Less than a year after opening its 170,000-square-foot factory in New York City, MakerBot announced today it will partner with international manufacturer Jabil to produce its 3D printers moving forward. Over the next few months, the company will lay...
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Between this and the Arduino, you'd think NASA's Swamp Works was a hackerspace -- though, perhaps in a sense, the research facility kind of is. And really, between the organization's on-going fascination with the potential of 3D printing and a desire to meet budgetary concerns, we probably shouldn't have been all too shocked to see a first-gen MakerBot Replicator on a table of the former Apollo-testing facility. The printer wasn't actually in use during our visit, and the Hazardous Operation tag could probably be taken to be a bit tongue-in-cheek -- though, when it comes to space travel, you can never be too careful.
Yep, it's a big year from 3D printing, and no company's got a bigger piece of the spotlight than MakerBot. The company used last year's show to announce the release of the first generation Replicator, releasing its successor a few months back. We've asked the company's CEO Bre Pettis back to our stage to discuss the 3D printing revolution.
Check out our full CES 2013 stage schedule here!
Update: video embedded
Filed under: Misc
The year of 3D printers? It's sure looking like it from where we're sitting. There are more companies at CES 2013 promoting consumer versions of the technology than ever before. Of course, MakerBot's not going to sit idly by and watch this all go down. The Brooklyn-based company is set to show off its Replicator 2X Experimental 3D Printer -- the dual-extruding "big brother" to its recently released second-gen printer -- at a press conference tomorrow. Hopefully pricing and available will be arriving on with it.
Filed under: Misc
Many of the 3D printed products we’ve seen are for commercial purposes, prototypes or toys. But as the technology matures and becomes more affordable, we’ll start seeing more products that us ordinary folks can appreciate and more importantly use in our daily life. Objects like this 3D printed pair of headphones.
The headphones were made by John Mabry of Teague Labs, who wanted to see if he can create a functional object that can be 3D printed and then assembled without any tools. He called the headphones 13:30 because it took 13 hours and 30 minutes to print its components. That’s a hell of a print job, but I wouldn’t be able to make a pair of headphones even if I had 13 months and 30 days.
Mabry posted the files and instructions on Thingiverse. The components are meant to be printed on a Makerbot Replicator, which is certainly not a mainstream product, but is also a long way from an entire factory filled with machines and craftsmen.
[Teague Labs via Engadget]