NEW COMPANY, NORMAL, USES STRATASYS 3D PRINTING TECHNOLOGY TO MASS PRODUCE CUSTOM EARPHONES

Minneapolis & Rehovot, Israel – Jan. 21, 2015 – Stratasys Ltd. (Nasdaq:SSYS), a leading global provider of 3D printing and additive manufacturing solutions, announced that custom earphone maker Normal is using Stratasys 3D Printers for mass customization of a consumer product.

Ordered through a free mobile app or from Normal’s flagship in New York City, Normal earphones are customized to fit each user’s ear, 3D printed, and typically shipped and delivered anywhere in the U.S. in as little as 48 hours. The company currently operates 10 Stratasys Fortus 250mc 3D Printers, manufacturing custom parts for the earphones using FDM 3D Printing Technology.

“We’re excited to be able to create accessible, tailor-made earphones that sound incredible,” explained Normal’s Founder and CEO Nikki Kaufman. “We’re using Stratasys’ 3D printing technology to build a product that is completely personalized.” 

Each pair of earphones is engineered, 3D   printed, assembled and shipped at Normal’s flagship, which serves as their factory, headquarters and retail store. With 10 Stratasys 3D Printers lining the perimeter of the space, and a fully exposed assembly process, Normal encourages auditory, tactile and visual exploration of how Normal earphones or “Normals” are sculpted and built.

The alternative option for custom earphones involves a health care professional, silicon molds, several weeks waiting and a product that costs up to thousands of dollars. Using 3D printing, Normal is able to provide premium, custom-fitting earphones at a more accessible price and process. The 3D printed part of the earphones is made with ABSplusthermoplastic and available in seven custom colors. Normal currently sells the earphones in the U.S. for $199, including tax, shipping and a personalized carrying case.

“The implications of 3D printing for a company like Normal are huge. It’s a game-changer for customized goods: the ushering in of a new era in manufacturing,” said Stratasys’ Vice President of Marketing, Bruce Bradshaw. “Today, companies can offer consumers customized products, in a time-efficient manner, made possible with 3D printing.”

To learn more about the capabilities of Stratasys’ Fortus 250mc 3D Printers, visit the product page. For more information about the 3D-printed, customized earphones, visit Normal’s website.

A 3D printed house

3D printing has become an integral part of architecture. At first there were presentation models, followed by living spaces, and most recently the question was: Who will build the first house using 3D printing technology – and when? Now the guessing game has come to an end: The house has been printed and is located at voxeljet’s service center in Friedberg near Augsburg.

Friedberg, Germany, 15. May 2014 Just how did voxeljet manage to win this race, when the whole world is working on turning this vision into reality? “We ‘only’ printed the house,” says a modest Dr. Ingo Ederer, “the idea and design came from Austrian architect, visionary and cosmopolitan Peter Ebner.”

 

3D printing process on a VX4000

 

And of course there is a lot of creativity in the design that was created by the architect, who works in Munich and teaches in the US and England, together with his talented students at 3M futureLAB by UCLA + HUD, the University of California,  Los Angeles and the Huddersfield University. The house is a completely print-ready unit including toilet, kitchenette, and furniture – all from a 3D printer.

 

Unpacking of one part

And even though this is not a house with the normal dimensions, but rather a living space reduced to the bare minimum with just a few square meters and a height of approximately three meters, it nevertheless begs the question: What kind of 3D printers can generate sand molds in these dimensions. The term 3D printer is a great understatement when we talk of voxeljet’s large-format machines.

 

Two printed parts, Picture: Florian Holzherr

“The VX4000, which generated the two sand molds for the house, one piece at a time, using the layer building method, is one of the world’s largest industrial facilities of this kind with a space requirement of 25 x 12 meters and a height of 4.5 meters. The “printer” is actually a small stand-alone factory that produces components at dimensions of up to eight cubic meters using a fully automated process,” says Dr. Ederer. “Architectural projects such as this house would be impossible to create using 3D printing technology without such printing systems.”

 

Architect Prof. Peter Ebner, Picture: Florian Holzherr

The VX4000 required a total of 60 hours to print the two house halves. Including everything, the printing costs for the spectacular project totaled approximately EUR 60,000. The small house weighs approximately two tonnes. And: It meets all of the requirements imposed by the architect. Univ. Prof. Peter Ebner is very enthusiastic about the technical execution and the stability of the printing.

Participants:

voxeljet, www.voxeljet.com

3M futureLAB by UCLA + HUD, www.futurelabstudio.org

SCE, www.sce.de

Florian Holzherr, www.architekturfoto.net

 

Company Profile:

voxeljet is a leading provider of high-speed, large-format 3D printers and on-demand parts services to industrial and commercial customers. The Company’s 3D printers employ a powder binding, additive manufacturing technology to produce parts using various material sets, which consist of particulate materials and proprietary chemical binding agents. The Company provides its 3D printers and on-demand parts services to industrial and commercial customers serving the automotive, aerospace, film and entertainment, art and architecture, engineering and consumer product end markets.

For more information go to YouTube and follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Contacts

voxeljet:

Stefanie Riker

Tel:  +49 821 7483 440

stefanie.riker@voxeljet.de

Investor Relations

Anthony Gerstein

anthony.gerstein@icrinc.com

646-277-1251