for cell cultures.
The research was published in a paper entitled “3D-Printed Silicone Soft Architectures with Programmed Magneto-Capillary Reconfiguration.” In the paper, the researchers describe how they made an ink from silicone microbeads, bound by liquid silicone and contained in water. This resulted in a “homocomposite thixotropic paste” that resembles toothpaste in that it can easily be squeezed through an aperture but then retain its shape once deposited. The researchers then used a 3D printer to shape the paste into mesh-like patterns. The patterns were cured in an oven to create flexible silicone structures that can be stretched and collapsed by the application of magnetic fields.
The structures can also be used when floating on water, similar to insects such as water striders.
The researchers describe in the paper how they were able to create reconfigurable meshes, a structure that could grab a tiny ball of aluminum foil and a structure that could carry a single water droplet and then release it through the mesh on demand. How this worked involved the researchers turning on a magnetic field, which caused the mesh to contract towards the center and hold a droplet of water on its surface. When the magnetic field was turned off, the mesh stretched out to its full size again, letting the droplet fall through. This design could allow for the transportation of liquids and the option to mix them on demand.
Authors of the paper include Sangchul Roh, Lilian B. Okello, Nuran Golbasi, Jameson P. Hankwitz, Jessica A.-C. Liu, Joseph B. Tracy and Orlin D. Velev. VIDEO VIDEO VIDEO Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below. [Source/Images: North Carolina State University]
Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com January 25, 2019 at 12:09AM $22 Million BASF and Materialise Essentium Investment, Analysis and Comment http://bit.ly/2RM0uxj BASF Venture Capital along with Materialise and Genesis Park closed their $22.2 million investment in Essentium. The company stated that the “The funding round will be used to scale manufacturing, engineering, international distribution, sales and marketing operations to meet market demand for the recently introduced Essentium High Speed Extrusion (HSE) Platform” which it feels will have an impact on the “manufacturing workflow of automotive, aerospace, contract manufacturing and biomedical industries.” Sven Thate of BASF Venture Capital stated that,
Blake Teipel, the CEO of Essentium said that,
What is Essentium? Delivering on paper one imagines. Essentium is a Texas-based (Pflugerville again, is it something in the water?) materials and 3D printer OEM that aims to make 3D printers and materials for manufacturing. Their offering is very timely and seems to tick all of the right boxes. They state that their machines are ten times faster than current generation machines. Their HSE 180 S Platform will be a 740 x 510 x 650mm printer with a 600°C nozzle temperature with closed-loop temperature control and a 110°C, “fully-enclosed, multi-modal heated chamber” and a “200°C heating temp; multi-surface heated bed.” The motion stages are all linear and the printers claimed movement speed is 1m per second. The printer costs $75,000 and if it has that temperature performance it could print high-performance materials such as PPA’s, Ultem, PEKK, PEEK and similar materials. The company wants to appeal to manufacturing and are making materials together with BASF. What does Essentium have going for it? Any high-temperature industrial machine with high speed is going to be an exciting proposition at this moment for aerospace and automotive companies. In closing the Octagon the company has the vision of making materials and the machine right simultaneously which would seem to be a good approach. In partnering with Materialise which has decades of experience in manufacturing they could get a lot of really expert feedback in using 3D printing for end-use parts. Materialise’s deep software expertise could also be a real boon to the firm. They could also get in contact with use cases and customers in 3D printing to get their feedback through them. With BASF on board, they have a tonne of polymer expertise as well as real heft with industrial firms. Essentium also has Flash Fuse technology. In Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM, FFF and Material Extrusion) one of the problems is that you build up the object layer by layer. So in the X and Y plane you lay down nice melty gloopy plastic and then you go up a layer and do it again. Then you wait for those two layers to settle in gently and harden. Obviously, in between these layers, you will have issues with layer adhesion and because of this with your overall part strength. If pulled apart your part will tend to come apart where the layers are supposed to be fused. FDM 3D printed parts are therefore anisotropic because of this: eg are stronger in one particular direction. This is opposed to parts being isotropic, or as strong in all directions. Engineers always are oohing and aaahing about isotropy in 3D printing and say its preferable and then they go on and build cars with bumpers only on some sides. Generally, they love it when you make parts more isotropic. Many firms have tried to get better layer adhesion in FDM and improve interlayer (and intralayer) bonding through additives or changing the cooling and heating process. Essentium’s Flash Fuse technology combines regular FDM with plasma welding in a totally brilliant way.
This sounds a lot like making a kind of a Plasma Transferred Arc Weld Deposition FDM hybrid or indeed sounds similar to the 2003 3D printing technology Microplasma Powder Deposition. The precise control could let them fuse layers in a much more fundamental way than just simply placing them ontop of one another could. Essentium maintains that with this “you are now able to fuse the individual layers in the printed part together inside the printer as the parts are being built. No postprocessing. This technology is scalable and can be applied to any type of thermoplastic.” These parts could then be much stronger in their Z direction than other parts printed on FDM systems. If Essentium’s claims hold out in production systems then they may have found a way for manufacturing companies to make very strong and potentially very smooth (and perhaps annealed?) 3D printed parts straight on the machine. Very little data is available on Essentium’s systems and how they actually hold up in manufacturing environments. In every case we should be careful when assessing a company by its own promises. Part of the effort here at 3DPrint.com is to bring some much-needed realism and analysis to the Cheer squad that is 3D printing blogging so please don’t hate us when we repeat that claims of a company making true manufacturing materials on a true manufacturing machine can only be verified if independent people have access to materials and output of those machines and know what real life yield and part performance is like. Tonnes of 3D printing ideas are good but as we move into manufacturing the battle will be won and lost not in the press release but on the factory floor. So it will take quite some time for these claims to percolate back to us as beliefs held by people we know and trust. Compared to many other FDM companies, however, Essentium seems to have tangible core advantages in the focus on materials and machine as well as the strong partners and cash that they have. They’re definitely a contender for true FDM manufacturing systems if indeed they work. If Flash Fuse were to work then it may be a significant leap for them and our industry. What are the threats and limitations to them? FDM is a very competitive field with hundreds of competitors. Many are trying to build a machine much like the Essentium but lacking the special sauce of Flash Fuse. Their technology is patented but could one achieve the same results with another welding process? Could targetted cooling also get one very similar results at much lower cost? Will their BASF partnership mean that other materials companies will shy away from the platform? Will, that deter industrial adoption? Will this actually work in a production setting? What is the surface quality of parts like? How dimensionally accurate are parts? It would seem that warping be less of an issue but are there any residual effects of their Flash Fuse process? Apart from this, how good is this as an FDM platform? Sure their platform can bring the heat and indeed heat and cool quickly and higher yield sounds great but what are scrap rates? Just improving better layer adhesion is only one feature, simultaneously the firm will have to ensure machine reliability and repeatability while having parts perform. Printer making can be kind of a unicycle while you’re juggling kind of challenge and apart from a cool technology and the right idea the company will have to get a whole host of other things right. What is the value proposition actually? Where does this system’s performance lie when compared to existing technologies? It seems good but for what sized part at what cost would I use this over existing FDM or SLS? How open is this system and how easy is it to introduce new polymers and new blends to it? Do all plastics work as they contend? Or must they all be blended or added to? If so what does that do to qualification and real-world performance of parts? The company has not yet released a machine widely and indeed this is their first. 3D printers are very complex beasts because there is so much interplay between materials, environment, mechanical engineering, software etc. All 3D printers have teething problems and some are lemons. To what extent this will plague Essentium going forward is not known. Conclusion On the whole, this is still a giant leap for the Texan contender in FDM for manufacturing. With good partners and a good focus, the company could really make the leap into manufacturing. But, the truth will be determined on concrete floors by people with clipboards in the coming years. What do you think?
Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com January 24, 2019 at 12:09PM
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Alycia Rainaud ⏤ Malavida http://bit.ly/2MsbSsB Alycia Rainaud, also known as Malavida, is a French graphic designer and digital artist based in Paris. Raised in the south of France, she recently graduated from a graphic design masters degree in June 2018 with her thesis dealing with book shaping and psychology. Rainaud began practising under the name and persona Malavida from 2016, producing artworks as a way of expressing feelings and life’s complexity through daily abstract creations. As a double-sided creative, she’s influenced and passionate about publishing design, hybrid books, new technologies, but also mental health, visual effects, and experiments. While studying for 8 years, Rainaud has been committed to working with lots of different processes such as offset and silkscreen printing, painting, 3D rendering, virtual reality and algorithms. Learning these techniques led the designer to build her own creative process to achieve strong vivid and contrasted artworks, mimicking holographic shifting colours that are honestly quite mesmerising. Although she has a sort of split identity, both parts of her work often merge in an attempt to blur the boundaries between graphic design and art by showing her singularity and open-mindedness about being a contemporary creative. Want to be a People of Print Member? APPLY HERE. If you would like to apply to become an Official People of Print member please fill out this form: http://poprnt.pl/popmembers Latest posts by POP Members (see all)Alycia Rainaud ⏤ Malavida was last modified: January 24th, 2019 by POP Members Printing via People of Print http://bit.ly/2DhgcW7 January 24, 2019 at 10:59AM
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How to Create Landing Pages for a Facebook Ad Campaign http://bit.ly/2DxR1kF When it comes to marketing and advertising, nothing seems to work better these days than social media. People love social channels, and the latest numbers give solid proof to the concept. There are over 2 billion monthly active users on Facebook and most of them spend more hours a day on the platform than on any other website whatsoever. As of consequence, it’s only obvious to use Facebook as solid marketing and advertising platform.
Facebook is the most popular social media platform with over 79% of the Americans using it. More than half of the US residents check with their Facebook accounts several times a day.
Are these numbers, combined with the fact that almost half of the users follow at least one brand page giving proof that you should use the platform? Sure they are. And, since Facebook offers an advertising channel as well, one that is easy to use and target the right audience, you can also focus on this if you have a budget for such expenditures. A Facebook ad is nothing without a Facebook landing page. You need to attract people to click on your message, but at the same time, you’ll need to keep them interested once they do it. How? Well, with this article, I will try to show you how to create that landing page for a successful Facebook ad campaign.
What is a Facebook landing page?Before digging into the subject, it’s only logical to start with the basics. In this context, you may wonder about the concept of a landing page and its usefulness. Let’s try to answer first the most important question: What is a Facebook advertising landing page?
Definition: A Facebook landing page is/should be created as an interface that drives in visitors’ action. It can be a standalone page on an external website or a custom tab within an already existing Facebook page. It compels the audience to follow up on what the ad was asking them to do, sign up for a newsletter, donate money, buy a product or a service or just share something like a piece of news or another page. Today, we’re going to focus on Facebook landing pages, the landing tabs that are created within a Facebook page to drive in the traffic generated by an advertising campaign. Here’s an example from Disney’s Facebook Shop landing page::
Why you should create a Facebook landing pageWell, we know or at least we should already know that every ad campaign should have a personalized landing page that meets the user intent. Why create such a page on Facebook and not on a standalone website? Well, there are a lot of people using Facebook as their main gateway to the world and who don’t wish to leave the platform whatsoever. They might not like to be guided to an external website but they’d most certainly read a page that seems in many ways familiar to them. I am talking about a page hosted on Facebook itself, the platform they’ve seen the ad on. On the other hand, this one may not be your only campaign. Maybe there are many other campaigns to follow. Leading your audience on a free and easy to set up platform such as Facebook, will allow you to save precious time and money by not having to pay for domain names, hosting and of course, website development. In other words, it’s easier to set up a landing page on Facebook. Easier than doing it on your own platform, of course.
How to create an effective Facebook landing page?There are, of course, many ways in which you can create a landing page. And, there are many landing page types that can prove to be effective for an advertising campaign. Your success may depend, however, on several factors such as the visuals of choice and of course, the professionality of the design and your target audience. Also, there are a couple of steps that might help you deal with these factors. Let’s try and list them:
1. Choose the landing page that better suits your campaign.In other words, make sure your landing page properly suits the aim of the advertisement. Ask yourself: What do you want to get from the visitors? What would you want them to do upon landing on that page? Do you want them to sign up for a newsletter? Then it should be your main focus and the main objective to build the page around. Do you want them to contact you and ask for a price offer? Then this should be your main focus. Whatever your goal is, it needs to be clearly stated on the landing page and at the same time, convincing for the visitor. The advertisement may have convinced them to click and follow up on your offer but the landing page will convince them to take the next step. Here’s an example of a great landing page that invites the audience to subscribe to Gary Vaynerchuk’s calendar of future events:
It’s a great example of building a personal brand. Also, it gives you enough incentive to start doing it yourself. Why is it a good example and why did I choose it? Well, regardless of the popularity Gary has nowadays, it wasn’t always like this. He built his personal brand piece by piece, and got to the point that most of today’s Internet users know him. The example, however, is a great one to follow, regardless of the person it advertises. It shows a landing page with precisely thought-out elements. The elements I’m referring to are:
2. Create/Design your visualsThis step actually starts with the main advertising banner and expands to the creation of the landing page as well. All the specific visual elements of a campaign should be found in all parts of the marketing strategy. And, the most important elements, in this case, are the banners and the promotional pages. Here’s an example from Fox news:
As you can see, the visuals are the same on the landing page and the Facebook ad. The logo is present in both, the ad and the landing page ad, and so are the brand colors.
1. The Facebook Ad. It’ll be the first thing the audience sees, coming into contact with your campaign. You can design your banners right from the Facebook ad manager or, you can include some third-party visuals. Regardless of this choice, here are some of your best options:
2. The visual elements of the landing page. As you probably imagine, there are a bunch of visual elements you can include on your landing page. They depend on the type of your campaign but keep in mind they should be in line with the banner. Some of the most important elements that should be found on all landing pages are:
3. Choose the right tools to build your landing pageThere are, of course, several ways in which you can design your landing page. There’s one harder, direct way and there’s one where you get the option to use tools that could make it all easier. Let’s start with the hard way:
1. Create the tab via Facebook developerAs you may already know, Facebook landing pages can be created as tabs within you already existing page. Tabs are available under the profile picture and they act similarly to a website navigation menu.
Step 1: The first thing you need to do is to create the content to be displayed on your landing page. In many ways, the tab is similar to an iFrame, which loads inside the Facebook page. Create a web page outside of Facebook. Later, you’ll tell Facebook to display the contents of this page within the newly created tab. TIP: If you already have a domain name and a hosting platform, you’re almost ready to start designing your page. But, make sure that you have a secure URL as Facebook requires it to let you create your custom tab. A secure URL will usually start with https:// instead of HTTP://. If you’re still using a regular connection, consider acquiring an SSL certificate first. (Learn how to track your Facebook campaign and landing pages.)
Step 2: Log in to Facebook developer page to get started. Use your own Facebook credentials for this step. Click the green button to add a “new app”
There are some options to choose from. But, to complete the setup, you’ll need a basic understanding of web development, CSS and Facebook API. Or, you can hire a developer who knows this environment and who’ll be able to help you create the right landing page for your ad campaign.
2. Use GetResponse’s professional tool to create your landing pageThe easy way, and when I say “easy” I don’t mean unprofessional, is to use a dedicated tool to build your landing page. GetResponse provides you with such a tool and lets you create responsive landing pages with ease and professionalism. It features all the elements and side tools you need and a complete list of free templates to get you started.
The above image depicts some of the templates available via the GetResponse landing page creator.
Here’s a demonstrative video that shows the app at work: VIDEO
Other key elements to considerBuilding an effective landing page is a task that takes more than a professional tool or the right coding skills. You’ll also need to take care of issues your success may depend on, such as:
1. Responsive designWe all know how important the mobile community is. At least half of your potential audience will follow through your Facebook ad on mobile devices. This means that you need to take care of this aspect and make sure you’re able to deliver a mobile responsive landing page. While third party tools and apps will take care of this issue for you, if you choose to build the page by yourself, it’s a thing you need to consider.
2. An enticing offerUsually, a banner ad carries a deal. An offer that should entice the audience and convince them to follow up on your link. The landing page should meet this expectation and give your audience exactly what they were searching for when clicking on the banner ad. Here’s an example from Jeep with a beautifully constructed landing page and a clear offer:
3. A sub-headlineWhen it comes to content marketing in general and advertising in particular, clearly stated headlines are one of the best ways to score a deal and convince your audience that you can deliver as promised. Headlines break the text in specific pieces and make your offer more noticeable on a first look.
4. A powerful call to actionNothing speaks louder in advertising than a CTA. But only if you know how to choose your CTA copy and how to make it visible, readable and understandable in as few words as possible and on the right part of your page. Here’s an example from Nutella that has many different calls to action, but all of them are clear and visible:
5. TrustworthinessAccording to this report, the online environment is considered to be the least trustworthy among consumers. What does this mean? Well, it means that you should make sure every tiny piece of information on the banner and the landing page is valid and true. Don’t lie, don’t make promises you can’t keep, make sure your offers are legit and trustworthy. Don’t make them seem too good to be true.
6. Other detailsApart from the above advice, consider this as well: try to keep up with what your audience may need or want based on your offer. Make sure your contact details are available, readable and easy to spot, if you need them to follow up on your offer with an email or a phone call. Also, keep distractions at a minimum and don’t overuse your visuals. Finally, you can offer social proof on your trustworthiness or your overall success rate/fan base.
ConclusionAdvertising is an important part of a marketing strategy and Facebook is one of the best channels to run such a campaign. However, apart from the banner itself, the most important thing you can think of is the landing page. This is the page that your audience will get to see after clicking on your ad. But there’s no need to worry, now you know several ways in which you can design and publish your landing page on Facebook. Are you aware of other means to create and publish landing pages? If so, please share your wisdom with us and our audience here, in the comments section available below.
Author: Robert Katai is a digital marketer, blogger and content strategist at Bannersnack, a professional banner design app. You can follow him on Twitter @katairobi and check out his blog robertkatai.com.
Printing via GetResponse Blog – Online Marketing Tips http://bit.ly/1Qs2QKR January 24, 2019 at 10:45AM Researchers Work to Improve PLA Properties Through Thermal Treatment http://bit.ly/2TaWWl9 PLA is one of the most commonly used 3D printing materials, but it is not without its problems. According to a group of researchers in a paper entitled “In-process thermal treatment of polylactic acid in fused deposition modelling,” the mechanical strength of PLA depends on the proper growth of its semi-crystalline structure, which can be seriously impaired by a low rate of crystallization, especially in open source 3D printers. This can be further aggravated by the non-uniform distribution of heat, which causes improper curing among the extruded beads of PLA. The researchers describe how they experimented to improve the curing rate “through in-process temperature variations to cure the joints among the beads.” They used an open source UP02 3D printer for their work. Since the printer does not come with a heated chamber, the researchers enclosed it in an aluminum box with a hinged lid to control the temperature. Four inductive heating pads were installed on the inner four walls of the box, and a fan was also installed to circulate the heated air. Eight temperature monitoring sensors were installed and through a PID loop the temperature of the inside was controlled to the specified levels. This setup did not work well, however, as the filament heated before entering the extruder head and caused clogging. They tried opening the lid of the box partially, but this was not a sufficient solution.
Finally, they placed the 3D printer inside a cast iron box while leaving the print head outside. The box was covered with mineral wool and an outer acrylic box. A PID loop was used to control the temperature, and eight temperature sensors were mounted on the inside walls and read through an Arduino microcontroller.
Test specimens were printed in and out of the heating chamber in two phases.
Several mechanical differences were observed between the samples printed with and without the heated chamber.
Authors of the paper include Muhammad Harris, Johan Potgieter, Richard Archer and Khalid Mahmood Arif. Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below.
Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com January 24, 2019 at 10:09AM |
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