Personal 3-D printers are getting more powerful and more advanced every
year. The latest models, on display last weekend at New York’s annual Maker
Faire, can crank out everything from model Eiffel Towers to wearable
high-heeled shoes. Swarms of hobbyists, parents and kids descended upon the
event’s 3-D printing village to test out the latest innovations, including
the Form 1 — a printer aimed at professionals that creates high-resolution
objects using a method called stereolithography. The process involves a
built-in laser that draws on the surface of a liquid plastic resin. It’s
typically expensive, but a group of engineers and designers at MIT recently
pioneered a cheaper way. The crew launched a Kickstarter campaign last week
to raise money for Form 1 production. Within three days, their pledges
topped $1 million. Priced at $2,700 each (the earliest Kickstarter backers
got a $400 discount), the printers are slated to start shipping in early
2013. “The product is definitely not targeted towards the mass consumer,”
said Formlabs engineer Maxim Labovsky, who had a Form 1 to show off at Maker
Faire. The intended audience is engineers and industrial designers looking
to test out their ideas. “It produces parts like you can’t get anywhere else
with any other low-cost machine,” Labovsky said. “It’s a complete package –
easy to use and well-designed — and I think it’s a first of its kind.” 3-D
printers have been in industrial use for more than 20 years, but their cost
– sometimes reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars — generally put them
out of reach for everyday customers. That’s changing fast. Entrepreneurs
devoted to the “democratization” of these devices are building cheaper
versions with rapidly falling price tags. Hobbyists are testing out at-home
3-D printers and chefs are giving them a whirl in the kitchen, using the
technology to create intricately designed food. Doctors are even
experimenting with using advanced printers to make artificial organs and
prosthetic limbs. One of the most-buzzed about players in the consumer 3-D
printer field is Makerbot, a Brooklyn, N.Y., company determined to bring the
technology to home users. Engineers can use Makerbots to prototype, but the
printers have largely been adopted by hobbyists, who can download designs
from Makerbot’s “Thingiverse” and recreate them on the printer. The latest
version of the Makerbot, the Replicator 2, just went on sale for $2,200.
“One of the ways we’re different is that this is our fourth-generation
machine,” Makerbot CEO Bre Pettis said at Maker Faire. “We’ve been doing
this for a long time.” Customers can buy the Replicator 2 through Makerbot’s
website or from Makerbot’s just-opened retail store in Manhattan — a sign
that 3-D printing is starting to go mainstream. “This technology, a lot of
people don’t understand it,” Pettis said. “They think it’s like science
fiction. Being able to go into a retail store, see it in action and see the
things it can make — it really opens people’s minds to the possibilities.”

Please visit the CNN video on this link: http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/innovation/2012/10/03/3d-printing-buttons-jewelry-shoes.cnnmoney/