See what the press has to say about Desktop Factory
In the past few weeks Desktop Factory has received a great deal of attention from the media. While we have been in the news before, this level of interest has reached global proportions — in terms of the quantity of inquiries, the blogs and the fact that we have received calls and emails from literally every geography around the world.
In many respects we owe our thanks to those of you who have been interested in our 3D printer almost since inception. We launched our market research and early customer engagement in 2005. The people we spoke to or surveyed back then clearly saw the potential applications and the need for access to affordable 3D printing. From the beginning you have supported our endeavor as we have continued to develop our technology. We truly appreciate your commitment to our success.
Also, welcome to our thousands of new subscribers to the Desktop Factory newsletter. We want to share some of the media buzz and excitement surrounding our technology and provide you with an update on our progress. I invite you to consider this — to be placed squarely on the front page of the business section of one of the most widely read newspapers in the world is certainly noteworthy — but to initiate an editorial piece that same week titled "Science Fiction Speaks Up" is nothing short of remarkable. 3D printing for the masses will not only be remarkable — it will be revolutionary!
On May 1st we participated in an important event for the additive fabrication industry held in Detroit, Michigan. At RAPID each year, industry analysts provide the attendees with an update to the state of the art in rapid prototyping and 3D printing which is then reinforced through numerous exhibits and presentations.
In his "State of the Industry" keynote address, Terry Wohlers of Wohlers Associates commented on Desktop Factory and the tremendous progress that we have made with our 3D printer. He suggested that while there is still work to be done prior to the launch of this product, the Desktop Factory 125ci will be an important catalyst for the market and that attendees should visit the booth and check out the technology.
Later that day Desktop Factory was given an opportunity to present our company, our 3D printer and our plans for the market. The presentation was well attended — but the parts and other 3D objects we had printed for the event were the main attraction.
OUR PROGRESS
We moved to our new facility earlier this year to provide our engineering team with improved labs and testing areas and to prepare the company for pilot manufacturing. Once in the new building we quickly completed the assembly and burn-in of a number of additional beta printers to add to our testing regimen. The tests continue and we are now building parts, tools and toys almost 24 hours a day.
Clearly, our goal is to debug the hardware but also to exercise and stress our software. The software we provide to prepare the STL file for printing is a critically important element of our value proposition with regards to "ease of use". We are pleased to report that our GUI is extremely intuitive and functioning quite well.
Today several 3D printers are engaged in full time reliability testing and we have built an environmental chamber to further assess performance of our systems in a wide range of situations, including various levels of humidity. This testing will continue for another few months as we prepare for the delivery of our first external beta unit to a local customer.
We still have several months of final testing in front of us but current plans call for the shipment of 3 to 5 systems to beta customers before the end of 2007. When these very important early customers give us the "thumbs up" we will begin shipments against our current order backlog. We will provide another update on our progress in about 6 to 8 weeks in the next issue of "Factory News".
Thanks again for your support and if you have additional questions do not hesitate to post them on our website! I will do my very best to respond within 24 hours!
In the past few weeks Desktop Factory has received a great deal of attention from the media. While we have been in the news before, this level of interest has reached global proportions — in terms of the quantity of inquiries, the blogs and the fact that we have received calls and emails from literally every geography around the world.
We moved to our new facility earlier this year to provide our engineering team with improved labs and testing areas and to prepare the company for pilot manufacturing. Once in the new building we quickly completed the assembly and burn-in of a number of additional beta printers to add to our testing regimen. The tests continue and we are now building parts, tools and toys almost 24 hours a day.