Production of Formlabs Form 1 3D Printer to Start Soon

If you’re a fan of the 3D printing technology that is starting to get traction, you will love to hear that Formlabs finally got their new 3D printer, the Form 1, into production. The reason why this model is so important is because it brings something new to the table, something that most 3D printers don’t offer their users right now. The majority of the 3D printers that are offered right now will use extrusion technology to create objects, which involves the melting of the plastic and then laying it down, creating layers one by one and ending up with a 3D object. The different feature of Form 1 is the technology used, which is called stereolithography, where liquid resin is cured into tiny, microscopic sized layers. Since the layers are so thin, the precision that can be obtained with this 3D printer is much better than what the other models available on the market can achieve.

You can understand why this printer is so highly regarded by 3D printing fans and why the crowdfunding campaign that took place on Kickstarter in 2012 was so successful. They initially tried to get $100,000 from their backers, but the actual sum they managed to raise was $3 million.

Formlabs-Form-1The announcement that the Form 1 printer is starting to be produced came from the official blog of the company, where the operations manager of Formlabs said that the production lines are being readied and as soon as all the components are there they will get started with the production.

Once they have the initial batch of 3D printers done, they will test them rigorously to make sure the production went as planned. Formlabs claims that the backers of the crowdfunding campaign will get their printers by April the latest and that the pre-orders that are made these days will be shipped in May.

Form 1 will set you back $3,300 and in the package you will get not only the 3D printer, but also the software required to use it and a post-processing kit. The kit for post-processing work includes the finishing tray where the components are held, the water bath, the rinsing solution, tongs, scraper to get the extra material out and a drip through.

While it might not seem like a cheap 3D printer, when you consider the amount of detail it can give you, the cost is worth paying and it’s really not that much when you consider the small production numbers that are involved.

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