Formlabs’ new Form Now service seems to be active.
The company had hinted at this development a while ago, but now I see that the service is live and running. What is it? It’s Formlabs’ in-house service bureau, ready to accept 3D models and print them for you on their own equipment. The company bills the services as “Professional, Low-Cost 3D Printed Parts in 2 Days”.
Like many modern 3D print services, there are only three steps: upload the 3D model you’d like to have printed; select the material to be used and the finishing required; parts are shipped to you.
Formlabs states a delivery time of five days or less, particularly if you are near their Massachusetts HQ. In fact, they say parts could arrive “as soon as 3 days”.
However, as of this time, they are only offering services within the US, so if you’re elsewhere, you are not eligible to use Form Now. At least not yet.
There are some advantages in using a service of this type.
For example, if you normally print with other 3D print processes and don’t want to set up resin equipment and workflow for a single job, it’s best to have someone else do it for you.
Another advantage is that the equipment in this case will be Formlabs gear operated by Formlabs staff. They, more than any other operators, will know how best to run the equipment and get the best results.
Finally, Form Now offers at least 15 different materials to choose from. All of them are from the company’s broad portfolio of resins, and they cover all kinds of use cases. Flexible, detailed, durable, heat resistant, lightweight, and more are all properties of some of the materials available. Using Form Now means you would use only the resin needed for the job and not end up with leftover resin.
Pricing for parts printed by Form Now seems reasonable. For example, a ski goggle frame would cost US$29.
Launching a print service is a logical move for Formlabs. They are quite a large company now, and certainly will have plenty of machines ready to perform this work, along with staff to do so. They don’t say, but it’s a good bet that they are using a number of their previously announced automation features to lower operational costs of Form Now. This should mean they would require minimal staff to run the service.
As this is the company’s first official print service, there’s likely a bit of experimentation underway. They’re no doubt going to examine the business aspects closely and do some tuning. But once perfected, it could then be reasonable to expand the service into other regions beyond the US.
Via Form Now
