Close
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Video
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Video
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Innovation
    • Innovation

    MakerBot Has a New Brooklyn Home, Ahead of 3D Scanner Release

    Written by

    Michelle Maisto
    Published June 8, 2013
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.

      MakerBot, the Brooklyn-based (and Brooklyn-proud) creator of desktop 3D printers, cut the red ribbon on its new 55,000-square-foot facility in the waterfront-abutting neighborhood of Sunset Park on June 7.

      It’s a new factory inside an old factory. Or, as founder Bre Pettis said, before cutting the ribbon with a giant pair of MakerBot-made scissors, “It’s a factory that makes small factories.”

      The wide-open layout has two walls of classic factory windows, a freshly painted gray cement floor sending a scent of newness into the air, sneakers squeaking over the light thrum of active printers, and a young, T-shirt-wearing workforce that makes the whole place seem like a well-funded high-school science fair.

      “We’re really at the beginning of the next industrial revolution,” said a delighted Pettis.

      “Every box that we ship out of here is a bundle of potential energy that has the potential to … push the world in a direction where it’s more creative, people are more empowered and the world is better,” said Pettis. “It used to be that when you had an idea, you had to have access to a tycoon.”

      Today, a person with an idea, and less than $3,000, can execute on a vision, share it and perfect it. Prototypes that typically took months to make can now be created in a few hours.

      “That just changes the game,” said Pettis. “This is a digital manufacturing education in a box.”

      Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn’s colorful borough president—known for, among other things, installing signs at Brooklyn’s edges that say things like, “Leaving Brooklyn? Oy vey!”—also beamed from a makeshift stage.

      “The world’s changing, and [MakerBot] represents where the world is going,” said Markowitz. “The future is right here.”

      Pettis and his staff wouldn’t comment on rumors that MakerBot may soon be acquired—”I can’t comment on speculation,” said Pettis—or on how many printers it’s shipping a day.

      Diana Pincus, a senior manufacturing process engineer, offered, “What we can say is, we cannot keep up with demand.”

      The Future of 3D Printing

      Lux Research has forecast that 3D printing could rise from 2012’s $777 million to an $8.4 billion industry by 2025.

      Gartner analyst Pete Basiliere has called 3D printing a democratizer of manufacturing.

      “We see 3D printing as a tool for empowerment, already enabling life-changing parts and products to be built in struggling countries [and] helping rebuild crisis-hit areas,” Basiliere said in a March statement introducing a new report on how the technology is disrupting business and creating new opportunities.

      MakerBot Has a New Brooklyn Home, Ahead of 3D Scanner Release

      The technology is finding audiences in architecture, engineering, geospatial and medical fields—there’s talk of using 3D printers on asteroids and the moon to create parts for spacecraft, Basiliere pointed out.

      But, of course, the real benefit of a machine that costs less than $3,000 and is roughly the size of a large microwave is that it’s not only available to geophysicists in private labs.

      In 2001, Pettis and eventual MakerBot co-founders Adam Mayer and Zach Smith wanted a 3D printer. “But they were like $100,000,” said Pettis. “So what do you do when you want something and you can’t afford it? You make it yourself. And we’re not engineers—we’re tinkerers.”

      In 2009, they had a machine that almost worked, so they quit their jobs and started MakerBot.

      “It was designed to be a really flexible platform … for people at home, not for manufacturers.” The company’s latest model, the Replicator 2X, is designed to be even simpler to put together.

      MakerBot introduced the Replicator 2X in September 2012, eight months after the introduction of its earlier Replicator model. The company credits the short time between the models with the decision to have its factory in Brooklyn. Had the factory been a 20-hour flight away in Asia, with the inevitable hassles of doing business in a foreign country, it wouldn’t have worked, said Pettis.

      “Making it here, with people who take pride in their work, we just make a better product. Plus,” he said, “Brooklyn is just the best place in the world.”

      Speed, or more specifically, the power to act, is essential to Pettis.

      When asked by eWEEK where he thinks the industry will be in five years, he giddily pointed out that by the end of this year, MakerBot will launch the 3D scanner that it showed off in prototype at South By Southwest , “and then it’s game on.”

      “People want to talk about the future … and I’m like screw that. We’re doing it this year,” he said. “Whatever industry you’re in—where will it be in five years? Go make those major changes right now.”

      Follow Michelle Maisto on Twitter.

      Michelle Maisto
      Michelle Maisto
      Michelle Maisto has been covering the enterprise mobility space for a decade, beginning with Knowledge Management, Field Force Automation and eCRM, and most recently as the editor-in-chief of Mobile Enterprise magazine. She earned an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University.

      Get the Free Newsletter!

      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

      Get the Free Newsletter!

      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Artificial Intelligence

      9 Best AI 3D Generators You Need...

      Sam Rinko - June 25, 2024 0
      AI 3D Generators are powerful tools for many different industries. Discover the best AI 3D Generators, and learn which is best for your specific use case.
      Read more
      Cloud

      RingCentral Expands Its Collaboration Platform

      Zeus Kerravala - November 22, 2023 0
      RingCentral adds AI-enabled contact center and hybrid event products to its suite of collaboration services.
      Read more
      Artificial Intelligence

      8 Best AI Data Analytics Software &...

      Aminu Abdullahi - January 18, 2024 0
      Learn the top AI data analytics software to use. Compare AI data analytics solutions & features to make the best choice for your business.
      Read more
      Latest News

      Zeus Kerravala on Networking: Multicloud, 5G, and...

      James Maguire - December 16, 2022 0
      I spoke with Zeus Kerravala, industry analyst at ZK Research, about the rapid changes in enterprise networking, as tech advances and digital transformation prompt...
      Read more
      Video

      Datadog President Amit Agarwal on Trends in...

      James Maguire - November 11, 2022 0
      I spoke with Amit Agarwal, President of Datadog, about infrastructure observability, from current trends to key challenges to the future of this rapidly growing...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2024 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×