The HUGE MarkerBot advantage.......

[ifti 0]

I understand a heated build chamber is really required when printing ABS - especially for larger builds?

Considering the patent for a heated build chamber is held by Stratasys, meaning no other company is able to implement this on their design (not to place on sale anyway) it means Ultimaker are unable to implement a heated build chamber.

However, now that Stratasys has taken over MakerBot, we are certainly looking at a new Replicator design somewhere down the line with a heated build chamber - perfect for ABS prints.

Does this now give Makerbot a huge advantage? I mean, Makerbot now has access to several patents owned by Stratasys that no other 3D printer manufacturer has access to. This in itself could be big.

Or course, you are free to create your own heated chamber designs, as many have, but for personal use only - not for resale. Its a patent that is so generic that it should never have been granted for one particular manufacturer, in my opinion. It limits competition which isn't great for consumers.

I wonder what Makerbot will be coming up with in the near future.......

 

[huberbobas 0]

Don't be stupid, you can sell parts and other can DIY it to their own printer. Nobody will care if you sell arduino with a heater that can be used to heat a print chamber, but since it will take 90% of guesswork for average joe this can be used no only in ultimaker bu other printers too.

 

[hacklordsniper 1]

It is not nice to call other members stupid. Its a nice discussion and interesting one too. Im sure some manufacturer could find a way around that patent, but for now more than 90 % of printers are fully open and not enclosed so nobody is bothering with it.

However if you look there are allready various enclosed printers (mostly those coming from China)

 

[Daid 306]

The patent for the heated chamber that they have is not really a huge issue. It's about how to put the motors outside the chamber and some other complexities that you can get around. There is already an OpenSource printer that did their homework and made a chamber that does not infringe the patent. (IANAL)

Anyhow, the biggest problem for Makerbot is that they are part of Stratasys now.

There are 2 possibilities why they no longer offer dual extrusion for example. One would be that they never got it to work properly, but that would mean there would be a lot of complaining. Other being that Stratasys told them to stop doing that, as that's reserved for their higher end models from Stratasys.

 

[ian 32]

Good point !

Ian :-)