The Dutch PostNL has fabricated a musical instrument en route to trumpet master Eric Vloeimans in awesome short film, Sound of Delivery.

Every person has their own postal horror stories. Packages arrive busted, squished, or not at all. We often feel nervous about posting fragile packages, even with layers and layers of bubble wrap.

Which is why the Dutch postal services, PostNL, has gone to extraordinary lengths to put our minds at rest. They wanted to demonstrate just how careful they are by setting themselves a challenge; to ship an actively printing 3D printer without upsetting the print.

And to complicate things even further, the printed object is a functioning musical instrument! One slip or knock, and the 3D printed trumpet definitely won’t work as it was intended.

Did the PostNL succeed in their mission? Watch the video and find out.

Sound of Delivery is the Future of the Postal Service

PostNL ships over a million packages every day, and relies on huge amounts of data, logistics and communication to perform their job. To ship an active 3D Printer, and ensure the finished product came out just right, is a very clever way to showcase the strengths of their postal system.

Specialist Joris Van Tubergen designed the 3D printable trumpet, fabricated as several separate components, together with the right packaging to keep the Ultimaker 3D Printer safe.

The package was addressed to Eric Vloeimans, one of the best trumpet players in the Netherlands, and the perfect person to judge whether the instrument was properly printed. He loved the result, and you can see him jamming in the studio with his 3D printed trumpet.

Based on the success of this stunt, 3D printing could definitely play a big part in the future of package delivery. It may take time to get it down to an exact science, but one thing’s for sure: with the Sound of Delivery, PostNL has proven that it really can be done.

Read more about the future of 3D printing and postal services here and here and here.