MakerBot Industries
MakerBot Industries is a company founded in January 2009 by Bre Pettis, Adam Mayer, and Zach “Hoeken” Smith producing an open source 3D printer rapid prototyping machine called the Cupcake CNC. The Cupcake incorporates the ideas of the RepRap Project with the goal of bringing desktop 3D printing into the home at an affordable price, partially due to being able to produce some of its own parts.[1] It allows people to make their own bots that can build almost anything up to 4"x4"x6". They print with acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) , high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and polylactic acid (PLA) plastics.[2]
MakerBot started shipping in April 2009 and has sold units as fast as they can produce them.[3] As of September 2009, there are over 200 machines.[4] Demand for the kits was so great in 2009, that the company solicited MakerBot owners to provide parts for future MakerBots from their own MakerBots.[5]
Cupcake CNC machines are sold as do it yourself kits. The circuit boards are already soldered, requiring only minor soldering on non-critical parts from the user.
MakerBot Industries has an online community called Thingiverse where users can post files, document their designs, and collaborate on open source hardware. The site is not just for MakerBot, but rather for anyone with a digital fabrication device to share their designs.[4]
Terminology
- Heated Build Platform: A platform for building; meant to overcome the problem of replicated parts that curl due to selective cooling of the print layers.
- Raft: A mesh-like layer of support material; meant to overcome the curling problem in replicated parts.
- Vitamin: Any component of a Makerbot that the Makerbot cannot make for itself (e.g. metal rods, printed circuit boards)
Batch numbers
The latest batch is Batch #15 and shipped in the middle of May 2010
See also
- 3D printing
- Rapid prototyping
- RepRap Project
- Digital fabricator
- Direct digital manufacturing
- Instant manufacturing
- Additive manufacturing
- Desktop manufacturing
- Fused deposition modeling
- Rapid manufacturing
- Solid freeform fabrication
References
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<references />, or <references group="..." />External links
- Official website
- Thingiverse: community dedicated to open source three dimensional design files
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- ↑ Adrian Covert (2009-09-21). "At Gizmodo Gallery 2009: MakerBot 3D Printer". Gizmodo.
- ↑ "MakerBot Industries - Robots That Make Things".
- ↑ CupCake CNC Deluxe Kit. "CupCake CNC Deluxe Kit - CupCake CNC - MakerBot Industries". Store.makerbot.com. Retrieved 2010-06-07.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Priya Ganapati, 3-D Printers Make Manufacturing Accessible, Wired
- ↑ MakerBot is pioneering distributed manufacturing! Get paid to make parts for future MakerBots.
