Something I noticed right away was the great amount of 3D printers and prototyping technology and services that were displayed at the Partners Pavilion this year. I counted at least three different companies offering 3D printing solutions. Among them, Z Corporation distinguished itself for being the only one offering 3D printers that were able to print multiple colors simultaneously.

Lucky for me, they had a few moments to spare and I was able to chat for a bit with  John M. Kawola, CEO at Z Corporation, as well as with  Eskild Hansen, Senior Manager of industrial design for Cisco. As I understand, Cisco is one of Z Corporation’s best customers. Their experience with Z Corporation’s  3D printing solutions has been so satisfactory that they were presenting a case study at SolidWorks World 2010.

The Cisco Consumer Business Group, which was previously known as Linksys,  is a division of Cisco that develops consumer products for  home networking and entertainment. These products won’t be confined to some office or computer room in the house; rather, they’re expected to be all over the house and, for this reason, aesthetics are important when designing these kind of products, just as much as they would be when designing a magnificent piece of furniture, for instance. The group has recently established a European Design Center in Copenhagen, Denmark.  Following in the tradition of Scandinavian design standards, it is important for Cisco to create not only excellent products, but also for these products to be elegant and  beautiful, to look nice inside the home.

To assist in the process of design,  Cisco uses a ZPrinter 450, that allows them to print  an average of 10 models per week and  use them to check the look and feel of their designs, just as it’s required in Scandinavian design tradition. Hundreds of 3D prints will be produced for one single product through the whole design cycle, and, according to Hansen, there’s really no better way than this to revise their designs. They could not achieve the same kind of results or get the same feel for how their products are really going to look and be like if they were relying on rendering tools and/or what they see on their computer screens alone.  Having  physical prototypes throughout all stages of design development rather than at the very end of the design process, as other companies do, provides for them a way to refine and perfect the design by letting them identify possible areas of improvement and even generate new ideas. Plus, a physical  prototype also comes in handy, for example, at a meeting, as it becomes a better tool for communicating ideas than a PowerPoint presentation could ever be.

Before there were tools such as ZPrinters, Scandinavian designers relied on handcrafted prototypes of their designs. However, producing prototypes this way can be expensive and time-consuming.  The addition of the ZPrinter allows Cisco to accelerate this process and meet their deadlines without compromising the quality and aesthetic standards of their designs.  Now Cisco can produce all the prototypes they need in a matter of hours, rather than days or weeks, and they can do it in house, instead of having to contract services or outsource. This means the process is not only fast, but also affordable.

When asked why they chose Z Corporation as their 3D solution provider,  Hansen told me that they could’ve chosen any other company or printer, but that the ZPrinter they got is fast and so inexpensive that it’s really the perfect match for them. Other printers need more expensive materials and take longer times to print. With the ZPrinter they can produce prototypes faster and they don’t need to worry too much about if they are printing one prototype too many, because the printer makes it affordable for them to print as many as they wish or need to complete their design.

And when it comes to excellent design it’s not just about speed and  meeting deadlines, as Hansen explained to me. Anyone can meet a deadline and still end up with a so-so design that doesn’t work or look quite right.  But excellent design is really about creating a product of extraordinary quality in the amount of time you have to do so. Using the ZPrinter allows Cisco to do just that.

These are a few pictures of the 3D printer they were demonstrating at the Partners Pavilion and some of the items that were printed with it.

I apologize because my photos don’t do the machine any justice, but I found this really nice video in their website that shows theZPrinter 450 in action.  As you will see in the video, these machines work differently from other 3D printers. The ZPrinter creates the models layer by layer by using building material in the shape of powder and a binder, there are no pesky supports added to the models,  it can print in multiple colors (notice the cartridges in this video of the ZPrinter 650) and print whole assemblies of non-fused-together components all at the same time. The colors are vibrant and lifelike and the prototypes are sturdy and smooth. While it’s true that this kind of technology may not produce accurate enough prototypes for certain applications, such as jewelry design or very fine surgical instruments, it’s still the perfect match for most other design applications out there, and, I hear, a favorite among architects.

How sturdy are the prints? As an interesting fact, John Kawola showed me this little figurine, a character from a video game called Rock Band, which was also printed in the ZPrinter. He told me that this 3D prints are actually the final product that is sold to those that visit the game’s website and order their character online.  Neat, isn’t it?

For more information about ZCorporation and their products, visit their website at http://www.zcorporation.com. Make sure to check out under Press Room for interesting case studies and videos of their products in action. Also visit Linksys by Cisco at http://www.linksysbycisco.com  to learn about their new products and how they can improve your home networking and entertaining experience.

Disclosure : Neither Cisco nor ZCorporation provided any sort of compensation for me to write about their products. The ideas expressed in this blog post are mine and do not represent those of any of these two  corporations. The purpose of this post is merely to share the experience of my visit to the Partner Pavilion and inform the readers about new cutting edge technology that was displayed.