Rapid Ready Roundup: MakerBot, 6-Axis 3D Printer, Asda, and Pizza

In the course of my diligent efforts to keep you good people up to date on the state of additive manufacturing (AM), I come across many interesting news items. I’ll gather them up every so often and present them in a Rapid Ready Roundup (like this one). You can find the last Roundup here.

We’ll start today’s Roundup with some business news. MakerBot has inked a deal with Ingram Micro to distribute its lineup of AM systems and related products throughout the US. While MakerBot has a similar deal with Microsoft to sell 3D printers in the software giant’s brick-and-mortar stores, this represents the first time the company has used a large, independent distributor in the US.

“Teaming with Ingram Micro is expected to allow us to reach more resellers in the U.S. that can now sell our products directly,” said Mark Schulze, vice president of sales for MakerBot. “We get calls every day from direct marketers and resellers asking for a relationship with MakerBot, and now, we can work with more of these companies through Ingram Micro, and expand the MakerBot 3D Printing Ecosystem.”

Moving on, Professor Yong Chen and students Xuan Song and Yayue Pan at the University of Southern California have developed a prototype 6-axis 3D printer. The design allows the system to build objects on curved surfaces and offers the potential for printing in multiple directions. Here’s an explanation from the team:

To enable 6-axis motions between a tool and a work piece, we investigated a Stewart mechanism and developed a low-cost prototype system for multi-directional additive manufacturing including the Fused Deposition Modeling and CNC accumulation processes. The technical challenges in our development are the hardware design, coordinate transformation, platform constraint checking, movement simulation, tool path generation, and part fabrication. Several test cases are also presented to illustrate the capability of multi-directional additive manufacturing processes.

Next up, United Kingdom supermarket chain Asda is investigating the potential of offering AM services in-store. They join the likes of Staples, UPS, and Tesco in evaluating whether 3D printing has enough appeal to an average consumer to become a standard part of the inventory. Asda will be offering customers the chance to purchase ceramic 3D printed statuettes of themselves for £40 (about $64) a pop.

Last for today, we have an update on an older story. Back in May we reported on a company that was in the process of developing an AM system that could print out food. That promise has (almost) become reality with SMRC‘s demonstration of a system that can print out a pizza. Kinda.

The 3D printer begins by laying down a thin layer of crust on a heated platform, before adding ketchup and topping everything with cream cheese. Following the layer of cheese, the entire pie is heated up to edible levels of warmth. While those might not be the toppings you would choose, the point is to prove the pizza printer is capable of working with materials similar to those used in pizzas.

Below you can watch the SMRC system print out a small test pizza.

Sources: Geek, Asda, WebProNews, Business Wire