Pegasus Touch Kickstarter Video.
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to become excited about a 3D printer appearing on crowdfunding websites. Chris Elsworthy CEO and creator of the Robox said in his blog recently that the Kickstarter market may be suffering from some 3D printer fatigue “another day, another 3D printer.” – this despite his printer reaching funding target in just seven days.
Full Spectrum Laser are a company who share several things in common with CEL Robox: they both are launching 3D printers as a company with a electronics manufacturing background, both launched their printers on Kickstarter and both will be premiering their printers at International CES 2014. Their stereolithographic printer, the Pegasus Touch launched on Kickstarter on New Year’s Eve and certainly didn’t show signs of suffering from any fatigue as it reached the funding goal in just over 24 hours.
The reason for the popularity is pretty clear, this is an SL printer from a company who are experts in lasers. Priced affordably at the $2,000 point, with a significant build volume of 7in x 7in x 9in and an incredible speed of 3,000mm/s, as well as a fully integrated touch screen on-board computer, which can download and print files directly from the internet, the Pegasus Touch was always going to be a crowdfunding winner.
As with Robox this is not a startup with no idea of how timely and expensive manufacturing can be - often the first hurdle startups fail to overcome. Full Spectrum Laser know lasers, they’re an established business with years of manufacturing laser cutters and laser engraving machines.
And it is the laser in this machine that allows such speed and control as well as low production costs. The firm say that since the advent of Blu Ray players near UV laser diodes have dramatically fallen in price. These lasers are perfect for curing UV resin, which FSL3D mix in-house themselves to ensure the highest quality.
FSL3D headed to Kickstarter asking for the what seems almost standard amount of $100,000, two days later pledging currently stands at $105,000 with all of the $1,750 and $2,000 printers sold out.
The thorough and extensive works shows how Kickstarter has evolved as folks are becoming more savvy to 3D printers. There are currently ten 3D printers in a funding period on the crowdfunding platform, only four of those are fully funded and only two of those are asking for sums in excess of $100,000. The platform is now as much about feedback from BETA testers and marketing as it is about funding. As evidenced by the success of CEL Robox and the Pegasus Touch the platform is increasingly being used by established companies to launch a product rather than startups.
As mentioned earlier both the Robox and the Pegasus Touch will be on display next week at CES where the TCT team will be out in force. The FSL3D printer has a lot less far to travel than the Bristol, UK-based Robox, in that it is 14 minutes from the Full Spectrum Laser HQ to the Las Vegas Convention Center.
The two new printers on the block will be joined by another desktop printer, which uses DLP technology to make high res 3D printing more affordable, the Lightforge 3D Printer. Little is known about the machine, which claims to boast a Z resolution of 25 microns and a build volume of 7.6 x 4.7 x 9.0 in but TCT will be the only place to be for CES 3D Printing news.
