New Program Empowering Women in 3D Printing Launches

Elegoo, a brand in global smart manufacturing, launches its first women empowerment program, “ELEGOO With Her,” at Formnext 2024, with a mission to equip more women and girls with 3D printing skills. The initiative kicks off with a dress debut and a roundtable featuring prominent female designers and creators, including FashionTech designer and engineer Anouk Wipprecht. Joined by partners Chitubox and Kexcelled, Elegoo and the panelists address the growing presence of women in 3D printing and discuss how to foster a more inclusive community.

“Through our extensive interactions with customers and partners, we've seen a growing number of women and girls entering 3D printing for personal hobbies, creative projects, or business, which is something that's truly inspiring to us,” says Coco Lee, brand director of Elegoo. “With our partners, we aim to sustain this momentum, showcase women leaders, and build a supportive community where women can find guidance from their role models.”

Robotic Open-Source Dress Live Show

A key highlight of Elegoo's women empowerment program launch was the live model show featuring the Scale Dress by Anouk Wipprecht on November 19. The dress, designed for the FashionTech field, combines 3D printed mechanical parts created with Elegoo Neptune 4 series 3D printers. Equipped with servo motors, the dress features moving elements and offers a modular, open-source design for those who wish to create custom robotic fashion. According to Wipprecht, the servo-arms can be interchanged to hold anything from 3D printed parts to feathers, enabling the ability to connect electronics to 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 an instruction guide on how to create a robotic dress with moving parts based on the servo holders.

ELEGOO With Her Program

Starting on November 19, 2024, to February 5, 2025, Elegoo will be 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. The program includes two months of online courses and workshops, with a change to demonstrate any work in April 2025 through various channels.

For more infomation, visit the ELEGOO With Her page and follow Elegoo's social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter) and YouTube, TikTok, Discord and Reddit.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.