Editor’s Pick: A New Dimension in 3D Printer Pricing?

By Anthony J. Lockwood

  Dear Desktop Engineering Reader:

I doubled dipped on the altruism front recently. I bought my wife a big HDTV forher birthday, thereby boosting February’s consumer spending figures whileenhancing her viewing experience in a single “just for you, Lovey” manly action.We had considered buying one for a long time, but they were too costly. But nowwas the time. The price was right. The same can be said about rapidtechnologies. Now is the time to commit: Dimension 3D Printing has lowered theprice of its Dimension 1200es line of 3D printers.

Dimension 1200es 3Dprinters are the real deal. Now, let me digress here. People always talk uprapid prototyping systems as communications tools and that they provide acost-effective, faster alternative to third-party service outfits for producingprototypes for such jobs as functional testing, proof of concept, or productmockups. All true. But the more important attribute, especially in this economy,is that your Dimension 1200es helps you shorten design cycles and reduce scrapand rework, making and saving you money.

Say what? You see, you know thatyou can use the Dimension 1200es to print out a part or a bunch of partswhenever you want. But you might have repressed how Murphy torments you mostoften: As soon as you turn your beautifully rendered model into a physicalthing, you see its hideous flaw. So, by exposing design flaws from the earliest,least-expensive-to-fix stages of your process forward, the Dimension 1200eshelps you better your chances of producing a finished, shippable product on timeand with little or no scrap or last-minute rework cost overruns.

Now,back to the Dimension 1200es as the real deal. The line has a 10 in. x 10 in. x12 in. build size and comes with the software to handle all the details to getyour part prototyped. They are network-ready and office-friendly. Designed forunattended operation, they can send you status reports through e-mail or a pageror even post to the Web. They can prototype in ABSplus, a thermoplastic used inplastic injection molding because of its strength and surface finishcharacteristics. But the realest of real deals is that they are a steal withprices starting at $18,900 for the Dimension BST 1200es.

No technologythat I have covered over the last 14 years has generated as much desire nor hashad as many engineers prowling around it like cats around a mouse as have rapidprototyping systems. Now is the time to commit and retool your process. Theprice is right. Check out the new pricing and technical specs of the Dimension 1200es 3D printer line in today’s pick of the week write-up. You’ll find plenty of links to more details.

Read today’s Pick of the Week write-up.

Thanks, Pal.—Lockwood

Anthony J. Lockwood
Editor at Large, Desktop Engineering  Magazine