XYZprinting’s Shotgun Approach To 3D Printing

By on January 13th, 2016 in printer

Tags: , , ,

At CES this year XYZprinting had one of the larger booths, and why not? They announced more machines than we could count! 

The company has grown significantly in the 3D printing market since their first appearance only two short years ago. At that time, parent company New Kinpo Group of Taiwan decided to direct some of their USD$30B in revenues towards development of a line of 3D printers, and wow, did they ever succeed! 

Starting with a small set of ultra-low cost desktop units, the company has now expanded into practically every type of 3D printer they’re legally allowed to market. 

Describing all of these systems would be a long exercise, so instead we’re providing you with a fly-past of their latest equipment. 

The Da Vinci Mini is a new unit that could be the lowest cost plastic extrusion unit we’ve yet seen at a mere USD$269. We’re told this unit will be the focus for the company this year, as it hopes to grow its leading position in desktop 3D printer units shipped. 

Here you can see some print samples from the Mini; they’re not bad at all! 

The Da Vinci Pro 1.0 3in1 offers scanning and printing capability in a single box. 

The Da Vinci Pro 1.0 is able to print different materials with high quality.

It’s also considered “open source”, permitting use of generic materials as seen in this image. 

The Da Vinci Jr. 2.0 Mix is a curious machine that can use two filaments at the same time. They’re “mixed” in the extruder to create weirdly colored objects, layer by layer. 

The Da Vinci Jr. 1.0 3in1 is a lower cost unit that provides multiple functions, including 3D scanning. 

XYZprinting now offers a 3D printing pen, priced at the very low cost of USD$49. Here we see some sample “prints” from the pen. 

The Nobel 1.0A is a resin-based 3D printer that’s not yet available. 

Output from the Nobel is extremely good, as you can see here. 

You’ll need to add the separate curing unit to complete prints on the Nobel, however. 

Although only in certain regions, the company apparently offers a 3D Food Printer for USD$2,499. It’s a large unit that seems to work, or at least we observed people looking hungrily at the prints. 

A large unit billed as the “3D Jet” was seen on the floor. It’s not yet available, but it was described as an “industrial powder binder jet”, presumably similar to 3D Systems’ ProJet technology. 

They’ve also showed the massive 3PP0A, an industrial resin-based unit. It’s not available yet, either. 

Whew! We’re pretty sure we’ve missed some of the machines they displayed at CES this year, simply because they have so many. 

Our thoughts on this lineup is that XYZprinting seems to be using the “shotgun” approach, in which they are essentially trying to build everything for everybody, everywhere. This style can be successful, but can only be attempted by the well-funded, of which XYZprinting surely is. 

We do have one suggestion for XYZprinting: please reconsider your product naming strategy. While it seemed to work when only a few products were offered, it now seems quite confusing and it is increasingly difficult to distinguish the different models. 

Via XYZprinting

By Kerry Stevenson

Kerry Stevenson, aka "General Fabb" has written over 8,000 stories on 3D printing at Fabbaloo since he launched the venture in 2007, with an intention to promote and grow the incredible technology of 3D printing across the world. So far, it seems to be working!