Re: Stereo lithography in the news

From: Bathsheba Grossman (sheba@bathsheba.com)
Date: Wed May 07 2003 - 23:58:22 EEST


On Wed, 7 May 2003, Steve Garrison wrote:
> I don't know if anyone saw the article at the New York Times
> on-line. Buried in the middle of the story is talk of HP entering the 3d
> printing (Bunny Burner) business, that would sell for as little as $1000.00
> and they were thinking about building "a high-cost stereo lithographic
> printer, code-named Zorro".

Oh, I hope so! This would be exactly what I've been predicting for
the last several years.

> It's nice yet terrifying to see a company like HP jump in with a $1000
> printer.

It would be the best possible thing for the technology: a large,
sensible company with an interest in bringing additive RP to a wide
customer base. There's nothing inherently expensive or exclusive
about stereolithographic technology, only the short-sighted approach
of the existing manufacturers makes it appear so.

> IF the quality is there what will that do to Service Bureaus?

No doubt some will survive...I have a copier that cost less than $200,
but for some reason Kinko's is still in business. The bar will be
raised, for sure.

For my own part, I knew when I bought my Solidscape unit that this was
a near-term risk. If it's becoming a real possibility, then I'm
awfully glad I've taken my loss and got out. Now I can enjoy news of
progress again.

> Will all those smaller parts be built in house? Even a dedicated
> hobbyist could contemplate buying a "Bunny Burner".

Even an un-dedicated hobbyist. Even if HP doesn't do it, eventually
somebody will - and then what fun we'll all have.

Thanks for the heads-up,

-Sheba

--
Bathsheba Grossman                 phone (831)429-8224, fax (831)460-1242
Sculpting geometry                                          bathsheba.com
Solidscape prototyping                                     protoshape.com


This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Sat Jan 17 2004 - 15:17:26 EET