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Printer Build

Ultimaker Debuts Ultimaker 2 3D Printer With Open Source Cura Software 53

Posted by timothy from the spit-out-the-knobs dept.
MojoKid writes "3D Printing start-up Ultimaker announced its second generation printer, the Ultimaker 2. The new printer features significant redesigns from the first iteration of the Ultimaker. The company says that the new machine is more accurate, more efficient, and it's even quieter at 49dB. Specifically, the Ultimaker 2 has a new CNC-milled case (that's all white with glowing sidewalls) with an OLED display, and its glass and aluminum build platform is designed to cool quickly so you can peel completed projects off more easily. The Ultimaker 2 can print with multiple materials, including PLA, ABS, and PVA, and is WiFi-compatible so you can print from a mobile device or computer. Ultimaker is also launching its Cura open source software, which the company claims can pre-process 3D files some 60 times faster than other open source applications and makes it easy to load and work with 3D files."
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Ultimaker Debuts Ultimaker 2 3D Printer With Open Source Cura Software More

Ultimaker Debuts Ultimaker 2 3D Printer With Open Source Cura Software

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  • Slashvertisement (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    How I have missed thee

  • Since I first heard about 3D-printing I've dismissed it all as some fringe-tech in development, not practically usable, and just ignored every article on 3D-printing, but this machine here seems mature and amazingly useful. I'm curious about the toxicology of it all and how much the plastic materials cost, and how durable they are.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by quetwo ( 1203948 )

      They still are a fringe technology. They are only used in industry to do simple prototypes. They are used by consumers to make.... toys? I've only seen them print giveaways and demos, not a whole lot useful.

      The real game is still with CNCs and milling CAD/CAM devices. Hell, even DYI laser cutters are slightly more useful than most 3D printers. With those you can make things out of metal, wood, plastic, acrylic, etc. They aren't nearly as hipster as 3D printers, but you know -- you can do something use

      • The things that 3D printers excel at are really anything close to Robotics. There's the OpenRC project which is a fully open source RC car, there's the InMoov which is a full upper torso of a humanoid robot (http://inmoov.blogspot.com/). They have a fully articulated GLaDoS ceiling robot. Tons of stuff like this. Also, almost anything you can do with a hobby laser cutter, you can extrude out to act like a laser cut piece of acrylic at whatever thickness you want and have it snap together just like some

      • They still are a fringe technology. They are only used in industry to do simple prototypes. They are used by consumers to make.... toys? I've only seen them print giveaways and demos, not a whole lot useful.

        I know some people using 3d printers to print and sell quadcopter parts, not for kiddie quads but ones that would hurt you if they fell on you. That's still pretty toylike, but it illustrates the point that you can build actual parts with them.

      • They still are a fringe technology.

        Define: fringe. No more fringe than any other industrial process. Most people don't own a lathe either.

        They are only used in industry to do simple prototypes.

        Huh? The "simple" prototypes which can be laser sintered out of titanium often cannot be made by any other process. The smooth varying of hard plastic to stretchy elsatopolymer can't be done by any other process. The new work on 3D printing medical support structures is gorund breaking.

        But yeah, only simple prototype

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gl4ss ( 559668 )

      well, it seems technically pretty much just the same as the previous ultimaker.

      that's not all bad though, it's not a bad design.

      durability depends on what you're doing.. in many objects comparable to injection-abs but with heavier weight in that case for some object. or more strength in some other object(inside structure).

      toxicology is not that much researched.. well, except that many filaments are "food grade".

  • Price? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by BenJeremy ( 181303 ) on Saturday September 21, 2013 @01:59PM (#44912583)

    No price listed, so I guess it costs $45,000?

    Wake me when I can buy a 3D printer off the shelf for less than $300, because as a consumer, price is far more important in adopting cutting-edge "new" technology than enhanced features.

    Advancements in capabilities will come when these things are stocked and selling at WalMart and Target.

    • Economies of scale will drop the price, and then the major way to differentiate the product will be innovation.
      • The price point is self replication and that is the thing which first interested me 2 years ago. I have a device that has taken me a year to design and nearly a year to perfect and I started working with a local group at a maker space because of this. I have not finished some critical tests. My interest was to make a device which was scalable, operable to near a nanometer, and most of all could print itself ( in metal -and- other materials ) with sufficient accuracy to make self replication reliable. The on
    • No price listed? I did not RTFA nor did you? Look at the bottom of the article it has a price listed...

      • TFS should have had the price that was listed in the article. As I said, all the features in the world don't really matter if it is priced out of range for most consumers.

        That said, $2,500 is maybe enthusiast levels, but still not low enough for a casual purchase.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by gmuslera ( 3436 )
      $2500, but add $42 for each "cartridge". Like with 2d printers, thats where the money is. You can print anything, as long as you buy supplies from me (or whoever paid the relevant patents too)

      • Re:Price? (Score:5, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 21, 2013 @02:32PM (#44912733)

        You are absolutely wrong.

        It uses a standard filament on a spool. You can buy it from anyone. Invest in a filabot (http://www.filabot.com/) and you extrude your own filament for $10/kg.

        There are printers where this is the case (IIRC the Cube), but this is not one of them.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          Anyone:

          Ocatve
          JustPLA
          ToyBuilderLabs
          Matterhacker
          Ultimaker

          Pick a random manufacturer in China. Lots of options.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AHuxley ( 892839 )
        Be fun to see the next gen prices after the 2014 patents expire.
        http://hackaday.com/2013/09/11/3d-printering-key-patents/ [hackaday.com]

    • I just came across this 3D printer on Kickstarter. It uses resin rather than melting solid plastic and also has a uniquely simple method of aiming the laser (which solidifies the resin), leading to a very inexpensive design.
      It's a Kickstarter project so long lead time and no guarantee of success but I think I may back it since it definitely represents "thinking different" and has a reasonable chance of success. Also at $100 it's low risk.
      It uses Blender for 3D modeling. It also has a scanner attachment so y

      • there is a reason its so cheap - print quality is poor.
        I love how ghetto it is, but I wouldnt want anything printed on it.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mspohr ( 589790 )

          It's clearly a work in progress which is the nature of Kickstarter projects. Print quality doesn't look much worse now than other 3D printed stuff I have seen. It will be interesting to see how this evolves. Their method is very simple and has the potential to greatly improve and is not reliant on fiddly mechanical steppers, gears and stages.
          Again, I think it's worth supporting for $100 just to see how it works out.

        • there is a reason its so cheap - print quality is poor.

          You mean people want to pay next to nothing for a rather complex piece of engineering and yet expect top performance out of it?

      • W00t, GW space marine designs are teh new lewt!

        please don't sue me

    • The bottom of the article says $2,500.

      All these printers seem way overpriced to me. I would rather go for something like this one [kickstarter.com] which seems just as good quality for 1/4 the price.

      So.. time to wake up.

      • Ha! Well the "Zim" is a completely different 3d print from kickstarter than the peach above. Excellent quality, dual heads, ~$800. Sorry for any confusion.

    • The Reprap Mendel is about $600 nowadays, but unassembled.

    • http://makibox.com/ [makibox.com]

      $200 for PLA plasic-only, or $300 for one that handles ABS plastic too. Plastic is around $16/kg, and I just ordered the $200 one after reviewing the inventor's careful (and very honest engineer-style presentation) instructions on how to put it together.

      It's an elegant setup, and a really nice looking toy, that might get some interesting use, but I won't even try and justify it on that count.

      Here's it printing a Yoda figure:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9xcvqI1yoU [youtube.com]

      It'll probably take a

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Wake me when I can buy a 3D printer off the shelf for less than $300,

      Make your own. You can buy just the key parts, like the extruder. The rest is frame, motor, controllers, etc. Plenty of plans online. If you're not capable of making your own, you probably don't need and can't use a home 3d printer.

  • $2,500? (Score:4, Informative)

    by drainbramage ( 588291 ) on Saturday September 21, 2013 @02:12PM (#44912631) Homepage

    From TFA:
    The Ultimaker 2 will retail for $2,500.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by wjcofkc ( 964165 )
      $2,500 today = $500 in five years with more capabilities. That is of course speculation, but between economies of scale, competition, and the trends of the last couple decades it does not seem an unreasonable guess. 3D printing will have at least as big of an effect on society at large as the introduction of the personal computer and I would suspect manufactures want to get them into the hands of the masses sooner than later.

  • Wait wait wait (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    If 3D printing is the future why is the case CNC machined? Isn't that for Luddites? Or are we redefining every single manufacturing process as "3D printing" now??

  • I want a 3D printer. I care about print quality and cost. When the design features OLED display, WiFi capability, build platform design for quick removal of the print, I don't think they were trying to design the best print at lowest cost printer.

  • Reporting from Ultimaker. So much mis-information! (Score:5, Informative)

    by daid303 ( 843777 ) on Sunday September 22, 2013 @04:44AM (#44916435)

    Ok, there are a few major things WRONG in this article.

    First of. Cura. Cura is my project, I started development 2 years ago. I started in my free time, and after a few months of development Ultimaker hired me to continue development. As every user was switching towards it. It has been open source, free, and released for 2 years now. (It is a perfect success story for Open Source and I think Slashdot totally missed the opportunity here to properly see this)
    Thanks to Ultimaker Cura has seen a HUGE development boost and really became awesome for Ultimaker AND RepRap users.

    Next, WiFi is not in the machine out of the box. It is an add-on.

    The UM2 is a professional looking version of our already very successful Ultimaker-Original kit. It has great printing quality for a nice price tag. Yes, you can do cheaper, but not if you want the same print quality. If you want cheaper then the UM2, buy the UM-Original kit.

  • The only way a story about 3D printing and open source software could be better is if it included a crowdfunding campaign, was DRM free, and made a negative comment about Microsoft!

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