The 3Doodler: kickstarter.com
3D Printing in the Palm of Your Hand
Walter Russell Mead
February 21, 2013
3Doodler, billed as “the world’s first and only 3D printing pen,” has received an extraordinary infusion of investments on the crowd-sourced funding platform Kickstarter:
3Doodler is the world’s first and only 3D Printing Pen. Using ABS plastic (the material used by many 3D printers), 3Doodler draws in the air or on surfaces. It’s compact and easy to use, and requires no software or computers. You just plug it into a power socket and can start drawing anything within minutes.
Oh, and it’s also the most affordable way to 3D print… by a looong way! With 3Doodler we’re making fun 3D creation accessible to everyone.
As 3Doodler draws, it extrudes heated plastic, which quickly cools and solidifies into a strong stable structure. This allows you to build an infinite variety of shapes and items with ease!
Wobbleworks, the innovators behind 3Doodler, were initially shooting for $30,000 in start-up funds. But in less than two days, they’ve amassed a staggering $1.2 million from almost 14,000 donors.
Three-dimensional printing has great potential to disrupt the way products are manufactured, and as the prices for printers come down, the field will open up to average consumers too. Small, cheap and fun products like 3Doodler are a minor but important step toward the much more powerful technology that could change the world.
blogs.the-american-interest.com |
