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impactlab_2014 00049.txt

#Home depot starts selling Makerbot 3d printers 3d printed nuts and bolts from a Makerbot. Home depot, the world s largest home improvement chain, announced the start of a pilot program#to sell Makerbots. They are described by the manufacturer as a type of professional-grade 3-D printing machine and will be in a dozen stores following a three-month period of online-only sales. Video)# The Makerbot printers, which range from a compact $1, 375 model to a high-end $2, 899 version, went on sale July 14 in Chicago and New york city-area stores, as well as Home depot locations throughout California. As we were thinking about a partnership with Makerbot, we re always looking for new innovation, Joe Downey, Home depot s online merchant for tools, told Huffpost by phone. It s really about bringing about new innovation to customers. 3-D printers can whip up everything from#vagina selfies#to#handguns, but Home depot envisions its customers using the Makerbots for decidedly more practical applications. Imagine a world where you can 3-D print replacement parts and use 3-D printing as an integral part of design and building work, Makerbot CEO Bre Pettis said in a statement. In demonstration kiosks at the 12 pilot locations, Home depot employees can show customers how to print items like#replacement parts and product prototypes, CBS reports. While a Makerbot can, in theory, churn out many of the same items that people go to Home depot to buy, the retailer doesn t seem worried about 3-D printing itself into obsolescence. We re comfortable with the partnership, Downey said, noting that customers haveeconomies of scale to consider. In other words, a Makerbot owner would be unlikely to print all her own screws or bolts for a large project. Besides said Pettis of the current fleet of Makerbot printers, You can t use it as a hammer. Downey said customers typically use the printers for personalization projects, like a Chicago father who Downey said purchased a Makerbot to print custom furniture for his daughter s dollhouse. The current generation of 3-D printers are still relatively slow#printing an item the size of a Lego brick can take roughly half an hour #and customers would still need to go to a store to purchase the (often costly) raw materials. Ten years from now, it will be quite common for people to have 3-D printers in their homes Tim Shepherd, an analyst with the U k.-based research firm Canalys,#told Bloomberg last week. In addition to Home depot, companies like#Amazon, Staples and Dell have joined the ranks of 3-D printer retailers. Touted as asecond industrial revolution, 3-D printing comprises a $3 billion industry#that has grown 600 percent#in the past decade, Forbes reports. Via Huffington Post Share Thissubscribedel. icio. usfacebookredditstumbleupontechnorat e

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