Signify is slowly revealing more of its commercial-scale 3D-printing program, launching the consumer-focused offering “Philips MyCreation” in the Netherlands and Germany. MyCreation allows home consumers to mix and match from a massive variety of styles and colors to build their … Continue reading signify’s 3D-printed “MyCreation” series
Gantri is a San Francisco startup that is using 3D-printing to produce a line of light fixtures. 3D printing greatly reduces the cost and the time associated with traditional product development, requiring no cap-ex or leads times for expensive custom … Continue reading gantri
I saw a couple beautiful pieces by Amsterdam designer Dirk Vander Kooij at the design shop of the W Hotel Amsterdam. The Fresnel Light and a site-specific reception desk (constructed with the same material) both use large-scale 3D printing to … Continue reading dirk vander kooij
Lumecluster is New York based-artist Melissa Ng, who’s created a striking 3D-printed medieval costume with stunning internal LED illumination sewn into the translucent padding. Her design and fabrication process for the piece can be seen here. Continue reading lumecluster
Voxel8 is a Boston-based, Harvard spin-out startup that is integrating the printing of conductive materials directly into 3D printing. The future is pretty obvious at this point: I’ve previously mentioned conductive ink and 3D printing — combining the two is an obvious step … Continue reading voxel8
Autodesk is working on software called “Project Escher” where groups of 3D additive-printers divide the printing of a single large piece. I find especially fascinating the obvious ability to integrate non-additive-printing assembly or fabrication techniques into the production line: Project Escher could also be … Continue reading autodesk project escher
Via Dezeen. “What is fashion missing? Micro-controllers.” Some wild fashion concepts by Dutch designer Anouk Wipprecht that combines 3D printing, embedded lighting, projection mapping, sensors, etc. (not to mention some crazy insane 3D modeling skills!) into some very futuristic ensembles. Gorgeous … Continue reading anouk wipprecht
Via Dezeen. MX3D is a new research and development company co-founded by Joris Laarman and Tim Geurtjens, which plans to use robots to produce the world’s first functional 3D-printed steel bridge over an Amsterdam canal by 2017. Continue reading MX3D
Yingchuang (also named Winsun; I’m not sure the differentiation) is a Shanghai-based construction materials company that is showing some impressive advances in R+D with CNC production, including 3D-printed concrete construction. Yingchuang produces a range of products, including glass reinforced gypsum, special … Continue reading yingchuang
When you are either specifying or engineering a light fixture, I implore you to think about the broader issues of sustainability and the lighting industry’s impact on our tiny planet. There are many sustainability certification programs out there and frankly, I … Continue reading beautiful factories
I posted about them in 2013, but I’m so taken by their creative 3D printed materials and wild forms that I’m posting about them again: Rael San Fratello is an Oakland based architecture studio led by the husband and wife … Continue reading rael san fratello + emerging objects
Italian fixture manufacturer ExNovo utilizes 3D printing technology for some interesting pieces. They follow on the early lead set by Materialise and their MGX line. Continue reading exnovo
Introduction – The Next Evolution Part I – Connected Lighting Part II – Embedded Lighting Miniaturization is a big deal. The lighting industry seems to chronically undervalue the importance of simply shrinking the size of components, to either reduce the overall volume … Continue reading the next evolution of lighting: embedded lighting
Princeton-based McAlpine Research Group has successfully printed a complete combination of conductors and LED emitters, specifically quantum-dot based LED sources. Popular Science has a good explanation of the breakthrough. And the specific research can be found here. Here is the … Continue reading mc alpine research group: completely 3D-printed quantum dot LEDs
Earlier this summer, the US Department of Energy’s SSL program selected Cooper Lighting (now part of Eaton) as the recipient of $2.4m for their interesting R+D program proposal. Cooper’s press release is useless, but here is the text from the DOE’s announcement: Recipient: Eaton Corporation Title: Print-Based Manufacturing of Integrated, Low Cost, High Performance SSL Luminaires Summary: The objective of this project is to develop manufacturing process innovation that allows for LED package, chip, or chip array placement directly on a fixture or heatsink. The approach includes the placement of integrated power electronics. Flexible manufacturing for planar, non-planar and recessed … Continue reading DOE R+D funding: Cooper Lighting wants to print their LED fixtures
Via Gizmodo, a cool little design company called Emerging Objects that is exploring alternative natural materials such as wood pulp, clay, and salt for use in 3D printing technologies. Continue reading emerging objects
D-Shape is a large 3D printing technology that essentially prints “sandstone” for architectural-size construction projects. D-Shape is the supplier intended for the “world’s first 3D printed house” project. How about some 3D printed light fixtures to accompany my future 3D … Continue reading d-shape
Pebble. LIFX. TikTok. Plus hundreds of art projects. Film projects. Games. What do they all have in common? As of yesterday, they’re all being sued by 3D Systems — at least in the court of public opinion. Yesterday, 3D Systems, … Continue reading 3D Systems just sued everyone who’s cool
Core77 has an interesting post on 3D optical research by – guess who – Disney’s research group. And in Pittsburgh, of all places, apparently affiliated with CMU. Disney has posted a video overview of the research to Youtube. It gives … Continue reading 3D optical printing by…Disney?
LUXeXceL is a Netherlands-based company that is experimenting with printing shallow optics using UV cureable polymers on clear substrates. According to their site: “On a transparent substrate such as PolyCarbonate, drops of clear UV-cureable polymer are jetted via the inkjet … Continue reading luxexcel
