3D Printed Cookie Cutters
To embrace the spirit of the holiday season, this year Cimquest made some custom 3D printed cookie cutters in Ultem 1010. Ultem 1010 is known for its exceptional strength and heat resistance, making it ideal for production applications in the automotive, aerospace, and medical industries. It has the highest heat and chemical resistance of any FDM material, along with the greatest tensile strength. But aside from these impressive properties, Ultem 1010 is biocompatible and approved for food contact, making it a practical material for food-production industries. Because of this, we were able to print these festive designs and use them to create edible and delectable holiday cookies. The cutters were printed on the Fortus 450 in less than an hour! We cut our festive shapes out of homemade dough, baked the treats, and enjoyed perfectly shaped holiday cookies that are perfect for family gatherings this season. Happy Holidays from everyone at Cimquest. For more information on our Stratasys line of 3D printers, please click the button below. More Info
3D Printing Architectural Models Reduces Time & Cost
KMCA is a model making company based in New Haven, CT. Founded in 1988, they produce models for some of the world’s leading architectural and industrial design firms. Their primary focus is commercial office complexes, however they support a variety of building types ranging from churches to university centers. KMCA’s traditional methods of production include 3 Axis CNC machining and laser cutting, which operate in conjunction with manual assembly techniques. While these machining methods are advanced and effective, they can also be time consuming and costly. Through conventional methods, there is also a limit to the design freedom, especially for units with complicated geometry. Due to these constraints, KMCA has turned to 3D printing as an additional tool for production. Additive manufacturing was not a completely foreign concept for KMCA. In the past, they’ve outsourced 3D printing for intricate parts that make up the designs of advanced models. However after seeing the exceptional capabilities and opportunities of the technology, they decided to aquire their own Stratasys printers. Since then, the printers have yielded great benefits on numerous projects, including models for a commercial development in the new CityCenter of Washington DC. KMCA was tasked with fabricating large scale models of 900 New York [...]
3D Printed Bottle Opener
If you have seen us at any of the several manufacturing trade shows we attend each year, you may have noticed the 3D printed “giveaways” we offer to our visitors as a means to demonstrate the capabilities of our technologies. This year, our President and CEO, Rob Hassold, came up with an idea for a 3D printed ASA enclosed bottle opener for giveaways. These would nicely show off how a metal piece can be encapsulated in a part printed by fused deposition modeling. We knew this giveaway would pose a greater challenge than the hex bottles and shooter toys that we've been known to have, so we got started right away working on a design. First, we took careful consideration to measure the exact dimensions of the bottle openers we purchased. Using these dimensions, we designed a cavity exactly the size of the bottle opener into our model of the giveaway. In a normal 3D printed part, a cavity like this would fill up with support material. Using the Insight software for a Fortus production printer, we are able to delete these layers of support and insert a pause in the build just before the layer where the cavity will close off. While [...]
Final Days to Take the 3D Printing Ornament Challenge
You only have 4 more days to get your ornament design to us to take the 3D Printing Ornament Challenge. But don't worry, that's plenty of time. All you need to do is create the design and we do the rest of the work. This is your chance to create a unique and meaningful gift for somebody you love, or perhaps for yourself. If you win, you will get your special ornament printed and delivered right to your door for free. All you need to do is get designing and get creative. Use anything you like as inspiration and create an ornament that is fun, festive, and unique to you! Here are the rules: You need to submit your design to Cimquest by December 18, 2015 via email to contest@cimquest-inc.com. Please post a screen shot of your part on either Facebook or Twitter and tag it with #CQ3DPrintedOrnament. Your file must contain a watertight solid: Native CAD or Neutral File Format (SAT, STEP, IGES, X_T) Cimquest will use an internal vote to narrow the field down to 5 ornaments. The top 5 designs will be posted to our Facebook and Twitter pages. The design to receive the most combined likes and retweets will be the grand prize winner receiving their [...]
Tips for Creating Your 3D Printable Ornament
We hope you’re beginning the brainstorming and design process for your very own 3D printable ornament. The sky is the limit for what you can dream up and some questions have started to roll in. We thought we should share some of the answers with everyone to help you all in your design process. The biggest question that has come up is regarding colors. Some folks have asked, “Can my ornament be printed in multiple colors?” We have a two-part answer to this color question. The short answer is yes. But the long answer is that multiple colored designs will require you to submit the ornament file as individual solid bodies, one for each color. This sample of the "Olaf the Snowman" ornament consisted of 11 separate bodies within the STL file. Bodies were printed separately, allowing for different colors to be assigned to each piece. Another question regarding color, “What colors can my ornament be printed in?” We have a total of 9 colors available for ABS Plus and they are shown below. Please create your solid file in a color that closely represents one of these choices if you have a preference in the color. And the last question is regarding the [...]
3D Printing is a Game-Changer for Infant Heart Surgery
OpHeart, a nonprofit organization that aims to provide the best possible care for children born with life-threatening heart defects, has become a crusader for normalizing 3D printing medical practices across health care institutions. OpHeart’s founder, Anne Garcia, is spearheading fundraising efforts for patient trials and protocols to demonstrate the clinical and economic benefits of 3D printing. Additive manufacturing has propelled advancements and has had life-changing impacts in the medical industry, resulting in improved and personalized patient care. Using Stratasys’ PolyJet 3D printing solutions, surgical teams can reproduce anatomical models that are derived from patient imaging and use those replicas to evaluate the best possible course of action for complex surgeries. Evaluation prior to surgery can increase the success of the operation and shorten the time in the operating room. Aaron Minard of EngATech presented Garcia with a Stratasys 3D printed heart model at a recent fundraiser event for OpHeart. Aaron Minard of EngATech presented Garcia with a Stratasys 3D printed heart model at a recent fundraiser event for OpHeart 3D printed models also serve as educational tools for medical students and offer low-cost solutions without compromising quality or accuracy. “To have something in your hand and be able to turn it any way you want [...]