3D Printing News: Firefighters, Carmakers & Smart Spools
By Dynafabs
3D printing news: Prague firefighters print their own gear, carmakers widen printer access, Prusa's NFC spool reader and a 0.5 mm resin Benchy.
This week's 3D printing news is all about printing getting closer to the people who actually use the parts. A city fire brigade is making its own brackets, carmakers are handing printers to staff on the factory floor, and Prusa has taught its enclosed printers to read the spool you've just loaded. Here's our roundup of what caught our eye, with links to every source.
Prague firefighters print their own gear
Firefighters at Prague's central fire station are now printing their own mounts, brackets and spare parts, 3DPrinting.com reports. After the crew visited the Prusa Research factory, Prusa provided a printer for a pilot programme, and the station now runs a Prusa CORE One L. Its enclosed, temperature-controlled chamber lets them print tougher materials without warping, and the report says some parts now cost around 90 to 95 percent less than before.
It's a nice example of where printing shines: small, specific parts that are awkward or slow to buy off the shelf.
Carmakers put printers in more hands
CNBC looked at how Ford, Rivian and GM use 3D printing, and the story is that it has moved well beyond prototypes. The automakers now print factory tools, assembly aids, test pieces and selected production parts. Rivian told CNBC it has spent more than $5 million on printing machines, with material costs of about $1.7 million a year, and said the machines typically pay for themselves within a year by cutting tooling costs and turning parts around in days or hours rather than weeks.
The takeaway for smaller businesses is the same: jigs, fixtures and one-off tools are often the quickest win.
Prusa's CORE One learns to read your spool
Prusa has released its OpenPrintTag upgrade for the CORE One family, an NFC reader that sits under the spool holder. Load a tagged spool and the printer reads the material and colour, then starts heating to the right temperature. When the print finishes, it writes the remaining filament back to the tag. Prusa lists it at $19.44, it needs firmware 8.0.0 or newer, and it works with the CORE One, CORE One+, CORE One+ (Gen 2), CORE One L and CORE One L+, but not the INDX or MMU3 for now, according to SFF Geek.
Printing the wrong material by accident is one of those mistakes everyone makes once, so anything that stops it is welcome.
A 0.5 mm Benchy, printed with a fibre-optic cable
At the tiny end of the scale, the open-source RepRapMicron project has documented its PIKA UV head, which cures resin through an ordinary optical fibre patch cord fed by a UV LED. FilamentFeed reports that it has printed a Benchy about 0.5 mm long and features down to roughly 9 µm. Rather than curing a whole layer at once, the fibre tip moves through the resin like a nozzle. Overhangs are still the weak spot, because the light cures around 100 µm deep, and the project's wiki doubles as a full build guide.
Thingiverse models are coming to Anycubic's Makeronline
Anycubic has signed an exclusive partnership with Thingiverse to bring its library of more than two million models to a dedicated section of Makeronline, which is due to go live on 17 November, according to FilamentFeed. Anycubic plans to adapt selected models for multicolour printing and convert them from STL to 3MF. Which printers will be supported hasn't been confirmed yet.
Printed saddles pass one million
Carbon says its Digital Light Synthesis process has now made more than one million bike saddles across 11 brands and more than 60 models, FilamentFeed reports. The printed elastomer lattice replaces traditional foam, and because a lattice is defined by its geometry, stiffness can vary from one area of the saddle to the next.
Nitinol stents that bend without breaking
Researchers led by IMDEA Materials Institute and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid have patented a way to print braided nitinol structures in one step, 3D Printing Industry reports. After finishing, the stents could be squeezed to half their diameter and still recover more than 90 percent of their shape, and they pressed on vessel walls up to five times more gently than printed lattice designs.
What it means if you're ordering prints
The common thread is practical, purpose-built parts. If you have a bracket, mount, jig or replacement part in mind, choosing the right material matters more than anything, and our PLA vs PETG vs ABS/ASA vs TPU guide is a good place to start. For fine detail, our resin vs FDM guide explains which process suits which job. You can also catch up on last week's news roundup.
FAQ
Can I get replacement brackets or mounts printed? Yes. Functional parts like brackets, clips and mounts are a great fit for printing. Send us your file or a description and we'll suggest a material.
Which material is best for tough functional parts? It depends on heat, impact and outdoor use. PETG and ASA are common choices for tougher parts, and our material guide covers the trade-offs.
Do I need a 3MF file to order? No. STL files work fine. If you are not sure what you have, just send it over with your quote request and we will check it.
If any of this week's stories has sparked an idea, get a free quote from Dynafabs and we'll help you turn it into a real part.
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