Launching just over a year ago, XYZprinting has already had a significant amount of new developments and product releases. Just this month, the company launched onto the US market and this week presented some competitive machines at EuroMold 2014.
Perhaps the most interesting machine to come out of the company is the da Vinci 1.0 AiO 3D printer. Featuring both a 3D printer and a scanner, the machine has been designed to target customers who may not have 3D modelling skills and therefore limited in what they can print.
Traditionally, good quality scanning equipment is expensive, particularly for the consumer level of entry. The AiO combats this and provides both capabilities in the one machine for just $799. The scanning is quite literally inside the print space and works on a rotating table that turns twice to get an accurate scan in just five minutes, no matter what the size of the object is. Some of the examples on show were quite impressive particularly for such a low price but that is one of the areas where XYZ are confident they can continue to deliver.
Speaking with Gary Shu, Market Development Division Senior Manager at XYZprinting, he said: “We’ve had a really good response to all of the new products. Our client base has two major types of people. Designers for their own product design, for prototyping or demonstration purposes and the other is hobbyists, makers who like to play with their designs. They’re personal users not really for business purposes.”
Whilst the usability and price might be key for both of these markets, another area XYZprinting is interested in is education.
“The new market that everyone here is developing is education,” says Gary. “We believe the whole school will need one. Most teaching courses now computerise designs – right now its affordable. That’s a really big market for all of us here.”
As far as other applications, Gary revealed that the company have been in talks with a big toy manufacturer about the possibilities 3D printing may hold for the future of its business. Yet a lot of questions need to be asked and answered first before that can happen and Gary thinks that is only a positive thing.
“They’re asking lots of questions; can we make it cheaper, smaller, safer, more materials? Cheaper is easy! People in the markets will develop the applications for us,” Gary adds.
XYZ promises a lot more new products next year and hints that some of these may be coming to International CES in January with one interesting example in SLA technology. Roll on next year.
