The race for the cheapest 3D printer heats up as startup company New Matter revealed its MOD-t printer, which can be purchased for only $149.
The company launched its 35-day Indiegogo kickstarter campaign for the MOD-t printer, where the printer will be sold to the first 500 contributors for only $149. The next 1,000 units will be sold for $199, and then all succeeding units will have a price of $249.
The campaign is looking to raise at least $375,000, which will be used for fabrication. The company is looking to have the product out to its first customers within the first half of 2015.
Steve Schell, co-founder of New Matter with Bill Gross of Idealab, said that the company was able to lower the price of the MOD-t printer by making improvements in the engineering aspect of the machine. The build plate of the MOD-t printer, which is the part that moves the printed object under the print head, utilizes a new kind of motion system that uses less components while at the same time improving precision.
New Matter is also developing custom software for the device, which can be used for both desktop and mobile printing. Printing will be completely wireless, and will not stop even when the computer or smartphone is taken out of the room where the printer is.
"We took a step back and thought about how people interact with consumer electronics today," said Schell.
"They want to be able to interact with a machine from anywhere, whether they are on a computer, their phone, a tablet or anywhere else. If the print is going to take four hours, you don't want to leave the laptop sitting next to it the whole time."
New Matter is also planning to launch a library for 3D printing designs at the end of the kickstarter campaign. The library, which will have some of the designs for free and some for sale, will help novice users of the 3D printer get started, especially those without design backgrounds.
"We want to provide users with a highly curated store filled with designs they could print out on their MOD-t," said Schell.
"That's what makes us unique from all the other Kickstarters out there claiming to have an inexpensive 3-D printer."
The campaign for New Matter's MOD-t 3D printer comes three weeks after the close of a similar campaign for M3D's Micro 3D printer, which raised more than $3.4 million.
