Rapid Ready Roundup: Rumors, Ford, ExOne, and Mysterabbit

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.

I don’t usually like to report on unsubstantiated rumors, but this one has been making the rounds long enough I suspect it likely has some validity. Word on the street is that Apple is looking to get into the 3D printing game. If that’s true, I almost think they’ve missed the boat by not acquiring MakerBot when it was still up for grabs.

The two companies are similar in a number of ways, and I suspect their corporate cultures would have mixed without much problem. Still, if Apple does decide to make the leap, it’ll be interesting to see what sort of product becomes the iPrinter. Big business hasn’t really gone after the AM market yet, so if Apple does decide to make 3D printers, and is successful, it could shift the industry.

Moving on, Ford engineer Zach Nelson has designed a haptic feedback stick shift using parts from an Xbox 360 controller and AM. Nelson began by making a hollow version of the standard stick shift found in Mustangs through use of a MakerBot Thing-O-Matic. He filled the stick with various electronics including an Arduino controller and the vibration motor from a Microsoft Xbox 360 game controller. The result is a stick shift that vibrates to indicate when the driver should shift gears.

“The vibrating knob can be installed onto the stock shift lever, and I’ve tested it on several vehicles including Mustang and Focus ST,” Nelson says. “I decided to have a little fun with it and installed an LED display on top that shows the gear position and colored lights that glow from inside at night similar to the ambient lighting in Mustang.”

Next, we have news that ExOne is expanding its operations in Europe with the construction of a new facility in Gersthofen, Germany. The new facility will have 150,700 sq. ft. of production, warehouse, service and R&D space as well as approximately 27,600 sq. ft. for offices, and total costs associated with construction are estimated at $20 million.

“We were fortunate to secure a strategic location for our new facility, located in an industrial region directly on a German autobahn,” said Rainer Hoechsmann, GM of ExOne GmbH.  This provides easy access to our growing customer base, our vendors, as well as our employees.  Consolidating all of our activities, which include production, warehousing, a production service center, an R&D lab, as well as our European headquarters, into a single facility will further improve our efficiency, enhancing our ability to service our customers.”

Last for today, we’ll ask you to remember the rabbits. Mysterabbit is an art project that places small, 3D printed bunnies in public locations. The idea is to get people to look up from their mobile devices, or just break the monotony of day-to-day life.

From the website:

Mysterabbits are tiny sculptures – in the shape of a meditating rabbit – designed to be placed in public spaces. We hope they will stop people from their daily routine and for a brief moment, make them wonder about their mysterious, newly found gift, and a small piece of the beautiful world that surrounds them.

Below you’ll find a video about the meditating bunnies.

Sources: ExOne, Mysterabbit, Ford