The famous George and Ira Gershwin melody, "Summertime," came to
mind today as I sat down to write this newsletter. The first line continues "... and the livin' is easy." That is how it should be, perhaps, but I can attest that
it has been anything but easy here at Desktop Factory since we last communicated. The team has been working late into the evening and on weekends to make
inroads into the hundreds of hours of testing in front of us. We have made real, measurable progress and are all encouraged by the results we are seeing from our new imager.
First, we are printing parts on all available printers consistently and reliably, and documenting each part in writing and through photographs to
compare between different builds and printers. On occasion, we experience problems within a build; however, we successfully and quickly rectify
the problems and return to or restart printing. Presently, we have not encountered any new or significant problems through this process.
We have improved part quality with sharper edges, clearer detail and a smoother finish. While not on par with established, costly 3D printing
systems, we are currently able to render better parts than with the previous imaging subsystem. In addition, we have dramatically improved
support removal from even the most complex part, cleaning and readying them for use in 20 minutes or less. We are confident we can further
improve upon this attribute over the next few months.
Perhaps the best news of all in this early testing is build time. I mentioned in our last newsletter that one of the major trade-offs we made
in selecting the final imager configuration was build speed. It took us several iterations but we were finally convinced that we would be within 20% of
our original design for build speed. It appears at this point that in practice we may actually print at the same speed or better.
We still have an opportunity to reduce or eliminate some of the process overhead as we continue to improve throughput, but,
to have regained our original speed at this point is pretty exciting.
Concerning reliability, we will have a full report on that aspect of our system in our next newsletter. Our anecdotal findings
show progress and no new issues against our last report. We will proceed with this test plan over the next 90 days. At this rate
we should be in a position to perform customer installations no later than January 2009.
If you have not received out past newsletters, they are available here.
MEET A MEMBER OF OUR TEAM — EDDIE NG
Eddie was born in Hong Kong and immigrated to the United States with his family at the age of 11. Within their first year of living in the states, Eddie's father passed away from cancer.
Although Eddie was not fortunate enough to spend more time with his father, he considers himself to be the luckiest son in the world. His mother worked hard to support the
family and is Eddie's heroine.
Speaking of heroes, Eddie loved to watch Japanese cartoons when
he was a kid, especially the ones in which robots saved the world from the bad guys. While watching the cartoons, Eddie believed that one day he would
design and build his own robot, sparking an interest that led him to a career in engineering.
In college, Eddie studied both electrical and mechanical engineering. His senior project, concerned with the development of miniature robotic arms to aid in
rehabilitation, garnered him the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research. After receiving his BS degrees, Eddie continued his studies
in control systems at UCLA and earned an MS degree from the EE department.
Eddie has worked in various sectors, including defense, telecommunications, and rapid prototyping. He has also worked as a subcontractor for JPL, providing
engineering support for several space programs. In every company, his skills and experience in both engineering disciplines have helped him
successfully execute his projects.
Eddie believes there is a duality between employees and a company wherein good employees make a good company and a good company makes better
employees. This is one of the reasons Eddie joined Desktop Factory, recognizing it as a place to facilitate his career growth and
ability to contribute. Eddie has been involved in both firmware and hardware development and recently became involved in process engineering.
Outside of work, Eddie enjoys spending time with friends and family, traveling with his girlfriend and backpacking. Eddie has
visited Arches, Zion, Yosemite, and Mt. Whitney. Although it may feel great to make it to the top of Mt. Whitney, Eddie's
favorite hike has to be Half Dome at Yosemite.
WEBSITES & NEWS
Thanks to our readers who continue to recommend an array of websites and blogs to stay updated on our exciting industry.
Additional recommended sites include rapidtoday.com,
designnews.com and fabbaloo.com. Recently,
Fabbaloo ran an interview with us regarding Desktop Factory and our industry views
(Fabbaloo interview: Part 1 &
Part 2). In addition, Design News
published an article on simple, low cost 3D printing.
In July we had the opportunity to present Desktop Factory to a group of educators and professionals at Loughborough
University in the UK. Loughborough is a Center of Excellence for Rapid Manufacturing. They regard the development of
consumer-based 3D printing as the natural next step in the RM continuum.
Later this month we will present Desktop Factory at Euro-uRapid 2008
in Berlin, Germany. We look forward to building new relationships across the industry and exploring new applications for the use
of low-cost 3D printing.
OVER THE NEXT 6 MONTHS
Thank you for your continued support.
Feeling encouraged by our recent spate of tests over the past few weeks, we look forward to the next 90 days of product testing with a focus on reliability.
If the early results from the new imager reflect that subsystem's actual capabilities, we should have even more positive news for you in the next 4 to 6 weeks.
It has been a long, hot summer here in California — but we are headed toward a time when the "livin [will be] easy" ... or at least easier!
We have done well in the area of fiscal management but it is almost time for us to get out on the road and start fundraising. We look forward to meeting with various
venture capital firms as well as a few strategic partners. We will keep you posted on these activities and if you know of an investor who may have an
interest in this exciting opportunity, please let me know.
For our part, we plan on issuing another newsletter in 4 to 6 weeks.
At that time we should have a complete appraisal of our progress, including specific details
on reliability versus our targets. Your suggestions and comments are always welcome. I must admit we do enjoy all of
the emails we receive and try to answer them within 24 hours. I sincerely hope you enjoyed your summer and that you are
looking forward to the start of school, the fall season and, before we know it, the final months of 2008.
Cathy Lewis
CEO
If you feel you received this message in error, or would like to unsubscribe from future promotional mailings
from Desktop Factory, please click here.
The famous George and Ira Gershwin melody, "Summertime," came to
mind today as I sat down to write this newsletter. The first line continues "... and the livin' is easy." That is how it should be, perhaps, but I can attest that
it has been anything but easy here at Desktop Factory since we last communicated. The team has been working late into the evening and on weekends to make
inroads into the hundreds of hours of testing in front of us. We have made real, measurable progress and are all encouraged by the results we are seeing from our new imager.
Speaking of heroes, Eddie loved to watch Japanese cartoons when
he was a kid, especially the ones in which robots saved the world from the bad guys. While watching the cartoons, Eddie believed that one day he would
design and build his own robot, sparking an interest that led him to a career in engineering.
Thanks to our readers who continue to recommend an array of websites and blogs to stay updated on our exciting industry.
Additional recommended sites include 
Thank you for your continued support.
Feeling encouraged by our recent spate of tests over the past few weeks, we look forward to the next 90 days of product testing with a focus on reliability.
If the early results from the new imager reflect that subsystem's actual capabilities, we should have even more positive news for you in the next 4 to 6 weeks.