The printer should be able to use filament from any provider

Sep 8, 2014 08:46 GMT  ·  By

MOTA has mostly been making a name for itself on the wearable electronics market, and it even brought some things to the IFA 2014 trade show taking place in Berlin, Germany. What we have here is different though.

You see, the company also intends to enter the 3D printing industry. Since the market has only gone through the first 2-3 of the formative years, whoever joins now will still get the honor of later being able to claim they were among the first to take up the mantle.

Sure, the company has to play catch-up with names like Stratasys and 3D Systems, the latter of whom also has an IFA 2014 booth (3D Systems Cube and CubePro Trio have shown up on site).

Anyway, MOTA has prepared a 3D printer which it means to sell starting later this year, possibly by Christmas. Only a prototype was available, a working proof of concept mostly.

The good news, though, is that the printer has already been crowd-funded and will be one of the cheapest ever created, with a price of $99 / €99 if you can believe it.

The catch

The catch is pretty predictable, but minor: the print size will not be anything to write home about, at 165 x 165 x 165 mm / 6.5 x 6.5 x 6.5 inches.

Then again, there are more expensive printers with a smaller volume, so MOTA may just be singing the right tune here. Especially since the 100 micron layer resolution is more than decent.

Still, it should be good enough for show-and-tell items, or maybe architectural models or other such things, for science projects or just simple toys.

Essentially, this spec sheet and the price mentioned above make the MOTA 3D Printer sound too good to be true. Apparently, though, it is. And it even has a closed chamber design, so no fumes will flood your workshop.

You even get two input methods (network and USB), an optional heated build plate (for an extra fee, otherwise you need to use the normal, cold on, and adhesive tape to keep prints stable during the process), and a print speed of 60 square mm/s to 120 square mm/s (300 mm thickness in the latter case, from what we understand).

The bottom line

MOTA's 3D printer is bound to stir a few hornet's nests when it finally debuts, hopefully by the end of the year, maybe before the conclusion of November. It will be compatible with PCs (desktops and laptops) and tablets alike.

MOTA 3D Printer (7 Images)

The MOTA 3D Printer
The MOTA 3D PrinterThe MOTA 3D Printer
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