CES: Fabrication nation: MakerBot unveils new ecosystem

The company revealed a new ecosystem in which three updated fabricators use built-in cameras that synchronise with the new MakerBot desktop app MakerWave and MakerBot Mobile app. Using the apps, users can explore MakerBot’s open-source design network Thingiverse, prepare files for printing, and remotely control and monitor their designs as they print.

‘When we started, we called ourselves a 3D printing company,’ MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis told delegates at the Mandalay Bay Hotel. ‘Now we can’t say that. With our software offerings we are a 3D printing ecosystem. We have never made it this easy for people to 3D print.’

The MakerBot Mini Compact 3D printer is billed as an easy-to-use 3D printer for everyone, which uses what Pettis described as ‘one touch’ technology that requires only a single button to operate it. The MakerBot Replicator Desktop 3D printer is larger, more expensive and described as the company’s prosumer offer. The MakerBot Replicator Z18 3D printer, meanwhile, is MakerBot’s professional model.

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