Google Arts and Culture, Stratasys team up on 3D printing artifacts

Google Arts and Culture and Stratasys are enabling 3D printed models of ancient artifacts via additive manufacturing.

Through a partnership between Google and Stratasys, historians can recreate artifacts digitally and physically. The effort uses the Stratasys J750 3D Printer.

Under Google Arts and Culture's Open Heritage Project, historical pieces can be recreated via 3D printed prototypes and files that are available for download.

Using additive manufacturing to recreate pieces in a museum could help researchers globally with real finishes and colors.

Google Arts and Culture has restored rare plaster casts discovered in Guatemala by using 3D laser scanners to re-assemble and then reconstruct them with Stratasys 3D printers.

For now, the replicas aren't available to print at home per se, but Gina Scala, Director of Education at Stratasys, said recreating history is a step-by-step process.

"We can now see a pathway where we can put those models in more people's hands," she said. "The goal is to have that realism reimagined where you allow people to feel and touch history."

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