New 3D Printer Start-ups

This is the year for 3D printers.  In fact, this is the year for a plethora of new designs for 3D printers.  It isn't hard to find a number of them in funding sites like KickStarter.  Here are some recent KickStarter projects that met or exceeded their funding goals.

PRINTRBOT

One of the more successful KickStarter 3D printer projects is Printrbot, by Brook Dunn.  Printrbot managed to find more than 1,800 backers for a total of $830,827 in pledges!  Not bad.  Especially when the goal was a modest $25,000.

Some printers have already shipped.  So, we should be hearing from new owners shortly.

But, it appears to me that success can be as difficult as not meeting your funding goal.  It may be that actually receiving the funds requires delivery and when you go from 0 to 1800 machines to deliver it can be more than a little challenging.



This video by Brook Dunn is very instructive.

BUKOBOT

With 11 days to go in their funding window, BukoBot, has raised $43,582 from  127 backers.  Again, this is more than their goal. 

The design of the Bukobot is a bit different than previous kit 3D Printers in that it makes use of extruded metal frames rather than rods.  This might make it a bit more stiff.  But, since, as far as I know, none have been delivered, we'll have to wait to see how it performs.  The important thing that the BukoBot teaches us is that we have not finished exploring all the possible designs for a 3D printer.

Here is a Flickr Photo Stream with a number of images of various models and their design studio..

PRINTXEL

This little 3D printer, from Adjunct Engineering, LLC, is one that I DEFINITELY want to follow.  At $300 it is destined to be one of the least expensive kits available.  Billy Zelsnack is the mind behind this project and he has a lot of experience.  However, as with any start up. he is going to have his hands full getting the first units out the door.

The good news is that he set a modest goal for his first set of deliverables and this will give us an opportunity to get some feedback about the performance of the printer in the not too distant future.  A goal of $7,500 was set and $7,874 was raised from 52 backers.

Here is the video of his KickStarter pitch.

B9CREATOR

All of the other 3D printers in this post use extruded plastic to build 3D objects.  The B9Creator is different in this respect.  It uses a liquid resin based system yielding 100 micron layers making it the resolution leader.

C9Creator had set a KickStarter goal of $50,000.  83 backers helped them exceed that goal with total pledges of $84,668!  What is really remarkable is that they reached that goal in ONE DAY!

There is a video of the machine in action; but, the music SO LOUD that I'll simply post the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ3CGA6ysmE

It is innovation like these that will move 3D printer forward at a rapid pace.  Nice job everyone!