A few weeks ago, “Airless Gen1”, a 3D-printed basketball without an air bubble from the American sporting goods manufacturer Wilson, hit the headlines. The basketball was developed in collaboration with 3D design company General Lattice and costs USD 2,500 per piece.
The special feature of the development is that a 3D-printed lattice structure replaces the air bladder and thus enables lasting dimensional stability. The EOS P396 industrial 3D printer from German manufacturer EOS is used for production. The balls are then dyed at DyeMansion and undergo a surface treatment.
The ball has the properties of a classic basketball. Tech influencer Marques Brownlee also demonstrated this in a short video:
So Wilson made a $2500 AIRLESS basketball from 3D printing techniques. It won’t be replacing a leather ball anytime soon, but honestly a pretty damn cool idea pic.twitter.com/Cj1oHpsl5f
— Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) February 19, 2024
The maker PartyLime has now published a free 3D print template for a full-size 3D printed basketball on the Printables portal. The maker explains that he printed the model with TPU as a test. An initial test showed that the printed model does not bounce as much as a standard basketball. He will carry out further tests with other materials.
The free 3D print template of the basketball can be downloaded here.
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