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3D Printing Market Outlook 2021: Mid-Market Desktop Material Extrusion (FDM, FFF) https://ift.tt/2WHJ0lO In this 2021 Market Outlook, Trends, and Competitive Landscape for the Desktop Material Extrusion Market, we’re continuing our helicopter view of the desktop material extrusion or Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM, FFF) market. The goal is to give you some idea of the mechanics and dynamics behind the market, an understanding of the material extrusion competitive landscape, and an overview of what’s happening in the value chain. We’ll have a general outlook of this segment for the next calendar year, 2021. We’ll look at the market, systems, and sales for each segment and make recommendations as well as predictions. General OverviewThe desktop material extrusion market can be segmented into low-cost 3D printers, mid-market desktop 3D printers, and pro 3D printers. In this article, we’ll specifically examine mid-market machines before publishing a follow-up article dedicated to pro systems, which will include a look at material trends and overall market developments for the desktop FDM/FFF segment. Mid-market Desktop 3D PrintersThis segment has desktop 3D printers that are from $800 to $2,000 in price. More quality, more features, more longevity, fewer technical issues, and more integration with software is to be expected here. A better overall experience and better support is what you’ll be paying for. Companies such as Craftbot and Flashforge are active in this segment. MarketPlayers often ship from a few thousand to tens of thousands of units annually and the margin situation is better than in the low-cost segment. Some players with extensive engineering expertise have significantly higher margins than other players in the segment. In some cases, one company could have 400% higher margins than another. These printers are bought by consumers, students, universities, and companies. This segment is completely dominated by Prusa and its i3 printer. Prusa also sells filament directly, has a very high-quality offering, and a great brand. With a better business model and being completely privately owned, I’d expect them to continue to dominate this segment in the long haul. SalesMany sales are done indirectly in this segment through small local resellers or online companies. Amazon and dedicated 3D printer resellers play a big role in this market. Often absent from the low-margin printer market, these printers are often the entry-level systems that you can see in a 3D printing store, for example. Players here are sandwiched between an increase in capability in lower-cost printers and significantly higher investments required to build ecosystems. SystemsThis segment includes mostly high uptimes and fully featured printers who now work “out of the box” with wifi, touch screens, large build volumes, and support. The major trend here is the building of ecosystems and tighter integration with software. Finesse in 3D printer design and small iterative improvements are also present here with system quality improving significantly even over the past three years. RecommendationsCompanies in this segment seem to have a binary choice, sit still and get killed by Creality and Anet or move up. Many players in this segment consider themselves as not being able to or not wanting to “race to the bottom.” I would counsel them to try because, through smart engineering, Prusa can make a $349 printer, so why can’t you? Is there a path to those high volumes but with higher quality? Often companies reflexively decide that something is not for them, but through some kind of emotional gut response rather than truly rethinking how printers are made. In interviews, there is often no rationale beyond a feeling that low cost won’t work for them. I would council many of these firms against moving up in the world. Some may make it, but to truly develop an ecosystem, to develop software, to build a world-class support organization means that you need excellence in your business. If you are unwilling or unable to bring in the people and pay for excellence and grow into an excellent organization, your chances of successfully moving up to the professional segment are limited. Especially since sales often occur through channel, being a strong mid-market player around the $1,200 mark with good support and good quality will be a great place to be for some. There is a gulf emerging between user needs and the $200 printer and the $3,000 printer. A lot of companies, developing world businesses, and consumers will want to upgrade their printers and have something more capable but still adaptable. With the world getting more “closed” and expensive, there is a path here. Essentially, now there is not a lot of choice for a good quality printer around the $1,000 and $1,500. If you can win in quality and make great systems that last a long time, you could become the de facto choice for educated home users, the developing world, and the education market. One worry for this path is that the industry on a whole doesn’t have universal quality or reliability statistics or arbiters. We don’t have a Kelly Blue Book, TuV or standard that tells everyone that you are in fact better. But, by sticking to what you know and doing well, you can fight your battle on your turf and not lose in something that you do not understand, such as software. Critical IssuesThis market risks heavy competition from lower-cost printers. This will be exacerbated by companies just selling themselves through features and not actual user experience and quality. Lack of certifications and corporate clients can also make it hard for this group to find enterprise customers in the future. Often the types of expertise that these firms will need to grow to the next level is not currently present in those firms. They have mastered juggling but will need to learn ballet to advance. Recommendation for CompetitionEssentially, know that many players are attempting to go Pro. They will announce the same Pro features, ecosystem, and software capabilities, but they will more than likely be poorer in execution. Without reference clients and a track record, these players will find it hard to gain in reputation. 2021 OutlookThis is going to be a stormy and confusing segment over the next 12 months. Lots of players from below will make feature-rich printers that will seem to approximate this segment, but will be significantly cheaper. Meanwhile, players in this segment will ape higher value printer features. This will mean that consumers in this segment will be confused. An ever-greater reliance on channel and close cooperation with channel may see winners emerge. This can only be the case if your existing channel is well placed and rich with leads in a trying time. In our next article in this series, we’ll analyze the desktop FDM/FFF market as it applies to professional 3D printers, including overall market and material trends for the desktop FDM/FFF segment as a whole. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com December 23, 2020 at 07:08AM
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Concrete Nature https://ift.tt/2WFh4iD Concrete Nature is the studio of Clementine Carriere, with an output including design work, printed goods and experiences. The studio aims to collaborate with individuals, organisations and institutions on design projects across print, digital, and space. Alongside commissioned projects, Clementine also works on self-initiated projects across a range of platforms and disciplines from limited edition prints to publishing. Concrete Nature revolves around the notions of sustainability, experimentation and collaboration. Sustainability is integral to the design process itself, and it leads Clementine to create considered design that positively impacts human experiences and the environment, even utilising paper stock made from algae. So far, most of the self-initiated projects released through the studio have explored print, specifically Risograph printing. The projects focus on exploring compositions and colours in the context of illustrative and photographic work, with an emphasis on faux-CMYK. Clementine studied in France, Ireland, and the UK. She completed a BA and MA in Visual Communication at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Nancy (FR), partook in an Erasmus exchange, and in 2012 completed an MA in Contemporary Typographic Media at LCC. After completing her studies, Clementine interned at a few places before starting to work as a junior designer in a London-based studio who worked for international clientele across the luxury and fashion industry. She decided to start freelancing in order to expand her skillset, and to work with a more broad range of studios and companies. In September, she moved from London to Glasgow, and continued working as a freelancer whilst also focusing on self-initiated projects. Clementine fell in love with Risograph printing and started producing more work with it. “In 2020 I decided to finally launch the studio and take things to the next level, motivated by a desire to positively impact human experiences and the environment” says the designer. Every project, be that commissioned or self-initiated, starts with research. Clementine states; “I focus my initial part of the research process around a first set of questions to develop a better understanding of what the project is about… The second part explores wider subjects and initial ideas. At this stage the goal is to discover new things and learn more about a range of elements to be able to start making connections between what I discover and what the project is about. For the third part, I focus on more precise elements based on the connections established in the previous phase.” The research process is generally followed by initial sketching, writing and collaging; “I start putting on paper all the things that have been happening in my mind and I start testing out ideas on paper”. It’s only once she’s got a plan mapped out, that Clementine will move on to using digital tools; “It always starts with putting words down before moving on to creating visuals”.
Clementine particularly enjoys working on editorial and book design projects because she is interested in exploring further curatorial practices through the medium of print. “I’m obviously inspired by what’s happening in the design world, in typography and graphic design, but I’m also conscious about the fact that it’s necessary to look elsewhere too to avoid creating repetitive and sterile work” explains Clementine. More generally, she inspired by her environment; “I tend to document things through photography, which means that I’m constantly building a personal library of textures, shapes, and colours, which I dig into it when looking for specific things depending on the projects I’m working on. Sometimes it also happens to be the thing that inspires me to start a specific project.” Clementine will be releasing new prints in the upcoming year that further explore Risograph printing through illustrative and photographic work. She also hopes to create more zines and mini publications that investigate specific subjects in greater details, and put her editorial and book design skills to work. Clementine is looking forward to working on more curatorial practices next year through exhibition, physical, and digital experiences, exploring graphic design and typography in a more spatial dimension. She concludes; “Collabs are a great way to push your own practice further, to discover new things and to expand your own world. It’s also important for me to use the studio as a platform to promote other voices and I would like to push more collaborative projects between the studio and other creatives.” www.concretenature.store Printing via People of Print https://ift.tt/2DhgcW7 December 23, 2020 at 05:33AM
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Beavertown: Tempus https://ift.tt/3ph3iih Beavertown Brewery, a long-standing pal of People of Print, has proven itself to be a bastion of brilliant offbeat design, intricate illustration and popping colours (as well as very very tasty beer) since its launch around eight years ago. In a world where craft beer copycats are two a penny, it’s a testament to its design work that it still feels fresh and brave after almost a decade. In December 2020, the brand launched two new beers—The Chariot and The Rule Of Three—in its newly relaunched Tempus Barrel project—a darker, broodier bottled counterpart to its comics-like neon-leaning can designs. Inspired by the seasons and the ancient Pagan Wheel of the Year, and created with locally sourced ingredients, they new designs are a striking counterpoint to the core range can artwork. Remarkably, just one man is behind all the design work for Beavertown—that’s everything from the illustration to type choices, across all touchpoints from packaging designs to van livery designs and merch, such as some new tea towels. That man is Nick Dwyer, who’s worked with the brand pretty much from the start. “We started Tempus to showcase what we could do with wild fermentation and barrel ageing and processes like that,” says the designer. “There’s been lots of messing about with microbes, and seeing if we can brew using old bread; so it was an opportunity to mess around with the brand, too. There’s a level of details and intricacy in the design.” The Tempus designs were inspired by vintage wine labels, he says: “We wanted the labels to be colourful, but also clearly defined as their own range of beers, which is why we went for influences from things like druid calendars. As they use local and seasonal ingredients, our spring and summer beers are lighter offerings in general with maybe more flowers and florals, so the artworks intended to reflect that.” For the font, Beavertown licensed and modified sans serif Vulpes from Da Font. It merges Bauhaus-ish vibes with a modern Art Deco feel sans serif, “with a nice mix of acute angles and straight lines,” says Dwyer. “It’s also blocky enough so you can outline and see through it into the bottles.” When he first started working with Beavertown, Dwyer was more an illustrator than a designer, having specialised in illustration during his graphic design course at St Martins. He pretty much learned the art of packaging design on the job. “We sort of stumbled into the way we do our brand with the colours and designs,” he says. “At first there was a lot of luck involved, and we built on the fact it was something new in every aspect—we filled every corner. When we released the Gamma Ray and the core range it was cool, there was so much to learn about the beer and also learn about the designs.” At first, Dwyer’s less design-led background meant that for the Beavertown typography, he settled on the laborious process of using a separate Illustrator file with each letter as an asset, and dragging them in one by one. Eventually, they asked someone to help me make a font from his letters. “I think the hand drawn lettering] is really important, as it means the branding doesn’t look like an illustration with the branding slapped on,” says Dwyer. A unifying principle across all Beavertown’s beers is a sense of intrigue and ambiguity: the names and artwork alike encourage people to make their own mind up when it comes to meaning, rather than imposing ideas on drinkers. Since Beavertown started out, the craft beer sector has exploded, and there’s been no shortage of copycats when it comes to the brand’s design: graciously, Dwyer says this is “frustrating”, and that he feels bad that the designers on such projects didn’t have the opportunity to be as creative as they might have wanted to be. But why have his designs stood the test of time? “I find it really hard and a bit dangerous to study it too much,” he says. One reason he suggests might be that from the get-go, he pushed the Beavertown founder Logan Plant (“the straight one”) to be really bold. Plant went with it, where other brand owners might be more likely to err on the side of caution, or go with more traditional tried-and-tested routes. “It’s never been designed by committee—it comes straight out of my head,” says Dwyer. “There was definitely some luck to it as well.” He didn’t struggle to create the highly illustrative pack designs, as the self-described sort of person who’s always “filling up Moleskines with line drawings for the sake of line drawings. There are a lot of limitations in putting things onto aluminium.” Something he found that encouraged him to be really creative was, in fact, the limitations involved in creating can designs: obviously certain information has to appear on pack legally, but on a more technical level, there are certain considerations around things like line thickness “which informed the style of my drawings a lot,” he says. He sounds genuinely humbled at the success of his designs: “I benchmark everything against Gamma Ray: it was like, ‘holy shit people really like this!’ I didn’t think it would do that, but it turned into the impetus to keep doing what we do now.” Printing via People of Print https://ift.tt/2DhgcW7 December 23, 2020 at 04:36AM
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3D Printing Market Outlook 2021: Low-Cost Desktop Material Extrusion (FDM, FFF) https://ift.tt/2WztFUq In this 2021 Market Outlook, Trends, and Competitive Landscape for the Desktop Material Extrusion Market, we’re going to take a helicopter view of the desktop material extrusion or Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM, FFF) market. The goal is to give you some idea of the mechanics and dynamics behind the market, an understanding of the material extrusion competitive landscape, and an overview of what’s happening in the value chain. We’ll have a general outlook of this segment for the next calendar year, 2021. We’ll look at the market, systems, and sales for each segment and make recommendations as well as predictions. General OverviewThe desktop material extrusion market can be segmented into low-cost 3D printers, mid-market desktop 3D printers, and professional 3D printers. In this article, we’ll specifically examine low-cost machines before following up with mid-market and pro systems in subsequent articles. Low-cost SystemsLow-cost systems from players such as Creality, Anet, Monopice, and XYZprinting are printers ranging from $150 to $800 that are often basic and available in kit form. Components are middling to low quality, and a lot of tweaking will typically have to be done by the user. Units will tend to be nonfunctional after 24 months and have many technical issues. MarketThese systems are typically bought by consumers, but are also used in print farms, by some universities, and in schools. Margins are extremely thin on these units and customer support is often weak to nonexistent. In response, community-driven support solutions have been initiated, most notably in the MP Select community. SalesThis segment tends to operate through direct sales and some additional local channel sales with most business being direct shipments of individual units to end consumers. Loyalty is emerging in this segment, with very many players (over 80) having recently left the segment. The volumes in this area far outstrip anything else in the industry, with Creality alone reporting selling over 500,000 units a year. SystemsQuality is increasing on these systems and we can see features like bed leveling and touch screens enter the market. Safety is also increasing with wiring and boards becoming more robust and safer. At the moment, I’d recommend this kind of system for a hobbyist with time on their hands or someone who wants to spend very little on a printer. An increase in features to feature-rich models is a major trend in this segment, as is higher unit prices. Companies are locked into a race back to quality in a very constrained way. With immense volumes come immense opportunities, however. RecommendationsTo players in this segment, I would recommend adding new optional features and extras to existing models at online checkout. Ideas such as “Add an extra build platform for $70” or “add two additional rolls of filament for $30” or “add a touch screen for $150”, “add a deluxe 3D print tool kit”, “add 3D Printer Training”, “add software” would do a lot to increase revenue and profit at little extra cost. You have the sale, upsell. Players in this segment should also do much more to encourage fandom and the spreading of word-of-mouth by users through the gifting of T-shirts, stickers, and swag. Generally, industry perception of these brands and loyalty to them is low, but we know ultimately one company with loyal customers and a good brand will emerge, so you may as well start seeding this now. It’s not a question of if anyone will wear your t-shirt, but that you want to be the company whose t-shirt people will want to wear. Critical IssuesA critical worry in this segment is the lack of safety and support. This is both a risk to the entire industry as well as something that leaves a lot of customers dissatisfied and unable to use their systems. In this sense, this segment can be a drag on overall growth. Significant quality and safety increases will have to occur for this segment to experience significant growth, especially in profitability. Recommendation for competitionIf you are a materials or software company that is not in this segment, I would urge you to engage these firms. They are often left by the wayside, but this is where the volume is and this is where you could get a lot of installs for your software or a lot of new customers for your filament, bed adhesion solution, or community. Anyone in a higher segment can have no doubt these guys are coming for you and your fat margins and ecosystems. 2021 OutlookThroughout 2021, I’d expect prices to further stabilize and go up with the occasional Kickstarter model being used to position oneself higher in the market. Simultaneously, seasonal sale models will be used to discount and deter others from entering the space. I’d expect Creality, MonoPrice and Anet to still be duking it out for dominance in the segment. I see little scope for new entrants in the very near term attaining real volume, with the exception of Prusa and their Mini printer, which is, in my mind, the best printer in the segment at the moment. Still, with price-sensitive buyers I’d expect its success to be suppressed but growing. I’d expect players to add more community features and to increase their marketing capabilities further. I’d also anticipate companies to have slicker websites, more extensive websites, and to focus more on growing towards being the DJI of their segment, if not the industry as a whole. Long-term, I see at least one entrant here to use its cutthroat super-efficient model to grow into a market-dominant player in all segments. Everyone else in the market is a bunch of doughy hipsters working up a sweat while queuing for their cappuccinos. This segment breeds lean Muay Thai boxers that are coming to knock your teeth in. In our next article in the series, we’ll take a look at mid-market players, including the market, systems, and sales, in addition to recommendations and predictions. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com December 22, 2020 at 08:32AM ZVerse Launches Next Generation of Digital Manufacturing Enablement Platform https://ift.tt/3pfIbgy South Carolina-based digital manufacturing technology company ZVerse, Inc., which was founded in 2013, developed what it considered the only CAD as a Service (CADaaS) platform for digital manufacturing, which offers service bureau customers manufacturable 3D CAD files. The company pivoted its operations to 3D printing PPE this fall due to the COVID-19 pandemic, winning an award for its quick work and mass production of millions of 3D printed face shields for educators, frontline workers, restaurants, and the community at large. In order to help rapidly fill this need for PPE, ZVerse leveraged its AI-driven Digital Manufacturing Enablement (DME) platform. Now, the company has announced the launch of the next generation of its DME platform. DME is a workflow solution meant to get rid of lengthy, dissimilar actions related to the design and manufacturing process. The platform uses advanced algorithms, what is meant to be a quality user interface, and other tools, like a 2D to 3D option, which can help OEMs that are looking to strategically bring their products to the market at a higher rate of speed. DME helps manufacturers appraise, measure, and explain design information about their parts with any other parties involved in developing and fabricating it.
We noticed that ZVerse has already been offering some of the digital manufacturing tools listed in its announcement, and wondered if the recently launched DME platform was a rebranding of the tools into one solution, and what exactly made it different from previous offerings. Laura Watford, the PR and Digital Asset Manager for ZVerse, told 3DPrint.com in an email that the company feels that the platform “addresses the costly and problematic challenges that slow market entry.”
According to the website, the platform gets rid of the information gaps between the development and manufacturing of the product, and streamlines the process so it’s easier and more manageable. The new and improved DME platform makes it possible for OEMs to automate and scale 2D CAD files into 3D models, as well as decrease the amount of design iterations, cost requests, and engineering change orders of a project. In addition, the workflow solution assigns, according to the release, “part manufacturability” at the machine, material, and process levels.
(Source/Images: ZVerse) Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com December 22, 2020 at 08:02AM
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3D Printing Drone Swarms Part Five: The Future Now https://ift.tt/34C1NDE As we have seen in previous installments of this series, the use of drones in war has lead to huge successes on the battlefield since 1982. These successes have not only been for the great powers of our age. Countries in some of the most contested and dangerous areas of the world also have been incredibly successful with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Non-state actors have also been trying to weaponize drones as they grow more widespread and less expensive. At the same time, UAVs are often developed and contain 3D printed parts and have benefited significantly from 3D printing, meaning that our futures are intertwined. This opens up legal, moral, and ethical dilemmas for us as an industry. This is all the more so because UAVs are currently undergoing a significant investment worldwide. Nations ever on the brink of war are building them, developing them, and sharing them with their allies. Superpowers are making much more capable drones, while others are trying to weaponize $200 kits. Above, we can see the MQ 25, a UAV that will be carrier-based and could perhaps be used to refuel other jets. Below, we can see the Kratos XQ-58 Valkyrie, a new Low-Cost Attritable Aircraft Technology class drone capable of Mach 5. It has been designed for loyal wingman missions that will see it escort fighters and perform scouting missions or take a missile for other more expensive (or human piloted) aircraft kamikaze-style. The rather thin-looking Airbus you can see below is the Zephyr, a solar electric drone that weighs less than 75 kilos and has a 25-meter wingspan. The Zephyr is capable of flying for months at 70,000ft, and is a HAPS (high altitude pseudo satellite). The Zephyr can be used for surveillance imaging as a sensor platform or perhaps to loiter at great height and drop munitions when ready. Above the weather and most anti-aircraft solutions, it can be seen as a taskable satellite that may get you that jamming or reconnaissance ability where you need it. Below, you can see a commercially available drone used by ISIS. This is something that the industry “laments”, but seems to be able to do little against. Below that, we can see a handmade UAV made in the theater by ISIS. Rough, sure, but ready, as well. Drone development, therefore, will occur on many levels at many price points with many different designs and capabilities. The best conceptual way to think of a drone in my mind is: it used to be that there needed to be a straight line between you and the person you were shooting. Whether it is pictures, bombs or bullets drones mean that the shooting can come at any time from anywhere. So, an individual could make a UAV in the kitchen for $200 that is capable of dropping a bomb; a drug gang could use it for surveillance’ an individual soldier could shoot around the corner; or a drone could be quietly parked somewhere listening in and ready to strike. UAVs can be quickly assembled and made in theater or even in an austere environment. Drones, especially if we combine them with 3D printing, can also be quickly adapted to the local environment. If we take all of this in, we can come to a few key concepts and scenarios that illustrate how drones will play an outsized part in warfare going forward. Drone Swarms: Already utilized to some extent in the field with the Abqaiq-Khurais attack, a swarm of drones strikes a target overwhelming its defenses. Imagine an attack from all sides simultaneously with hundreds of targets. Most targeting systems will just not be able to cope at some point. Hit a ship or oil facility and numerous small fires could easily become a blaze. If your amazing radar can acquire 200 targets, the enemy will just put 300 drones in the air simultaneously. If used against critical installations or aircraft carriers, a considerable amount of time and cost could be put into the drones in order to assault such a target. Individually, the drones would not have to be so complex, but collectively they could sweep over many targets. Drone Guard: Imagine a roster of drones that patrol an area. Each one is an autonomous loitering munition, but, rather than be single-use, the device returns to base to be replaced by a new one once it has run out of fuel. Every 100 meters, a different loitering munition flies in a pattern. With an entire fleet, the area is covered 24/7. If something larger than a square meter moves below the vehicle, the munition engages it. This turns a set of drones into an area deniability weapon or something that could automatically protect your flank. Or you could move the fleet forward, using it as an advancing line. Drone Only: For many years, the U.S. has examined a No Boots on the Ground-like policy. In extremis, this would look a whole lot like the Terminator universe. Generally, however, just because it has been said before doesn’t mean we don’t need to say it again: drones can make it more likely that democratic powers go to war. Rather than be forced to negotiate or to find creative solutions to global conflicts, “send in the drones” would be a way to satisfy the polls for a ruling party to quickly seem to maintain authority. At no human cost to you, it may even widen the gulf of empathy between Us and Them. What is the fallout? There is no risk of dead people on your side or any complexities. Just a button to push, which is the easiest solution. No Press = No Atrocity: If you instantly strike at a village 15,000 miles away, there will not be any press there. In fact, the place may never have and will never have a press presence. If you hit a school, the children will be long buried and the mess repaired before an intrepid reporter gets there. But, why would a reporter go there? This is just one in a long line of strikes that month. This could mean that your government is committing a long string of My Lais, but without anyone to witness and bring back information about those massacres. Criminal Use of Drones: So far, some cartels have used drones for observation and transport, but they could afford to invest much more. The drone could be the weapon that gets them to be a “near peer” to their local government. The technology is so accessible and powerful that it may only be a matter of time. Continuous Iteration: If you show up to fight me and your drones, missiles, and defenses stay the same for the two years that we are fighting, but I continuously improve all of my equipment, then I will win. With 3D printing I can design and develop new versions of existing drones that are better than the previous ones, meaning that, at some point, I will outperform. Crowdsourcing War: If you want the best designs then get your people at home to design the best drones for every theater and every opponent. Better than buying a war bond, this will get everyone involved and let the brightest minds help the frontline troops. On a similar vein, I’m curious to see if anyone will let civilians pilot drones. All Transport: As many as six people in the field are getting supplies to the frontline soldier. In some cases a frontline soldier could cost $1 million a day to maintain. With every mile, more gas will be needed to get more vehicles to protect more gas moving more gas for that one team in the boondocks. Drone transport is now seen as a niche solution, but what if a large volume of material were delivered from a safe area direct to the frontline? You could have vastly fewer people in-country. You’d need a big base near the country and some hard points in it, but your footprint would be much less for the same number of frontline soldiers. What’s more, you wouldn’t have 100 facilities to protect, but just five. Sure, drone transport is expensive, but so is the huge number of logistics people that you have and need to protect. In-theater Production: Ideally, you’d like to upgrade, manufacture, and repair your drones as close to the frontline. And what is the best solution to making all manner of parts locally? You guessed it, 3D printing. It’s almost inevitable to me that the U.S. or other large powers will look to our industry’s technology to help them produce drones in-country and repair them in or near forward operating areas. Already a number of containerized fablabs have been a success. The future in my mind is inexorable. If the U.S. and its allies begin to do this, tinderbox countries and non-state actors will do it more than they have as well. In my mind, our future and that of the drone is one. I think that this is something that we need to talk about and think about now, instead of tomorrow. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com December 22, 2020 at 07:32AM
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Bloom Courageously: Discussing Women in 3D Printing with Satori CEO Chengxi Wang https://ift.tt/3hmiIiR Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with Chengxi Wang, the CEO of professional 3D printer developer Satori, which officially entered the 3D printing market with the launch of its compact, resin-based ST1600 system this fall. In addition to this new 3D printer, Satori, which means “enlightenment” in Japanese Zen, also offers high-performance 3D printing materials, 3D printer accessories, a business and technical consultation service for clients, and an on-boarding period for customers who purchase the ST1600. The company also launched its new partnership program, in order to work with innovators and creatives from different industries around the world to develop impactful, problem-solving initiatives. During Formnext Connect, I spoke with Wang and Mahdi Naim of the Mahdi Naim Design Lab, a full-service industrial design agency and the first partner in the company’s new program. Satori and Mahdi Naim collaborated on a collection of three unique but functional 3D printed pieces people can use while working from home that are meant to improve their workspace during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Before the three of us discussed the partnership on our call, I was able to speak with Wang and learn more about her background and how she found her way to the 3D printing world. But as a woman leading a tech company, I knew Wang would also have some valuable insights into the diversity of our industry. I asked if her daily experiences as a female CEO in the tech industry were very different than the experiences of men in similar positions; unfortunately but unsurprisingly, she said yes. As an example, Wang said that she likes fashion, and normally dresses up and wears high heels, and people will look at her and say that it’s hard to imagine she runs a tech company. What’s worse, they feel justified in expressing this thought out loud to her.
I asked Wang if, even given her experiences as a female CEO, she thought that the tech industry is more diverse now than it was five or ten years ago. According to Women in 3D Printing, which is on a mission to close the gender gap in additive manufacturing, roughly 13% of the AM industry is female, and only 11% of the businesses are female-owned, including Satori. Wang said that she’s seen other statistics on this topic, which always say that this issue is improving, but in her personal experience, “it’s still an ongoing battle.”
In light of this, I wondered what Wang thought were some of the biggest challenges to diversity in 3D printing, and in technology overall.
She brought up an article she’d read a few years ago about augmented reality glasses, and how they were generally too big and didn’t really fit women’s eyes. Why, you ask? Because the team in charge of developing, testing, and producing the prototype product was “predominantly males.”
The way she explains it, it’s not hard to see that gender bias in technology is definitely a cyclical problem, and one that needs to be solved so products can fit the needs of all consumers. I mentioned Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her recent death, and how some people who asked her when there would be enough women serving as Supreme Court justices were shocked when she would reply, “When there are nine.” There have been nine men on the Supreme Court before, and no one had an issue with it, so why would they with nine women? In this vein, I asked Wang what her hopes were for a more diverse 3D printing workforce in the future.
I asked if she had any advice for young women who were interested in technology, but might be nervous about the prospect of being the only girl in the class. Wang said that young girls should not change themselves to fit a stereotype, and then continued with a beautiful metaphor that just about knocked me out of my seat:
I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Wang, and thought that she made a lot of excellent points. We can’t make quality products that best serve all people until all those people, including women, are included in the discussion. Wang will have the opportunity to share more of her thoughts on the 3D printing industry soon, as she will be speaking at the upcoming Women in 3D Printing TIPE 3D Printing Conference; fittingly, this is the first time in the AM industry that the speakers and panelists on the agenda for a conference will all be women. The virtual event will be held from January 27-28, 2021, and Wang will be participating in the “Pushing the Limits of AM in Healthcare” panel on the 28th. You can register for the conference here. There is no cost for simple live stream access, and only $95 if you want access to both the live event and replays. I also noticed on Satori’s website that its latest partner is 3D fashion and textile designer Ganit Goldstein, which is really exciting news. I can’t wait to hear more about what Satori and its partners create and 3D print together in the future. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com December 22, 2020 at 07:02AM
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Tribambuka: I Am Home https://ift.tt/3hdoBPg Anastasia Beltyukova, aka Tribambuka, is an award winning illustrator, artist and animation director, originally from St. Petersburg, Russia. She left home in search of home in 2010, got stuck in London during the eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull volcano, and has been living and working there happily ever since. Feeling the need to explore what home means for her, Anastasia started a project that not only shaped her as an artist, but coincided with the world’s events in a strange way. In 2019, Anastasia was approached by Atelier 3I3, a little gallery in Porto, to create a series of Riso prints and two zines. “I was thinking a lot about what home is and how it defines our identity, or the other way around, so I thought it’s a good opportunity to explore this theme” says the illustrator. No longer living where she was born, and surrounded by others in a similar situation, Anastasia began to ask herself a series of questions; “I always wondered what home is for our nomadic generation? Is it where you were born? Is it where you live? Is it even a place? Is it a person? Is it a feeling?” She continues; “At first we don’t realise that we have a home. We are one with the world. Then we outgrow home, we leave home… or we lose home. We miss home. We seek home. We build home.” Anastasia asked many people what is home for them, and surprisingly never received two similar answers. Thus, she based her work on their answers and her own contemplations on the subject.
Anastasia spent the most of 2019 exploring this theme. First, she played with her sketchbooks for a few months, writing down and sketching out all the ideas, listening to songs about home, and collecting various ephemera that could be used in collages. Later, these sketchbooks were used in a zine representing the artists’s diary. Printed in black and white, each copy has unique drawings with coloured pencils and Posca pens with an individual quote, suggested by Anastasia’s friends. She then selected the best ideas and created 15 artworks based on them, which were printed as a limited edition Risograph prints by Mundo Fantasma in Portugal.
Strangely, some of the prints that Anastasia didn’t quite understand suddenly started making sense and the meaning reveal itself. “The spookiest thing is that I made 2020 calendars and sent them to people asking what home is for them, and as 2020 unfolded – the illustrations weirdly rhymed with what was going on in the world” states Anastasia. For example, a print entitled Journey Home, weirdly depicts the lockdown, and featured as April in the calendar.
www.tribambuka.co.uk Printing via People of Print https://ift.tt/2DhgcW7 December 22, 2020 at 05:35AM
https://player.vimeo.com/video/460990174
Cluster Illustration Residency https://ift.tt/34wRdgX Cluster, the creative platform tailored to the needs of artists and young collectors, is launching a tailored Residency programme to support an illustrator with space, mentoring, and an exhibition. The residency will aim to serve the unique needs of the artist, based on their career path to date and ambitions for the future, and to guide them into a network of opportunities by fostering connections between artists and the London art world. Working from a studio in East London with specific equipment provided in response to the illustrator’s needs, residents will be given a custom designed programme of one-on-one mentoring sessions with industry professionals who will guide them through research and production, and help develop their concluding solo show. The residency will last for 4 weeks in Spring 2021 at a time suitable for the illustrator, and will include transportation to London, meals, accommodation, and a private workspace in East London with career support continuing for one year (or more) during which their work will also be exhibited at the Cluster fair. Applications are open to artists of all ages and nationalities. Submissions Close 20 Jan 2020. APPLY HERE. Printing via People of Print https://ift.tt/2DhgcW7 December 22, 2020 at 03:20AM
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Straycat https://ift.tt/34wq9P2 Straycat is the studio of creative, Roy van Wezenbeek. Educated in Fine Arts, his love for drawing and printmaking are key features in his output. In his practice he aims for an intuitive and direct approach, with the elements of surprise and opportunity being motivational factors. After achieving his degree, Roy partook in a few exhibitions, hoping to help cover his rent. However, he struggled to make ends meet solely making art, and instead started working in vintage furniture restoration. Roy says; “For quite some time I happily executed that work, I really enjoyed being among craftsmen and learning from them. Nevertheless at some point feelings of unfulfillment crept in.” Thus, Roy rented a small atelier and started making things again, constructing ideas to make a more sustainable practice.
One of Roy’s favourite projects he has recently worked on was the designing of graphics for new Dutch skateboard brand, Become Skateboarding. He was tasked with creating 2 graphics for decks, and other merch including t-shirts and stickers. “I was so excited that I was working on this like all the time” describes Roy. Instead of creating just the 2, he made 5 graphics as he had so many ideas he wanted to work with. The skateboards are currently being produced, and Roy is “as excited as a kid in a candystore” to get his hands on the decks and skate with them. Another exciting project he recently finished is a commissioned artwork for a documentary about rock schools for youngsters in former conflict areas in Kosovo and Macedonia. Roy says; “Music connects people and that’s what this documentary basically is about”. He is also currently working on infographics for a brewery; “I wanted to make an infographic where you can discover the process of beer brewing in an exciting way”. In this commissioned work he aimed for something both informative and fun to look at.
Always working in a love/hate relationship with the computer, Roy aims to find the right balance between analogue and digital in his works. “The computer has to be a tool in the same way a pencil or a hammer or whatever is” he describes. When drawing, he uses a variety of ink pens, ballpoints, pencils, gouache, and oil and water pastels, emphasising his love for these textures. “I think my scanner is my biggest friend these days” says the illustrator. All sorts of things have been under the hood of his scanner; flowers, sandwiches, jeans, strawberries, you name it.
Printing via People of Print https://ift.tt/2DhgcW7 December 22, 2020 at 03:06AM |
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