We know that our SOLIDWORKS users are savvy at their work, but how creative are they? That´s what we wanted to find out in our Christmas SOLIDWORKS and 3D print design competition. We asked you to design a Christmas tree decoration in SOLIDWORKS. Three lucky winners would then have their design 3D printed. Now, we have a result.
The jury for our Christmas competition were our application engineer Stian Mork and business development manager, Maria Vemborg. They were flooded with some really creative designs. In fact, they were so good, they decided to draw five winners instead of three.
“We in the jury were amazed of the creativity in our Christmas SOLIDWORKS design competition”, says Maria Vemborg. “One of our focus areas in deciding the winners was how well the design was adapted to 3D printing. All five winners had well thought through designs that could benefit from 3D printing.”
SOLIDWORKS design competition contributions will be 3D printed
We caught up with one of our five lucky winners, Henrik Thuresson, at Permobil, to learn more about his design thoughts.
Hi Henrik, what were your thoughts designing the Christmas ornament?
”I thought, the bigger and more complex, the more fun, so I maximized the allowed build volume and tried to make shapes that wouldn’t be possible without 3D printing. In my design you can either hang a ribbon in it, or let I stand freely on a surface. In terms of color, I would prefer apple candy red.”
Do you have any previous experience with design for 3D printing?
”I have an FDM printer at home that I assembled myself. At work, I sometimes use printed parts in production for testing. I have also ordered parts printed in metal. For this competition I wanted something that looks entertaining.”
What does Christmas mean to you and how do you plan on using the 3D printed ornament?
”For me, Christmas is a time to relax during a long weekend. I plan on putting my ornament in the office until I bring it home for Christmas holidays.”
3D printing decorations in HP MJF 5200
All five winning contributions have now been 3D printed in our production 3D printer HP MJF 5200 and dyed in our coloring solution Dyemansion DM60 located at our demo facility at Nexttech in Denmark. PLM Group has one of Scandinavia’s largest additive manufacturing setups at the Kolding based facility, featuring several technologies, such as SLA, FDM and MJF. After 3D printing and coloring, we will send the printed ornaments to the North Pole, so Santa can deliver them in time for Christmas eve.
Here are the lucky winners of the Christmas design competition:
- Henrik Thuresson – Permobil – Thure’s Xmas Trinket
Motivation: Novel and festive creation with an organic design that would be difficult to produce without 3D printing. - Ellen Susanne Rofeldt – Robotize – Star Ball
Motivation: Beautifully crafted with stunning details. The twisted strings that make up the ball is a great unexpected feature. - Jonny Andersson – Compo – Carousel
Motivation: Beautiful level of detail and smartly designed in several layers. Very suitable for 3D printing. - Patrik Mattsson – UMU – Christmas heart
Motivation: A lovely piece of generative design that went straight to our hearts. - Damien Metral – Flightcases – Flightcases
Motivation: Fun and creative way of promoting your own product with a mini flightcase and company name integrated in the design.
A big, heartfelt thank you to everyone that sent their contributions and Merry Christmas from PLM Group’s 3D printing team!
