Dimension Releases "budget" $15K Uprint 3D Printer

[guido666]

There have been some 3D printing articles floating around, so I thought I'd post this article. At $15,000, this uPrint 3D printer is one of the cheapest commercially available units around. (Yes, you can get DIY/hobbyist ones for $1000-2000.) The prices on these are coming down pretty quickly, as the technology matures and advances. I bet in another 10 years, these will be down to around the price laser printers were several years ago, in the $2000 range. When that happens, we'll all be just printing and painting some crazy costumes.

• Gizmag Article about uPrint release
  
• Dimension manufacturer's site
  

 

[golem95]

Yeah there is that $2000 one but the ones big enough to cut larger pieces such as forearms will always be very expensive.

 

[guido666]

Yeah, I'm not seriously suggesting that anyone here on these forums is going to rush right out and buy one of these today. But it just made me think about how cool it will be once they are affordable. Once they drop to a few thousand dollars I'll buy one, and let the ridiculousness ensue. :cool



At the current prices, $15000-30000, small shops with a legitimate reason are going to start getting them. It's a snowball effect. The more small shops get them, the more mature the technology becomes, and the quality goes up while the price goes down. That in turn makes it more accessible to more people, which further drives advances and price drops. 15 years ago, a laser printer was like like $2000 for a black and white one, now you can pick up a color laser printer for $200 from BestBuy. If it goes anything like that, everyone will know somebody that owns one of these at some point.

 

[lord dalton]

this is so wicked

 

[rundown]

I hope you guys do know that its meant for rapid prototyping? Not as in armor making lol.

Companies only use this stuff. So my bet is that it will keep being expensive...

But it is handy

 

[NoDayLikeDoomsday]

I have access to a professional 3D printer through my school. I've used it a couple times for various design projects, and it is a great feeling to kick back and drink a beer while my model BUILDS ITSELF. Newer machines have some pretty mind-blowing features, like multiple-material printing and full color output. There's a video out there of a great looking 12-inch ODST figure that was printed on a multi-material rig, I'll see if I can find it.

 

[guido666]

I hope you guys do know that its meant for rapid prototyping? Not as in armor making lol.

Companies only use this stuff. So my bet is that it will keep being expensive...

But it is handy

It's not "only" for rapid prototyping. It's a bit of a vicious cycle at the moment, because currently rapid prototyping is one of the few economical reasons to use it, because spending $100 to make a part in it saves you $500 of trying to prototype it out of metal or some other expensive material. As the cost of producing things in it comes down, there will be more economically justifiable uses, which will drive up use. People will start using it for more crafts and art, more engineering and architecture firms will get them to visualize and prototype, and they will generally become more common. FDM has only been around since about 1990, so it's still in its infancy, but will gain momentum as its capabilities enter the public consciousness.



For instance, you can buy a $130 statue of your World Of Warcraft character from a company called FigurePrints. If they can sell the 8" figure for $130, and make a profit, the cost of the materials for the figure itself are probably only a small fraction of that price.

A company called Bathsheba sells 3D mathematically-generated art scuptures that are several inches tall, for $20-100 for FDM plastic, $500 for laser sintered metal, and also have ones laser-etched inside crystal.

Belakor has a MakerBot, which is a tiny FDM machine that costs about $1000. See his post here... http://405th.com/forums/index.php?s...=342527&hl=makerbot&fromsearch=1&#entry342527

So it's coming, and in some cases is already here.