3D Printing

3D printing is nowadays commonly employed in various science disciplines for teaching and public relations purposes. We use an desktop model (Ultimaker 2+) with fused deposition technique to print 3D model of foraminifera and other mikrofossils for teaching and presentations. The use of 3D-models in lectures and seminars such as the micropaleontology course and for taxonomic training of students within their bachelor and master projects receives positive feedback.

The processing of the 3D data, i.e. segmentation and manual refinement, can be work intensive and time demanding, depending on the data quality. The actual printing time for an individual model varies between one and more than 60 hours, depending on size and model complexity. A collection of 3D models of planktic foraminifera (in reduced resolution) can be found at [Bitte aktivieren Sie Javascript] on Sketchfab.

As a university based working group we cannot commercially sell printed models, sorry.

If you are interested in employing our printer for scientific purposes, please do not hesitate to contact any of the persons below.

Dr. Michael Georg Siccha Rojas