I first learned about them over a decade ago when people started getting chunks of their minecraft worlds printed out in color. The results were quite impressive.

https://www.realtimerendering.com/erich/minecraft/public/min...

PCBway seems to be pushing more 3d printing and CNC services. I wonder if this ate into shapeway's profits?

Never heard of them, seems to be a 3d printing company for products an individual would design.

I wonder if this could be due to a fall in prices of 3d printers ? I can only assume prices have fallen for those printers.

High print prices, economies of scale can't match injection moulding. A lot of 3d projects can't get off the ground, because of it. High unit prices of 3d-printed items kill sales and the cost of launching projects using injection moulding is beyond the reach of a lot of designers. I had to park mine, because I cannot sell my project for $60 per item and to sell it for $5 I'd need to pay ~$15k for the mould, material, manufacturing of at least 10,000 items for the market where I might sell 500 to 1000 items. It just does not add up.

I’d be interested to understand why the $60 is incompressible or an unsellable price.

Did you consult with a print farm to see how much they could produce your items for, or was this based on you producing them yourself? Also, designing for manufacturability is a thing, and slightly changing your design can yield massive improvements in costs.

I’m not saying 3D printing is magic—I very much understand there are very strong limits. But the jump from $60 to $5 seems massive.

> I’d be interested to understand why the $60 is incompressible or an unsellable price.

An accessory for the market where the highest-priced products sell for $200-$300. $60 is not an attractive proposition in that market.

> Did you consult with a print farm to see how much they could produce your items for, or was this based on you producing them yourself?

I used a pro 3D print facility, that's the best they could do. I did my research and found similar quotes from other printers.

> Also, designing for manufacturability is a thing, and slightly changing your design can yield massive improvements in costs.

Absolutely, but the design could not be simplified any more. You simply cannot go from $60 to $5 using 3d printing technologies, material, and finish. Yes, I did use 3d printing farms and the results were unusable, the quality was unacceptable. You can can go even lower than $5 using injection moulding, I was quoted $0.5 if I ordered 100000 pieces. The problem with injection moulding is the cost of the mould, the material, and the storage of unsold inventory. You really have to be sure that you will sell it. There is also nobody to talk to if you want certain quality or finish. There is a reason why manufacturers of certain products keep it in-house.

They also had higher end and more labor intensive processes like precious metal castings, I assume by printing in a resin that can be burned out of a mold, then casting in the void it leaves behind.

I always figured this was the main part of their business, and people who just wanted 3D printed plastic parts were either doing a small quantity or would buy their own printer and not be repeat customers.

https://www.shapeways.com/materials/platinum

There are services like CNC machining and injection molding too, not nearly as easy to bring those in-house compared to 3D printers. But also more competition in that space.

That makes me kind of sad, my first custom designed 3d print (in nylon, no less) came from them.

Oh no! My wedding rings were printed there. Very fond of them.

I was intending to get them remade a bit bigger.

What is the “AM industry”? Mentioned several times but not described.

Additive Manufacturing