3D printing has now got its entire own section at CES 2014 and from a quick walk through you can see why. There were numerous manufacturers but the two that stood out most were “The Sugar Lab” who are 3D printing food from sugar and MakerBot who seem to be completely owning the market at the moment.
MakerBot are not only focusing on the printing side but how and you go about getting stuff to print. Their 3D Digitiser enables you to place objects onto the turntable and after two short (rather long) rotations you have a 3D digital file that can be sent to the printer via a wireless connection !!!
The MakerBot Replicator Mini in action with an iPad that is being used to tweak a recently uploaded design.
There are a host of other printing companies there too including Sculpteo, you don’t need to actually have a printer, they provide the printing service to you, simply upload your 3D file and they will print and send the finished product to you. You can see more about their services here – http://www.sculpteo.com
One thing was very clear from the show, prices for these machines are going to fall. The competition to MakerBot is fierce and they will simply not be able to charge 4 X the price of everyone else for very long. The DaVinci v1.0 for example comes in at $499 and is just as impressive.
More images from the 3D Stand
How nice is the Guitar and Drum set?
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Michael is a Technology & Digital Consultant to the Real Estate, Property, Travel and Tourism industies with over 13 Years of leading Technical teams & Programme Management. He has worked with agencies in multiple countries and cities from the UK, New York, Russia, France, Dubai to Australia and South Africa. In his spare time he is a commercial drone pilot that dabbles with Photography & Videography.
