Cube one of the most prominently featured end designer focused machines on the market. The incorporation of reusable material cartridges is exciting as it removes a lot of the technical aspects of printing. Although the media would have us believe that additive manufacturing is as easy as hitting print that is not the case. Melting a material and depositing it in a specific location is a difficult process that requires the attention and engineering skills of trained materials science experts. Every change to a material can affect its performance, the addition of color, a compound change, dust or other debris.
From the industry side replaceable cartridges also provide a slightly varied business model. If 3D systems succeeds in selling millions of cubes they will have in place an installed user base that is dependent upon their cartridges (currently each one is $49 dollars) that can fund growth and hopefully further development into new materials, new printers, and new technology altogether.
The look and style of the Cube is also notable. Still in their infancy, many current printers are essentially one step above a garage prototype. The backing of a large organization and dedicated software teams means the cube is aesthetically pleasing and hopefully the user experience only continues to get better.
I have been watching the development of 3D printing technology with eagerness and excitement. There is lots of research & development and innovation involved in developing the materials and software to create any new technology, so I suppose its only fair and proper that the manufacturer locks down the purchasing of further printer cartridges to ensure they are bought from the owners of the patents, its the only way for the companies who are prepared to invest big money and lots of man hours to recoup their initial investment.If they didn’t nothing would change and we wouldn’t make any breakthrough’s in anything whatsoever.
But as with the current printer consumables market, it is only a matter of time before someone in China or wherever will see it as a quick way to make money, so rather than investing millions of pounds into developing their own technology they will just steal someone else’s and flood the market with cheap copies.