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Squishy: 3D prited 'black elasto' plastic from Shapeways
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Shapeways / Reaper Media
Flexible ruler — Shapeways Black Elasto
A flexible six inch ruler for measuring things that aren't straight enough for a regular ruler.
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Shapeways / Bulu
Dino Hand in Black Elasto from Shapeways
RAWR!
Shapeways now offers a fully flexible 'Black Elasto' material for making squishy, stretchy, bouncy, flexy and blendable 3D prints. Although the material is still in the development phase the nice people at Shapeways will let us play with it before deciding what to do next.
There are a couple of things to consider before racing to the Shapeways site with your design: Minimum wall & detail: 1.5 mm, Minimum clearance: 1.5 mm, Minimum hole size for hollow parts: 6.5 mm (in diameter) — and the dev team want us to bear in mind that these are rough guidelines that are as flexible as the material, meaning they could change as more users make parts and give feedback.
The material is priced at $2.00 per cm3 with a $3.00 handling fee. The blog post goes on to say: "Black Elasto Plastic is flexible and stretchy, as the name implies, though it also has a rough, grainy surface texture. If you rub the models against another surface, you may see flakes rub off.
We must reiterate this is an experimental material, we have only had a chance to experiment with a small number of geometries and uses so we do not know exactly how it will react under all conditions. That being said we LOVE the material and think you will all have a lot of fun with it but you need to take heed of the design rules and give us as much feedback as possible so we can learn quickly together."
As ever we'd love to see what you've done with this new material, all the usual contact routes are open!
