We can all agree that big elaborate prints are incredible, and we love seeing the power of these machines that we have all come to love, but sometimes you just want something now, not days from now. For example, over the last 10 years of demoing 3D printing at events, I have learned one thing for sure, showing good fast practical prints is a sure-fire way to show off the power of 3D printing. When you are demoing this tech, whether if it’s to hundreds of people at a Maker Faire or just to your family, people want to see the process from start to finish and not in a few hours. Even if you are just printing for yourself, sometimes you just want something cool and fast to print.

Contest Theme: Fast and Useful Prints

If you have a need for speed, our newest competition is for you. We are looking for fast practical prints for this round of competition. That’s right, they shouldn’t just be fast, they should have a purpose too. This extra element to the challenge will hopefully help get the creativity going in your awesome brains.

This competition will come with some unique requirements. As we stated above, your design must serve a useful function and since this is all about fast prints, it will need to print in under an hour, the faster the better. Now we all know there are plenty of tricks we can all pull to make faster prints so let’s keep things fairly stock with .4mm nozzles, normal speed and acceleration settings, and .15mmto .3mm layer heights. We don’t want to see entries that say, “this prints in 59 minutes if you are running clipper with a 1.2mm volcano”, that’s not in the spirit of this competition. We want someone who buys a new machine and wants to show their family what it can do to be able to download one of these models and print it with the same results.

Here are some examples of existing fast and useful prints.

Key Holder
Crocodile Bag Clip Remix

Sauce Holder For Car Vents

 Compact Scewdriver
Toothbrush Case Coin Battery Holder

Prizes

Our first place winner will receive a brand new Original Prusa i3 MK3S+ Kit.


The second place winner will receive one of our new 5 packs of Prusament.
Third place will also win a 5 pack of Prusament too!

We once again are giving you all a chance to help award some prizes too. We want to see your makes of these designs and the five entries with the most makes (who are not also main prize winners) will each receive a $50 voucher to our E-Shop.

Judging Criteria

  • Overall quality of the model.
  • Print time under an hour.
  • Printability – whether the model has an optimal orientation, whether it is divided into multiple parts so it can be printed more easily (without supports) etc.
  • Originality – If you create something truly unique, it will be rated better than a slightly altered existing model.
  • Popularity – Share your model to increase its popularity, prove that users appreciate such a model.
  • Your other works – In case we can’t decide between two favorite designs, we often check your other models to see what you can do.
  • Assembly instructions – if your model consists of multiple parts, we check how easy it is to assemble the final product.

How to participate?

It’s easy to participate in this competition. Just follow these simple instructions.

  • Design and create a model or improve an already existing one (“remix”) so that the result fits the theme of this contest. The model has to be printable on an FFF/FDM or SLA 3D printer (any manufacturer and model). This also means that you don’t need to own a 3D printer in order to participate. When creating the model, keep in mind the pros and cons of various types of 3D printing technologies and what can and can’t be actually done.
  • Upload the model to PrusaPrinters.org and make sure it contains:
    1. Model in .3MF or .STL file format (print files are optional)
    2. Photo or render of the model (ideally both)
    3. Model description
  • Add the model to the contest. You will find the new competition button next to your name on the print’s page after you publish your print. Click the Compete medal and select the “Quick and Useful Prints” contest. After that your print will be shown on the contest page and you will be in the running.

Of course, you can share your model on social networks (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest,…) and don’t forget to add the #PrusaPrinters hashtag. This can help increase the popularity of the model.

Terms and conditions

  • The contest runs from October 27th, 2021 to November 30th, 2021.
  • You can submit any number of models (unique) to the competition and increase your chances of winning.
  • Models submitted to the contest must be new models that have been uploaded after the contest has started.
  • The model must contain at least one printed part.
  • By entering the contest, you agree to keep your model posted to PrusaPrinters for a minimum of one year.
  • You must be the original creator of the model you upload, please no reposting other people’s models from other sites.
  • We reserve the right to terminate the competition or change the conditions of the competition at any time. In case of violation of the terms and conditions or an attempted fraud, the competitor will be disqualified.