Tag Archives: 3-0 printing

Premiere of Urbee documentary in Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada) on Aug. 28, 2012 at 7:15 pm (CDT)

Leave a reply

The big news is that a documentary about the Urbee car (which took filmmaker, Doug Howe, 2.5 years to make)  is being premiered tonight in Winnipeg.

I featured the Urbee in a couple of Sept. 28, 2011 postings titled, Manitoba’s Urbee, which described it and mentioned a 3-D printing process used for the car panels, and *an Interview with the Urbee car’s Jim Kor where  I asked if nanotechnology enabled some of the refinements such as the 3-D printing process (it did), and more.

Sadly, I’m not getting to Winnipeg tonight but if you can, here’s more information about the premiere,

The public premiere of the URBEE DOCUMENTARY.  This is the story of the building of the urban vehicle of the future.  URBEE is the world’s greenest passenger car.  And it’s being built right here in Winnipeg!

WHEN is this happening?

Tuesday August 28th doors open at 6:00 PM [rush seating]

6:30 Music by Bucky Driedger/Matt Schellenberg of the Liptonians

7:15 URBEE the documentary premiere

WHERE is it?

The Park Theatre 698 Osborne Street

HOW did they do it?

URBEE is designed and constructed by an elite group of Winnipeg engineers, industrial designers and environmental enthusiasts led by Jim Kor

WHY do we need URBEE?

It’s estimated there are 1 billion cars currently on the road across our planet. By 2050 there will be 2.5 billion.  The rampant consumption of fossil fuels by these automobiles is an unsustainable drain on the world’s energy.  And the resultant dumping of carbon into the atmosphere comes at a grave cost to the environment.  Built right here in Manitoba, URBEE is the prototype for a 21st century approach to automotive design that redefines energy efficiency and minimizes impact on the environment.

Here’s an image of the Urbee on the road at Bird’s Hill Park near Winnipeg,

 

And here’s another angle on the Urbee,

You can see why the car has attracted so much interest here and internationally. Here’s news about the Urbee now that it’s back from Europe (from the Jan. 2012 WOW backgrounder document),

Urbee has just returned from Europe, and is now safely back in our shop on Erin Street. Work continues on the car. This winter [it’s not clear if they mean 2012 or 2013] we plan to drive Urbee during one of our worst Winnipeg snow storms, to demonstrate that Urbee can also be a great winter car!

Congratulations to the filmmaker, Doug Howe, and Jim Kors. I look forward to hearing more about the Urbee (or URBEE).

There will be a DVD of the documentary available soon. If you contact them via jkor@urbee.net, you will be placed on a waiting list.

* ‘and’ changed to ‘an’ Nov. 7, 2013

Stratasys/Objet merger and a brief bit about how 3-D printing actually works

Leave a reply

The industry analysts seem very excited about the newly announced merger between two companies, Stratasys and Objet, that specialize in 3-D printing as Robert Cyran states in his April 16, 2012 posting on the Fast Company website,

Making physical items from digital files is a hot technology – maybe too hot if the market reaction to the acquisition of privately held Objet by Stratasys is any guide. Despite few synergies and an odd poison pill, the buyer’s shares rose nearly 25 percent, mainly on potential revenue synergies. But the future isn’t quite here yet.

Rich Brown in his April 16, 2012 posting on C/Net seems mildly more enthused,

You’ll be forgiven if you haven’t previously heard of Stratasys Inc or Objet Ltd. Stratasys, formerly a NASDAQ-traded company from Eden Prairie, MN, has a multi-pronged business selling industrial-quality 3D printers and on-demand object printing services. Objet, of Rehovot, Israel, is a 3D printer manufacturer notable for its “polyjet matrix” technology, that can print an object using multiple different materials.

Here’s why you might care that [they] announced their intention to merge: the new company, Stratasys, Ltd. could become a third major competitor in the consumer 3D printing market.

…

Where might newly-formed Stratasys, Ltd fit in? Neither originating firm is as large as 3D Systems, but both Stratasys Inc. and Objet Ltd. saw revenue increases over 30-percent for 2011, suggesting both companies are healthy. …”

3D Systems hasn’t really established its own name among consumer 3D printers, so it’s not clear that MakerBot really has any large competition yet. If Stratasys Ltd. does enter the consumer market, and if 3D Systems does make a credible entry, consumers will get to chose from at least three major technology originators. If that happens, here’s hoping that means more competition-induced innovation, and less court-bound patent squabbling.

I will add my wishes to Brown’s hope that this move stimulates innovation and not a series of law suits.

Oddly, I had already planned to write about 3-D printing last Friday, April 13, 2012, when I found a news item by Joel L. Shurkin on physorg.com which includes a good description of the 3-D process (Note: I have removed links),

Much of modern manufacturing is by reduction. Manufacturers take blocks of plastic, wood, or metal, and grind and machine away until they get the item they want. All the plastic, wood, or metal that doesn’t make it into the item is thrown away, maybe as much as 90 percent wasted.

3-D printing puts down layers of metal powders or plastics as directed by software, just as ink is laid down on paper directed by printer drivers. After each layer is completed, the tray holding the item is lowered a fraction of a millimeter and the next layer is added. Printing continues until the piece is complete.

Molten metal is allowed to cool and harden; plastics or metal powders are hardened by heat or ultraviolet light. The ingredients aren’t limited to those substances; almost anything that flows can be accommodated, even chocolate.

There is little waste, and it is possible to change the object by simply working with the software that drives the printer the way text is changed in a word processor.

In addition to the advantages there are also some disadvantages to the technology,

“Printing a few thousand iPhones on demand (and with instant updates or different versions for each phone) at a local facility that can manufacture many other products may be far more cost-effective than manufacturing ten million identical iPhones in China and shipping them to 180 countries around the world,” the Atlantic Council wrote in a report.

Clearly, not everyone would share the advantages. Manufacturing centers like China could lose millions of jobs in that sector, and their economies could be destabilized. The industries that transport the supply line and distribute the finished product would also be hit, the council wrote. Warehouses full of parts and products could be replaced by machines that print on demand.

Closer to home, I mentioned Stratasys and 3-D printing in a Sept. 28, 2011 posting about Manitoba’s Urbee car. My most recent mention of 3-D printing was in an April 10, 2012 posting about print-on-demand robots.