Corporate

Implications of the Stratasys – Afinia Lawsuit

By now you’ve no doubt heard that Stratasys has launched a major lawsuit against Afinia for alleged violations of several Stratasys patents. We examined these patents previously, but we believe there are implications that travel far beyond simply Afinia, as the patents describe methods commonly used in many personal 3D printers.    The concept of… Continue reading Implications of the Stratasys – Afinia Lawsuit

Details of the Stratasys – Afinia Lawsuit

We’ve been reading more about this week’s legal action by Stratasys against personal 3D printer marketer Afinia, who are alleged to have violated several of Stratasys’ patents.    We’ve obtained a copy of the “Complaint for Patent Infringement”  filed in the United States District Court, District of Minnesota (where Stratasys’ HQ is located, and, totally… Continue reading Details of the Stratasys – Afinia Lawsuit

Stratasys Sues Afinia

3D printing giant Stratasys launched legal action against Afinia, a marketer of personal 3D printers. The statement from Stratasys says:    Afinia’s sale, promotion and use of its Series H printer infringes patents directed to part porosity, liquefier structure, temperature control, and tool paths for constructing part perimeters. The most recent Stratasys patent that Afinia… Continue reading Stratasys Sues Afinia

Cubes In Harrods!

3D Systems’ Cubify division has made another notable retail move, this time sealing a deal with Harrods of London to display the Cube personal 3D printer at their flagship store in Knightsbridge.     Cubify has been rapidly expanding their network of resellers recently, but to be at Harrods is a big accomplishment. Harrods is a… Continue reading Cubes In Harrods!

Walmart Selling Cube 3D Printers – in Brazil

We know Staples sells Cubify’s entry-level personal 3D printer, the Cube, at an undetermined number of physical outlets in the USA. But now we learn Walmart also sells the Cube – but not in the USA; they’re available in Brazil.    The Cube is priced at R$5,758 (USD$2,478), quite a bit more than the standard… Continue reading Walmart Selling Cube 3D Printers – in Brazil

Ultimaker Reorganizes

You may have heard about Ultimaker’s new personal 3D printer, the not-so-surprisingly named Ultimaker 2, but that’s not all that’s going down at the Dutch manufacturer.    We listened to a talk by their new CEO, Henk van Gils at the London 3D Printshow 2013, in which he revealed some corporate moves at the growing… Continue reading Ultimaker Reorganizes

3D Printing Be Could Be Worth $8.41B by 2020

According to a recent study, the market for 3D printers could be worth nearly $8.5 billion by 2020.   The study, conducted by Indian research firm MarketsandMarkets, forecasts a compound annual growth rate of 23% for 3D printing technology over the next seven years. According to MarketsandMarkets, one of the motivations for this growth is… Continue reading 3D Printing Be Could Be Worth $8.41B by 2020

Stratasys Strategy in a Post-Patent World

Stratasys, one of the largest 3D printing companies in the world today, faces transition. While the company built itself upon the FDM (fused deposition modeling) process it invented years ago, the patent for that process has expired.    With the expiration of the key patents, other organizations have  replicated (no pun intended) the process and… Continue reading Stratasys Strategy in a Post-Patent World

Breaking: Formlabs Raises $19M

Formlabs announced today they’ve raised USD$19M investment to help grow their company. Formlabs produces the Form 1, the first popular resin-based personal 3D printer, which raised an amazing USD$3M on its first Kickstarter campaign just a few months ago.    The new funding, led by venture capital partner DFJ Growth, now enables Formlabs to embark… Continue reading Breaking: Formlabs Raises $19M

MakerBot’s Retail Expansion

MakerBot opened the first dedicated retail 3D printer store on New York City’s Mulberry street some years ago. While MakerBot continued retail operations by partnering with others, the lone MakerBot store stood alone at the tip of Manhattan Island.    Until now.    MakerBot has announced they will open not one, but two additional MakerBot… Continue reading MakerBot’s Retail Expansion

VoxelJet Begins Trading

Commercial 3D printer manufacturer VoxelJet began trading shares on public markets this past week and the results are, well, pretty spectacular.    VoxelJet produces large-scale commercial 3D printers for industrial use. We believe they produce the largest commercial 3D printer available today, the massive VX4000 (see above image), capable of 3D printing objects as large… Continue reading VoxelJet Begins Trading

Hammacher Schlemmer Offers 3D Printers

Another major consumer-oriented online retailer has begun sales of personal 3D printers. Hammacher Schlemmer, one of the world’s oldest mail order operations, is now selling 3D System’s Cube personal 3D printer.    The Cube is described as:    The printer extrudes 1/125″-thin layers of warm, viscous thermoplastic that hardens within seconds, forming a solid, three-dimensional… Continue reading Hammacher Schlemmer Offers 3D Printers

3D Printing in Tesco?

If you reside in the UK, it’s more than likely you’ve been buying groceries from your neighborhood Tesco. But soon you may be picking you your 3D prints there, too.    In a report published by V3, Tesco’s IT Chief Mike McNamara postulated about a future world where Tesco shoppers could pick up 3D prints… Continue reading 3D Printing in Tesco?

3DTin’s New Owners

One of the very few browser-based 3D modeling tools has changed hands. 3DTin has been acquired by Montreal-based 3D startup Lagoa.    Lagoa focuses on solving the problem of 3D requiring high-end computing power, which typically isn’t available on the increasingly frequent ultra-portable laptops. People love the portability, but 3D just doesn’t work so well… Continue reading 3DTin’s New Owners

Form 1 Shipping Update

The spectacular Kickstarter launch of Formlabs months ago was just the first part. A large number of orders merely indicates strong interest in a product. We reserved judgement until we saw that Formlabs was able to deliver the numerous Form 1 personal 3D printers. Now we have evidence of that success.    Formlabs has posted… Continue reading Form 1 Shipping Update

3D Printing Arrives in Argentina with Kikai Labs

3D printing is now inexpensive and this means its use can become widespread very rapidly. Argentina-based Kikai Labs hopes to carry 3D printing forward in South America, with their own locally produced 3D printer design.    While their virtual store currently operates in Argentina, they apparently will open up sales in neighboring Uruguay soon.   … Continue reading 3D Printing Arrives in Argentina with Kikai Labs

Singapore Investing $30M in 3D Printing

Singapore’s Prime Minister and the country’s Economic Development Board (EDB) announced that Singapore will set aside $30M of its $500M “Future of Manufacturing” fund to create a new 3D Printing center.   Housed at the country’s Nanyang Technological University the new $30M center will be a hub of innovation for students and industry alike. According… Continue reading Singapore Investing $30M in 3D Printing

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Categorized as Corporate Tagged

ExOne Under Fire After Scathing Report

In a recent article at Street Sweeper, Sonya Colberg has accused 3D Printer company ExOne of “diluting investors’ shares to raise millions just six months after its public offering”.   In the article, Colberg accuses CEO Kent Rockwell of mismanaging the firm and using it as his own “piggy-bank”. According to the report, within the… Continue reading ExOne Under Fire After Scathing Report

Exclusive: Inside the CubeX Factory

Hidden in the sleepy coastal town of Clevedon, UK, lies the secret factory that produces 3D Systems’ CubeX 3D printer. We recently toured the factory to find out how these popular machines are created.    Aside from a modest research and development unit, the entire facility is dedicated to production of CubeX’s. It is indeed… Continue reading Exclusive: Inside the CubeX Factory

Patent Issued for Digital Manufacturing

After years of process, US patent number 8,515,826 has been issued to Bryan Norman of KraftWurx fame. While there are billions of patents appearing, many of which are related to 3D printing, this one bears mentioning. Here’s the abstract of the patent:    Methods and systems for designing and producing a three-dimensional object selection of… Continue reading Patent Issued for Digital Manufacturing

3D Printing Stocks Get a Boost from CitiGroup

In early trading this week 3D Systems (DDD) and Stratasys (SSYS) stocks took a dramatic jump as analysts from Citigroup gave the two companies a “buy” ratings. By midsession on Monday 3D Systems’ stock was up 8% garnering a $52.41 price per share. Nearly mirroring DDD’s performance, Stratasys’ stock rose 5% to a whopping $111.07.… Continue reading 3D Printing Stocks Get a Boost from CitiGroup

3D Systems Acquires CDRM

Another week, another acquisition for 3D Systems. While last week they picked up TeamPlatform, a service for aiding 3D model projects, this week they’ve acquired CDRM, a 3D print service bureau located in the UK.    3D Systems has an extensive network of print service bureaus located across the world. These centers are integrated together… Continue reading 3D Systems Acquires CDRM

A Visit to the iMakr 3D Printer Store

On our recent visit to the UK we happened to drop by the iMakr store, which is one of the very few, perhaps the only, true retail store focused entirely on 3D printing. It’s tagline is “The World’s largest 3D Printing Store”, and we think they could be right.

A 3D Printing Workshop AND Cafe in Buenos Aires

The neighborhood of Palermo in Buenos Aires is known for its restaurants, but this one is somewhat unique: The 3D Lab Fab & Cafe offers patrons not only coffee and food, but also access to 3D printing technology. They say:    In 3DLab Fab&Café we provide you the cutting edge technology of digital fabrication in… Continue reading A 3D Printing Workshop AND Cafe in Buenos Aires

Stratasys Expects More Revenue

This is interesting: 3D printing giant Stratasys raised their revenue expectations for the year 2013 following the merger with MakerBot. The change moved expected full-year revenue from “only” USD$430-455M to a larger USD$445-480M, a rise of USD$15-25M.    We suspect a chunk of this new revenue is from MakerBot’s sales of personal 3D printers, as… Continue reading Stratasys Expects More Revenue

MakerBot Appears at Microsoft Stores

This is an interesting arrangement: MakerBot has partnered with Microsoft to display MakerBot 3D printing gear in select Microsoft retail stores across the USA.    MakerBot will be allocated a space within these stores to set up a “store within a store” concept, similar to what Apple did with certain big box stores before they… Continue reading MakerBot Appears at Microsoft Stores

Is Sept 3rd An Important Date for Formlabs?

We think it is. Why? First, some background. Formlabs launched one of the most successful new 3D printers in recent memory with their Form 1 resin-based 3D printer. It’s a device capable of 3D printing extremely high-resolution objects reliabily with a technique completely different from most of the other 3D printer manufacturers: photocuring resin with… Continue reading Is Sept 3rd An Important Date for Formlabs?

3D Systems Allies With Deloitte

3D printing giant 3D Systems has formed an alliance with big-time consulting company Deloitte “to jointly assist companies and industries adopt and integrate 3D printing design and manufacturing systems and solutions into their business for sustainable competitive advantage.”   One may wonder why such an alliance is required, because 3D printing technology now would appear… Continue reading 3D Systems Allies With Deloitte

3D Systems Completes Acquisition of Phenix

In June we reported that 3D Systems had struck a deal to acquire metal 3D printer manufacturer Phenix Systems. They’ve now announced that the deal has closed and Phenix and all their associated technology are now part of 3D Systems.    This continues 3D Systems’ habit of acquiring other 3D print-related companies. 3D Systems has… Continue reading 3D Systems Completes Acquisition of Phenix

i.Materialise Opens In Japan

3D print service i.Materialise has blossomed into a new location: Japan. They now offer their services in Japanese.    There’s a production change, too. The print service has long had operations in Belgium, its home base, but now can “partly” produce orders on the Japanese mainland.    Language and culture can be a significant barrier,… Continue reading i.Materialise Opens In Japan

Another 3D Printer Found in a Retail Store

First was MakerBot’s single retail store experiment in downtown NYC, then 3D Systems struck a deal with Staples to offer the Cube 3D printer in all Staples stores. Now we see another retail example: UK electronics retailer Maplin now carries a 3D printer kit, the Velleman K8200.    We’ll look at the Velleman another day,… Continue reading Another 3D Printer Found in a Retail Store

3D Systems Joins Planetary Resources

You may recall the announcement of Planetary Resources? They’re the futuristic company that intends on developing technology to capture asteroids and refine them for their mineral wealth. The company is backed by several notable entrepreneurs and explorers, including X-Prize founder Peter Diamandis and filmmaker James Cameron. Now they’ve added another major investor: 3D Systems.   … Continue reading 3D Systems Joins Planetary Resources

Skanect Under New Management

Skanect is now part of Occipital, Inc., according to an announcement by Skanect. Skanect produces one of the most powerful systems for capturing casual 3D scans with a Microsoft Kinect.    Occipital produces 360 degrees panoramas and related computer vision products, so acquiring Skanect seems like a logical extension of their existing business.    The… Continue reading Skanect Under New Management

How Will Stratasys and MakerBot Change?

After their acquisition of MakerBot, we’re expecting changes in StrataBot, or is it MakerSys? We’re just kidding; neither Stratasys nor MakerBot will change their name as a result of this week’s acquisition; there’s too much value associated with each brand. But what else will change?    The two companies have some similarities in technology –… Continue reading How Will Stratasys and MakerBot Change?

3D Systems Acquires Phenix Systems

3D Systems continues its acquisition run with the announcement they’ve agreed to take on Phenix Systems, a manufacturer of metal 3D printing devices.    France-based Phenix Systems uses the “Direct Metal Selective Laser Sintering” process, which uses high-powered lasers to fuse layers of metal powder into solid objects at very fine resolutions. The process is… Continue reading 3D Systems Acquires Phenix Systems

Amazon Is Selling 3D Printers

Surprise! Amazon is now selling 3D printers. The online retailing giant now offers a rather lengthy selection of 3D printer gear.    Included in Amazon’s extensive portfolio are:    FlashForge MakerBot Replicator 2 Afinia H-Series MBot Cube Airwolf FF3D JET Felix Robotics Fabbster  3D Systems Cube, RapMan and 3D Touch  LulzBot AO-101  BotMill Glide   … Continue reading Amazon Is Selling 3D Printers

Stratasys To Acquire MakerBot?

A report on TechCrunch proposes that MakerBot is in talks with Stratasys “regarding a possible acquisition”. The report says “persistent rumors of a sale or new funding have followed the company this year”.    The report also says MakerBot has been seeking investors with a goal to raise USD$25M by valuing the company at USD$300M. … Continue reading Stratasys To Acquire MakerBot?

MakerBot’s New Factory

As the rumors indicated, MakerBot has indeed opened up a brand new factory in a Brooklyn, New York neighborhood, close to MakerBot’s head office and original workshops.    The new factory’s massive 55,000 square feet will be used to build the company’s current products, the Replicator 2 and Replicator 2X, and we suspect future products… Continue reading MakerBot’s New Factory

Pirate3D Helps Africa

As if landing nearly half a million dollars in instant crowd funding isn’t sufficient, Pirate3D announced a significant charitable venture. They will provide 3D printing technology and training to “selected African institutions”.    The venture is within Pirate3D’s corporate social responsibility program and partners with Harvard’s Calestous Juma to promote sustainable development worldwide. Juma, Director… Continue reading Pirate3D Helps Africa

Pirate3D’s Buccaneer Sets Sail

Pirate3D released their incredibly inexpensive personal 3D printer for pre-orders last week and it seems to have been a massive success. Their Kickstarter fundraising goal was USD$100,000 – and it was met within mere minutes of the launch.    As of this writing, the project has raised well over USD$400,000, putting Pirate3D in the select… Continue reading Pirate3D’s Buccaneer Sets Sail

ExOne Stock Tumbles

The stock price of ExOne, makers of high-end commercial 3D printers specializing in sand and metal printing, took a 15% tumble yesterday – in sharp contrast to the few other 3D printing company stocks who continued to sail higher.    Why the tumble? Evidently ExOne missed analysts predictions for quarterly sales and per-share losses announced… Continue reading ExOne Stock Tumbles

Massive News: Staples To Sell The Cube

Truly spectacular news today: Staples, one of the leading office supply retailers in the USA announced it would begin selling 3D Systems’ entry level personal 3D printer, The Cube. This is quite simply the single largest 3D printer retail move to date by any 3D printer manufacturer.    The printer will be priced at USD$1299,… Continue reading Massive News: Staples To Sell The Cube

Shapeways Snaps Up $30M

Considering that Shapeways is located in New York City, it seems a little strange that they did not exhibit at the Inside 3D Printing expo last week. But they had a rather good excuse: they’ve raised another round of funding from their existing investors to the tune of USD$30M.    Shapeways Director of Marketing Carine… Continue reading Shapeways Snaps Up $30M

3D Printing Shop Founded in Beirut

In a first for the Middle East, a full-service 3D printing shop has been founded in the Mar Mikhael-Rmeil neighborhood of Beirut.   Founded in March by veteran French Architect Guillaume Crédoz, the 3D printing shop, named Rapid Manufactory, will offer design, modelling, scanning, prototyping and even investment casting and ceramic production services to anyone.… Continue reading 3D Printing Shop Founded in Beirut

MakerBot’s Growth

You may have seen their periodic and increasingly frequent solicitations for new employees. These have indeed added up and we now find that MakerBot’s staff exceeds 200 persons. This is vastly larger than almost all of the other personal 3D printer companies with the exception of the big commercial companies.    Along with their staff… Continue reading MakerBot’s Growth

iMakr Scores Solidoodle – But What About MakerBot?

As the April 30th opening date of the iMakr 3D print store nears, they’ve announced the store will carry the Solidoodle 3 personal 3D printer.    Solidoodle joins 3D System’s Cube line on iMakr’s shelves.    Curiously absent from the official announcement is MakerBot, whose Replicator 2 is perhaps the most well-known personal 3D printer… Continue reading iMakr Scores Solidoodle – But What About MakerBot?

VoxelJet Absorbs Global TCT

German 3D printer manufacturer VoxelJet has announced that as of April 1, 2013 it has taken over Global TCT, a full-service 3D printing operation based in the UK. Aside from 3D printing and scanning, Global TCT also offers reverse engineering and metal finishing services.   With the recent uptick in interest and investment in 3D… Continue reading VoxelJet Absorbs Global TCT

iMakr Adds Cubes

Call us not totally surprised, but the new iMakr 3D print store in London announced they’ve added the full Cubify line of 3D printers to their shelves.    A press release states they’re announcing the “imminent arrival of the Cube, CubeX and CubeX Trio 3D printers in iMakr Store”. The Cubify lineup addresses both casual… Continue reading iMakr Adds Cubes

New Stratasys Video

The new Stratasys, formed by the merging of the original Stratasys and Objet continues to blend their brands into a cohesive slate of products. They’ve released a video illustrating their several product lines complete with startling examples of the possibilities, like the 3D printed car and others.    This is a very slick presentation, which… Continue reading New Stratasys Video

ExOne Reports Results

3D printer manufacturer ExOne, one of the very few publicly traded 3D printer companies, announced the results of their fourth quarter 2012 operations. The results look promising – but it’s not all good news.     During the fourth quarter of 2012 the company received revenues of USD$12.7M, up 27% over the previous year. Some… Continue reading ExOne Reports Results

BFB Fades Away

One of 3D printing’s most venerable brands is set to disappear! Bits From Bytes, a.k.a. BFB, will no longer exist as a brand. According to their Facebook post:   On April 1, 2013 we will be discontinuing the 3D Touch and Rapman and integrating our website and social channels with 3D Systems. Both printers will… Continue reading BFB Fades Away

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Categorized as Corporate Tagged

Tinkercad Shuts Down

Oh woe. Tinkercad announced its pending demise, as the team developing it has been reassigned to another project.  Launched in 2011, Tinkercad became the premier tool for web-based 3D model development. It even included direct hookups to various 3D print services, creating a very easy path to 3D prints for casual designers. By the end… Continue reading Tinkercad Shuts Down

Companies to Explore the Next Generation Concepts for 3D Metal Printing Machinery

Sigma Labs Inc. announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Interactive Machines, Inc. (IMI) of Southwick, Massachusetts. The MOU sets forth the parties’ intent to explore the formation of a joint venture or other arrangement for the purpose of developing and commercializing next-generation 3D printing devices designed to produce an increased… Continue reading Companies to Explore the Next Generation Concepts for 3D Metal Printing Machinery

Stratasys-Objet Announces First Quarterly Results

We’ve long followed Stratasys’ publicly reported financial results, as it and 3D Systems tend to mirror public investor feelings about 3D printing. This quarter’s financial results are a little different because this is the first quarter where the “new” Stratasys includes recent acquisition, Objet.    So what happened? Plenty! Revenue is up 23% and income… Continue reading Stratasys-Objet Announces First Quarterly Results

Stratasys Reorganizes Its 3D Printer Lines

We’ve been patiently waiting for changes in Stratasys’ product lineup since they officially merged with Objet and now we’ve found out what they’re doing.    Stratasys arrived into the merger with two product lines: Dimension, which included smaller FDM machines such as the 1200es, uPrint and Mojo, and Fortus, which included large full-on production 3D… Continue reading Stratasys Reorganizes Its 3D Printer Lines

Someone NEEDS to Buy MakerBot?

We’re reading this article on Inside Monkey entitled, “Someone Needs to Buy MakerBot Already, Stratasys, Ltd. (SSYS)?” Ok. Really?    The premise of the piece is that one of 3D Systems, Stratasys or Amazon (!) should acquire MakerBot. Wait, let’s correct that, one of these mega-corps should have ALREADY acquired little MakerBot. The author is… Continue reading Someone NEEDS to Buy MakerBot?

3D Systems Splits!

3D printing giant 3D Systems announced plans to split their stock. In the scenario described, owners of 3D Systems stock will receive additional shares. For every two shares owned on February 15th, share owners will receive an additional share. It’s a three-for-two split.     Companies typically split their stock when the value grows significantly.… Continue reading 3D Systems Splits!

iRobot Moving Into 3D Printing?

A very detailed patent was recently issued to iRobot and Raytheon for a “Robot Fabricator”.    iRobot is well-known for their Roomba series of household cleaning ‘bots, but they’re also manufacturers of many commercial and military robots. Raytheon is a long-time high-tech industrial focusing on military and electronics markets. Together they bring a huge amount… Continue reading iRobot Moving Into 3D Printing?

ExOne Goes Public!

There are very few 3D printing companies that you can invest in. Most are privately held, with the major exceptions of 3D Systems and Stratasys – but now we hear that ExOne has “filed a registration statement for an initial public offering”. That means they intend on issuing shares to the public, pending various approvals… Continue reading ExOne Goes Public!

3D Systems Scoops Up Geomagic

This one is a big deal. Of the many acquisitions completed by 3D Systems, their announcement of the absorption of Geomagic is significant.    First the obvious: Geomagic produces a number of software tools for the 3D industry, including products to design 3D models, perform quality control, handling 3D scans and more. Their products are… Continue reading 3D Systems Scoops Up Geomagic

China 3D Printing Stocks Rising

According to a report on China Daily, the stock price of a number of Chinese 3D printing companies suddenly surged after a Chinese government official spoke of boosting the sector.    The unnamed official evidently said, “China is likely to draw a long-term route map for 3D printing technology to boost development for the emerging… Continue reading China 3D Printing Stocks Rising

Running Out of 3D Printing Companies to Invest In?

The big two stock-based 3D printing companies are of course, 3D Systems and Stratasys/Objet, now known as merely Stratasys. We’ve covered their massive stock price increases over the past few years and investors have been buying because of that rise.    It seems that investors now want even more. An article on Seeking Alpha investigates… Continue reading Running Out of 3D Printing Companies to Invest In?

LulzBot Sponsors Mars Expedition

We’re not sure what to make of this. Evidently Aleph Objects, Inc., the producers of the LulzBot personal 3D printer have announced their sponsorship of the Mars One initiative.    Ok, wait. What’s Mars One? It’s a Dutch-based project with the intention of sending a human expedition to the Planet Mars in 2023. No, really.… Continue reading LulzBot Sponsors Mars Expedition

Stratasys Completes Merger with Objet

After an overly long journey through regulations and legalities, two 3D printing industry giants Objet and Stratasys have completed their merger.    The new company, which will be among the largest in the industry, will be known as Stratasys, with dual headquarters in both Minnesota (former Stratasys HQ) and Israel (former Objet HQ).    The… Continue reading Stratasys Completes Merger with Objet

BREAKING: Staples to Use Mcor IRIS in Copy Centers

In a blockbuster announcement, Mcor, the makers of the IRIS color 3D printing system based on plain old paper, say they’ve struck a huge deal with print services giant Staples to supply 3D printing equipment for their numerous print and copy centers.    This will obviously take a while to implement, so Staples Printing Division… Continue reading BREAKING: Staples to Use Mcor IRIS in Copy Centers

3D Systems Gets Raided!

No, it’s not what you’re thinking; this raid was a “Bear Raid”. A “Bear Raid” is a stock trading scenario in which pundits attempt to artificially lower the price of a stock for their own profit.    It started last week when a couple of provocative articles appeared on Seeking Alpha, suggesting that 3D Systems’… Continue reading 3D Systems Gets Raided!

Formlabs Vs. 3D Systems

Even more 3D Systems news today! Perhaps this was inevitable, but 3D printing giant 3D Systems has filed lawsuits against Kickstarter-fueled Formlabs, who recently closed a USD$3M campaign to raise funds to produce their new resin-based personal 3D printer.   Resin-based 3D printing, also known as Stereolithography, was invented by 3D Systems’ founder, Chuck Hull… Continue reading Formlabs Vs. 3D Systems

Stratasys Reports 3Q12 Results

As one of the two publicly-traded major 3D printing companies, Stratasys’ financial results are always interesting to examine.    They’ve been on a tear in recent years, consistently setting new records for various financial statistics. This quarter seems no different: their revenue increased a massive 40% in 3Q12 from 3Q11, while units increased 52% to… Continue reading Stratasys Reports 3Q12 Results

3D Systems Announces Quarterly Results

As one of the two mega-3D publicly-held printing companies in existence today, 3D Systems is obligated to formally report on their finances periodically. We like view them as a kind of bellwether on the state of the 3D printing industry. So how did they do this quarter?   Apparently very well. Their revenue increased a… Continue reading 3D Systems Announces Quarterly Results

Shapeways to Open NY Factory

Popular consumer-focused 3D print service is expanding! In New York, specifically Long Island, they’re spending USD$28M to set up a 25,000sf, 50-person facility that Shapeways calls, “The Factory of The Future”.    The facility is expected to hold some 30-50 advanced 3D printers as well as providing a physical space for maker community innovation. The… Continue reading Shapeways to Open NY Factory

Millions To Form 1

We’ve all heard about the success of Formlab’s incredible fundraising success on the launch of their new Form 1 resin-based 3D printer, but how well did they do?    Their Kickstarter campaign has officially closed today and the results are beyond startling:  They’ve raised exactly USD$2,945,885 They’ve received orders for 1,028 Form 1 machines by… Continue reading Millions To Form 1

UK to Invest an Additional £7 million in A.M.

On the heels of a story we reported last week, the Technology Strategy Board, an advisory group to the UK’s Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, has announced it will invest £7 million to help spur innovation in additive manufacturing.   MP David Willet’s had this to say about the program, “3D printing technologies offer… Continue reading UK to Invest an Additional £7 million in A.M.

MakerBot Expands Retail Presence in Europe

Shortly after opening its own dedicated retail shop in New York, MakerBot announced it’s pursuing retail arrangements in France. They’ve partnered with le FabShop to resell all current MakerBot products, including their most recent device, the Replicator 2.    Le FabShop, a French makerspace based in Brittany, does not have a physical retail store, but… Continue reading MakerBot Expands Retail Presence in Europe

Rapidform Joins 3D Systems

In yet another acquisition, 3D Systems has acquired 3D software maker Rapidform.    Rapidform is well known in the 3D industry and provides reverse-engineering software. That means their software accepts a 3D scan and then transforms it into a usable, parametric CAD model. In practice it isn’t totally magic and produce the CAD model at… Continue reading Rapidform Joins 3D Systems

The Craziness of 3D Printing Stocks

As we’re now in the “Peak of Inflated Expectations” of 3D printing, according to Gartner, the stock market is taking a very close look at publicly available stocks for 3D printing companies.    Needless to say, the prices of the two publicly traded 3D printing companies, 3D Systems and Stratasys, have been exhibiting some unusual… Continue reading The Craziness of 3D Printing Stocks

Bre’s Not A Bad Guy

One has to sympathize with Bre Pettis, CEO of MakerBot. While he’s had huge successes in the past few years, most recently by announcing the professional-targeted Replicator 2, he’s also caught some flack from the open source community.    As we explained the other week, some members of the open source community are upset because… Continue reading Bre’s Not A Bad Guy