A new bioprinting startup suddenly appeared: Modern Meadow, courtesy of a small investment by Internet billionaire Peter Thiel. It’s goal is to develop lab-grown “food grade animal protein”, also known as “meat”. The idea is to produce the protein without the massive environmental cost of actual cows, pigs and other meat-laden critters. Their one-line pitch… Continue reading Modern Meadow’s Meats’ Organovo Roots
Corporate
3D Systems Announces 2Q2012 Results
3D printing giant 3D Systems has announced their financial results for the second quarter of 2012, and it appears they’re doing just fine. Compared to this quarter last year, their revenues are up a huge 52%, growing to USD$83.6 million. Evidently all their businesses report growth in this quarter, indicating a very strong operation.… Continue reading 3D Systems Announces 2Q2012 Results
What’s Down With Organovo?
A few short weeks ago we wrote a piece entitled, “What’s With Organovo?”, in which we pondered why the stock price of this bioprinting startup soared beyond belief. It seemed at the time there was no reasonable explanation for the stock price’s stratospheric behavior. This week the answer has appeared: there really was no… Continue reading What’s Down With Organovo?
Global 3D Printing Market to Reach $2.99 Billion by 2018
According to a new report by Global Industry Analysts, Inc. (GIA), the global market for 3D printing is projected to reach US$2.99 billion by the year 2018, driven by the advent of newer technologies, approaches and applications. Expanding use of the technology in manufacturing final products, declining cost of printers and increasing use of 3D… Continue reading Global 3D Printing Market to Reach $2.99 Billion by 2018
HP and Stratasys Divorce
Somehow this wasn’t a complete surprise, as we’d been hearing rumors of difficulties in the relationship between IT Giant HP and 3D Printing leader Stratasys. Now it’s come to a close, with Stratasys announcing that the two companies have “have agreed to discontinue their manufacturing and distribution agreement for 3D printers, effective at the end… Continue reading HP and Stratasys Divorce
3D Printing in the USA
It’s interesting to read about 3D printing, but sometimes it’s just a whole lot better to visualize things. That’s precisely what 3DP blogger Nadra Angerman did when she produced this fascinating infographic that attempts to show many of the 3D printing establishments across the USA. Check out the full infographic at the link below. … Continue reading 3D Printing in the USA
The Phenix vs. EOS Patent War Heats Up
We’ve been advised that Phenix Systems has filed a lawsuit against 3D printer manufacturer EOS. This is more than likely in response to EOS’s filing of a lawsuit against Phenix Systems for alleged patent violation. The new lawsuit from Phenix alleges that EOS has violated United States patent number 6,767,499 (Fast Prototyping Method by… Continue reading The Phenix vs. EOS Patent War Heats Up
What’s With Organovo?
You may recall Organovo? They’re a bioprinting startup that is attempting to 3D print a variety of biological tissues, including Actual Human Organs! They say: Organovo’s powerful NovoGen Bioprinting platform creates human tissues starting with any cell source. From disease models to tissue creation, bioprinting solves urged needs in biological research. Their goal… Continue reading What’s With Organovo?
HP To Make 3DP Acquisition?
Once in a while we hear mysterious rumors about 2D printing giant Hewlett Packard buying out Stratasys. Now we’re reading about such a possibility in Seeking Alpha. Seeking Alpha proposes that HP may be “missing out” on the new wave of printing: 3D printing. While they’re experts at 2D printing, they have yet to… Continue reading HP To Make 3DP Acquisition?
EOS Teams Up For Metal 3D Printing
3D printer manufacturer EOS has signed an agreement with Cookson Precious Metals to jointly develop a variety of applications related to metal 3D printing. According to the press release, “Under this agreement, both companies will introduce and further develop precious metal-based applications to the jewelry and watch industry”. But what does this mean, exactly?… Continue reading EOS Teams Up For Metal 3D Printing
3D Systems Picks Up Bespoke
You may recall Bespoke Innovations, a company dedicated to using 3D printing to produce personalized replacement limbs. The method is to use 3D scanning to prepare a digital model of a remaining limb, then 3D print a mirror image of the model, approximating the original missing limb. Panels are prepared in the correct shape and… Continue reading 3D Systems Picks Up Bespoke
MakerBot Relocates, Expands
MakerBot has evidently outgrown its current BotFarm location on Dean St. in Brooklyn, NY and has acquired new office space to expand its rapidly growing operations. Now with a staff of 125, the company has grown significantly since 2009 when its three founders were the only employees. Originated in the tiny “BotCave”, they expanded… Continue reading MakerBot Relocates, Expands
3D Systems Picks Up FreshFiber
In yet another acquisition, 3D Systems has acquired FreshFiber BV, a maker of some very cool mobile phone covers – all using 3D printing techniques. Their tagline: “3D Designed, personal cases for your phone”. The Dutch company made headlines earlier when it became one of the first big-time 3D printed products to make product… Continue reading 3D Systems Picks Up FreshFiber
Phenix Systems Defends Its Position
You may recall our post the other week regarding a lawsuit filed by 3D printer manufacturer EOS against Phenix Systems. We were contacted by a representative from Phenix with an official statement countering EOS’ claims. The statement reads: Phenix Systems, is aware that EOS has filed a lawsuit alleging patent infringement, although EOS… Continue reading Phenix Systems Defends Its Position
Google Sells SketchUp!
Big news! Google has sold off the hugely popular SketchUp 3D modeling tool to Trimble. Wait, who are Trimble, exactly? They’re a “leading provider of advanced location-based solutions that maximize productivity and enhance profitability”. In other words, they leverage GPS and other location tech to develop point products for quite a few different industries. … Continue reading Google Sells SketchUp!
EOS Files 3D Printing Patent Infringement Lawsuit
Oh oh – we’re now seeing major lawsuits flying in the 3D printing industry for perhaps the first time. EOS, the Munich-based manufacturer of laser sintering 3D printing gear, has filed suits against Phenix Systems of France. Apparently this scenario began when Phenix produced their PXL, PXM, PXS and PXS Dental 3D printers, all… Continue reading EOS Files 3D Printing Patent Infringement Lawsuit
3D Systems Added to S&P SmallCap 600 Index
Standard and Poors have added 3D Systems to their SmallCap 600 index. The index is a basket of (surprise) 600 companies whose aggregated stock prices offer insight into medium-sized company performance. 3D Systems was able to be added after one of the existing companies, Taleo, was acquired by Oracle (making it definitely not a Small… Continue reading 3D Systems Added to S&P SmallCap 600 Index
Massive News: Objet and Stratasys Merge
Stratasys announced they’ve merged with the largest remaining large commercial 3D printer manufacturer, Objet of Israel, creating the now-largest 3D printing company with a market capitalization of USD$1.4B. The newly merged company was created by merging stock such that Stratasys shareholders will own 55 percent and Objet shareholders 45 percent. The new company retains… Continue reading Massive News: Objet and Stratasys Merge
3D Systems Picks Up Robots, And More
Industry giant 3D Systems has made another acquisition, and this one appears to be a little different than previous purchases. They’ve acquired specialty 3D print service MyRobotNation, whom we’ve written about in the past. MyRobotNation’s specialty is, well, robots. Personalized robots. The service provides users with a very easy to use (and fun) interface… Continue reading 3D Systems Picks Up Robots, And More
Open3DP is Now Open3DP
The busy folks at the University of Washington’s Solheim Additive Manufacturing Laboratory in their Mechanical Engineering Department have opened up again. Opened up? That’s right, they were “intellectual property” closed for several weeks as their legal department imposed a rather crushing IP regime upon them. However, they’ve managed to overcome this by convincing their… Continue reading Open3DP is Now Open3DP
Open3DP is Now Open3DP
The busy folks at the University of Washington’s Solheim Additive Manufacturing Laboratory in the Mechanical Engineering Department have opened up again. Opened up? That’s right, they were “intellectual property” closed for several weeks as their legal department imposed a rather crushing IP regime upon them. However, they’ve managed to overcome this by convincing their… Continue reading Open3DP is Now Open3DP
RMIT’s AMP Needs a TC
So many acronyms! Let’s translate the headline for you: the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology’s RMIT University’s Advanced Manufacturing Precinct (AMP) is looking to hire a new Technical Coordinator. Why do we find this posting of interest? Because: RMIT University’s Advanced Manufacturing Precinct (AMP) facility brings together research, design and advanced manufacturing in… Continue reading RMIT’s AMP Needs a TC
3D Systems’ 2011 Financial Results
3D Printing industry leader 3D Systems recently announced their year-end financial results for 2011. We wondered how the incorporation of their many newly acquired companies affected their results. Overall it seems that the acquisitions have assisted 3D Systems in raising their results. Here’s the highlights as we saw them: Full year revenue increased… Continue reading 3D Systems’ 2011 Financial Results
3D Printing Muscles
Organovo, the 3D Bioprinting startup, announced they’ve received USD$6.5M in a private placement investment to bolster their research budget. Organovo has been working on the problem of 3D printing live human tissue – but not with the intention of surgically inserting said tissue into live humans. No, instead they wish to create live human… Continue reading 3D Printing Muscles
Thingiverse Terms Changed
3D Model download site Thingiverse has made a dramatic change in its licensing terms. As most startups tend to do, the initial version of legal terms are typically cobbled together from other sources. MakerBot Chief Bre Pettis writes: I went and looked at Blip.tv’s and Etsy’s and Youtube’s and I basically copied them and… Continue reading Thingiverse Terms Changed
Open3DP Goes Closed3DP?
The folks at the University of Washington who’ve been doing stellar work researching 3D printing in concrete, ceramics, glass and other unusual materials have gone dark, so to speak. It appears that the suits at their university have issued new rules regarding participation with outside groups. Specifically, they say: it has become increasingly… Continue reading Open3DP Goes Closed3DP?
BotMill Improves Service
BotMill is one of many companies producing RepRap-based 3D printers, and perhaps it’s one of the largest. In the past our posts on BotMill have sometimes been met with negative comments regarding their service and this negativity appeared in other forums as well. We’re not certain whether the negative comments are true or false,… Continue reading BotMill Improves Service
MakerBot Reaches Retail
New York City-based retailer AC Gears now sells MakerBot’s Thing-O-Matic personal 3D printer, in another step by growing Brooklyn-based manufacturer MakerBot’s strategy to get more MakerBots in the hands of more people. AC Gears is “New York’s Gadget Emporium”, selling a quite amazing selection of cool stuff such as a Breath Tester, LED lantern… Continue reading MakerBot Reaches Retail
T-Splines Eaten by Autodesk
If you use Rhino3D or Solidworks for preparing your 3D models you might have heard of T-Splines. It’s a special plug-in that permits easy creation of organic shapes and thus greatly extends the usefulness of Rhino3D and Solidworks, at least for some designers. But that may change abruptly. The other week 3D software giant Autodesk… Continue reading T-Splines Eaten by Autodesk
Dozens of MakerBot Jobs!
Popular 3D printer manufacturer MakerBot is hiring. And boy, are they ever! A recent check of their jobs list revealed a startling number of required positions in wildly different roles. It’s almost as if MakerBot suddenly gained a ton of money and started recruiting for every job they felt they needed. But then, that’s exactly… Continue reading Dozens of MakerBot Jobs!
A Tour of Buildatron
PC Magazine took a tour of a Brooklyn, NY-based 3D printer manufacturer, and it wasn’t MakerBot. It was Buildatron, an up and coming personal 3D printer operation whose signature feature is a stunning metal case. What did they find? They found a tiny manufacturing space, likely very similar to most other personal 3D printer… Continue reading A Tour of Buildatron
Printrbot Hits The Jackpot
Projects appearing on the Kickstarter public venture funding service sometimes surprise everyone with their success, but Printrbot’s results seem to make all others look bad. Their concept for a personal 3D printer was presented on Kickstarter in hopes of raising enough cash to produce a number of units and launch their business. But get this… Continue reading Printrbot Hits The Jackpot
Stratasys Drifting Away from HP?
In early 2010 big-time 3D printer manufacturer Stratasys signed an agreement with even-bigger-time 2D printer manufacturer HP to market 3D printers. The deal involved Stratasys producing HP-labeled printers that would be marketed through HP’s massive reseller networks. They started sales in Europe later that year. Now we see this arrangement may not be proceeding as… Continue reading Stratasys Drifting Away from HP?
3D Systems For Investors
We managed to get a peek at a 3D Systems investors presentation. This is a rather large slide deck with plenty of investor-related data as most investor presentations tend to be, but there were also lots of very interesting statistics and information. We read through the entire piece and found the interesting tidbits for Fabbaloo… Continue reading 3D Systems For Investors
MakerBot’s Christmas Strategy
Retailers must plan around the holiday season. In fact, for some retailers that season is the “make or break” portion of the year’s revenue. Like any good retailer, MakerBot is doing the same by offering their 3D printers at a number of New York City shops, including AC Gears, Wired, GizModo Gallery and the New… Continue reading MakerBot’s Christmas Strategy
Massive News: 3D Systems Acquires ZCorp!
In an almost unbelievable announcement today, 3D Systems has apparently acquired ZCorp, one of their major competitors. In addition to ZCorp, 3D Systems also picked up Vidar, a leading manufacturer of medical film digitizers. The cost of these two simultaneous acquisitions puts a USD$137M dent into 3D Systems’ wallet, which will be refilled by a… Continue reading Massive News: 3D Systems Acquires ZCorp!
Tinkercad Gets Funding
First it was MakerBot with a USD$10M injection, and now it’s Tinkercad, that friendly online 3D modeling service that practically anyone can use. They’ve just received a boost of USD$1M from True Ventures with angel investment from Eghosa Omoigui, Taher Haveliwala, Jyri Engestrom, and Joshua Schachter. This is huge news for the small startup… Continue reading Tinkercad Gets Funding
Investing in 3D Printing?
You’ve been reading many articles about 3D printing, or perhaps you’ve seen one. You think (like us) that 3D printing is going to be a Big Thing one day. You want a piece of the action. But how do you do that? Normally you’d select one or more likely companies and simply buy their… Continue reading Investing in 3D Printing?
DesktopFab Partners with 3D Systems
Some time ago we wrote about a small Texas-based operation called DesktopFab that resold PP3DP’s Up! personal 3D printers in the USA. We hadn’t heard much from them for quite some time. And then suddenly… They issued a press release describing their new partnership with 3D Systems. No longer are they selling PP3DP’s in… Continue reading DesktopFab Partners with 3D Systems
3D Systems Acquires Huntsman Technology
3D Systems continued its acquisition strategy this week by picking up not a company but a technology. They’ve recently been acquiring whole companies related to 3D printing, but this one is slightly different: they’ve purchased what appears to be the USD$7M/yr revenue rapid prototyping arm of Huntsman, a very large chemical conglomerate. The specifics… Continue reading 3D Systems Acquires Huntsman Technology
MAKE Talks with Bre
There’s a very long interview with MakerBot Chief Bre Pettis in MAKE magazine that we encourage you to read. We went through it looking for clues to MakerBot’s future plans, especially after their recent gigantic infusion of an astonishing USD$10M from investors. Here’s what we noticed: Bre is still very pumped about MakerBot as… Continue reading MAKE Talks with Bre
Stratasys Expands
3D printing industry giant Stratasys has been spending some money lately – on a new 90,000 sq. ft production facility in Minnesota. The new facility, which is actually a refit of an existing building in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, actually doubles their capacity for building their line of 3D printers. Evidently Stratasys believes there’s a… Continue reading Stratasys Expands
3D Systems Acquires Kemo
Mark down another acquisition for 3D Systems, who this week announced they’ve picked up Belgian 3D print service Kemo B.V. Modelmaker. This Belgian firm adds to the significant number of 3D print services now under the vast 3D Systems umbrella. Kemo focuses on on-demand custom parts for industry, similar to other services that 3D Systems… Continue reading 3D Systems Acquires Kemo
Free 3D Printers!
We wrote about a mysterious program from MCOR in which they hinted they’d be giving away 3D printers at no charge. Certainly this deserves some investigation, and it turns out it’s actually true! MCOR now no longer sells their paper-fuelled 3D printers. Instead they simply give them away! But there’s a catch, of course.… Continue reading Free 3D Printers!
Bullish Outlook for 3D Printing
Financial analyst Andrea James of Dougherty & Co. recently upgraded their recommendations for Stratasys from “hold” to “buy”, predicting that stock could hit as much as $28 from its current $20ish level. She also predicts a 15% compound growth in 3D printing for at least five years. Um, if our math s correct, 15% compounded… Continue reading Bullish Outlook for 3D Printing
3D Systems Acquires Formero
Continuing their sweep across the world acquiring 3D print services, 3D Systems has now absorbed Formero, and Australian 3D print service. Formero focuses on the Asia-Pacific market from their Melbourne base of operations. With this acquisition 3D Systems now has stretched its global reach quite a bit farther, at least in terms of 3D… Continue reading 3D Systems Acquires Formero
MCOR Gets a New Chair
MCOR, makers of the very unusual paper-based 3D printer, have announced they’ve appointed a new chair of their board of directors. The Irish-born Ryan has had a very long career in California in the electronics industry and now acts as an industry advisor for start-up companies – and now will provide advice and guidance to… Continue reading MCOR Gets a New Chair
3D Systems Acquires … Jim!
Jim Smith of Grass Roots Engineering has been working on 3D printing technology for quite a while, building such amazing machines as shown in the image at left. But now he’s made a big announcement: Since I started this website in December 2010, it has received a lot of attention, especially from my NPR… Continue reading 3D Systems Acquires … Jim!
MakerBot Is Hiring (Again)
MakerBot, that Brooklyn, NY-based 3D printing startup that always seems to be in the news is hiring again. We noticed a post recently in which they are trying to recruit yet another worker bee, this time a Customer Support Tech: You’ll be responsible for eloquently representing a growing DIY 3D printer and technology company… Continue reading MakerBot Is Hiring (Again)
MakerBot’s $10M Challenge
MakerBot chief Bre Pettis made a very big announcement yesterday: They’re taking in the staggering amount of USD$10M in a special investment round! The sixteen listed investors, led by Foundry Group, obviously have huge confidence in MakerBot’s future. MakerBot has come a very long way from their modest start in early 2009, growing to… Continue reading MakerBot’s $10M Challenge
More on the 3D Systems’ BotMill Acquisition
We were a tiny bit surprised last week when we learned that up and coming 3D printer manufacturer and marketer BotMill was snapped up by industry giant 3D Systems. At the time there was not a lot of information available about this move, so we contacted 3D Systems VP of Global Marketing to clarify the… Continue reading More on the 3D Systems’ BotMill Acquisition
BotMill Acquired by 3D Systems
Buzz on the interwebs last night indicated another 3D Systems acquisition has taken place. This time they’ve scooped up Florida-based hobby 3D printer manufacturer BotMill. While there doesn’t seem to be an official announcement or press release on this event yet, there is a very telling indication from the graphic on BotMill’s site, as… Continue reading BotMill Acquired by 3D Systems
Autodesk Acquires Instructables
3D software giant Autodesk, makers of Maya, Revit, 3DS Max and AutoCAD announced they’ve acquired Instructables. Instructables provides do-it-yourself instructions for a wide variety of projects, some of which involve 3D printing. Instructables chief Eric J. Wilhelm says: Autodesk gives us the scale and support to grow and improve Instructables, build some great apps, and… Continue reading Autodesk Acquires Instructables
3D Systems Catches Alibre
Big announcement from 3D Systems this morning: They’ve acquired CAD/CAM software manufacturer Alibre. Alibre current markets several versions of their 3D modeling software for pro’s and hobbyists, as well as reselling several of 3D System’s 3D printers as software/hardware bundles – so obviously there was a strong existing relationship between the two parties. … Continue reading 3D Systems Catches Alibre