Personal 3D Printer Released!

Yes, you can now have one of your own! Imagine it sitting at the end of your desk, spitting out any objects you desire, or at least models you can manage to develop. Two things are interesting about the announcement of uPrint from Dimension Printing:

• It's NOT from Desktop Factory
• It's NOT under USD$5,000. In fact, it's priced at USD$14,900.

Now, I don't know about you, but that's still a teeny bit on the high side for a personal printer. Even the original personal laser printers from years ago weren't that high in price. Oh, did I mention materials cost?

But price aside, let's examine the device. Here's the highlights as we saw them:

• Very small footprint: 635 x 660 mm (25 x 26 inches) that permits it to sit on any desk or table that can support its 76-94 kg (168-206 lbs) weight
• Colors! The Apple-influenced front panels can be any of green, red, or (ugh) white
• Accepts 110 or 220V power
• A reasonably-sized build chamber of 203 x 152 x 152 mm  (8 x 6 x 6 inches)
• An acceptable vertical resolution of 0.254mm (0.01 inches)
• CatalystEX software is included, as well as a consumer-styled kit containing cables, media and other parts
• Uses the very robust ABSPlus model media

We think this is a huge step forward to the days of consumer 3D printing. It's obviously not there yet, but we're heading that way. We think the uPrint will be quite popular, but not among consumers. It's definitely a "Personal" printer, but perhaps more of a "Personal-At-Work" printer.

Can we get one in blue?

Via Dimension Printing