3D Printers (Score 5)

Hello all, I'm new to this site and I'm also President of ToyBuilders.com the website mentioned in the New Scientist article. First let me say that articles usually never get all of the fact exactly right and so it goes with this one. We were not aware of the article until last night when someone sent a email indicating it existed. We describe 5 technologies on our website that cover most of what is commercially available in the US there are several others in Japan, Israel and other countries. We talk about the 5 technologies that we have immediate access to and those technologies that meet our safety requirements regarding material safety. Onto the business of Star Trek like replicators.... These technologies have been around for roughly 11 years and I have been in the Rapid Prototyping business for nearly that long as well. The stereolithography process has been around the longest and it uses a UV curable liquid polymer as its build material. Others use nylon, metal, wax, paper, polycarbonate and sand. There are new materials being introduced every day and with the introduction of the more reasonably priced machines we decided it was time to introduce the general public to the limitless possibilities that these machines posses. While initially it seems that the material price is expensive ($380 per gallon) look at it on a part by part basis! The sample part on our website would cost the consumer about $20. Lets keep in mind that these machines will build literally anything you can imagine and yes you can build moving parts, complex shapes that can not be made using any other method. We have even take CT and MRI data and converted it a solid model that can be made on these machines. There are no limitations! We were concern if the general public would have any interest in this stuff and I must say in the 2 months the site has been up we have had well over 300,000 hits with no advertising and about a 0.5% purchase thru rate! Not bad! I'll leave it here and would love to here any comments you folks have. I was glad to hear about this site and glad to be a member. Karl R. Denton President ToyBuilders.com