Any chance the resin/polymer will come down in price if this catches on?
I'd say that's almost inevitable.
Or are we facing into another printer ink situation?
Formlabs: High Resolution 3D Printer
51–60 of 115 posts
Re: Formlabs: High Resolution 3D Printer
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
This might be a kind of dumb idea, but I would love it if somebody created a Kickstarter project to create a manufacturing and distribution plant for Kickstarter projects...(obviously, would require a huge investment for all of the machining equipment).
I don't think it would work in exactly the same way you are describing but there may be alternatives. Manufacturing equipment is very expensive and the only way to justify the cost is to keep it running daily, sometimes 24/7/365. The change parts for each unique product are also quite expensive (easily $10k+). If I want to open a KickManufacturing plant, I have to buy/maintain/service hundreds of different kinds of e…
> And worst of all, most of the equipment will be collecting dust 95% of the time unless someone has just the right Kickstarter project for them.
Cloud manufacturing?
Re: Formlabs: High Resolution 3D Printer
#53Sad prediction: the future of 3D printing will be cheap printers [that require/are subsidized by] proprietary resins.
Re: Formlabs: High Resolution 3D Printer
#54Re: Formlabs: High Resolution 3D Printer
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
OK this literally is quantum physics and the discovery was Nobel-prize material but it's not that hard to grasp so here's how it works :) If you have a chemical reaction that requires a certain energy level, shining lots of light on it won't help much if each individual photon is below that energy level. Even if you have a really bright reddish light, each photon still only has a relatively low energy. On the other h…
So it just needs energy to solidify? Would heat also work? So the molecules that it's made of up combine into new molecules that are solid? Do you know what the chemical reaction is?
If "heat" is from a low-energy source, like an infrared lamp, then no it won't work. You need the individual photons to have enough energy.
Re: Formlabs: High Resolution 3D Printer
#56Would you guys say this is a game changer?
Yep - My company bought a $50K printer 6 years ago - this one is much better performance wise. The annual service contract for that one is $10K, so I could burn through a Form 1 per quarter and come out ahead. This will change product development the way CMSs changed publishing.
You've been telling people to hold off buying a 3D printer from other manufacturers until this one was unveiled. But I don't get the impression this is in the product phase yet. There are some slick pictures and a nice presentation but nothing at all that indicates the thing actually exists in an about to ship state.
What exactly is the state of development of the formlabs product?
Re: Formlabs: High Resolution 3D Printer
#57Re: Formlabs: High Resolution 3D Printer
#58Sad prediction: the future of 3D printing will be cheap printers [that require/are subsidized by] proprietary resins.
I actually think it could be more extreme. The printer industry is the way it is because most people don't really need one, so customers skimp instead of optimizing for long-term usage. I predict even fewer people will need devoted 3D printers in their homes - especially if there are local versions at a place like staples/kinkos.
Re: Formlabs: High Resolution 3D Printer
#59Sad prediction: the future of 3D printing will be cheap printers [that require/are subsidized by] proprietary resins.
There are still some of us who remember HP :)
Re: Formlabs: High Resolution 3D Printer
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or are we facing into another printer ink situation?
Resins which harden under UV aren't that hard to make. There was a bit of a push a year or so ago when people started looking at DLP printers.
I'm not sure the cost of printer ink is due to the difficulty in manufacturing. I would hope that 3D printer resins do not follow the same business model