As COVID-19 continues to spread, 3D Printing can help to mitigate supply shortages of parts and devices needed to help. Slant 3D is comitting a large portion of our production 3D Printing capacity of several hundred printers to help as needed. But there are thousands of other printers in the world that can also contribute.

Here are several 3D printing files that can be printed to help deal with the Coronavirus epidemic.

We would like to take this moment to say that masks are largely ineffective. It is assumed at this point that is Covid-19 is tranmitted predominantly through direct contact with body fluids. This makes a mask useless unless you are in a crowded area among those who are infected and symptomatic. This means that masks are mainly needed in hospitals. 

But if you or a person you know becomes symptomatic you can protect the people around you by wearing a mask because droplets can be spewed around an area through coughing and sneezing. So a mask does help but mainly as a catcher. You do not need to have a HEPA filter simple fabric like a handkerchief in the mask helps a huge amount.

Another interesting mask for holding a cloth cover in place. This mask is printed flat with PLA and then heated with a hairdryer or in boiling water to then form to the face. It will create a more comfortable fit and likely a better seal.

Since the COVID-19 seems to be transfered through direct contact door handles and other common touch-points can be contaminated. Materialize has created a design to be a used with round handled doors which can be easily printed and installed. These fixtures make is easy to open the door with an elbow.

Helping with more general tasks this device allows you to interact with commonly touched surfaces in order to avoid contact. A Simple hook lets you open doors and you can also use it to turn on lights and maybe even the knob in the bathroom.

We will update this list with new posts as more designs are created. We are aslo comitting capacity to the production of such devices. We hope that we can help in some way limit the supply shortages that are arising. If you a have a part that needs to be produced please submit it to us and we will do our best to help.

Most of all we would like to say "Please stay calm." Supply chains are functioning. Infrastructure is fine. It is the burst of panic that has limited toilet paper in the stores. Please only take what you need and plan food and consumables for a potential 2 weeks shutdown. Please do not do more as you will add to a vicious cycle of hoarding. We will come through this epidemic.

As travel and shipping become more constricted due to COVID-19, flexible and large scale additive manufacturing will be a great resource.

The inventory demands and the shipping restrictions are limiting supplies form china. Companies need a local manufacturing resource that can affordably be spun-up to meet current supply needs, without high up front cost. Since there is no cost of Tooling, but the capacity to produce 10,000's of plastic pieces, production 3D Printing can bridge this production gap.

There is also a "all hands on deck" necessity for manufacturers to produce materials that are simply in short supply worldwide. Items such as face masks and other medical aides. 3D Printing companies can contribute to the supply chain as much as possible to support medical staff and those responding to the crisis.

If you need help manufacturing your product during this uncertain time. Please submit a 3D model to us and we will do our best to help.

Igus is a well known for their linear motion systems. The high quality and long term durability have been proven in the manufacturing industry for years. A very common part of this are the DryLin Polymer Series of products. These bearings and bushing are used in equipment all over the world.

Historically these components were manufactured using an extrusion process. This is very efficient for large scale production of a ubiquitous part. But it does not lend itself to optimization beyond a certain point. This is where Slant 3D comes in.

Igus has recently released the iGlide series of 3D printing materials for the manufacture of polymer bearings and other wear pieces. Combined with Slant 3D's high volume production capacity it is now possible to manufacture 100-10,000 bearings or bushing with geometries that were impossible in the past.

Slant 3D has verified the material by designing a new type of bushing that uses rings rather than the traditional slats of extruded bearings. This new design is able to keep out contaminants that could reduce the life of the bearing and shaft. It also can be varied to increase or decrease the contact area of the bearing.

It now also becomes possible to optimize bearings for the load that they are to be put in. Such as increasing material on the one side of the bearing that will support the most load.

Lastly the overall geometry can be changed. Since shrinkage is no longer a factor, bearings can be made with very thick walls to prevent compression on the shaft and allow press-fitting bearings into place. Or they can be made square or triangular to ensure properly assembled orientation.

​All of these are just a few of the options that are now available with these additively manufactured bearings.

The 3D Printed bearings will find first use in the Slant 3D factory as a component on our production 3D Printers. The material will also immediately be made available to all Slant 3D production clients as an option for custom motion systems that need bearing and bushings with very specific requirements.

If you would like to explore the design and production of custom 3D Printed bearings more. Please submit your project through our quoting form or simply contact us. We are happy to help you from design to production.

Republished from the Verge

Teenage Engineering launched its Ikea Frekvens line of speakers and home items earlier this year, and now the company is offering free 3D printing files so customers can create their own Ikea hacks. The Frekvens (which translates to “frequency”) line features a modular system of speaker combinations that work as a perfect base for 3D-printed accessories. Some designs feature handles, wheels, and cupholders to make the speakers even more portable and party-friendly; others let you add “chicken legs” to turn your speaker into a rooster, which is equally, if not more, important.
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The speakers, which range in price from $149 for a subwoofer model to a $69 model and a $19.99 portable option, are compatible with all of Teenage Engineering’s synths, including the OP-1 and its excellent pocket operators. The Frekvens range includes other accessories to help you put on a cool house party, like LED light panels that react to sound, a speaker base with light, and reflective raincoats. Ikea sells a separate $17 accessories set that comes with LED spotlights, but Teenage Engineering hopes that the free 3D CAD files will inspire customers to come up with their own Ikea hacks. “We want this to work as a starting point for people that are interested in 3D printing their own tools,” Teenage Engineering CEO Jesper Kouthoofd told Wired UK. “Perhaps some people will get inspired to improve our designs and then will go on to do their own.”

These types of files can also be printed on demand by companies like Slant 3D. This lets customers that do not have access to 3D printers get these accessories, without forcing companies to pay for tooling and inventory. Slant 3D could print accessories as they are ordered by customers. To find out more submit your project through our quoting form and an engineer will be in touch.

Twin Toys makes colourful, safe, and engaging toys for children – designed and 3D-printed in the UK with recycled bio-plastic.

Twin Toys’ aim is to make children’s toys that are fully circular from using recycled bio-plastics and 3d printing, to being able to return them end of life to be remade into something new. All toys are designed, 3D-printed, and sold in the UK to reduce impact on the environment and ensure materials are recirculated where they are created.
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• Uses 50% recycled content
• Non-toxic plant-based material
• Suitable for 12 months +
• Certified and tested to UK and EU safety standards
• Can be returned end of life
• Reuse, return, remake

The idea for Twin Toys was created by Director, Susie Page, who is a mum of three years old twins, and an environmental professional working in the corporate sector.

She says, ‘plastic can be a great material for children’s toys as its versatile and brightly coloured. There are very few toy makers offering alternatives to virgin based plastic toys, and while wooden toys are great and we have plenty of those, I wanted to create products with plastic that are fully circular and aim to reduce environmental impact’.
Susie Page, Director, Twin Toys Ltd

Twin Toys are launching with three shape-based toys targeted at 12+ months to support children’s skills with building, stacking and identifying different shapes and colours.

For several weeks during the Chinese spring holiday manufacturing in the country was on a hiatus. Now with the coronavirus outbreak the Chinese government is very sensibly asking manufacturing to remain slowed to prevent its spread. But unfortunately this means that components are not being made that might be time sensitive in the US and other countries. 3D Printing offers a flexible and affordable alternative to getting your parts manufactured while China is slowed due to health concerns.

Production Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing), is able to produce 10,000's of parts each week. Ir is particularly useful when producing functional plastic parts. These included brackets and braces for furniture and gears and knobs for industrial equipment.

All that is needed to start production of a part is a 3D model. There is no tooling cost and now minimum volumes. This offers a quick and affordable alternative to injection molding.

If your company or project is delayed because of the shutdown of Chinese manufacturing please reach out with 3D model of your part and we will work to get you back on schedule quickly and efficiently.

Ducting and cooling create very complex plastic components for consumer and industrial products. Historically these parts have had to be roto or injection molded. The problem is that many of these parts are for limited production runs. So the cost of tooling can be very high. This is an area where production 3D Printing can make a very large difference, by completely eliminating the cost of Tooling while manufacturing plastic ducting and venting.

A Project that was recently completed at Slant 3D was several hundred cooling vents for a piece of medical equipment. These vents distribute air to multiple chambers during a testing process. Normally a piece like the one below would have to be broken into multiple pieces and then molded. The process could take up to 12 weeks and would still require assembly. At Slant 3D we were able to take the design, perform some slight modifications for 3D printing and then produce 100 sets within 10-14 days at a fraction of the cost. And since there were no molds the client was able to make modification and return with a new iteration of the design several months later.

A Much simpler example is just the covers on Ducting itself. Locally Slant 3D works with a company called Silverdraft Computing, who manufactures high performance machines for VR and rendering operations. 

Silverdraft needed several hundred vent covers for their computers. They wanted to maintain their logo on all hardware so they designed a vent that was custom to them.

Normally such a piece would have cost over 5000 dollars in molding alone, and required several weeks to complete. At Slant 3D we took the 3D model and produced 100 parts in just 2 days so that they could hit their production targets. Production of parts like this now continue, and as Silverdraft grows they are able to take advantage of larger scale pricing. It is likely that parts like this will never be molded.

In the more industrial context ducting is used in factories and large pieces of machinery to move large quantities of air or material.

This large duct made for House of Design on one of their projects was made to move air and actual parts and pieces to a delivery bin. It had to be durable long term. And the part had to be on the shelf in less than a day.

Slant 3D finished the part less than a day after it was ordered and has since produced many of these parts for inventory and new machines.

A large part of this would have cost more than 10,000 dollars to mold, and severl thousand to machine. 3D printing was able to produce the first part for several hundred dollars. And today it can be mass produced by the hundreds for a few dollars.

Production 3D printing is able to produce vents large and small, simple and complex. And it is able to do it faster and cheaper than any other process. Clients get parts fast, at any volume they need, and with any specs they need, all from just a 3D model file.

Getting you product manufactured with 3D printing rather than injection molding is a great option to reduce the cost of getting started. 

We've pulled together the basic steps of getting your product manufactured with Slant 3D so you know what to expect.

Etsy is a great platform to produce customized items for customers. Many etsy stores are popping up that create customized 3D Printed items such as cookie cutters, lamps, and other items.

Most Etsy stores have to buy and maintain 3D Printers in order to produce 3D printed items. Which just adds that much more work onto a full-time job of operating and marketing your store as well as creating new designs, not to mention the cost of buying those machines. But it is possible to outsource all of the manufacturing a fullfillment so that etsy sellers can focus on product design and manufacturing. 

Get a Design or Idea for a Product
To 3D print a product there has to be a computer 3D model of it. Slant 3D can help you create this. Or you can use resources like Fiverr and Freelancer.com.

Submit the Design
When the 3D model is ready you can submit it for a quote. A sales engineer will be put in contact with you and they will get you a quote to manufacture the product for your store and ship it to your customers when orders come in. All designs that are submitted to Slant 3D are kept confidential and will not be shared or utilized.

Start your Store
If you accept the quote then we will finalize the details and help you connect your etsy store so that when orders arrive they can be printed and shipped to your customer.

We 3D Print and Ship
When an order comes into your store. We will be notified or you can submit the 3D model to us (if it is custom) we will then 3D print the model and ship it to your customer.

Have the Resources to grow as big and as fast as you need
When you work with Slant 3D you have a the resources of one of the world's largest 3D Printing Farms to support you. Slant 3D is able to produce 10,000 parts per week and that is growing all the time. So as you sell more you can be sure that the infrastructure is there to support you.​

How Long Does is Take for a Product to be Printed?
Slant 3D works to produce any 3D printed part within 1-3 business days. So if your customer orders a custom cookie cutter on Tuesday, it will be shipped out to them no later than Friday.

Cost?
Since Slant 3D operates at such a large scale so smaller new products and stores can take advantage of of our economies and automation. That makes our cost of production very low. 

There is a monthly membership fee of $50 and then the quoted cost to produce your product. We understand the challenge to start a new store. But there are no minimum quantities, and you only pay for parts when a customer buys from them.

What is the Quality?
All of the Etsy stores that we have worked with have only 5 star reviews. BakersStreetCutters is a great example. We do not let quality drop. And if an order is not up to spec? We will reprint, reship, and refund the order immediately.

Can I do more than 1 Item?
You can do infinite items. We work with stores that do customization of every single item. So a doorstop may have a name engraved. And we work with stores that have 5-20 core products that we manufacture or support them with. There are no restrictions on the number of designs that we can produce for you.

What 3D Printing Process do you use?
We use the FDM 3D printing. This is most commonly used on Etsy and is the lowest cost 3D printing process in existence. And it allows our clients to access low cost hardware for prototyping of new designs.

Etsy is a great platform that has great opportunity for 3D printed products. And now it is easier than ever to start a small online business with 3D printed designs. All you have to do is upload a design, setup an etsy, store and pay when someone pays you.

The cost to launch a new product is nothing. And there is no inventory and no hassle of printing and shipping the item. Now you can focus on the design and sales of your products. 

Since 2017 Slant 3D has been working to make mass production of 3D Printed FDM parts viable. We have designed and manufactured brand new 3D Printers such as the Mason. We have built one of the world's largest 3D printing farms. And we have started production of 3D filament in order to reduce cost to our customers. But now we are taking another large step. In 2020 Slant 3D will open a factory that will contain 800 automated 3D Printers. Called Printer Farm Beta, this will be the largest 3D Printing farm in the world.

Printer Farm Beta will dramatically increase the production capacity of Slant 3D. Allowing us to produce hundreds of thousands of 3D printed parts each month at cost and scale 3D printing has never achieved before.

The facility will be operated much like a server farm. Rows of machines will autonomously produce parts that will collect in bins until technicians retrieve them. Primary conveyors running down the center of the factory will deliver the bins of parts to Quality Control and Shipping

All 3D Printers operate independently. Slant 3D Printers can produce parts for days without human interaction. The entire facility will be operated and monitored through the Cloud. The few technicians present will maintain and repair 3D printers as needed and ensure that all parts are produced to the client's specifications.

The facility will open Feburary 1st, 2020. And will immediately begin production to help our clients start and grow their product lines. 

Slant 3D is on a mission to make manufacturing as simple as app development. Printer Farm Beta will truly make 3D printing a large scale alternative to injection molding at any volume.