By: Nick White

Pq Eyewear teams with designer Ron Arad for 3D printed eyewear line

3D printed eyeglasses aren’t anything new for most people keeping up to date on 3D printing news. However, this partnership between Arad and a mass market eyewear producer is a first in that it is actually being marketed to every day lay-person consumers as opposed to just those already initiated into the 3D printing world.

The glasses, with the exception of the lenses, are printed in their entirety out of nylon powder using Selective Laser Sintering. By designing the frames with scores in the material, Arad was able to achieve the same function as traditional metal hinges without compromising the goal of creating fully printed eyewear. Will the fashionistas be as intrigued by these as the designer/maker community? Only time will tell, for more about Pq x Ron Arad’s eyewear line check out this article on Dezeen by clicking here.

3D Printing: Don’t believe the hype?

There’s no shortage of opinions out there about the 3D printing’s potential to disrupt manufacturing process. It seems every week there’s a new opinion piece either extolling the virtues of the technology or declaring that it’s all hype. A new piece on Engineering.com took a look at a recent Gartner study on 3D printing and the benefits it can bring to firms that are early adopters of the technology.

The article made note of the expectations vs. reality of consumer level 3D printers. The Gartner study warned of a “trough of disappointment” that may come from the excitement over the technology being dampened by the amount of education required to get good results. They make an interesting point, how many times have you heard a lay person excitedly discussing the potential to “print anything”? While, the technology can yield amazing results, the effort and expertise required is often underestimated by the uninitiated. This is something that printer designers may have to think about if they’re going to capitalize on the so-called 3D printing revolution we keep hearing about. Source: Engineering.com

Barobo launches 3D printed robot kit

Barobo Inc., makers of the Barobo Mobot, have just launched The Mobot-A, 3D printed robot kit. This isn’t the first application of 3D printing and robotics but what makes this one a little more interesting is the ethos behind the project.

“As 3D printers become more and more common place in the classroom there’s a need for engaging projects and curriculum to tie this powerful tool into science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) subjects,” said Graham Ryland, President and Co-founder of Barobo.

The kit comes with the internal electronics, fasteners and motors and the rest of the parts the user prints themselves. The launch of the Mobot-A comes after a successful beta run where they saw 300 kits put to use in more than 30 different schools.

Mobot-A kit

This is a great step towards bringing the next generation of students into the world of 3D printing and STEM in general. Costing only $139.95 (+access to a 3D printer of course), this has the potential to help expose students to design and manufacturing in a way thats both educational and exciting. We look forward to seeing more from Barobo in the future. Source: 3ders.org

3DPhacktory featured in Canadian Business Magazine 

We’re in the news again! Canadian Business Magazine featured us in their innovation issue, we also created a short demo for their readers to bring them up to speed on 3D printing technology. Check out their innovation issue online here

Playing the fool on April 1st

April Fool’s Day is always an interesting day; whether its your friends and family, or your favourite blog, its hard to avoid getting fooled at least once. This year was no different and the 3D printing community did not miss out on an opportunity to have a little fun with their April Fool’s festivities.

NEMO The 3D water printer

Fabbaloo got in on the fun by giving the public “exclusive, pre-public access” to a first look at the NEMO 3D water printer. The article, came complete with a quote from project leader “Zone Teedball”,

“Our clients have huge issues printing water-based objects and we aim to solve that problem. Solve it we did! NEMO’s design should be able to produce very high-quality 3D water prints at an unbeatable low cost.”


The Nemo, unfortunately, wont be hitting kickstarter, or anywhere, anytime soon as it was a well executed hoax by the jokers at Fabbaloo. However, Fabbaloo wasn’t the only one trying to stir the pot, ThinkGeek launched their Play-Doh 3D printer that uses the ipad to allow children to design 3D objects and print them using Play-Doh.

This one was too good to be true, you’d be hard pressed to find someone out there who doesn’t have fond childhood memories of building things with Play-Doh (in the interest of full disclosure, I had my credit card out and ready to buy this for myself).

The fake projects from April 1st generated a lot of interest and attention, one can only hope the real projects launching in the near future can do the same.

Well folks, that’s it for this week’s wrap-up of 3D printing news, we’ll see you next week!
-3DPhacktory