2015 3D Printing Review

Posted By Jess Hedstrom on Dec 30, 2015 | 0 comments

This week we’re sending out the last newsletter of 2015; we’d like to take this time to say Happy New Year from everyone here at Sculpteo! We hope your 2016 3D Printed projects are error free & exactly as you pictured them. Now we’re going to look back at 2015 to highlight events, changes to our website, and even some of our partnerships and collaborations that took place this year before we launch into 2016!

There are, of course, some obvious topics that will be covered (e.g. our new US Factory in California and partnership with Staples) I’m sure you’ll enjoy hearing about the highlights. We are going to cover many of the exciting things we did and places we went in 2015.

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Want to know what happened with 3D printing in 2015?

Website

Events

Partnerships

Production & Materials

Website Updates & Upgrades

We were excited to announce the launch of many new tools and features; you may have noticed that the site creates a more user friendly browsing experience that’s because we’ve made some improvements throughout the whole site to help our customers and visitors find their way around more easily! Not to mention that we’ve launched

Way back in January 2015, we announced the launch of our Final Proof feature on our website and the response has been amazing! We publicly announced that it was available at CES 2015, the biggest draw is that with this feature users will see their rendering in incredible detail before printing, saving on costly reprints and material wastage.

If you’ve ever experienced the disappointment that comes after receiving a 3D print that is nothing like what you imagined, FinalProof just might be the answer. By taking the guesswork out of 3D printing, Sculpteo continues to make the DIY movement more accessible, efficient, and rewarding to all.

– Kira Charron at 3Ders

March 2015 marked the launch of Sculpteo’s “Economy Plan” this was a big deal for our customers and for us as well. The 3D printing process begins as soon as the order is completed, and on our site your orders are optimized for speed, but if you don’t need your item optimized for speed, you can save 30% thanks to our Economy Plan (some restrictions apply). Take a look below at the traditional shipping times.

The 3D printing time depends primarily on the material you choose and the time at which you place your order:

Plastic: average processing time of 2 to 3 days. An additional 24 to 48 hours is required for polished and painted pieces.
Grey Plastic: average processing time of 6 to 7 days.
Multicolor: average processing time of 2 to 3 days. An additional of 24 to 48 hours is required for varnished pieces.
Alumide: average processing time of 6 to 7 days.
Sterling Silver: average processing time of 15 to 21 days.

Remember, 3D printing times can vary, depending on 3D printer batch availability. The accurate shipping estimation is provided at checkout.

There are independent designers who are going to see this as some excellent news. Many feel that the 30% off deal will allow them, given the proper time frame, to build larger objects. So consider this: if you don’t have a pressing “need for speed,” and you can afford to wait more than a week for your parts, the offering of different production options on plastic parts sounds like a winner.

– TE Halterman at 3Dprint.com

Mid and late 2015 we released two more updates for our website and you might not have noticed, the first is that our entire website is now available in Spanish! This is extremely exciting because as we continue to grow and expand geographically we are able to make products come to life for businesses (small to large), “start-ups”, and even one person with an idea in Europe, North America and parts of South America. If you are Spanish speaking feel free to check out our site here. The second update is for our European customers, we are now accepting additional payment options.

2015 U.S. and Europe Events

Below are some, but not all, of the events that we were present at in 2015. For more details about a specific event the links below will provide all the info you need. We hope to see you at an event or Meetup soon!

CES 2015, 3DPrintshow: Paris, London & Pasadena, Futur En Seine, Tradeshow 3D Print, Meetups in Paris, Grand Opening of the San Leandro Factory, Intellectual Property Panel, Interlaced FashionTech Show, Women in 3D Printing, Connected Conference, Meetups in San Francisco, Maker Faire Paris.

3D Printshow London

Women in 3D Printing

Maker Faire Paris

3D Printshow Pasadena

3D Printshow London

Interlaced FashionTech 3D printed dress by Maartje Dijkstra – Credits: Clausette

Partnerships & Collaborations

This Fall we entered into a Partnership with Staples the major retailer of office supplies, furniture, equipment & more! We are very excited about this relationship because they are now able to offer customized and specialized goods to their customers.

“This is a great addition for our business customers that are looking for an easy way to prototype with quick turnaround time, and at an affordable price,” said Behzad Soltani, vice president of services, e-commerce for Staples, Inc. “The platform allows beginners to get a taste and try 3D printing by selecting one of our existing models and making it their own through our customization options.”

– Behzad Soltani, VP of Services for Staples.

“We are thrilled to support Staples through our 3D Printing Cloud Engine. This is an exciting time for 3D Printing in Retail” said Clément Moreau, CEO & Co-Founder of Sculpteo, “Staples will become an entry point for both businesses and the general public to benefit of 3D printing, and we are proud that Sculpteo’s technology will help to make that possible.”

– Clement Moreau, CEO & Co-Founder of Sculpteo

This Fall we also Partnered with HP by allowing HP Sprout customers to to seamlessly upload their scans to our platform for 3D printing. By joining forces we are able to provide 48 material combinations, and allow HP customers to easily have access to our professional grade 3D printers.

Production & Materials

Over the course of this year, we have created many new and interesting updates to our production process; logistically we added shipping, and decreased shipping times (and cost) in North and South America thanks to our US factory.

We offer 60 micron layer thickness to our customers this Spring and it was a raging success, many of the prints shared on our social media accounts feature our 60 micron layer thickness. Our customers enjoy this so much because it has allowed them to get as close to the “injection molded” look without spending much time and money on post processing. We also offer polished and dyed Alumide, which we are very excited about. The finish is like no other material that we offer. And our new grey plastic powder was introduced in October, and we’ve seen feed back that these prints are more resistant to stains, and now dying is not necessary.