Next Week. Solido3D Will Drop the Floor on 3D Printer Price

by Josh on January 25, 2010 · View Comments

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There is certainly no shortage of 3D print or photocopy news the past couple weeks. Now Solido3d is causing a stir. A big stir.

Next week, in conjunction with the SolidWorks World 2010 event, they’ll hold a press release announcing new pricing on the SD300 Pro, the only desktop Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM) printer that carves out sweet 3D from polyvinyl sheet. It’s quite a process. SolidWorks Co-founder and Solido3D board member, Scott Harris along with industry expert Terry Wohlers will be rockin’ the news.

We talked about the unique aspects of the Solido3D printers a while back. Barring material price and waste, desktop printing at the lowest printer price possible is the marketing line every 3D printer manufacturer has been hurling themselves towards. It’s no different for Solido and their SD300.

At the press event, the price of the 3D printer will be slashed from around $12,000 to “considerably less than $5,000.” – WorldCAD Access

$5,000 has been the price to beat. Who knows why sub-$5,000 suddenly makes everything more feasible, but there it is. If they bring it down to the $1,000 price point (I’m thinking it’s going to be $999), there is going to be a lot of shuffling around in the 3D print/diy fabber world. Look for the news coming next week.

Tagged as: 3d printing, desktop 3d printer, sd300 pro, solido3d

MTM

And to think this technology used to cost 100k a few years back.
MTM

I might just pick one up for home if they go down to $1000
Josh M

I'll be putting out more info. (have a PO to show) but it's coming in at $2950... if you buy the material pack. Total cost is $14,950. Sounds high (I thought) but I'm still looking at cost of other machine/material combos and maintenance overhead.
New Pricing?

Looks like the price of the machine is $2950 US. Anounced yesterday at SW2010

http://www.deelip.com/?p=1268
New Pricing?

Josh,

Have they announced the new pricing yet or was it just talk?

Phil
Josh M

Yep, the pricing is shown here at the booth to start at $2950. There seems to be quite a bit of cost to the material/upkeep. will be finding out more soon.
Kevin Quigley

Consumables cost is always the killer! I've looked at getting these machines in for years but so far the price/convenience equation has never even come close to using a good bureau. But that's just me. If I were designing a hand held object all the time then I would have bought something, but like many my range of physical objects I design goes from tiny to the size of a room, so no one machine or process fits the bill.

Having said that if HP do what I think they can do with the Stratsys systems there is no reason why we can't see 3D printers for under $1000. Most of the technology that drives these things is fairly basic (LOM - think vinyl cutter, FDM - think extruder with a 3axes CNC, ZCorp - they even use HP inkjet heads!). The challenge is providing a solution that really can go in the corner of an office and needs no plumbed in system for removing parts. Of all the systems out there Solido 3D printers are probably the most office friendly. If they can get the costs to under $1500 I'll buy one.
Josh M

Boy, all of you are quick. The material... that's gonna be the sticking point (pun intended.) Boost material price and turnover rate and you've got machines you can sell cheaper. I talk about it in another post I'm writing... the last two printers I got didn't replace the printer, they replaced the print cartridges. I could buy a new printer with more features (and cartridges) for the same price as getting new cartridges.

It's odd, but people/business seem more acceptable of "low device cost/high consumable cost" rather than the opposite. "Well, the consumable is just part of everyday business, but hey! I can get that printer cheap!" The existing printer/copier market pretty much proves that I think.
loughnane

Sub $1000 has been here, check out Brooklyn's makerbot

It's a little rough around the edges but not too much for the tinkerer, and really, isn't that who is going to buy these?

Grandma might be printing out SLA jewelry from HSN someday, but not soon.
Jon

Price of the machine is one thing... I see them following the way of the ink jet printers. They sell it to you at a loss and make their $$$ off the "ink".

Jon @ WoodMarvels.com
jeffreymatthias

I'm excited to see how the price comes out. I would also like to know an accurate price to print something. I know they give a price per lb. of material, but since it's a super inefficient system, the piece weight isn't going to give anywhere near a true cost. That said, one of our local SLA 3D rapid prototyping (their words, not mine) companies just fills their build space with as many nested models as they can. I supposed one could do the same here.

It's exciting to think that we may soon be with 3D printers where we are with regular printers... you know, where the cost of the stuff isn't the machine, but the ink or in this case, the build material.

I'll be looking forward to your reports from Solidworks World 2010
aWhatmough

As apposed to the price we part the price you will really need is the price per vertical inch. That is the thing the is not efficient with this tech. since you have to build a full layer even if you are creating one part that is 1" x 1" x .5" it would cost almost the same to build a block that is 5" x 5" x .5" The really thing that you are getting is convenience.

Jon also mentioned the "cost for consumables" issue. You are probably quite right. But, Stratasys (the FMD guys that make the Dimension) arn't exactly known for giving you a good deal on materails either. We have a company that would spool up plastic for our machine for FAR less money until Statasys started putting chips on the spools that told the machine how much was on the spool so that put an end to that.

Some thing to think about with material is the shelf life. one this it is probaby the glue head that might have a "shelf life" To me it would be pretty frustrating to have it and have the head clogged everything you go to use it because it doesn't get enough use. (Kinda like the big HP plotters shops have the don't use enough.. and has clogged heads every time you try to make a big print)

So, the way I look at it is you get a machine for under $5000 instead of $1200 and either way you get ripped off on material. but now at least you can print from the office :-).... I think even though the price is low you still need to consider using a service berau to print the parts. But a least cheaper machines will let more little local shops do 3D printing.

That's my to sense.