3D Systems has taken what might be its most aggressive step yet in creating a personal 3D printer and content creation market with its unveiling of Cubify.com, an online community and content creation site, and the Cube personal 3D printer for the home.
3D Systems has been fleshing out its lower-end 3D printing strategy pretty aggressively over the last year. It has acquired Bits from Bytes, a provider of low-end 3D printer kits for hobbyists and engineering enthusiasts, and Alibre, a maker of low-end CAD software.
Priced at $1,299, the Cube is 3D Systems' first fully assembled 3D printer aimed at the home market.
With its latest moves, 3D Systems is aiming to kick things up a notch -- or bring 3D printing down a level to appeal to the masses, however you want to look at it. The company says Cubify.com combines "coloring book simplicity with a cloud-based gaming format."
Rajeev Kulkarni, vice president and general manager of the company's new Consumer Solutions Group, told us that the site brings 3D content creation into everyone's living room. "We're trying to help anyone not well versed with 3D creation to get their ideas into reality and simplify the entire content-to-print process."
Cubify.com offers an expanding palette of 3D apps and rich libraries of 3D printable games, puzzles, and collections. 3D Systems is making the APIs available to encourage partners, developers, and engineers who want to "unleash their creativity and who want to monetize their skills" to develop apps and content to be marketed and sold at the site. The company says its developer community will eventually number in the thousands.
The difficulty of creating content has been one of the primary inhibitors of mainstream consumer adoption of the emerging crop of less expensive 3D printers. "In the past, if you wanted to design a 3D model, you had to start with a CAD package, so you needed some expertise to create the models," Kulkarni said. "With a platform like this, other developers can create small apps that are focused on simple steps, so users can make a few choices, do some poking and stretching, and customize the model."
The Cube is 3D Systems' first plug-and-play (not a kit) personal 3D printer for the home. The $1,299 unit, which creates objects within a five-inch cube, is simple to use and comes with an easy-to-load cartridge capable of printing 12 average size parts.
Other 3D printing companies that have typically catered to engineers are now trying to get the mainstream consumer segment on board. As we reported, Autodesk released its Autodesk 123D Catch and Make family late last year in attempt to foster what it is calling "personal manufacturing."
But I didn't think it would happen so quickly. Nice Wow of an article, Beth. This will reach a pretty high-end market. But then personal computers were high end toys for a couple decades. Maybe this is the next generation's Erector Set.
Thanks, Beth, for the great article. This is the kind of low end use of 3D printing aimed at the home market that I was wondering about: what will consumers do with this technology and how will it be packaged for them? Here's the answer.
This is really cool. It's one of those products that consumers find their own uses for, and then it just grows on its own. I'd like to think that it will inspire a lot fo young engineers.
I think that's a great point, Chuck. With products like these easily within reach of kids with a curiousity and interest science and engineering, there's no telling how far they can go. Prices still need to come down, though, but it's a definite compelling start.
Wow, that's an amazing price. Even the hardcore DIY hobbyists who have been using the $1099 MakerBot (http://store.makerbot.com/thing-o-matic-kit-mk7.html) will be tempted at the $1299 ready made package.
The good news is that these things will only get cheaper over time -- and more and more models will be easily downloadable from the web.
I've been watching 3D printing mostly for creating quick models for product design. Finished products often need to be made out of materials not practical for 3D printers.
So, my question is, what type of plastics are handled by this printer? Thermal set, air cured, epoxy? It looks like a fun gadget for making Cracker Jacks box toys and Flash Gordon secret decoder rings. But what about thermally resistant parts? What about parts that can conduct electricity?
Think about some of the stories we've read here about poorly made consumer appliances whose hard to replace plastic parts broke after a year or so of ownership. Fridge door ice cube dispensers come to mind. Instead of strugging to epoxy the part back together one could, with the right 3D "ink" cartridge, recreate an improved part on demand.
That's a great point about prototypes and products oftentimes needing to be made out of materials which can't be handled by 3D printers. This is where the whole notion of a commodity market for small production runs hits a major stumbling block, and I'm surprised it hasn't prompted more discussion. The reality is, for many products this takes 3D printing back to its original purpose, which was prototyping. The movement towards small production runs, which everyone is all excited about now, may be a niche -- albeit an extremely broad niche -- application.
Beth, can you tell us what materials this machine uses but also what additive manufacturing process it requires? Whether the end result is a kid's toy or an aircraft component depends on both the process and the material. The two classes are quite different.
Rob, I think you have a point there. In the late 1980s we bought our first home computer. It cost us $4,500 with a dot matrix printer and 2400 baud modem. We had a 25% discount at the IBM store becuase we worked for a large company that purchased a lot from IBM. Considering that high end laptops are running $1K to $2K. This is well within the reach of lots of people. It might even become something that is used for school projects in some areas.
It's always been an issue of what to make with low price, high volume parts. Plastic forks, spoons or sporks is an example. They are so cheap retail stores have to sell them 200 at a time. Now i am not saying this will be viable for our homes any time soon. But rather then mass producing items of no value why not mass produce 3D cartridge. The day will come when the market will only trade 3D priners, 3D ink, and energy :) it might be hundreds of years too early but it will come.
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