M3D (company)

Financing leading up to launch of M3D was obtained by the founders through personal finances amounting to US$150,000.[1] Subsequent funding for M3D was obtained through a Kickstarter campaign aimed at pre-sales of Micro units.[3] The price point for the Micro was US$299[nt 1] and the initial fundraising goal was US$50,000, which was reached 11 minutes after the campaign's launch;[3] the campaign went on to raise a total of US$3,400,000 through pre-sale of 11,000 units.[1]

In August 2016, M3D released a new 3D printer aimed at more experienced users named the M3D Pro. It ran on Kickstarter for 45 days until its conclusion on October 1, 2016 after raising over US$50,000.

As of May 2017, the M3D Pro had raised over US$960,000. It was announced as publicly available for purchase with a 2-week delivery time. The announcement also revealed the option of "Using a 750-micron nozzle to fuse plastic layers together with a stronger bond, M3D believe the structural printing mode to be unique." At the same time as the M3D Pro announcement, M3D also announced a 2017 version of the original Micro 3D Printer, the Micro+, which differs by having an ARM-core processor, enabling double the print speed, and better third party software integration, according to one article.[4] As of this date (May 15th, 2020) M3D LLC has not delivered all the M3D Pro units to backers and after a host of issues and the companies inability to include or enable most of the important features promised in the campaign, the Pro was removed from the M3D web site.

The company's business model is to address the consumer market with a low cost, small form, simple to program unit.[3] According to one report, 56,000 personal 3D printers were shipped globally in 2012 and the market is expected to grow to close to 2 million units by 2018.[1] The Micro was described in October 2014 as "one of the lowest-priced personal 3-D printers that you don't have to build yourself."[1] The form of the unit is a 7-inch cube weighing 2 pounds.[3] The initial Kickstarter price point of $299 has not been maintained, but increased to $349 by October 2014.[1][5] This low cost was achieved through reduction of "power consumption by a factor of 10 compared to professional 3D printers",[3] and the use of locally sourced, standardized electronics.[1]

The company also produces 3D Ink (Filament) used in 3D printing,[3] including color changing 3D Ink which responds to temperature.[5]

In 2016 the company announced Tough 3D Ink, which "bonds seamlessly at full strength and can be as rigid or flexible as you want," and ABS-R 3D Ink, an alternative to ABS with less odor that "bonds "better, warps less, and doesn’t require a heated print bed." It is, however, not ABS, but regular PETG.[6]

In June, 2017 the company announced the Promega, its first large-format 3D printer.[7] The printer has a 20" cubed outer dimension and offers a 15.3" cubed print volume, which its stated to be one of the most space efficient printers made. It also leverages a newly released "Compound" print head, which takes an input of two filaments and combines the flows into a single extrusion, allowing printing of individual materials or mixing of materials as long as they have similar printing temperatures.

In April 2018, the company launched the Quad, a 4-color mixing extruder on Kickstarter.[8] In June, 2018 the company announced the Crane Quad Color 3D Printer which also leverages the Duet3D [9]