3D printer at your home.

3D printing at home becomes reality. Not only professionals has the possibilities to use a 3D printer. Today, everyone can get have his own 3D printer.

History of 3D printing
You've probably already heard of 3D printing. Professional companies are printing numerous objects with large printers. In China a company printed a building of five stores high, fully printed with a 3D printer. 3D printers actually already exist from the 80's, it were very big and slow machines and there were too many obstacles to produce a perfect object.

Now a days the 3D printers are much better equipped because of the latest technologies, they are getting faster and faster (read: now it takes only 30 hours to produce a small object such as a wrench of 15 cm long).

3D printer at your home
Beside professional 3D printers, there are now 3D printers made for in your home. For the price of an iPhone (600 euro) you can get them at your house. They come with a toolkit from over 100 steps but with very detailed explanations. The Velleman K8400 Vertex is such a model that can be placed in your living room.

You can print almost any object directly from the computer. So you can design stuff by yourself. There are already plenty of items available on the Internet that can be download for free. After downloading, you can personalize them with the CAD program on the PC or laptop. It's now possible to write your own name on a cup for instance.

Disadvantages of 3D printing
The machine has a high-tech looking, and only serves to create objects that are no larger than the machine itself, for it is 36 cm (14,17 inch) long, 38 cm (14,96 inch) high and 39,5 cm (15,55 inch) deep.

The material from which the objects are made is PLA (Polylactic Acid). This material is not heat resistant. So it is still waiting for better materials. The material is available in the form of rolled wires that are attached to the unit by bobbins.

Even today we still not know if the machine releases harmful substances during the making process of the object. More tests and time will decide.

Creating an object also takes many time. You need patience by an average of almost a half a day to make an object. Making an object that you need immediate isn't an option.

In our view there's still a lot of work on the design. It has to be a pearl within the interior instead of a complex high-tech machine with lots of wires. Optimize the design and people will like to have such a high-tech machine in their homes.

Single-handed people probably don't won't such device, because there's a big roadmap to make this unit and you should already have some understanding and knowledge of CAD programs.

So it is still waiting for a plug and play device that can be purchased in the better electro stores for unpacking it at home and start using it instantly.

Many people are probably scared to have such a device in their house now because of all these disadvantages.

Future of 3D printing
If 3D printers get their work done faster, getting a slicker design and can be bought as a plug and play machine in the store, than it will be the best invention of these decades. We believe this is the invention that will boom in the coming years. Everyone will want to have such a 3D printer at his home. Just like a GSM, the Smart Phone, Tablet, microwave, washing machine and the Internet, the 3D printer will be an essential part of our lives. We are certainly very excited and expect a lot of the following 3D printer models.