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How to Build a Website From Scratch (in 9 Easy Steps) https://ift.tt/3hSoT0f Want to increase your online presence and reach more customers in 2021? There’s no better way to do it than through your own website. The great news is that the process of building a website has become much simpler over the years. As you’re about to see, you can make one yourself without any coding skills or needing to hire a developer. You can make it happen in no time by following this 9-step plan. Ready? Let’s dive in. Table Of Contents Did you know? With GetResponse Website Builder you can make a website of your in minutes. It comes packed with variety of ready-made templates, intuitive UI, and uses artificial intelligence to help you build a website from scratch, automatically. to Watch the video below to learn what this website builder is capable of: 1. Specify a goal for your website and list all your requirementsIf you want to build a website from scratch, it’s best to start by figuring out what goal or purpose it should serve. In other words, what do you want to achieve with it? Are you planning to sell products or services? Perhaps you want to show off your portfolio? Or maybe you’re building your website purely for branding purposes? The answer to this question will help you determine:
Once you’ve figured that out, you can move on to the next step, like researching your market and competitors for example. 2. Research your market and competitorsWith your goal and initial ideas in mind, it’s time to research your target audience and competitors. What you want to find out is:
The best way to do it (although slightly a time-consuming) is to manually go through competitors’ pages, social media groups, Q&A sites, and forums – and note down all relevant information like the topics addressed, questions asked, and types of content that you see. To give you an idea of what this kind of research could lead to, imagine you’re a personal trainer. By checking out other personal trainers’ websites, you’ve noticed that all of them have these kinds of pages and content on their site:
On top of that, on social media groups, you’ve noticed that your target audience frequently asks about personal trainers working in specific locations. Because of that, you also decide to add an extra page listing all the gyms where you provide your services. Once you’ve finished your research, note down everything that you absolutely must include on your website, and move on to the next step. 3. Research what appeals to you visuallyNow it’s time for some visual research to find some website design layouts you and your target audience would find visually appealing. Just like the previous step, you’ll want to start by researching your competitors, going through various website template galleries, and Pinterest. The important thing in this step is to remember the goal of your website and the target audience the page is meant to serve. These two factors should help you decide the direction and layout of your website (for example, you could be building a multi-page website or a one-page website). While you can get some inspiration from them, you don’t want to spend too much time looking at websites from global companies if you’re running a small local business. Not only would such companies have different goals from yours, but they’d likely also have a larger budget and a whole team of designers and developers building the page for them. Alright, let’s now move onto the slightly more technical step – selecting your website builder. 4. Choosing your website builderLet’s start by answering a question – do you really need a website builder to make a website? In short, no. If you have coding skills you can create a website from scratch using just a code editor and HTML, CSS, and JS libraries like Bootstrap. However, this approach requires a lot of time, skill, and experience. You could also hire a web developer to build a website for you. Most likely, such a developer would customize one of the templates they’ve already worked with and set up the website for you using WordPress or another popular content management system (CMS). This is a popular approach, especially if you’re planning on running a blog, but it’s not ideal. The most important disadvantage is that WordPress needs constant updating and their dashboard is not intuitive or flexible. And if you want to make any visual changes that go beyond what your template offers, you’ll need to ask your developer for their help. The third approach – one that is the most cost-effective and gives small businesses like yours all the flexibility – is to use drag-and-drop website builders. They come with free, ready-made templates, intuitive user interfaces (UIs), and don’t require that you know any HTML or CSS. Plus, you don’t need to update them to have your website up and running without any delays. Some of them, like GetResponse Website Builder, also help you further improve the process of building your website and your online presence by:
To choose the best website builder you should refer to the outcomes of your research in the previous steps. If you’ve narrowed down the types of pages, content, capabilities, and visual layouts you’d like to have on your website, you should browse through the most popular website builders and see which ones check most of your boxes. Once you’ve narrowed down your list, go ahead and try them out. Most of these tools come with a free or free trial account that’ll give you a better feel of their UI and how easy they’re to use. On top of that, when choosing your favorite website builder, you may also want to look at these slightly more advanced factors:
5. Choose your web hostWhen building a website from scratch, you may also need to choose where your page will be hosted – the place where all the files that make your website will be stored. Choosing the right web hosting provider is important for a few reasons:
In other words, the web hosting provider can heavily impact how effective your website is and how your small business will be seen by others. The good news is that most of the popular web hosts have robust capabilities, and the difference between them will largely be noticed by bigger companies that attract hundreds of thousands of website visitors every month. Small businesses won’t need to worry, especially if they’re creating their business website using a website builder, like the one offered by GetResponse. Most of these tools offer highly reliable free web hosting, meaning that you don’t need to dive into the technicalities yourself. And if you’re building a personal website or even a site for your small business, you don’t want to have to stress about these things. 6. Choose your domain nameIt’s time to pick a domain name for your business. In other words, the URL address your target audience will need to type into their browser to find your website. When using a website builder, you’ll have the option to pick between a free domain and registering your own custom domain. Using GetResponse Website Builder as an example, this means your page can have the following URLs if you were to use one of the free domains:
Now, if you registered your own custom domain, the URL would be much simpler and more memorable, like this:
As you may have noticed, when registering a custom domain you can choose which extension you want to use (for example .com). This is called the top-level domain (TLD). The difference between those isn’t only in how memorable a given domain name is. The key things are reputation and the potential effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. As a business owner, you want your website and your domain name to have a higher reputation. The stronger the domain, the easier it will be for you to drive website traffic from search engines such as Google or Bing. Now, how one builds domain reputation is another story (for example citations, link-building), but the important part is that if you’re using a free domain that means your reputation is built and shared by everyone else that’s also using the same domain. Although good for the start, this isn’t an ideal scenario. It’s also important to have your own registered domain name if you’re planning to run email marketing campaigns. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) such as Gmail or Yahoo! more favorably filter email communication that comes from registered domains rather than from domains that are widely available for everyone. As a result, using a custom domain name can increase your inbox placement rate, as well as the chances of converting your audience with your emails. Now the good news is that if you’re using a website builder like GetResponse, you can register a custom domain name right inside the tool, and you’ll also have an email domain set up for you automatically. That means you don’t need to play around with the technical settings (like SPF or DKIM) to build high deliverability, a solid sender reputation, and have an overall strong online presence. 7. Add your content and customize the layoutNow that you’ve done all the setup work, it’s time to start putting the pieces together. In your website builder, you should have three options like the one in GetResponse:
If it’s the first time you’re building a website, I highly recommend that you go for one of the first two options. It’ll help you get started more quickly and the drag-and-drop editor will give you all the flexibility you need to adjust the web design and pages to your liking. Within your website builder, you should be able to:
On top of that, you may also have access to additional tools that’ll help you quickly migrate your existing website (coming soon) and create color palettes based on your company logo. When it comes to the types of pages you can include on your website, the choice will largely rely on the kind of business you’re running. There are some standard pages that most small businesses include though, no matter if they’re running an online store, donation site, or even a church website: HomepageEvery website needs an inviting homepage. In most cases, it’s the first page your website visitors will see, so it must make a good first impression and get your audience hooked. Make sure your homepage is well designed, clear, and includes intuitive navigation because you want it to direct the different kinds of users you’re going to attract to the relevant places on your website. About us pageWhen building a website, you can’t forget to include the about us page. This is where you can share your story and tell your audience what you and your business are all about. This is where you can sell them on your idea, your values, and your mission. If done well, folks who end up on this page will continue engaging with your website and searching for ways how they can help your cause. You’ll find more examples and tips on how to design an effective about us page on our blog. Contact pageThe contact page is essential for every business website. Through this page, you’re not only providing a way of contacting you but you’re also building credibility. Some people may want to check where your company’s registered, or even chat with your team before they choose to buy from you. Because of this, you’ll want to ensure your web design builds trust and makes you look approachable. OffersIf you’re selling products or services online, you’ll want to have an offers page. Through it, you’ll want to highlight your offer along with everything that makes it unique and beneficial for your audience. The offer page should also allow users to either buy your products directly or direct them to your online store, where they’ll be able to place their order. A blogWhether you’re running an online store or providing professional services, chances are you’d like to have a blog on your website. Blogs, much like the one you’re reading right now, can help you educate your target audience, show your expertise, and help build a list of email subscribers you’ll be able to continue sending your content in the future. 404 or not found pageA 404 page is the page a user sees when the content they’ve searched for was not found. It typically appears when someone clicks on a link or an ad leading to a page that’s been temporarily or permanently removed. While this page doesn’t provide tons of business value, many companies choose to design their 404 pages so that they both are fun and provide easy navigation to the rest of the website’s content. FAQThe Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page can help you answer common questions raised by your audience. Whether these relate to your pricing, terms of service, or just explain your offer – the FAQs can help you inform and educate your audience, and clear your prospects’ doubts before they choose to do business with you. Reviews and testimonialsCompanies of all types and sizes can benefit from including reviews and testimonials on their websites. Got happy customers that have already used your services or bought your products? Highlight them here and benefit from the social proof that’ll provide. It’ll increase your website conversions and make your business more credible. 8. Connect all the necessary toolsWhen you build a website, you’ll most likely want to connect it with other external tools and platforms. For example, by connecting your site with Google Analytics, you can learn many things about the people who visit your website, like which pages they visit the most, how long on average they’re staying on these pages, and what their demographics are. On the other hand, by connecting Google Tag Manager, you can set up so-called events. With these, you can track individual interactions with your website, like clicks on particular call-to-action buttons or form submissions. And suppose you connect your website with an email marketing platform. In that case, you’ll be able to collect newsletter subscribers directly from your pages, send automated email campaigns in real-time, and even retarget users who don’t finish a particular action (for example, they abandon their shopping cart). Now depending on the tools you’re using, connecting your website with individual platforms may require that you either install external plugins or paste lines of code into your HTML code. However, if you’re using GetResponse Website Builder, connecting all the different tools is super easy. Out of the box, GetResponse comes fully equipped with:
On top of that, you can connect Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager by simply providing your User-ID – no coding skills needed. And if you’d like to use the website created inside GetResponse with external platforms, you can do so via over 100 ready-made integrations and through Zapier. 9. Preview and publishBefore you launch your website, you’ll want to double-check that everything looks good, you’ve filled in all your content, and your contact forms and signup forms are working well. Once you’ve confirmed that and your website’s OK, go ahead and publish it. Congratulations, your website is live! Now you can start sharing the link to your newly created website with your friends and family to ask for their opinion. Let them test your page thoroughly, play around with it, and see what it looks like on different devices. After they’ve provided you with their feedback and you feel you’re ready to share it with your target audience, you’ll want to do two things. First, in your website settings, make sure that the website is indexable and that your audience will find it when using search engines. And second, add it to your Facebook page, Google My Business page, and all the other social media profiles you’re actively using to promote your business. Summing upAs you’ve now experienced, building a website from scratch is not all that difficult. Even though it may seem like the process is a bit lengthy, with the right tool, you’ll be able to build a website and share it with your audience in just a few short moments. Want to see how it works in action? Just watch this video below and try the GetResponse Website Builder for free today. Printing via GetResponse Blog https://ift.tt/2Xap2TD May 26, 2021 at 05:21AM
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OOAK https://ift.tt/3oSkcVN Steph Nierstenhofer is the Designer behind OOAK. Based in Auckland, New Zealand, they offer limited edition prints on fine art paper that capture the quirky and the mundane, inspired by Pop Art culture. Each artwork is based on an original photograph that has been vectorised and carefully coloured. Steph’s passion for photography and printmaking started post graduation when she purchased her first darkroom during a photography apprenticeship. When developing film became too expensive, she started experimenting with printing photos on wood and tiles. Fiji Kids was the starting point for OOAK; a low res snap-shot of two kids playing on the remote island of Yanuja, Fiji. Whilst no photoshopping would enhance the captured moment, Steph decided to vectorise and colour the image. Realising the potential of vectorised photographs, she worked through her vast library of images and started converting original photographs into Illustrations. Steph choose to exclusively use Hahnemühle German Etching paper due to the clearly defined felt structure which gives OOAK prints a three-dimensional effect and depth. Whilst the colour choices are subtle, there is a leaning towards Pop Art culture in OOAK prints. Portraying the mundane as well as the quirky, Steph loves to capture brief interactions with her surroundings, that easily can be missed. She is currently working on a series called Love Where You Live, which will be launched later this year. The aim is to capture familiar locations from unexpected perspectives. All prints are limited to 100, with 90 offered in set colours and size. However, for a truly OOAK print, 10 copies per artwork have been reserved to suit customer specifications in colour and size. All prints are numbered, signed and embossed. OOAK exclusively uses Hahnemuhle German Etching 310 gsm paper, in combination with Giclee printing, ensuring long lasting, museum quality prints. Printing via People of Print https://ift.tt/2DhgcW7 May 26, 2021 at 05:11AM
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25 One-Page Website Examples You Should Learn From https://ift.tt/3fK09V7 Need inspiration for your one-page website? Here are 25 examples you can learn from. Printing via GetResponse Blog https://ift.tt/2Xap2TD May 26, 2021 at 04:51AM
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Diversity Type Project: Fatima Abbas https://ift.tt/3vrbcJK To celebrate World Diversity Day, we’ve teamed up with Distillery to launch Diversity Type; a font that includes contributions from a total of 308 creatives from 54 countries, creating the the world’s most diverse typeface. Below, we chat with Fatima Abbas, who contributed the design for the letters ‘G’ and ‘Y’. Based in Sudan, Fatima is currently a student of Graphic Design at Virginia Commonwealth University, Qatar. As a child, she would watch her Father sketching out portraits and landscapes, and practising calligraphy. Today, Fatima sketches in a similar vain, drawing different scenes around her as well re-imagining the popular news stories that her father would draw when she was a child. “Drawing is an essential part of my practice, especially now in type design, it’s a great way to start exploring the letterform and experiment with different features before digitizing them…” “As a young student in graphic design, I’m always interested in type in general, but I never thought that one day I will be that much interested in the type design world,” comments Fatima. The letters she submitted to the Diversity type call out were the outcome of a recent school project about exploring type design; a project that introduced her to the world of type. The design started with extensive research into typefaces of both past and present, and then moved into the design phase with sketches in markers and pens that experimented with the potential of each letterform. “I was able to build a complete set of lower and upper case letters inspired by botanical aspects in the shoulders and crossbars, besides having some blackletter spirit due to the tide letterform and the thickness of the strokes,” says Fatima. Currently, Fatima is further developing the font, which she has named Brier, by adding numbers and punctuation. She is also working on developing more of “blackletter spirit” into it, aiming for better legibility without getting rid of its main botanical features. After designing her first typeface, Fatima has become “super intrigued by the type design world” and hopes to dive deeper into it, collaborate with other creatives, and explore creating type in her native language of Arabic. Printing via People of Print https://ift.tt/2DhgcW7 May 25, 2021 at 09:49AM
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IBM and Ricoh Partner for 3D Printed Anatomical Models https://ift.tt/34dIQXp IBM (NYSE: IBM) has announced a platform update that will become a part of a larger strategy for smart healthcare solutions that include 3D printed anatomical models. The newest release of IBM Watson Health’s iConnect Access allows users to create digital anatomical models. Through a partnership with Ricoh USA, the two firms will build upon this to release an end-to-end solution for 3D printing anatomical models, as well. Launched in 2008, iConnect Access is a platform for collecting, storing and exchanging medical imaging data through a web browser. The latest update includes a number of features approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), such as an interactive segmentation tool that can be used to build digital 3D models from a patient’s medical imaging data. This is complemented with such editing tools as freehand sculpt, 3D eraser, polygon sculpt, hole-filling, “cut and discard”, “cut and keep”, and smoothing. In addition to the new release, it was announced that IBM Watson Health had teamed with Ricoh USA to release “a turnkey, end-to-end solution for creating 3D printed anatomic models.” IBM will be offering its expertise in data utilization, while Ricoh will be offering its experience with industrial 3D printing. Together, the firms hope to make 3D technology more accessible to healthcare providers, streamlining and simplifying the ability to 3D print patient-specific anatomic models in the process.
Ricoh has been steadily increasing its presence in 3D printing since it began distributing products from Stratasys and 3D Systems in 2014. Since then, the firm has developed a selective laser sintering (SLS) line, bioprinting technology, and offered 3D printing services, which has included Impossible Objects’ unique composite additive manufacturing technology. If this deal with IBM goes well, this should help cement the Japanese printer maker in additive healthcare segment, which is one of the fastest growing of all verticals. According to Scott Dunham, Vice President of Research at SmarTech Analysis, the market for medical 3D printing is set to grow to $6.08 billion by 2027. Though the research for how patient-specific 3D printed anatomical models can aid in presurgical planning has made the benefits quite clear, few large firms outside of the AM space have pursued it. 3D Systems, Stratasys, and Materialise are among the largest within that space. With IBM and Ricoh in the mix, the technology is likely to spread much more quickly. And as patient-specific models grow in adoption, the bioprinting technologies of Ricoh, 3D Systems, and the like will continue to improve so that, once they’re ready to produce organs, there will already be a substantial infrastructure in place used for anatomical models, surgical guides, and non-bioprinted implants. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com May 25, 2021 at 09:06AM
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MeaTech to Open Plant in Belgium for 3D Printing Cultured Chicken Fat https://ift.tt/3vm58SG Plenty of additive manufacturing industry firms have launched IPOs since the end of last year, like Desktop Metal, Norsk Titanium, and also MeaTech 3D Ltd., the first cell-cultured meat company to be publicly listed. At the moment, alternative meat is a major 3D printing application as more people in the world are trying to curtail irresponsible amounts of waste, and, as MeaTech puts it, the “food industry’s burgeoning demand for livestock creates massive environmental, health, financial and ethical problems.” Launching an IPO was just the first major step for the Israeli company, and now it’s taking another one: MeaTech has announced its imminent plans to establish, own, and operate a pilot plant next year, with the initial goal of 3D printing real meat cuts out of cultured chicken fat for industry partnerships.
The North American Meat Institute (NAMI) says that the meat and poultry industry is “a dynamic part of the U.S. economy, accounting for about $1,221.82 billion in total economic output,” as well as directly employing 1,750,540 Americans, in 2019. But according to MeaTech, it is also extremely pollutive, with at least 18% of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere coming from the livestock industry, and 33% of global croplands used to produce animal feed for this industry. The cultured meat company is unique in that it created a much less wasteful, more ethical process for 3D printing meat that actually comes directly from animals; no plant-based burgers here! MeaTech scientists take umbilical cord samples from animals like cows, without harming them, and then develop the cells into a continuous line of production. As the researchers separate fat and muscle cells, different types of bioink are used to mark them for bioprinting, and the cells are then incubated and grown into edible products. MeaTech recently acquired Belgium’s Peace of Meat PV, which has public taste tests as well as laboratory work to back up its claim that cultured chicken fat, like what MeaTech plans to produce at its new plant in Belgium, could potentially enhance the texture, flavor, and mouthfeel of alternative meat products by a lot, while at the same time decreasing the amount of ingredients needed.
While initial plans for its new plant in Belgium will be to 3D print cultured chicken fat, MeaTech’s future goal will be to use 3D bioprinting to fabricate real meat cuts, like chicken breast and steak.
(Source: Vegconomist / Images: MeaTech) Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com May 25, 2021 at 08:36AM
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ICON Unveils New Concrete 3D Printer and “House Zero” 3D Printed Home Design https://ift.tt/3fipAy8 Based in Austin, Texas, ICON is among the pioneers in additive construction. Alongside firms like COBOD and WinSun, the company has achieved some of the most significant progress in 3D printing complete structures. The startup is able to pull this off with its large, gantry-style concrete 3D printer, Olympus. Now, the company has announced that it has upgraded its flagship system to be bigger and faster, unveiling the first in a new series of homes that it hopes will redefine how we look at architecture and construction. The new machine is called Vulcan, “engineered from the ground up for mass production of 3D-printed homes with precision and speed.” ICON claims that it is 1.5 times larger and two-times faster than its predecessor, able to fabricate structures over 3,000 square feet in size. Operated via mobile app, the system weighs a massive 9,500 pounds and features an automated control system. To showcase the capabilities of Vulcan, ICON is launching what it calls the Exploration Series of homes, in which it will collaborate with architects and designers to “develop new design languages and architectural vernaculars with world-class architects based on the opportunities created by construction scale 3D printing.” The first home in the series, “House Zero”, was designed by Lake|Flato Architects.
With construction already beginning in East Austin, the three-bedroom, three-bathroom home will measure over 2,000 square feet with an additional one-bedroom, one-bathroom accessory dwelling unit (ADU). The structure is described as combining the aesthetics of a mid-century ranch-style home with the organic possibilities of additive construction. ICON claims that House Zero is optimized for 3D printing, saying that the home will be designed with only the resiliency and sustainability possible with 3D printing. Quote request Are you looking to buy a 3D printer or 3D scanner? We're here to help. Get free expert advice and quotes from trusted suppliers in your area. Powered by Aniwaa “If people fall in love with what we’re doing here, it turns out the Vulcan is the only construction system in the world capable of delivering this home and others like it. We are hopeful this catalyzes widespread enthusiasm and excitement for the future of construction and architecture. We’re getting ready to stand up manufacturing in our new facilities and begin larger scale projects in anticipation of such a response,” Ballard added. So far, ICON has 3D printed 24 homes in the U.S. and Mexico. The firm claims this number to be the most completed by “any construction tech company”, but, if you compare them in terms of size to the projects completed by WinSun in China, one wonders just how true that claim would be. WinSun’s additive construction technology has been difficult to validate in the past but is said to produce concrete panels and elements in a climate-controlled environment before shipping those pieces to the construction site for assembly, essential a form of modular, additive construction. With this technique, it has produced a three-story villa, 1100-square meter luxury cottage, and a six-story apartment building. That said, it has been difficult to fully understand WinSun’s process. Unlike WinSun, ICON 3D prints buildings on-site and in a non-modular fashion. How this changes the equation in terms of energy usage, transportation and more, I’m not sure. One thing that was demonstrated by Apis Corp when it 3D printed a structure in Dubai was that on-site additive construction is tricky business, given the equipment and material’s exposure to the elements. ICON is additionally selling 3D printed homes in the U.S. via developer 3Strands, while also attempting to pursue social housing, disaster relief housing, and even technology for additive construction on the Moon and Mars. Though many additive construction firms have claimed that 3D printed homes will have a massive impact on the housing crisis, that may be an overblown claim. While the co-director of the Council of Community Housing Organizations, Peter Cohen, believes that this technology might be better suited for ADUs and other niche housing, 3DPrint.com Executive Editor sees a stronger and more immediate future for specific concrete elements and formwork. Regardless of where this technology goes, the competition is heating up as a number of startups business and attention. In addition to those already mentioned, there’s Mighty Buildings and CyBe, all of whom who will have to contend with more established players in the market, such as Saint-Gobain and the PERI Group (backers of COBOD). The technology is certainly an exciting one and it is evolving much more quickly than I previously anticipated. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com May 25, 2021 at 08:06AM
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3Degrees to Develop 3D Printing Materials Database for America Makes https://ift.tt/3fMUgq6 3Degrees is a 3D printing consultancy that enables businesses to adopt the technology by applying its industry insights and materials expertise. With its TRACEam Process streamlining project management and documentation at all stages of the 3D printing workflow, the Chicago, Illinois-based firm has emerged as a unique player in 3D printing adoption. Now, the six-year old company has received a grant from America Makes’ Rapid Innovation Call (RIC) program and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to develop a best-in-class materials database for additive manufacturing (AM). America Makes had recently announced that 3Degrees, along with four other awardees, were the recipients of two RICs worth $285,000 in funding from the AFRL’s Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, plus $85,500 in matching funds from awarded project teams for total funding worth $370,500. The RICs seek to optimize materials data to foster analytics and advance AM qualification and certification. America Makes Technology Director Brandon Ribic indicated that the new RIC process elicited an overwhelming level of response and support from America Makes membership community, with impactful and well-thought-out proposals to address critical needs in the supply chain. 3Degrees was selected as one of the awardees in the “Searchable AM Materials Database” category. As such, the project team received $50,000 in AFRL funding, and $42,500 in cost-share, for total funding of $92.500. The company will lead the proposal in collaboration with AM analytics experts at Senvol, aerospace manufacturer Northrop Grumman, AM solution provider EOS, and consulting firm Deloitte. Together, they will develop a searchable and scalable database built using 3Degrees’ proprietary TRACEam software. Specifically designed to collate 3D printing data according to the workflows of the 3D printing process, the TRACEam software provides a comprehensive materials data management system for key production and AM technical data to improve data management and analytics of America Makes projects. The project team brings together materials engineers, data specialists, and consultants who will work together to customize the TRACEam platform to fit the unique needs of America Makes’ members. Specifically, they will deliver a robust system to collect and archive data, which will allow past and future projects to be sorted by key production and technical data. The tool aligns with industry best practices and regulatory data requirements and has the benefit of enabling real-time updates to the information captured by the industry as standards evolve. Overall, the database is set to revolutionize America Makes’ data management and analytics capabilities and further cement its role as one of the best hubs for advanced AM research and technologies. Founder of 3Degrees and principal investigator for the project, Mike Vasquez, highlighted that through this work, they will be able to deliver a tool that is simple to work with and enables users to search, analyze and compare robust data very easily and quickly. The AM materials expert said he believes the new tool will produce insights that “support manufacturing in the United States” and “benefit all 228 current and future America Makes members.” According to Vasquez, due to its unique role within the 3D printing ecosystem, America Makes possesses an “unparalleled amount of data” around materials performance, printing platforms, and technical specifications. The Youngstown, Ohio-based national AM innovation institute has been focused on accelerating the adoption of 3D printing technology since 2012. It helps its membership community of more than 180 organizations develop the standards, tools, education, and research required to accomplish this goal. In that process, the organization has become a trailblazing and successful example of the public-private partnership and collaborative model, fostering a highly synergetic infrastructure for the open exchange of 3D printing information and research. Members of America Makes and the broader 3D printing community will be able to follow the project’s progress throughout 2021, including at upcoming member events such as America Makes’ Technical Review Exchange (TRX) on August 3, 2021, and its Member Meeting Exchange set for October. The project team will also appear on the 3Degrees Discussions podcast towards the end of the project to discuss key learnings, existing challenges within the additive manufacturing space, and what they see as the next opportunity to advance the AM industry. America Makes members and government stakeholders are also encouraged to submit topics for future RICs, and as funding becomes available, the organization will announce additional projects. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com May 25, 2021 at 07:36AM
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Riven Announces Quick Re-Scaling Tool for Addressing Distortions in 3D Printed Parts https://ift.tt/3oPkYCP After developing a unique quality control package, Riven has expanded its capabilities for producing quality parts with 3D printing. The company’s new re-scaling tool automatically re-scales models for 3D printed parts so that they can more accurately match the as-intended CAD file. Riven is among the few firms focusing on a low-cost and easy method for validating part designs before they head to final manufacturing. Through a subscription plan, customers get a desktop 3D scanner and Riven’s software package that makes it possible to 3D scan and validate parts during the early stages of production. Once a prototype is made—whether via metal injection molding, 3D printing, or other manufacturing process—the component is scanned and checked against the original CAD file to look for discrepancies. These models can then be addressed, saving money, time, and labor before heading to production. The new 3D re-scaling tool automatically repairs some of the issues that may be discovered with the 3D scanning process of Riven’s workflow. After Riven’s software checks a test part, it re-scales portions of the model to compensate for distortions that may occur during 3D printing. The company claims that this applies to parts made with fused deposition modeling, vat photopolymerization, powder bed fusion, and most metal 3D printing. The process is said to take only a few minutes and can aid in quickly repairing files after changing materials, print settings, or printing in a different location within the print envelope. The company states that it can also be used to calibrate the complete build volume for binder jet systems and other industrial 3D printers. Other tools that Riven’s software includes are its Push-button CAD-Compare, Digital Go/No Go, Click-to-Measure, and Automatic Scan-to-CAD reverse engineering software. There are a variety of traditional quality control companies that provide tools for validating parts during the production process, but very few that have a focus on 3D printing or are able to do automatically repair files. These range from traditional coordinate measuring machine manufacturers, which can be particularly limited when it comes to the complex geometries of 3D printed parts, to much more complex and expensive software like CADIQ. For 3D printing specifically, there are firms working to improve models before they are printed, such as ANSYS and VELO3D, as well as those that perform quality control during the 3D printing process, like Sigma Labs and Additive Assurance. As for validating parts once they’re printed and then repairing them, I believe the closest competitor would be Geomagic from 3D Systems. How they compare is another story, however. From what I gather, Riven is geared toward quick and easy repairs, whereas Geomagic may be a bit more complex. Either way, don’t expect this space to be too small for too long. Now that 3D printing is increasingly industrialized, quality control and post-processing that will be getting a lot more attention. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com May 25, 2021 at 07:12AM
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Chantelle Shekyls https://ift.tt/34dfFDR West Sussex-based printmaker, Chantelle Shekyls, creates original linocut prints from her home studio. A graduate in Creative Arts from Bath Spa University and with an MA in Digital Media Arts from Brighton University, she is also a passionate Arts Educator and teaches Graphic Design and Fine Art at a College in Surrey. Her prints are influenced by nature and aim to communicate the ambience of the world that surrounds her by stripping back elements and focusing heavily on lines, contrast, shape, and space. Chantelle’s work celebrates the cacophony of lines in landscapes, specifically the intricate, systematic, and chaotic nature of tree branches. Her designs are derived from photographs that she has taken which are then simplified and manipulated using digital media. Currently, Chantelle is conducting two editions of prints that celebrate these naturally-occurring patterns. The first is Winter Trees, which she is working on from the studio using a gunning press. The piece is a dry point etching based on a drawing for an open edition lino print she created in 2020. The etching encapsulates winter trees with their bare branches, creating a stark contrast within the landscape, highlighting the trees and their repeating patterns. Winter Trees will be released as a small limited edition of 20 prints at the end of this month. The second project is Organised Chaos; an edition of lino prints that she is working on at home using her hand press. The print is hand drawn from a photograph she took in West Sussex and focuses on the discordance of lines and the fractal patterns involved with trees. Chantelle has intricately carved the lino using flexcut tools and has printed it in a range of colour ways using Cranfield inks on Somerset Satin/Stonehenge, or handmade lokta paper, to be released shortly.
Printing via People of Print https://ift.tt/2DhgcW7 May 25, 2021 at 06:08AM |
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