On January 15, 2023, Shandong Taishan defeated Zhejiang 2-1 to win the FA Cup. At the award ceremony, Taishan players held the FA Cup to celebrate, and accidentally broke a dragon horn, which triggered heated discussions among netizens and rushed to the hot search.
Picture of Shandong Taishan winning celebration, picture from: Internet
The protagonist of this embarrassing incident is the championship trophy with a broken foot, and many netizens can't help but complain: This quality!? The style of painting in the comment area is basically "gold and jade, plastic among them", "free shipping, 20 pieces of stalls", "Yiwu trophies", "how much gold is this cup?" "Seriously, this trophy looks too cheap"...
The FA Cup winner's trophy that was broken off, image from: Internet
At the same time, some people replied that this is "3D printed". According to reports, the four corners of the trophy are decorated with four dragon heads, and one of the team members directly carried the two horned dragon heads when holding the trophy, and as a result, the dragon head of one horn was broken as soon as he used force.
Although the official has not yet announced how the trophy will be made, it is not ruled out that it is 3D printing. Because there have been many trophies made by 3D printing, including the 2016 FA Cup trophy, medals.
2016 3D printed FA Cup trophy, image from: Internet
According to the resource library, in 2016, the carrier 3D printing (a brand of a company in Beijing) was designated as the Chinese FA Cup licensed product partner (3D printing category), the cargo 3D printing was completely reproduced according to the FA Cup trophy, and manufactured by 3D printing, the size and material of the trophy and the appearance will be exactly the same. It is not difficult to see from here that, in fact, it is completely feasible to make football trophies through 3D printing.
2017 Shanxi FA Cup trophy, picture from: Internet
In addition, in the 2017 Shanxi FA Cup, the trophy was made by AAU3D printing service providers through 3D printing combined with post-processing. In addition to 3D printing trophies in domestic football events, there have been similar cases abroad. For example: the PES 2017 League World Championship Trophy, measuring 75 cm × 20 cm, made by 3D printing.
2017 PES 2017 League World Championship Trophy, image from: Internet
In fact, even if the FA Cup trophy of this "accident" is 3D printed, it does not mean that 3D printing technology is not good. In addition to printing polymer materials such as PLA, ABS, resin, and nylon, 3D printing can also print metal materials such as aluminum, copper, titanium, and steel.
The 3D printing trophy of the 2020 King Glory National Competition, image from: 3D Printing Dream Park
For the production of trophies, SLA laser-cured 3D printing technology is often chosen to complete, and the material is white photosensitive resin, plus post-spraying, sanding, polishing, and coloring. However, due to the limitations of common resin materials, the model will be slightly brittle, especially in very fine places, and there is a risk that it will break.
3D printing has been widely used in aerospace, biomedical, automobile manufacturing, industrial design and many other fields, of course, it is not difficult to make a solid pure metal trophy.