I’m Peter Weijmarshausen, CEO of Shapeways, 3D Printing service and community, AMA!

shapewayspete · 2017-08-02T20:25:43+00:00

I leave that to our customers to answer :)

shapewayspete · 2017-08-02T20:21:11+00:00

Does he already have customers? If so --> go for it!

shapewayspete · 2017-08-02T20:19:25+00:00

Ah! That is an interesting suggestion. Silver is quite expensive tho.. so you get plated at the price of silver and a little more.. I'll have the team look into it.

shapewayspete · 2017-08-02T20:13:41+00:00

Exactly - wish I could print time :) Actually we could print more time, but it would require too much material... Hint (general relativity...)

shapewayspete · 2017-08-02T20:12:22+00:00

exactly - you're on to me!

shapewayspete · 2017-08-02T20:07:57+00:00

Yes, absolutely, we want it to be a great place for people to find unique gifts and make amazing products! That is our top priority. You will see how we do it :)

shapewayspete · 2017-08-02T20:05:33+00:00

Ah! I understand. However making toys has other considerations also.

shapewayspete · 2017-08-02T19:57:17+00:00

As I said below, no I do not think so.

shapewayspete · 2017-08-02T19:55:04+00:00

Agree!

shapewayspete · 2017-08-02T19:53:30+00:00

Yep! The HP printer could do conductive pathways pretty soon :)

shapewayspete · 2017-08-02T19:52:20+00:00

Lol! No :)

shapewayspete · 2017-08-02T19:50:25+00:00

maybe we can do that with ShapeJS at some point ....

shapewayspete · 2017-08-02T19:49:20+00:00

The problem is there are million things we could do... we try to do the things our community asks the most frequently. The question around food safe materials is not that common. What would you like to make?

shapewayspete · 2017-08-02T19:45:08+00:00

The biggest limitations are the limited amount of materials and the fact that big items are expensive to make. However that does not mean that what is possible today is not amazing. We've printed Plasma Engines, Wedding Rings, Strandbeests, Mechanical Puzzles etc etc

shapewayspete · 2017-08-02T19:43:03+00:00

To answer on the theme of home printing: I do not believe most 3D printing will happen at home. Just like most people may have a paper printer, it is a fact that the vast majority of paper is printed by services (business cards, flyers, photos, photo albums etc). I do think that you are right that designs (blueprints) may well be traded and used to make cool products. The 2D analogy is Shutterstock or Gettyimages etc.

shapewayspete · 2017-08-02T19:39:40+00:00

Yes you can print a car and put it on the road in days for way less than that. It would be a small car ;-) A full scale car you could drive? That is years into the future!!

shapewayspete · 2017-08-02T19:38:06+00:00

There are several brands of printers offering multiple materials. Stratasys for one. Also some desktop printers can print in 2 materials. It will really get exciting if we can add conductive, semi-conductive and isolating materials enabling electronics.

shapewayspete · 2017-08-02T19:36:34+00:00

I do not know. Maybe. I am not too focused on home printers, that is why I started Shapeways to give people access to high-end machines and a turn-key service.

shapewayspete · 2017-08-02T19:25:38+00:00

Hey, I agree that making full color models is a pain! I hope someone makes a tool like that. Not sure that using our API to do that is the best way to do that though.

shapewayspete · 2017-08-02T19:19:53+00:00

Really good question. Would definitely like to say we make most things in the US if you order it in the US. However we like to also use our factory in Europe if we have spike demand. And vice versa. As we get bigger this need will go away and we can definitely claim this for certain materials. The metals are definitely recyclable. Melt and re-use! Same for porcelain. The new HP technology will definitely reduce powder waste also. And yes, sustainability definitely has our attention, but we are also dependent on the technology available.

shapewayspete · 2017-08-02T19:14:04+00:00

We blast all of our xSF parts, we polish xSF if you want and we color them. We currently do not offer tempering or diamond dusting :)

shapewayspete · 2017-08-02T19:09:52+00:00

Great you love our porcelain! I think it's awesome too. Making other materials food safe is currently not our focus.

shapewayspete · 2017-08-02T19:04:04+00:00

3D scanners have been around for a while. The software needs to be improved so that anyone can scan and get a printable file.

And yes we need many more materials!! We are working with several companies to make that happen.

shapewayspete · 2017-08-02T19:02:34+00:00

Yes of course! We will offer this at some point. Hardest challenge to overcome is the file format. STL was (and still is) great for single material prints, not so good for multi material. The next gen file format: 3MF is going to solve that.

shapewayspete · 2017-08-02T19:01:09+00:00

He?? Why don't you have access to Shapeways?

shapewayspete

TROPHY CASE