Mimaki and Autodesk Join Hands for 3D Printer Shows
Global industry leader and manufacturer of wide-format inkjet printers, cutting plotters, and 3D printers Mimaki Engineering Co., Ltd. will be exhibiting its products at 3D printer shows in England, Germany, Japan, and the USA, in the months of May and June 2023.
Mimaki’s partnership with Autodesk, Inc. will bring to life 3D data from the design, engineering, and entertainment industries using Autodesk software and Mimaki’s full-colour 3D technology.
San Fransisco-headquartered Autodesk is a leading provider of design software for media and entertainment; product design and manufacturing; and architecture, construction, and engineering industries. By combining Autodesk’s widely-used software with Mimaki’s 3DUJ-553 and 3DUJ-2207 3D printers that are capable of producing full-colour models in more than 10 million colours using the UV-cured inkjet method, 3D data can be brought to the real world in full colour.
At the exhibitions this year, Mimaki will present a full-colour world created with Autodesk software and Mimaki 3D printers through a variety of exhibits.
Ontario-based Nilian Studios that produces high quality 2D and 3D animation and concept designs for a range of clients has for the first time utilized Autodesk software with Mimaki’s 3DUJ-553 to create full-colour 3D prints of characters taken directly from their games and animations.
The Mimaki 3DUJ can reproduce complex features and highly-detailed colours from 3D data, allowing small-lot production at a reasonable cost and short delivery time, a difficult task to achieve with other production methods.
Ali Chenari, founder and chief creative officer of the Canadian company, describes how he felt seeing the first full-colour 3D-printed characters designed by his studio. “I’m so excited to see our characters come to life! A full-colour 3D print gives us a better vision of the merchandising possibilities of our product by bringing our digital assets into the real world,” says Chenari.
Another exhibit features product design and manufacturing. North Carolina-headquartered stock car racing team Stewart-Haas Racing, co-owned by three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Tony Stewart and Haas Automation founder Gene Haas, partnered with Autodesk to reduce the weight of their brake pedal, one of the most important components of top driver Cole Custer’s Ford Mustang, using Fusion 360’s generative design feature. Autodesk printed a model of the brake pedal on a Mimaki 3DUJ-553 at its Technology Center in Boston.
Japanese construction consulting firm Fukken Co. Ltd. has been using civil engineering design models to promote solutions to issues faced by the construction industry through integrated 3D data management using Autodesk’s AEC collection as its Business Information Modeling/Construction Information Modeling (BIM/CIM) software and promotion of digital transformation. Civil engineering models are printed on Mimaki’s 3DUJ-553 to build consensus with residents and other stakeholders.
“Because the 3DUJ-553 has high reproducibility of 3D scan data, it can also be applied to archiving, producing, and replicating miniatures of cultural assets and buildings scheduled for demolition. Owning a full-colour 3D printer allows for such proposals and also becomes a status symbol for companies,” says a Fukken spokesperson.
