[rp-ml] Dimension uPrint.

From: Jeremy Pullin <Jeremy.Pullin_at_Renishaw.com>
Date: Thu Jan 29 2009 - 15:06:11 EET

Am I missing a vital point here or something. Dimensions new machine the uPrint talks a lot about breaking the £15,000 barrier but I really don't see the great significance of that particular figure or 'barrier' as they call it. Surely the important barriers to break down are those that take the technologies from an industrial to a consumer market. Don't get me wrong I am a big fan of Dimension machines and we have an SST machine here which just bangs on brilliantly but I think that Stratasys have over-hyped this as so often seems to happen in the RP/RM/whatever we're calling it today industry. This machine is not significantly cheaper than the existing Dimension machines and when I say that I mean it's not significant in terms of opening it up to new markets as the release of a £1,000 machine would be.
 
The claim that designers will no longer have to wait in queues because there will be one of these machines at the sides of their desks is hysterical over selling. Is any company seriously going to buy 30 or 40 of these things at £15,000 each or simply buy a couple of the conventional dimensions for a few thousand dollars more each? The other thing that makes me laugh is the claim that this is an office machine. Yes its small enough to fit on a desk I get that but from an environment point of view the constant noise of the fan and the heat gain of such machines mean that I wouldn't want one near my desk thanks. For the offices of super rich companies who are looking to waste a few hundred thousand dollars to prevent their poor designers having to queue up for centralised machines (the poor loves) and only employ deaf designers who work in offices with supercharged air conditioning, there is still the matter of the ultrasonic tanks running away dissolving the supports. These sort of features seems to have been conveniently missed in all the advertising blurb that I have read about the new machines. The noise, smell and mess of these things are not suited to offices any more than an axe wielding office cleaning lady during that 'hormonal time of the month' who has garlic breath as a serious flatulence problem.
 
It looks like a cool machine and is a welcome addition to what is already a cool range of machines but please stop over-hyping such products and talking about breaking fictitious and meaningless barriers. When there is a machine that is the size of an office printer with the environmental impact of an office printer and for the price of an office printer (call it £1,000 for convenience sake) that will be a barrier broken (that's the VFlash out on all counts then). When there is such a machine that costs less than $400 it will break another barrier, as the vision that so many people keep banging on about these technologies appearing in peoples homes will become a possibility. Mind you with suppliers talking about being able to produce any shape you want, boy are those consumers in for a big disappointment when they get it home.
 

        ____________________________________________
        Jeremy Pullin
        Rapid Manufacturing Manager Renishaw Plc
        Tel: +44 (0) 1453 524524
        Extn 3055
        mailto:jeremy.pullin@renishaw.com <mailto:jeremy.pullin@renishaw.com>
         
        

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Received on Thu Jan 29 15:09:33 2009

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