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Creality celebrated their tenth anniversary this week, something few desktop 3D printer manufacturers have been able to achieve.
The desktop 3D printer market has been incredibly competitive since it began way back in 2009. Only a few years later in 2014, Creality launched in Shenzhen, where they manufactured their first desktop 3D printers.
At that point in 3D printing history, 3D printers were quite rudimentary compared to today’s equipment. Creality hit the jackpot with the release of their CR-10, which was one of the first Asian-manufactured desktop 3D printers to catch on in the west. The CR-10 produced (at the time) good quality output, was more reliable than competing machines, and was available at low cost. That’s always a winning formula, and I think Creality took the lesson well and continued with that approach in subsequent machines.
They later introduced the Ender-3 3D printer, which became one of the most popular 3D printers ever, and they still produce advanced version of it today.
Ten years on, Creality is seen as one of the leading companies in 3D printing, and not only in just the desktop market. They produce a huge proportion of the devices manufactured each year, and regularly release new and improved versions of their equipment.
On their anniversary the company held a large event at their headquarters, attended by 300 people.
The company renewed their branding strategy earlier this year, with a new logo. But that wasn’t all: this chart shows their new brand messaging strategy.
As you can see, their strategy is based on the maker concept, and provides for the key values that we typically see in Creality products:
- Usable
- Smart
- Affordable
- Versatile
- Enjoyable
The event also concluded several engagement events with their community, such as the “Museum Invasion”. This initiative involved showcased over 200 3D models in museums worldwide. The Museum Invasion was billed as “Season 1”, suggesting Creality will run the program again next year.
Unsurprisingly, Creality took the anniversary opportunity to launch several new products. They announce new products every few months, so an anniversary product announcement is perfectly natural.
The new products covered quite a range of functionality. Let’s take a look at what was announced.
The big announcement was the new K2 Plus 3D printer, which not only significantly improves performance and quality, but now includes an optional four-spool filament switching attachment, the “Creality Filament System”. We wrote about the K2 Plus earlier this week.
Creality surprisingly improved their just-released Ender-3 V3 with unique CoreXZ technology with the Ender-3 V3 Plus. The Plus version inherits all of the original Ender-3 V3’s features, such as the quick-swap hardened nozzle, 4.3” touch screen, high speed printing, advanced cooling design, etc., but combines them with a much larger build volume: 300 x 300 x 350 mm.
A new resin 3D printer was included in the announcement: the HALOT-Mage S 14K provides for high quality prints with its massive 14K mono LCD light engine. This machine can print objects at the rapid rate of 150mm per hour, and includes onboard air filtration.
Did you know that Creality manufacturers products other than 3D printers? They’ve offered a line of laser cutters for a couple of years now, and they just announced a new model, the Creality Falcon2 Pro 60W. This fully enclosed laser cutter is quite powerful. If you’re not familiar, a 60W power laser is easily able to cut through thick wood, making it extremely capable.
Two 3D scanners were also announced, the CR-Scan Otter and the CR-Scan Raptor. The Raptor is designed for industrial use for metrology applications, while the Otter is a more general use device. Both seem to have a number of advanced features one would not have seen in low cost 3D scanners years ago.
Creality expanded their 3D print materials offering, and now boasts of 50 different colors for their filament lines. This year they also introduced an RFID identification for spools, which should be very useful with the new Creality Filament System.
As always, Creality offers these products along with their existing product lines at both their online store and at Amazon.
US Online Store
EU Online Store
DE Online Store
UK Online Store
AU Online Store
CA Online Store
JP Online Store
Creality on Amazon
