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The UPS Store Will 3-D Print Stuff For You
mpicpp writes with news that UPS will be expanding their 3D printing services. UPS announced plans Monday to bring in-store 3-D-printing services to nearly 100 stores across the country, billing itself as the first national retailer to do so. With the UPS system, customers can submit their own designs for objects like product prototypes, engineering parts and architectural models that are then printed on a professional-quality 3-D printer made by Stratasys. Prices vary depending on the complexity of the object; an iPhone case would be about $60, while a replica femur bone would be around $325. UPS can also connect customers with outside professionals who charge an hourly rate to help produce a design file for the printer. It generally takes about four or five hours to print a simple object, with more complex items taking a day or more. The program started as a pilot at six locations last year, and UPS says those stores "saw demand for 3-D print continuing to increase across a broad spectrum of customers."
Will they print me up a FedEx truck?
Table-ized A.I.
Instead of ordering stuff from a supplier and having UPS ship it half-way across the country, they'll just make it at their nearest location and drop it off. Give it 20 years - this is the way of the future.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Remind me to start a company specialising in generating 3D CAD models of custom dildos! :)
By the way, have they figured out how to print softer, rubber-like materials yet? I have an idea of a sister company too...
Paul B.
fail
Actually, $60 for a iPhone case sounds expensive today, and perhaps it is compared to mass manufactured cases, but for a 3D printed case from a retail store, that sounds quite cheap to me.
The price will come down over time, this has to get out there and people try it out, when more stores get it, the price will of course come down with volume (look how cheap printers have become, compared to 20 years ago).
The big one will be Walmart. I've heard that Walmart has considered putting in a large 3D printer in the back of their stores to be able to provide custom products and expand their offerings, without having to actually carry more stuff.
Not just for 1-off 3D items that people design, because frankly most people will suck at that. Just like having a printer doesn't make you an author, having a 3D printer doesn't make you a designer.
But what if they had a catalog you could browse with 100,000 items in 100 different categories, and you could then put your personal touch on them by picking color, or a logo, etc...
It won't happen in a year, but I'll be in 20 years we'll take this for granted.
Being a "TrAnSTeStiCuLaR MoNsTeR" like he-she is: The way of the future is chopping off your package dammit!
You know referring to yourself in the third person isn't fooling anyone, right? We can all tell you're just cheerleading yourself. You have no actual support from anyone else.
I always knew something was wrong with ole' "barb" but not so far as literally being a tranny!
You no longer need an 'athletic supporter'/jockstrap, transtesticle, and Barb come on now: We already know you stalk apk by ac posts http://slashdot.org/comments.p... but now you're ac stalking more posters posting as ac's now too?
Any university or public library in Halifax will 3D print for $1/hr. An iPhone case would be like $4 at most.
This is gouging. I mean, I built a carbon fiber / steel 3D printer for under $400!
I heard you had yours lopped off ROTFLMAO! You know in case you change your mind (and sex) again.
Yet have never seen anyone anywhere walk around with anything resembling a 3D printed whatever. I don't know what the target application is for 3D printing, and I've never seen a solid consumer-level business case, except for the usual over-the-top hypotheticals from True Believers. (Like the "we'll all take this for granted in 20 years" posts. Really? We will? How fortunate that you don't have to invest for the next 20 years then!)
I have a few RC toys like a boat, a quadcopter, a car, and don't see the purpose of 3D printing anything whatsoever. A solid list of part numbers for spares and some pre-emptive ordering, and that solved all my problems.
I don't see the use.
I took a look at the 3D printing serves section on the UPS web site. It gives you precisely zero details on how or what to do. They claim an F.A.Q. is "What Kind of things can I 3D Print". But they don't think "What 3D file formats do you accept" is an FAQ, when it is obviously the first thing you want to know after "Is this going to bankrupt me?"
The web site is hermetically sealed. No useful information can escape.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
The price will come down over time, this has to get out there and people try it out, when more stores get it, the price will of course come down with volume (look how cheap printers have become, compared to 20 years ago).
God I hope 3-D printing doesn't turn out like 2-D. In ten years every 3-D printer will cost $20, be locked down with a ton of restrictions on what you can print and what powder you can use, the powder will cost $100 a cartridge, and they'll break every other print job.
What happened to Staples plan to put out 3d printers in it's locations?
/* TODO: Spawn child process, interest child in technology, have child write a new sig */
BarbaraHudson the fake lady *might* just need one in case 'she' (not) changes her mind: It *IS* a woman's prerogative after all, lol... only problem is, BarbaraHudson != a woman!
Gives new meaning to "What can Brown do for you?"
Fortunately, most commercial 3D printers available now are spinoffs of open source hardware. It's almost as if the developers noticed the shitty state of the inkjet printer market or something.
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
Can they print you a new one @ the human body shop? LOL http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
At shapeways.com you can print an iPhone case for 18 - 30 dollars plus a couple of bucks for shipping and you have a lot more options for the type of printing.
Selective laser sintering offers many advantages over extruded printing. Plus they can do metal and ceramic.
It's not the 3d printing shop's fault you had yours sliced off n' they can't print you a new one hahahahaha!
No doubt about it on the tiny knob stuff. Small wonder she had it excised!
No way: However, knowing "barb" (tom), he-she probably was nice n' fed it to her dogs LOL!
> As with everything, economies of scale and increases in technology will bring the per-unit cost down
"Economies of scale" refers to the various reasons that it's cheaper to do something 10,000 times, assembly line fashion, rather than one piece at a time. In other words, the exact OPPOSITE of what's being talked about here.
It may be useful where , due to the inefficiency of handling an order for one 20 cent knob, the manufacturer doesn't sell parts directly to consumers. The knob that costs 20 cents at scale (on Alibaba) will cost $5 to print. Alibaba operates at scale, and though. 3D printing is for when you're willing to give up economy (pay more per unit) because you're NOT operating at scale.
Advancements in 3D printing technology and competition should reduce costs somewhat. However, costs have already fallen by an order of magnitude or more. It's likely that they cannot be reduced another order of magnitude. The one economy of scale available is keeping the printing machines busy to amortize their cost across many prints, but Shapeway's printers are already busy. Now we can only save shipping costs by having a local machine busy.
after staples
http://www.staples.com/sbd/cre...
how about you focus less on 3d printing and not taking a week to deliver a package 2 states away when the post office doe it in 3 days for half the price, cause then I might actually USE UPS at some point
R O T F L M A O "Here doggy, have some food!"
What model 3D printer are they using? What is the printing volume? What materials can you use? Single color or multi color?
correction
most crappy hot glue gun commercial model is based off of open source, most good quality 3D printers are not
Did I miss the great 2-D printing lock-down that happened in 2014 where they all have a ton of restrictions and don't take generic ink?
Chipped ink cartridges started well before 2014.
Work recently spent about $5k for cube and it isn't printing any better than the 4 other 3d printers I've used 3 of them costs less than $1000.
Will they print me a gun?
I've never seen anyone walking around with printers. I don't get the target application for printing on a consumer-level case, the print guys can do it much cheaper etc. blah blah.
- Obsolete guy 30 years ago.
UPS' own website includes a video which explains they are using Stratasys uPrint SE Plus. This provides a print area of 203 x 203 x 152 mm (8 x 8 x 6 in.). It can print in thickness of either .254 mm (.010 in.) or .330 mm (0.13 in.).
UPS doesn't indicate which of the two models of the uPrint SE Plus they have. There is both an one material bay model and a two material bay model. Having a two material bay model could allow printing two color items or more importantly allow printing supports to hold up parts that don't have enough plastic to hold themselves up while the plastic is still hot. For example, if you are printing the statue of liberty, you may find that her outstretched arm falls off during printing since the plastic hasn't hardened and there isn't enough holding it up. For cases like this, Stratasys provides a water soluble material to print under the plastic to hold it up. They then provide a WaveWash device to remove the soluble material. But UPS doesn't state if they stock the water soluble material or have any WaveWash devices. It doesn't state which colors of ABS material they keep in stock.
Even worse, the website gives no details on if they hold the customer responsible for misprints. A 3D printer is a complex device and proper care/maintenance can greatly impact the quality and reliability of print outs. With incompetent and poorly trained employees handling the care of the printer, it seems likely there will eventually be bad print outs. It may seem like a $60 iphone case is a little over priced but imagine having to pay just as much for something that can't even function as a case because the printing got interrupted.
I once had an UPS employee explain to me that a two day shipping guarantee means that each location handling the shipment gets two days to deliver it to the next location. So, if a package is scanned by UPS on September 1st in California and then scanned on September 3rd in Chicago, then Chicago still has until September 5th before it even has to attempt to deliver it. To make sure there was no miscommunication, I had the employee explain three times the dates and that she was aware that the length of time from September 1st to September 5th is longer than 2 days. The employee made it clear, it doesn't matter when UPS first gets control of a package, as long as the final location delivers within 2 days of the final location receiving the package then it still adheres to their 2 day guarantee. Which means UPS' 2 day delivery can take up to 4 days while Fedex 2 day delivery means 2 days from receiving to delivery. While what she stated may not be UPS' actual policy, it still impacts the quality of their service. If she can justify 3 day delivery as being part of UPS 2 day service then I would hate to see what type of misprints she would still charge me for.
...for her pleasure...
its still a hot melt glue gun on a xy bed go look at podwer systems, composite resin systems and SLA
for instance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
For this to be more than just a gimmick, UPS needs to offer a 3D scanning service as well.
(Sure, inventors will want prototypes, but the average joe has a current need for replacement parts)
Without a scanner, where else am I going to get an affordable CAD drawing of the ten cent part I am trying to replace?
This would change the service and marketing from merely gee-whiz 3D printing to the very useful 3D copying.
(maybe they are afraid of copyright and patent lawsuits, or is 3d scanning still too primitive)
"Your is totally terrible, look at this one" - links to a $40,000 printer.
If they just add 3D scanning service, the most popular 3d printer need --- for making replacement parts -- will be easily achieved with the the -- presto -- 3d copier.
secondary service --> scan to CAD file and have a workstation available with a really simplified CAD editor that lets non technical people customize color and material (if they have a choice of material)
think you missed the point, when I said good quality ones I didnt mean a toy you buy off of amazon.com
Prices vary depending on the complexity of the object; an iPhone case would be about $60, while a replica femur bone would be around $325.
I can buy a complete human skeleton from most medical supplies places for under $1,000 so why would I pay $325 for a single bone? (Keep it in your pants.)
Staples announced they would be providing this service here in the Netherlands in all their shops.
It turns out that they are printing in some sort of "full color" paper. Nice to make a 3D model of a head in natural colors, but not appropriate to make moving parts for technical projects. And it was difficult to get the "design rules". And when I finally got those, there were rules like "no cavities".
a replica femur bone would be around $325
Do a full skeleton. Most expensive Halloween lawn decoration ever? I guess my decision to simply imagine whipping up a convincing skeleton from junk I have lying around the yard and house was correct. LOL, I never follow through on any of those ideas. Last year I literally wrote "Boo" on a piece of cardboard and stuck it in a window near the door. That was my Halloween decoration. I'm that lazy and cheap when it comes to those things.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
I think you missed the point. The OP said his job paid $5,000 and he's used 4 other printers, 3 of which cost under $1,000. A $40,000 printer is absolutely irrelevant to the thread,
Doing a "Run, Forrest: RUN!!!" here then http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
Barb, you stalking apk by ac again http://slashdot.org/comments.p... ? Guess it's not so funny when it happens to you getting a dose of your own medicine.
Barb you stalking apk by ac again http://slashdot.org/comments.p... ? Dose of your own medicine isn't funny when you dish it out but you can't take it.
Gosh, I wonder if I'll be able to get it scanned right there? That would be HOT!
"HOWTO: trolling the hosts file guy in one easy step The next time you see a post by him, just reply anonymously. And to really mess with his head, reply anonymously to your anonymous post, disagreeing with your first anon post (extra points if you claim in the second post that you're him - that REALLY sets him off)." - by tomhudson (43916) on Thursday March 31, 2011 @01:48PM (#35679918) Journal
Quoted VERBATIM from -> http://news.slashdot.org/comme... from BarbaraHudson BEFORE she lopped off her package (lmao) and became the "TrAnSteStiCuLaR MoNsTeR" (R O T F L M A O) that can dish it out, but can't take it done back to "it" (lol)!
"HOWTO: trolling the hosts file guy in one easy step The next time you see a post by him, just reply anonymously. And to really mess with his head, reply anonymously to your anonymous post, disagreeing with your first anon post (extra points if you claim in the second post that you're him - that REALLY sets him off)." - by tomhudson (43916) on Thursday March 31, 2011 @01:48PM (#35679918) Journal
Quoted VERBATIM from -> http://news.slashdot.org/comme... from BarbaraHudson BEFORE she lopped off her package (lmao) and became the "TrAnSteStiCuLaR MoNsTeR" (R O T F L M A O) that can dish it out, but can't take it done back to "shim" (lol)!
Oh, sure, you can get a whole skeleton for under a grand, but you get a generic skeleton.
What if you wanted a custom skeleton? A skeleton with a particular deformity? Or maybe a non-earth skeleton? Compared to the cost of having a skeleton custom carved/molded, this would be cheap.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
They may not do this right, but in theory this is like Union Carbide going into the battery business because battery lanterns were going to eat their carbide lantern business. To the extent that UPS ships less because things are created closer to home, they'll want to be in that business. However, I think legal wrangling over design files is going to be pervasive.
Come to think of it, this has to be a godsend for Hollywood. They've got the budgets, and you can use the same model for both CG special effects and printing for camera work (whether we're talking about printing for miniatures, animatronics, prosthetics, molds for prosthetics, gadgets or other small objects, etc). No need to have both your 3d artist and a physical artist create the same thing.
Fox: "I think we should call it... your grave!" Cast: "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!"
Just wait until you can trade 3d designs of Warhammer 40k armies and print them out assembled for a lower cost than buying them in stores. Having the ability to print D&D & pathfinder miniatures for pennies worth of plastic instead of $4-$30 retail cost will be nice. Reaper Bones may not have as long a lifespan as their lead and pewter predecessors.
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
Explain to me why anyone would pay 20 or 10x the retail cost of an item, more than an entire spool of filament....when they can buy the actual item - for things like an iPhone case.
Good, otherwise.
Let me know when you can load up a .obj in these printers and I will have a new permanent money pit in my life. Fuck paying 100 for resin figures and having them shipped from Japan and then waiting 9 weeks for them to show up. I'll do it myself and learn to not suck at model painting..
sigh, selective reading
Originally it was said all most printers are based on open source, I stated no not high quality commercial ones, so point out a commercial grade printer VS a copycat open source one is TOTALLY FUCKING RELEVANT
just cause you want to jump in with your snotty ass attitude in the middle of a discussion does not mean you have all the information
...and have still been easily refillable and replaceable with generics well before 2014.
The equipment they use is stratasys--the biggest and most reputable 3d printer company out there. They have pretty quick turn arounds (same day, provided no queue and depending on job printing time). The price is competitive (they are printing a model for me for $23, when the closest competitor had a $250 minimum). The file I sent was STL format, that's pretty much the standard for most 3d printing companies.