Just when we thought the magic of 3D printing technology couldn’t get any cooler there is now a 3D drawing pen and it has magnetic ink! There are numerous tricks artists may employ to make their 2D drawings look 3D, but now with innovations in printing technologies they can actually draw in 3D form. Creopop, the makers of this fascinating technology, claim that it is also able to draw magnets in 3D. The process uses a variety of ink options including: glow-in-the-dark, glitter, elastic and our personal favorite-magnetic. Several versions of 3D printing pens exist but many use heat and melted plastic for their creations. This new innovation uses UV lighting instead, which is safer and doesn’t emit an unpleasant melted plastic stench. The technical term coined for the substance used is photopolymer, a gel-like form that changes and hardens when exposed to UV light. Magnetic ink in 2D is often used to verify the legitimacy of certain documents, like the US dollar currency, so we are interested in how it would be used in 3D form. From an industrial and manufacturing perspective this pen may not seem extremely useful at first. However, in the creative and consumer worlds we imagine that this pen could be a big hit with a myriad of possible uses. Geek.com brainstormed a few possibilities:
“...decorating a tea-cup with an inscription that changes color with the heat of the liquid inside. You could draw yourself out a nice little ring for your keys in less than a minute — no 3D modelling software required”
We also brainstormed some possible applications for this new 3D drawing tool and its magnetic ink. Here are a few of our thoughts:
  • Model-sized characters
  • Magnetic sculpture
  • Some sweet fridge magnets
The company has launched an Indiegogo campaign and their product is expected to be available in 2015. With new inventions like this one, we’re excited to see what the future of 3D printing and magnetic ink holds! Photo by John Biehler