14 DAY TRIAL // MakerBot continues to press its advantage and exploit its status as one of the world's best known 3D printer makers, if not the best known. Its latest product is the Replicator Z18.
This 3D printer was made specifically so that owners could make larger objects than is usually possible for a 3D printer.
It's the sort of thing that will place “industrial-strength 3D printing” within reach of consumers and “prosumers” (professional consumers as it were).
Said build volume is of 12 x 12 x 18 inches (304 x 304 x 457 mm), larger than most desktop PCs really. The volume thus adds to 2,592 cubic inches of printing space (42,475,269 cubic mm).
It's really not surprising at all that the price of the MakerBot Replicator Z18 would, then, be of $6,499 / €4,773. Something like this couldn't come cheap after all.
And there are features besides the bare build volume that had to be taken into account, although an advantage of 35 times the size of its more modest sibling cannot be discounted.
The Replicator Z18 also gets a built-in camera, a Smart Extruder, Wi-Fi, USB, Ethernet support and a color display.
Also, the minimum print height is of 1000 microns, which ensures a very high level of detail for every sculpture. Well, it will depend on the model too, but the potential is there.
Industrial prototypes, models and products are most likely to be made with this thing, rather than little toys and figurines. It's not like common consumers will afford or have room for it in their bedrooms after all.
MakerBot will, as always, allow buyers to access its Thingiverse.com library to get 3D models if they cannot make their own. Built-in flash memory can even be used to run MakerBot's apps and files independently of a PC, assuming you bothered to copy them there previously.