Welcome to 3T’s April Fools Day e-newsletter

For many years, today has provided an ideal opportunity for people to play practical jokes on their colleagues and customers.  However, we take our business far more seriously than that and would rather share with you a few success stories that illustrate how Rapid Prototyping has helped some of our customers to …

        develop their inventions giving them success in the Dragons’ Den;

        find alternative methods to traditional manufacturing techniques;

        create aesthetic models of architectural structures.

We have also taken part in a Dragons’ Den competition with local schools, which has been immense fun for all those involved.

Rapid Prototyping can assist in the development of your newest product, latest design or innovative invention.  If you would like to discuss your SLS or DMLS requirements in more detail, please do not hesitate to contact us.  Your development schedule and budget could significantly benefit from these fast, flexible and cost-effective manufacturing methods, which generate parts in a choice of materials direct from your CAD data, without the need for conventional tooling.

And if you’re interested in the origin of April Fools Day, we have done a little research into its history and also stumbled across some very amusing pranks that have been played on the general public over the years.  But remember, if you plan to play a prank on someone today, make sure you do it before noon … otherwise you could be branded the fool!

 SLS prototypes face the Dragons’ Den

Walking tall with SLS aesthetic architectural models

Some interesting April Fools pranks from the past …

Ian Helmore, a water treatment specialist, used our SLS prototypes to present his latest invention, Steri-Spray® , to the panel of investors on Dragons’ Den; BBC 2's business venture capitalist programme.  He was able to clearly demonstrate the concept of his product and secured a £145,000 investment for a 40% stake in his company from two of the Dragons.

Read more here

SLS model of Steri-Spray® showering system

Marks Barfield Architects designed the Xstrata Treetop Walkway in Kew Gardens, due to open in Spring 2008 as part of the ‘Year of the Tree’ celebrations.  They commissioned us to build scale models of some of the key elements of the structure to illustrate the concept, and our SLS expertise generated tactile, 3-dimensional models of their design.

Read more here

Finished SLS model of architectural structure

Albert Einstein's chauffeur once convinced him to let him give one of his lectures on the theory of relativity. He gave it word perfectly, but was almost caught out afterwards when one of the professors asked him a very complicated mathematical problem. Thinking quickly, the chauffeur said, 'The answer to your question is quite simple. In fact it is so easy I'm going to ask my chauffeur to come and answer it for you.'

In 1991 the London Times announced that the Department of Transport had finalised a plan to ease congestion on the M25 around London during the week.  Capacity would be doubled by making the traffic on both carriageways travel in the same direction. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays the traffic would travel clockwise; while on Tuesdays and Thursdays it would travel anti-clockwise.  It would revert to traffic travelling in both directions on the weekend.

In 1997 an email message spread throughout the world announcing that the internet would be shut down for cleaning for twenty-four hours from March 31 until April 2. This cleaning was said to be necessary to clear out the "electronic flotsam and jetsam" that had accumulated in the network.

Arthur Furguson was a rather remarkable conman who managed to sell Nelson's Column for £6000, Big Ben for £1000, received a down payment of £2000 for Buckingham Palace, leased the White House for $100,000 a year and almost sold the Statue of Liberty for $100,000.

A full-page BMW car advertisement was run in 1986 about their new left and right hand drive car designed for driving between the UK and the Continent.  It had pedals on both the driver's and passenger's sides, a detachable steering wheel which could be affixed on either side as well as a full set of instruments on each side, the unused one being covered by a lovely walnut panel.

SLS gives Triple Eight a head start on racing circuit

3T champions local schools in Dragons’ Den competition

Exploring Rapid Prototyping as an alternative to the traditional Carbon Fibre route, Triple Eight’s designers wanted to identify the potential benefits of using SLS technology in the development of their prototype race car engines.  Embarking on a testing programme with us, a fully Laser Sintered Inlet Manifold was analysed and performance data used in its development.

Read more here

SLS Manifold built up with injectors, fuel rail and loom
for testing

Local schools throughout West Berkshire took part in a Dragons’ Den-style competition organised by the Education Business Partnership West Berkshire.  The ‘Champions of Enterprise’ event challenged pupils to decide which of three local entrepreneurial businesses they would like to invest an imaginary £100,000 in.  50 out of the 96 teams taking part chose 3T, including the winning team!

Read more here

Champions of Enterprise Winning Team; Park House School, Newbury

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