'da Vinci' 3D printer nabs CES award with US$499 price tag

Want China Times, CNA 2014-01-13

The 'da Vinci' 3D printer on XYZprinting's website. (Photo Courtesy
of XYZprinting)

At just US$499, XYZprinting's new 3D printer, the da Vinci 1.0, caused quite a stir at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas — including among the editors at Reviewed.com, who selected the printer for an Editor's Choice Award.

The Taiwanese firm's entry-level 3D printer beat 27 other products to earn the endorsement from Reviewed.com, which presented the awards in partnership with CES organizers.

Judges praised the da Vinci 1.0 as an "affordable and approachable 3D printing" device, comparing it to products from other brands that use the same fused filament fabrication (FFF) technology but generally cost over US$1,400.

"The display of the XYZprinting 3D printer drew the attention of global media at the CES show because of its low price, and we also received a lot of inquiries from worldwide distributors," Gary Shu, senior manager of XYZprinting's market development division, said in a statement.

XYZprinting, a unit of Taiwanese electronics conglomerate Kinpo Group, is scheduled to start shipping its da Vinci 1.0 printers to China in January, Japan and the United States in February, and Europe in March, chairman Simon Shen told a media briefing last month.

The company has set its global sales target at 100,000 printers in 2014 and 1 million over the next three years, Shen said.

3D printing is the automated process of making a three-dimensional solid object of virtually any shape based on a digital model. The technology is already changing the design, prototyping and manufacturing processes in a wide range of industries, according to a report by market research firm Gartner Inc.

Gartner said that enterprise-class 3D printers will soon be available for under US$2,000, advising businesses to start experimenting with the technology to improve traditional design and prototyping methods.