In case you missed it, Season 2 of America By Design, which aired on CBS in February through early March, was quite the competition.
America By Design is a national mainstream television series that shines a spotlight on American innovation, ingenuity and design excellence. The series showcases the amazing and the remarkable – innovations and concepts that will change the way we live our daily lives.
This series features every type of innovation from consumer products to transportation, medical advancements to sophisticated technologies and uncovers the key ingredients of impactful design. Part entertainment, part education, American By Design shares the story behind each innovation, exploring the challenges and the triumphs of manifesting a great idea.
Episode 1: Stratasys, in collaboration with Paisley Park, created a set of 3D-printed display pieces to showcase Prince’s expansive shoe collection in a Paisley Park exhibit – The Beautiful Collection: Prince’s Custom Shoes.
Baby Grand Piano
Placed in the center of the exhibit and built to display 11 pairs of shoes, is a baby grand piano printed using FDM® and PolyJet™ 3D printing technologies. The piano is the first-ever 3D-printed baby grand piano and is composed of 45 individual parts fused together to create the final piece.
Replica Cloud Guitars
Stratasys took over 250 3D scans of Prince’s Cloud Guitar and processed the scans into 3D print-ready design files. The Stratasys design team spent over 60 hours from first scan to final files ensuring that each element of the guitar could be replicated through 3D printing. The guitars were fit with actual guitar tuning nuts, bridges and strings, making them playable.
Pointillist Canvas
Stratasys also created the largest 3D printed polymer image on fabric of Prince. The nine-foot by nine-foot image is composed of 347,130 clear spherical cells with layers of color contained inside. The ability to replicate the photograph on canvas with such accuracy was due to the Stratasys J850 3D printer which can print more than 640,000 combinations of color, textures, gradients, and transparencies. The finished canvas was printed in 56 sections on 100% white cotton denim and hand sewn together. The canvas features an image of Prince taken by Jeff Katz in 1992.
Head to the 16 minute mark in this episode to check it out!
Episode 4: PepsiCo’s Structural Packaging Design and R&D teams have reinvented their workflow using the latest advances in 3D printing technology
Designers and engineers spend a significant amount of time translating sketches into prototypes to land the best design for consumers, while ensuring the new designs also conform rigorous technical constraints.
They can now provide a better result in far less time.
PepsiCo’s 2L PET bottle re-design demonstrates how the combination of physical and virtual simulation gives confidence in the overall design before committing to invest in the upgrade. First, designers work on-screen to craft dozens of models that are quickly 3D printed in a bare monochrome color to evaluate ergonomics and overall proportions. Next, a computer-based simulation is used to predict how the bottle shape will change once the internal pressure is applied, as carbonated bottles often contain more pressure than a typical car tire!
A new, full-color 3D printer (the Stratasys J55) now allows the team to quickly make photorealistic bottle prototypes in-house that accurately demonstrate the final textures, colors, and label design. These prototypes help communicate the design to cross-functional stakeholders to gain alignment much more quickly and cost effectively than traditional 3D prototyping methods requiring external vendors.
Finally, the team takes this process a step further by 3D printing mold cavities in-house, which enables them to blow-mold bottles that can be tested on the lab production line. See how the did it!
Stratasys Applications Engineer Colton Mehlhoff is in every episode helping out with the design and production of Paisley Park’s display pieces, PepsiCo’s bottle redesign in addition to all of the following innovations:
Episode 2: Blinks by Move38, a tabletop game system with LED magnetic game pieces. (marker 1:30)
Episode 3: The ZOKU Quick Pop Maker, which can freeze a popsicle before your eyes in just seven minutes – and without electricity.
Episode 5: The ARAY Heated Roller, which is designed and engineered to tune and prepare the body for workouts, plus aid in faster muscle recovery.
You can watch all of the full episodes on the America By Design website or the By Design TV YouTube Channel. Check them out to see some really cool 3D printing applications. You might even want to share with your students!
