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MakerBot lays off a third of staff as 3D printers remain niche
For the fourth time in less than two years, 3D printer manufacturer MakerBot is laying off workers, this time cutting 30 percent of its staff. It also announced plans to shift its focus to professional and educational 3D printing, presumably leaving consumer markets behind. "We have to make additional changes to lower costs and to support our long-term goals," CEO Nadav Goshen wrote. "We must reduce the pressure and distraction of chasing short-term market trends."
MakerBot learns that 3D printing and copyright don't quite mix
Trying to stop unauthorized 3D printing is like plugging a hole in a dam with your finger -- once the template for an object leaks out, it's virtually impossible to stop the flood of bootleg prints. And MakerBot is learning this the hard way. The company is asking makers to protect their copyrights after hearing of an eBay user selling 3D prints of others' Thingiverse objects, whether or not the creators gave permission. While MakerBot hopes to stop the culprit in this case, it believes that it's ultimately a designer's responsibility to crack down on misuse of the projects they own.
3D-printed vascular systems help doctors practice for your surgery
It's safe to say that you want your doctors to know exactly what they're doing when performing surgery. But how do they train for a vascular operation, which is both extremely tricky and unique to your anatomy? By using 3D printing, that's how. MakerBot's parent company Stratasys is teaming with physicians to create 3D-printed replicas of patients' vascular systems, giving surgeons a way to practice before they poke around your blood vessels. The models use flexible photopolymers (that is, light-sensitive polymers) to recreate the feel of organic tissue, so you don't have to worry that the surgery team is only used to working with hardened plastic.
MakerBot lays off another twenty percent of its workers
In April MakerBot laid off 20 percent of its workforce. Roughly six months later, it's doing it again, trimming another fifth of its payroll as it struggles to meet lofty ambitions and expectations set by its parent company Stratasys. In a blog post announcing the layoffs and a significant restructuring CEO Jonathan Jaglom said that MakerBot needs to "get back to our entrepreneurial spirit and address our fractured organizational structure." As one of the pioneers of the consumer 3D printing scene MakerBot grew quickly, but the market has stagnated and the company hasn't been able to maintain the same level of growth.
Lawsuit claims MakerBot knowingly sold glitchy 3D printers
If you bought one of MakerBot's fifth-generation 3D printers only to have trouble running it, you're not alone. A recently filed class action lawsuit alleges that MakerBot and its parent company Stratasys committed a "fraudulent scheme" by knowingly shipping these Replicator printers with flawed extruders (the part that melts and deposits filament) that tend to clog. Supposedly, management was bragging about rapid growth to investors at the same time it was skimping on quality control and dealing with loads of returns and repairs. By the time MakerBot was starting to lay off workers and otherwise admit that things had gone off the rails, shareholders had lost millions of dollars.
MakerBot lays off one-fifth of its workforce
MakerBot is perhaps the most well-known consumer 3D printer company on the market, having sold tens of thousands of Replicators since its start in 2009. It's a large part of why Stratasys, an industrial 3D printer and manufacturer, decided to acquire MakerBot in 2013. Two years after that merger, however, things don't seem quite so rosy. Motherboard has learned that MakerBot has apparently laid off roughly 20 percent of its staff -- which is around a hundred people -- as part of a recent consolidation effort by parent company Stratasys. An employee told the outlet that the company is trying to eliminate duplicate positions and streamline operations as a whole.
UPS now lets you use 3D printers in nearly 100 US stores
UPS' experiment with in-store 3D printers apparently went off without a hitch -- the shipping service has expanded the availability of 3D printing services from six test markets to nearly 100 locations across the US. While the hardware is still concentrated in a relatively small batch of cities, such as New York and Chicago, there's now a much better chance that a shop near you has the gear for printing everything from prototypes to one-of-a-kind phone cases. There's no word of any additional rollouts at this stage. However, it's reasonable to presume that more stores will get on-the-spot object making if it proves popular with crafters nationwide.
MakerBot's Bre Pettis opens a workshop for 3D printing innovation
When MakerBot announced that Bre Pettis would be stepping down as CEO earlier this month, we knew he wasn't going far. Today, the 3D printing guru's new project was revealed. The Pettis-led Innovation Workshop at Stratasys is called Bold Machines, and it looks to push "the frontier of 3D printing technology." Leveraging Solidscape 3D printers and devices both of the aforementioned outfits, the studio will work alongside "innovators" to flex its muscle. So, what's on tap to start? A movie made entirely with 3D-printed characters. The film focuses on Margo, a detective whose parents have gone missing during a space exploring expedition, and a businessman's evil schemes. In fact, you can go ahead and print your own Margot figure now, and production files for other characters, including the sinister Mr. Walthersnap (pictured with Pettis above), will be made available for at-home printing in the future.
MakerBot CEO steps down to join new parent company
Bre Pettis has done more than most to bring 3D printing to the masses. But when MakerBot was bought up by industrial giant Stratasys it became clear that things were about to change. One of the first big changes is coming soon as Pettis, a founder of the consumer 3D print shop, is leaving his post as CEO to join his new parent company Stratasys. He won't be involved in the day to day running of MakerBot any more, but he'll still be instrumental in guiding its future. He'll just now have a part in directing the vision of Stratasys as well. In a statement CEO David Reis said, "We are excited about these promotions and pleased to continue the positive momentum that Stratasys and MakerBot have experienced and achieved." Of course that tells us nothing about how the two companies will continue to evolve or if they'll ever merge under one banner.
Stratasys' new 3D printer creates multicolored flexible materials
Stratasys' has a new $330,000 3D printer, but this one has the potential to do a whole lot more than monochrome figurines. In fact, the company says it's the first machine able to create objects in colored, flexible materials. The Objet500 Connex3 3D printer uses rubber and plastic as base materials, although according to Stratasys (the company which now owns the MakerBot series) material combinations will be able to offer different levels of rigidity, transparency and opacity. Colors, meanwhile, are produced by the same mix of cyan, magenta and yellow you'll find on your inkjet printer at home -- it even comes with six palettes of rubbery "tango" colors, if you're perhaps looking to channel your '90s tastes into some tasteful flexible booties, as seen above. At the technical level, the printer can go as fine as 16-micron layers, offering a high level of detail and finish, and can pump out around 30kg of resin (that is, base material) per run. Talking to the BBC, a Stratasys spokesperson said the advanced printer could cut down industrial design prototyping times by 50 percent, although he was talking about the time from prototype to market, not printing time itself. The Objet500 Connex3 launches today, although those flexible color printing materials won't be available to buy until Q2 later this year, so hold on to those neo-boot dreams for now.
MakerBot and Stratasys merger now official, promises 'full speed ahead' on 3D printing
Just a couple of months after Stratasys announced it would be acquiring 3D printing firm MakerBot, their marriage is now officially complete. Following the terms of the merger, the Israeli 3D printer and manufacturer will exchange up to 4.7 million of its shares for 100 percent of MakerBot's outstanding capital stock. Stratasys is widely known for factory-level printing and prototyping for designers and engineers, while MakerBot signifies its entry into the consumer space. Indeed, MakerBot is almost synonymous with the desktop 3D printing movement, having sold more than 22,000 3D printers since 2009. MakerBot founder and CEO Bre Pettis said in a statement that they're "excited for the future" and ended with a declaration of "full speed ahead!" Let's hope this "speed" refers to future iterations that will print out that miniature dalek in minutes rather than hours.
The UPS Store to offer 3D printing service in select San Diego locations (video)
Today, The UPS Store announced its plan to bring 3D printing services to the masses. The shipping company will soon roll out Stratasys Uprint SE Plus printers to 6 locations in San Diego to test out the new service; it'll be aimed at small businesses, start-ups and retail customers in need of a professional grade model to produce things like prototypes and artistic renderings. At $20,900 a pop, Stratasys printers aren't exactly the kind of gadget you'd purchase for home use, so their availability at UPS stores is a pretty major step towards making high quality 3D printing an accessible option for the common man. Though the company is starting small, it hopes to expand the service nationwide, provided that the San Diego experiment proves successful. For more info, check out the video after the break.
Stratasys to acquire 3D printing company MakerBot for $403 million in stock
Stratasys, an Israeli-based 3D printer and additive manufacturer has just agreed to acquire 3D printing company MakerBot for a proposed amount of $403 million in stock. They've announced a "definitive merger agreement" where MakerBot would converge with a subsidiary of Stratasys in a stock-for-stock transaction. After selling more than 22,000 3D printers since its inception in 2009, MakerBot is seen as a leader and pioneer in the 3D printing space, and about 11,000 of those sales were due to the Replicator 2 alone. MakerBot will operate as a separate entity with its own branding and marketing as part of the deal, and will provide an affordable 3D printing market for Stratasys. If all goes well with the regulators, it should be done by the third quarter of 2013.
Stratasys and Objet combine 3D printing / rapid prototyping powers, working on printing money
Minnesota-based rapid manufacturing / rapid prototyping company Stratasys today announced that its has completed its merger with Iron Man / concert flute 3D printer, Objet. Combined, the new $3 billion company is home to the FDM, PolyJet and Solidscape Drop-on-Demand prototyping technologies. The companies have promised to "grow awareness of 3D printing for rapid prototyping and production." Hopefully that means we be getting a lot more of these things, as well.
The future of higher education: reshaping universities through 3D printing
Featuring four towering limestone columns and classic Flemish-bond brickwork, the century-old Mackay School of Mines Building at the University of Nevada, Reno, has long served as a bastion of Silver State history. Named after Irish immigrant and "Comstock Lode King" John Mackay, notable touches such as a cast bronze statue designed by Mount Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Borglum just outside the building helped it earn a spot in the National Register of Historic Places. Within its oak doors, however, are the makings of an intriguing experiment that's decidedly more new school. Like a mini museum, a collection of 3D-printed models are displayed within the building's sunlit, three-story atrium -- attracting a mix of students and teachers. Even more popular than the displays of plastic gears and molecule models, however, are the two 3D printers that made them: a professional-grade Stratasys uPrint SE Plus and a hobbyist 3DTouch machine by 3D Systems Corporation.
3D printed 'Magic Arms' give a little girl use of her limbs
Don't get us wrong, we adore 3D printers and the whole additive manufacturing movement. But, if all you're going to get out of the ABS-jets are some companion cubes and a raptor claw, well then, we don't think there's much hope for the technology. Thankfully there are people out there (much better people than us, we might add), who have turned to 3D printers to actually improve peoples lives. Take, for example, the tale of two-year-old Emma, born with the congenital disorder arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (AMC). The disease causes a person's joints to become locked in a single position, in Emma's case, it was her arms. There are prosthetics that can help, but most are made of metal -- including the anchor vest -- which would make them too heavy for a 25-pound girl. Instead of going off the shelf, doctors turned to a 3D printer from Stratasys to create custom molded parts and a lightweight vest for Emma. The result: the two-year-old who once could not lift her arms is now able to play, color and feed herself. Printing the parts also solves another major issue -- Emma is growing... quickly. The adorable tot has already outgrown her first vest, but her mother just calls the Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children and has a new one made. The same goes for replacement parts. Should a hinge or brace break, it need only be a matter of hours (not days or weeks) before a new one is delivered. For more details check out the heartwarming video after the break.
The Urbee Hybrid is the first car to come out of a printer, presumably a big one
3D Printers are getting ever more advanced and, apparently, ever bigger too. Proof to that is the Urbee Hybrid, the result of a partnership between transportation company Kor Ecologic and Stratasys, who we've already seen shamelessly rebranding its 3D printers as HP Designjets. Kor provided the concept and the underpinnings of the thing, a design that amazingly has its roots in the early '90s but has been given a new, teardrop body 100 percent printed by Stratasys. Underneath is a plug-in hybrid powertrain that manages up to 200mpg on the highway and 100mpg around town running on ethanol or plain 'ol gasoline. No, there are no plans for the three-wheelin' Urbee to actually see production, and beneath that luscious shape rolls something that looks rather more like a work in progress, which you can see in an early video below.
HP's Designjet 3D series start shipping to wealthy European prototypers
Just three months after HP bought itself into the 3D printer market by making a partnership with established player Stratasys, the company's first Designjet 3D models are now shipping in Europe, set to start churning out bits and bobs soon. HP is offering two models, the plain Designjet 3D and the Designjet Color 3D which, wait for it, prints in color. We don't know what the multi-hue model will set you back, but the base model clocks in at €13,000 -- about $17,500. That's roughly $2,500 more than a low-end, non-HP Stratasys additive fabrication printer will cost you, and we're not sure what else you're getting for that premium beyond the little chrome HP badge stuck on the top. Expensive? Sure, but we remember a time when color laser printers cost more than cars and now look at 'em, selling for less than $200 shipped. Funny how their toner cartridges aren't any cheaper...
HP molds itself an entry into the 3D printer market
Don't let HP's involvement confuse you, there's a very good chance John Q. Consumer won't be able to afford a 3D printer anytime soon. But the company is dipping its toes into the industry thanks to a deal with Stratasys. The latter will produce an "exclusive line of 3D printers based on Stratasys' patented Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology." Those will be sold under HP branding targeted at the Mechanical Design (MCAD) market. The specific product details are still shrouded in mystery (that's just a quick Photoshop, left), but for perspective, Stratasys' cheapest printer is the uPrint, which can mold 8 x 6 x 6-inch models for a smidgen under $15,000. Still interested, despite price deterrent? Don't forget there's some DIY options for you out there for less than a grand.
