The Ultimate 3D Printing Blog
Recent Developments in the Additive Manufacturing Industry
Modernization in Manufacturing
By: Eric Franck
In this addition to The Ultimate 3D Printing Blog we will be discussing noteable developments within the 3D Printing world. What will come from the UltiMaker and Makerbot deal? How will this effect the products we know and love? Exciting news in the world of 3D printing!
“Technological innovation is paramount in growing the availability of easy-to-use professional 3D printing solutions,” says Nadav Goshen, CEO of MakerBot. “By combining our teams and leveraging the additional funding, we can accelerate the development of advanced solutions to provide our customers with a broad portfolio of hardware and software solutions to serve a wide spectrum of customers and applications."
MakerBot and UltiMaker, two of the leading competitors in desktop 3D printing, have officially merged and become business partners! In May of 2022, the two companies agreed to a business combination agreement and secured $62.4 million in funding to fuel innovation in new and existing markets. Makers, creators, and machinists will have to wait over the next few months for the name of the new company to be announced. Industry professionals are excited to see what the new company has to offer and what their roadmap will look like. Many Twitter users are wishing for the name “UltaMakerBot” but neither company has had any word on the matter.
PepsiCo has optimized their manufacturing process by implementing 3D printing throughout their entire workflow. Dynamism and PepsiCo are working together to make a revolutionary “Hybrid Mold”; by 3D printing bottle molds the company is saving up to 96% in manufacturing costs. The traditional method of mold making involved costs of up to $10,000 for a single mold and a lead time of 4-5 weeks. PepsiCo’s new hybrid molds consist of a universal metal outer mold with 3D printed internals containing the bottles geometry. This method allows PepsiCo to save money and weeks of time compared to the normal manufacturing process.
Prusa Research has recently reached its 10-year anniversary of the company. For this monumental event Josef Prusa, the founder of Prusa Research released a “Anniversary Model” of their flagship printer, the MK3S+. Limited quantities are still available at the time of writing this. Josef Prusa released a video on his company’s YouTube channel showing off the beautiful 10-year edition MK3S+ and the Prusa story over the last decade. Prusa Research hosted a charity auction for the custom one-of-a-kind machine among other items raising £32,618 (~$40,200 USD) in total for “The Sanjay Mortimer Foundation”.
