Nokia backs 3D printing for mobile phone cases
Following on from one of our blogs from last year regarding 3D printing Nokia is now one of the first big electronics firms to seriously back 3D printing.
Nokia is releasing design files that will let owners use 3D printers to make their own cases for its Lumia phones.
Printing in 3D involves sending a design file to a printer that then forms a solid version of that object by slowly building it up in layers of plastic. Early 3D printers could only work in one colour but the latest versions can produce intricate, multicoloured objects.
One of Nokia’s community managers, Mr Kneeland, said Nokia was releasing what he called a “3D printing development kit” to help people produce the cases. The files are already available on the site Nokia maintains for its developers.
Mr Kneeland, said 3D printing was another way that the firm wanted to build links to the wide community of software and hardware engineers. To get the files, users must have registered with Nokia.
He said Nokia already used 3D printing internally to do rapid prototyping, but decided to back it more publicly to help the emerging technology realise its “incredible potential”.
In the future, he said, 3D printing was likely to bring about phones that were “wildly more modular and customisable”. He said that Nokia might just end up selling a phone template, allowing entrepreneurs to use that to produce handsets that satisfy their particular needs.
Mr Kneeland feels that, 3D printing was a technology that justified its hype and said it was “the sequel to the Industrial Revolution. However, it’s going to take somewhat longer to arrive than some people anticipate, and that may disappoint people.”
We look forward to seeing the next step in 3D technology.