Elegoo, one of the 3D printer manufacturers evolving at a fast pace in the desktop 3D printing market, has launched its first women empowerment program, “ELEGOO With Her. ” The initiative kicked off at Formnext 2024 with a roundtable featuring female designers and creators.
With Chitubox and Kexcelled as partners, Elegoo and the panelists discussed the growing presence of women in 3D printing and ways to foster a more inclusive community. Most people who debut in 3D printing take their first steps with a desktop 3D printer to learn the basic skills of the technology. It therefore makes sense to see a 3D printer manufacturer like Elegoo commit to such initiatives.
Interestingly, the program was launched with a key application of the technology in the fashion industry – to give women an idea of what’s possible to do with 3D printing. At Formnext 2024, one could discover the Scale Dress designed by fashion designer Anouk Wipprecht at Elegoo’s booth on November 19.
The dress combines 3D-printed mechanical parts created with the Elegoo Neptune 4 series 3D printers. Equipped with servo motors, the dress features moving elements and offers a modular, open-source design for those interested in creating their own robotic fashion. According to Wipprecht, the servo-arms can be interchanged to hold anything from 3D printed parts to feathers, solving the major challenge of connecting electronics to the fabric.
“This project is a modular system that can be printed by anyone,” says Wipperecht. “It is an affordable way to get into the FashionTech or Wearable Robotics field without spending all your savings on a new hobby or work direction. These machines range between $190 (smallest, Elegoo Neptune 4) and $390 (biggest, Elegoo Neptune 4 Max) so these are easy machines with to start to explore the wonderful world of 3D modeling and 3D printing.”
Wipperecht has open-sourced the design on her Instructables page with Elegoo, providing a step-by-step guide on how to create a robotic dress with moving parts based on the servo holders.
From November 19, 2024, to February 5, 2025, Elegoo will begin recruiting 30 women and girls to join its empowerment program. Selected participants will receive 3D printers, software support, and mentorship from women leaders in the 3D printing field, including the four panelists from the women’s roundtable (Coco Lee, Anouk Wipprecht, Batoul al-Rashdan, Brigitte Kock, and Linette Manuel).
The program includes two months of online courses and workshops, with an opportunity to showcase their work in April through various channels.
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