EuroPonoko!

As we suspected a short while ago, Ponoko has announced a new build location in Europe. The new hub will be located in Berlin, and joins the existing build hubs in San Francisco and New Zealand.

This development means European makers or consumers will have significantly less shipping costs when using Ponoko:

For example the cost of shipping a P1 size of 3mm thick plastic sheet of material to anywhere in Germany will plummet by about 85% to around just US$9, while places like Amsterdam and Paris will reduce by around three-quarters to about US$16!

There's a slight catch, however. It turns out that Ponoko did not actually build the hub themselves - they've simply partnered with an existing fabrication operation:Formulor. According to Ponoko:

Formulor is 100% independent of Ponoko. This means the pricing is different, the materials catalog is different, and the business terms are different. And in this case, your package of goodies will be delivered from Formulor, not Ponoko.

Yes, it's not quite the same, but the results will no doubt be very similar and of course at less cost. Great move, Ponoko!

Via Ponoko Blog