The real shoe is on the right and the mini 3D printed shoe on the left

Last September whilst wandering around TCT Live, I came across the Clarks stand.

Having picked up one of the shoes on display, I initially thought ‘wow, this is a bit heavy’ but then realised it was actually a model printed on a Zcorp printer. The detail was just incredible and at first sight you would be hard pressed to know that it wasn’t a real shoe.

I was fascinated as to how Clarks is using 3D printing technology and so on Monday morning I headed down the M5 to Street in Somerset to visit Clarks’ headquarters and chat to Clarks’ digital development manager Ross Authers.

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One of the stars of last week’s Institution of Mechanical Engineers Manufacturing Excellence (MX) Awards were the awards themselves. Made of stainless steel and weighing in at 5.4kg, they were certainly impressive.

Planit, a developer of software products, were asked by Autodesk, one of the sponsors of the MX Awards, to design and manufacture the 14 trophies. To do this it used Radan, a sheet metal CAD/CAM software, along with engineering production software Edgecam.

“The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) wanted the trophies to fully demonstrate the quality of engineering,” says Phil Gill, Edgecam’s UK technical sales manager. “We incorporated something that looked engineered and was still prestigious.”

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Last night I wined and dined at The Dorchester. No, not a usual Wednesday night out for me - the occasion was the Manufacturing Excellence (MX) awards ceremony, a prestigious awards organised by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE).

DEVELOP3D cracked a nod to the black tie soiree as we were invited as one of Autodesk‘s guests, who sponsored this year’s awards. I was also sat at the table with representatives from Planit, a provider of CAD/CAM solutions, who had designed and developed the awards for the evening. They looked pretty impressive (below) and rather solid.

The award ceremony was compered by Alistair Campbell, perhaps best known for his work as director of communications and strategy for Tony Blair between 1997 and 2003. He was a rather entertaining host keeping us amused with anecdotes and stories not to mention congratulating all 18 finalists on the great work they have undertaken in the past year despite the difficult economic climate.

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I’ve just arrived back in the office after a whirlwind couple of days at PTC Live TechForum in Copenhagen.

Over 200 PTC users from the Nordics region descended on the Bella Center yesterday for a one day, free event to hear about the latest in PTC solutions.

Greg James, PTC’s senior vice president of marketing, flew over from the States for the event and kicked off proceedings by updating attendees on the company’s vision, strategy and objectives as well as taking a look at the key highlights in 2011. “Our goal is to help our customers achieve a competitive advantage - a very lofty goal but it is the standard we are working towards at PTC,” he said.

Next up on stage was Andrew Wertkin, CTO of the Integrity Business Unit, whose talk revolved around the big product news this year namely creo, Windchill and Integrity.

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At this year’s Plastic Industry Awards, John Ewans Design (JED) received the ‘Consumer Product Design of the Year’ for the rather innovative Active Tools 2K Adjustable Rowing Shoe.

Traditional rowing shoes are made in the same way as normal training shoes and have to be manufactured in a range of sizes. As the shoes are fixed to the boats this causes problems as rowers either have to put up with shoes that are the wrong size or change them before going afloat, which is time consuming. The shoes also can’t be dried out or cleaned easily so they rapidly become both smelly and unhygienic.

JED were briefed to create adjustable, washable rowing shoes that would address this market gap. The new Active Tools 2K Rowing Shoes address these problems by being adjustable from UK size 9 to 14 and having their outer shells moulded from a soft EVA/TPO foam, so they can be washed and kept clean and hygienic. The shoes are silver to reduce heat gain in hot climates.

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Hyphen, a London-based industrial design and development consultancy, was drafted in by global brand agency Fitch London and its client McLaren Automotive to help design and realise mobile customer configurator kits for the new McLaren MP4-12C supercar.

The unique kits include a full range of configurable options for the car – even down to the colours of the upholstery stitching and brake calipers.

Fitch developed the concept design of the case with McLaren, as part of a larger project to design the dealership experience and communication material. Hyphen was then tasked with taking Fitch’s loose concept design and turning it into reality: a robust, very high end product, and a perfect representation of the McLaren brand.

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I wasn’t aware that anything like the National Preparedness Month existed. Well, we are in it (if you live in the US) and the timing is pretty apt with Hurricane Irene having recently ravaged its way through much of North America and it is of course also the 10th anniversary of September 11th.

Having an emergency supply kit in your home, car or workplace seems a very sensible thing. The American Red Cross obviously thinks so too and teamed up with outdoor electronics specialist Eton Corporation to create a new line of self-powered emergency products called the TurboDyne Series.

Launched earlier this year the three products in the series have already received a number of awards including the Red Dot 2011. Each product contains a powerful dynamo crank that powers emergency radio channels and a phone. Road Torq is a roadside emergency tripod with a very bright flashlight and emergency flasher. Axis and Rover are high power dynamo crank radios that integrate wideband, AM/FM/NOAA and mobile phone charger.

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