Mar.25, 2013
Five years ago when Brendan Goh and Tsang You Jun took part in a business competition for a project to make a prototype of a milk bottle which changed colour depending on the temperature of its contents, they experienced a big problem, prototyping.
Prototypes cost $1,000 and took many weeks (months sometimes) for one prototype to be made in China. Irritated at this process, Brendan Goh and Tsang You Jun, two young students at NanYang Technological University started looking for cheaper alternatives.
"We bought a reprap which was terrible and broke down so frequently and then finally put down $2000+ for an Ultimaker. " says the team.
"While it made the most beautiful prints (way better than the MakerBot) and still does, it was unreliable because of the parts it was made off and it was extremely sensitive to the environment and being moved around. It maybe made 3/10 prints successfully or less."
Together with their friend Roger Chang, they formed the start-up Pirate3DP (now Pirate3D) in 2011 with the aim of developing the most affordable, reliable, user-friendly 3D printer for the mass market.
Earlier this year Singapore based technology incubator Red Dot Ventures (RedDot) announced that they have invested SGD 589K ($482,000 USD) in Pirate3D to support this startup developing a 3D printer for the masses.
(New office)
The company's flagship product, the Buccaneer, is currently in the prototyping phase. Pirate3D will launch the 3D printer on Kickstarter next month to start accepting pre-orders, with delivery estimated in October. According to the founder, the Buccaneer 3D printer will cost US$300 and will be fully assembled and calibrated. The printing area is around 125mm * 125mm * 125mm which is suitable for printing smaller objects like phone covers, plastic jewellery and figurines. "About 80% of all prints actually fall within this range and hence why we decided to start with this as a base. In the future, we will release larger printers for those with specific needs." says the team.
(Photo credit: Tan Chong Yaw)
(Photos credit: Pirate3D)
The company will not only build an affordable 3D printer for the mass market, but also a platform like an iTunes store of designs that users can buy and print straightaway.
"We don't want to be just another 3D printer company, we want to be the ones the history books remember as who truly brought the technology into the homes of the everyday man." notes the team.
Thanks to Larissa for the tip!
Posted in 3D Printer company
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Pirate3d just revealed that they will implement nothing of their stretch goals and other tech specs, like printing with ABS, heated printbed, auto-calibration and auto-feeding in the final machine! Really bad!
CornGolem wrote at 3/29/2013 1:07:23 PM:
Better than the Ultimaker and 4 times cheaper ? I'd like to see that
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