Tag Archives: funding

RoBo 3D Printer Raises $500K on Kickstarter to Battle MakerBot

RoBo 3D Printer

There’s a new Kickstarter champion in town: The RoBo 3D Printer. After setting up a Kickstarter campaign to raise $49,000, it looks likes the RoBo team will raise over $500K to build a a low-cost, open source, easy to use 3D printer.

What is RoBo 3D? 

RoBo 3D is the ultimate 3D printer everyone has been waiting for. We combined the best minds from the open source community, the best hardware we believe can give the best prints, and our own ideas based on our experience working with 3D printers. The open-source design is made so people like us can go online and find all the documents that show the ins and outs of how to make a RoBo 3D. In true rep-rap fashion, RoBo 3D has been made so that it can print out its own parts. Once in your hands, print out another for a friend! Come experience it and together, lets create something great.

Who is RoBo 3D for?

Architects- print out model homes and buildings for clients. Change and print out again without hassle.

Designers- Have an idea that you want to bring to life? Print out your designs and see if they were everything you imagined. If not, change it and print out the next idea.

Hobbyists/DIY- Easily create your projects in the comfort of your own home.

Small Business owners- Manufacture your own products at the office!

Students- Senior engineering project coming up? Use RoBo 3D to proint the parts you need to get the job done done.

Home owners- Replace broken household items for next to nothing!

 

In their campaign, RoBo 3D provides a comparison matrix to the MakerBot. What jumps out the most is the price: $520 vs $2,199 for the MakerBot Replicator 2.

Robo 3D Printer vs MakerBot

Below is their Kickstarter video. Congrats to the team for raising $500K!

3D Printing Sees New Developments in 2012 – VentureBeat Summary

Bre Pettis, MakerBot CEO

 

VentureBeat published a fun summary of some of the top new developments in 3D printing during 2012. They include all stories covered by on3dprinting, listed below:

 

VentureBeat’s recap:

Plenty of amazing things are happening as 3D printing expands its influence into mainstream culture. Not only are lots of 3D printing companies expanding and getting more funding, but enterprising designers are finding more and more ways to use the fledgling printing technology. While some of these uses are a bit troubling (like piracy of copyrighted material and firearms), others show that, with enough ingenuity, 3D printing can change lives.

via VentureBeat.

Bre Pettis photo from bre pettis used under Creative Commons license.

3D Printed Meat for Dinner: Peter Thiel Backs Bioprinting Startup

3D Printed Meat Livestock Peter Thiel

Peter Thiel, the entrepreneur-investor turned billionaire who co-founded PayPal and was an early investor in Facebook, is investing in 3D printing again. Last time we covered Thiel, he was backing a 3D printing entrepreneur in his 20 under 20 Thiel Fellows program. This time, Thiel is looking to shake up the food industry through an investment in a startup called Modern Meadow.

Modern Meadow is using a technique called bioprinting to produce meat that is more environmentally-friendly than traditional raised livestock.

“If you look at the resource intensity of everything that goes into a hamburger, it is an environmental train wreck,” Modern Meadow co-founder Andras Forgacs told CNET.

“Modern Meadow is combining regenerative medicine with 3D printing to imagine an economic and compassionate solution to a global problem,” said Lindy Fishburne, executive director of Breakout Labs, a project of the Thiel Foundation. “We hope our support will help propel them through the early stage of their development, so they can turn their inspired vision into reality.”

Reports suggest that Modern Meadow has raised over $250,000 from the Thiel Foundation.

Below is an excerpt from Modern Meadow’s Department of Agriculture grant application, which explains their project in more detail.

Present farm and industrial meat production methods and technologies have a number of associated problems including health risks (infectious animal diseases, nutrition-related diseases), resource intensity (land, water, energy), damage to environment (green house gas emission, erosion, biodiversity loss) and ethical challenges (animal welfare). With increasing worldwide demand for meat, it is expected that some of these problems will become critical. The objective of this proposal is to develop a fundamentally new approach to edible meat production. The approach is based on bio-printing, a novel tissue engineering technology. In this technology, conveniently prepared multicellular aggregates (the bio-ink particles) are delivered into a biocompatible support structure according to a design template (compatible with the shape of the desired biological construct) by a computer-controlled delivery device (the bio-printer). Biological assemblies form after deposition of the discrete bio-ink particles, through morphogenetic processes akin to those evident in early embryonic development, such as cell sorting and tissue fusion. The resulting construct is transferred to special purpose bioreactor for further maintenance and maturation to make it suitable for use (e.g. implantation in medical applications). So far, bio-printing has been applied to build three-dimensional tissues and organ structures of specific architecture and functionality for purposes of regenerative medicine. Here we propose to adapt this technology to building meat products for consumption. The technology has several advantages in comparison to earlier attempts to engineer meat in vitro. The bio-ink particles can be reproducibly prepared with mixtures of cells of different type. This allows for control in composition that enables the engineering of healthy products of great variety. Printing ensures consistent shape, while post-printing structure formation and maturation in the bioreactor facilitates conditioning. As meat is a post mortem tissue, the vascularization of the final product is less critical than in medical applications (although important for taste an objective to be further pursued in Phase II). Overall, this process allows for greater structural precision than other approaches and higher throughput for eventual scaling to industrial production. We anticipate that this Phase I application will result in a macroscopic size (~2 cm x 1 cm x 0.5 mm) edible prototype and will demonstrate that bio-printing-based in vitro meat production is feasible, economically viable and environmentally practical. Successful in vitro meat engineering addresses a number of societal needs, thus the commercialization of the method has high market potential. The consumer acceptance of such products may not be without challenges. We expect it will first appeal to culinary early-adopter consumers and the segment of the vegetarian community that rejects meat for ethical reasons. With reduction in price, it can reach the masses with religious restrictions on meat consumption (people restricted to Hindu, Kosher, Halal diets) and finally populations with limited access to safe meat production.

 

Via CNET.

Livestock photo by Mr. T in DC used under Creative Commons license.

Shapeways Opens NYC 3D Printing and Distribution Center

Shapeways logo

3D printing marketplace Shapeways has opened a NYC-based 3D printing and distribution center. This comes just a few weeks after raising $6.2M in Series B funding.

The NY-based startup began printing from a single 3D Systems ProJet 3500 Plus printer last week at its Long Island City factory/distribution center. Because the machines are customized for specific materials, the ProJet will only be churning out UV curable acrylic plastics until other printers are installed.

This past March, the Long Island City location began distributing its 3D printed wares, which paved the way for the company to begin ramping up its US production efforts. While this isn’t the “factory of the future” that was announced last November, Shapeways says the real deal will be up and running by the end of summer or early fall. There are also plans to implement a “lab” for creators and students alike to experiment with different materials and production methods to further improve and iterate upon current methods.

To date, Shapeways has over 150,000 active community members/designers with over 6,000 of them having their own online shops delivering their custom wares.

 

Via TechCrunch.

Top 3D Printing Headlines Last Week: Leaders, Records Broken, Burritos

3D Printing Executive Leaders

A roundup of the top news On 3D Printing brought you from June 18 to June 24.

Monday, June 18

Tuesday, June 19

Wednesday, June 20

Thursday, June 21

Friday, June 22