MakerBot Enables You to Make Something
By Azam on October 7, 2011
MakerBot’s Thing-O-Matic ‘prints’ in 3D by building up layers of plastic. Photograph: David Neff
MakerBot is a revolutionary 3D printing machine that allows users to design physical products. MakeBot is making 3D printing and design affordable and will unleash the creative force of many for new an innovative products. Previously, 3D printing was primarily a tool of large scale industrial design: aerospace, auto, consumer white goods, electronics, etc. Makerbot changes the dynamics of design and opens up the opportunity to many. Makerbot will allow designs to be quickly prototype and perfected for production.
Maketbot is becoming a widely used tool for the Makers Fair. Makers Fair is a convention of designer that make things both conventional and unconventional. The future will evolve in to larger communities or individuals independently making designs of products that maybe useful to some or to many. A marketplace will likely develop to develop products and sell designs.
3D went mainstream, from big-budget movies to the latest 3D cameras, camcorders and TVs. MakerBot goes one better by offering three tangible dimensions, created with their Meccanoesque kits. The first model, the Cupcake CNC, sells for $649 and the newer Thing-O-Matic for $1,225.
“We’re not engineers – we’re tinkerers,” says, explaining that MakerBot’s background in tinkering means a preoccupation with finding parts as cheaply as possibly, so much of the DIY kit is off the shelf. “If we were engineers, this thing would cost 100 times as much. But our goal is to democratise manufacturing so anyone can have a machine that makes anything they need. We want to render consumerism useless – and that doesn’t work if the machine isn’t cheap.”
Shapeways is a online marketplace for 3D printing objects. Shapeways, based in the Netherlands, delivers the molded models, which can be sculpted from plastic, nylon or metals, within 10 days. The creator pays no fees to sell the printed models, which generally cost between $50 and $150.
This is one of several ways people can create and purchase 3-D products through Shapeways. The website allows for the creation of specific items, such as styluses and cufflinks, and in March began offering a way to convert photos into 3-D artwork.
MakerBot is essentially creating a new platform for designers to make things. This is going to democratize design of physical production and expand the market for designed products. Manufacturing Industry has just got a boost from Brooklyn based MakerBot.
Tags : 3D printing, Bre Pettis, Maker Faire, MakerBot, Shapeways, Thing-O-Matic