Products & Patents
As part of 3D Systems' effort to consolidate 3D printing under one logo, its products span a range of 3D printers and print products to target all potential consumers of its technologies. The three branches of printers offered by 3D Systems are personal, professional, and production. Though production-grade printers formed the early backbone of the company, 3D Systems' extension to professional and personal printers follows the company's reported desire to "level the playing field" in manufacturing and open up access to the resources that have traditionally been reserved for deep-pocketed companies. In addition to printers, 3D Systems offers content creation software to consumers unversed in CAD, with the expressed hope of making content creation "as simple and intuitive as a video game." Following a razors and blades business model, 3D Systems offers more than one hundred materials to be used with its printers, including waxes, rubber-like materials, metals, composites, plastics and nylons.
3D Systems is a closed-source company, relying on in-house innovation for product development and improvement, and a protective shield of patents to advantage its technologies over competitors'. Critics of the closed-source model have blamed seemingly slow development and innovation in 3D printing not on a lack of technology, but on a lack of open information sharing within the industry. Supporters of the closed source model argue that the right to patents inspires and motivates higher-quality innovations, leading to a better and more impressive final product.
3D Systems has applied for patents for the following innovations and technologies: the rapid prototyping and manufacturing system and method; radiation curable compositions useful in image projection systems; compensation of actinic radiation intensity profiles for 3D modelers; apparatus and method for cooling part cake in laser sintering; radiation curable compositions useful in solid freeform fabrication systems; apparatus for 3D printing using imaged layers; compositions and methods for selective deposition modeling; edge smoothness with low resolution projected images for use in solid imaging; elevator and method for titling solid image build platform for reducing air entrapment and for build release; selective deposition modeling methods for improved support-object interface; region-based supports for parts produced by solid freeform fabrication; additive manufacturing methods for improved curl control and sidewall quality; support and build material and applications.
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