Desktop Factory's 125ci 3D Printer receives Popular Science's Best of What's New award!
Each year, the editors of Popular Science review thousands of products in search of the top 100 tech innovations of the year — breakthrough products and technologies that represent a significant leap in their categories. These winners — the Best of What's New — are awarded inclusion in the much anticipated December issue of Popular Science, the most widely read issue of the year since the debut of Best of What's New in 1987. Best of What's New awards are presented to 100 new products and technologies in 10 categories: Automotive, Aviation & Space, Computing, Engineering, Gadgets, Green Tech, Home Entertainment, Home Tech, Personal Health and Recreation.
"For 20 years, Popular Science'sBest of What's New awards honor the innovations that make a positive impact on life and change our views of the future", says Mark Jannot, Editor-in-Chief of Popular Science. "PopSci's editors evaluate thousands of products each year to develop this thoughtful list, there's no higher accolade Popular Science can give."
Your Desktop Factory team is delighted to be recognized for our contributions relative to innovation. We have you to thank for this award, by the way. The Desktop Factory 125ci 3D Printer actually came to Popular Science's attention from message boards, chats and blogs — not from any effort we made directly. Apparently there is a great deal of excitement out there with regards to affordable 3D printing.
We also believe that the 125ci was singled out based upon the impact this technology will surely have on the future. Imagine a time — just a few years from now — when a home repair or customized toy is just a mouse click away. That is the power of eventually having your own Desktop Factory!
RESERVATION ORDERS CONTINUE TO COME IN — DON'T MISS THIS CHANCE TO BE AN EARLY ADOPTER!
In September, we announced the acceptance of reservation orders for our first 1,000 early adopters. The response has been amazing and today we have over 300 orders on file. To place an order all you need to do is visit our website at www.desktopfactory.com and click on the button to reserve a printer. If you are based in the US or Canada, you may make your reservation deposit with a credit card. Some of our global friends have placed orders via wire transfer. If you run into any problems in reserving your printer, please let us know and we will assist you with the process.
Our plans are to begin shipping the Desktop Factory 125ci in 2008!
A CALL FOR .STL FILES
As we conclude our beta testing program over the next few months we would like to better understand the various applications our customers and potential customers will print with the Desktop Factory 125ci. While we have printed a number of objects for testing and to display on our website, we know that this is just the tip of the iceberg. We are hearing about new uses all the time for 3D printing and we want to make certain that we stay well informed and able to support these myriad applications.
Therefore we would like to ask for your assistance in creating a library of .stl files. This library will further assist us with product testing. It will also help us enhance our knowledge of this ever-changing industry. We will not otherwise share these files outside of Desktop Factory — but please send files that you do not consider highly sensitive or proprietary.
To participate we ask you to do the following:
Review our product specification: build envelope 5X5X5, layers of 10 mils or 0.01 inches, finest feature detail of 50 mils or 0.05 inches
Select a file that meets our product specification and is most representative of your intended use of our 3D printer
Include your name, contact information, industry and job title; again this information will be used internally only
As we receive files, we may have questions and will contact you accordingly. We thank you in advance for your help with this effort.
REQUEST FOR PRINTED OBJECTS!
We know that many of you are very interested in receiving a printed object or part directly from a Desktop Factory 125ci. We have already received well over 2,000 requests for samples. So far we have not been in a position to respond to these requests. We are a small company with a team of about 15 engineers (the best in the industry, I might add!) who are dedicated to completing this product and delivering it to the market. Any effort to print samples takes these invaluable resources away from their main mission.
We do believe however, that in the next 90 days we will be in a better position to print some generic samples. We know that you would like the chance to actually 'feel' the surface finish and see the material up close. So, we thank you for your patience and ask you to please bear with us as we retain our focus on product delivery. We will notify you in a future newsletter when we begin to support sample requests.
CURRENT EVENTS
We are frequently asked about trade shows and exhibits where people might go to see a Desktop Factory 125ci 3D Printer on display. We have virtually no plans over these next few months prior to launch to use our resources for this purpose.
That said, we were invited by WIRED magazine to participate in a local event — their LivingHome exhibit here in Southern California — and we have placed a 125ci unit in this unique home for the holidays. To find out more about this $4M green, dream home go to www.wired.com/wiredlivinghome. And, if you are in the area please visit — it is a fascinating exhibition.
PROGRESS CONTINUES!
To conclude this newsletter update, I do want to thank you all for your continued support, interest and patience. Innovation is not an exact science where one can predict the exact date and time that the innovation will be complete. Thomas Edison, the most prolific inventor of all time, fully understood this and said, "I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that will not work!"
So we are at 10,001 ways, and we are making progress every day. Beta continues to go well and we are planning commercial launch in the second quarter of 2008.
Thanks for your confidence and your orders. We are very excited by the numbers of you who are reserving your very own Desktop Factory. Don't miss this unique opportunity to become one of the first 1,000 early adopters as we move even closer to our mission — affordable 3D printing for the masses.
If you have questions or comments, please post them to our website or call us at 626-229-3190. We love hearing from you — and don't forget to send us those .stl files!
Finally, with the holiday season fast approaching we want to take a moment to reflect on all that we have to be thankful for — and wish each of you a warm, wonderful Thanksgiving!
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 write to unsubscribe@desktopfactory.com
As we conclude our beta testing program over the next few months we would like to better understand the various applications our customers and potential customers will print with the Desktop Factory 125ci. While we have printed a number of objects for testing and to display on our website, we know that this is just the tip of the iceberg. We are hearing about new uses all the time for 3D printing and we want to make certain that we stay well informed and able to support these myriad applications.
To conclude this newsletter update, I do want to thank you all for your continued support, interest and patience. Innovation is not an exact science where one can predict the exact date and time that the innovation will be complete. Thomas Edison, the most prolific inventor of all time, fully understood this and said, "I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that will not work!"