The reason that you’re reading this website is that, about five years ago, key patents surrounding fused deposition modeling expired, allowing a number of Makers working on home 3D printing machines to begin selling their wares to the public, including the startup that has become the face of desktop manufacturing, MakerBot. As more patents begin to expire for other 3D printing technologies, similar explosions in affordable additive manufacturing are expected to take place.
We’ve already seen a slew of stereolithography machines hit the market, but have not heard much regarding selective laser sintering, first invented by Carl Deckard out of UT Austin. After Deckard’s key patent for SLS expired earlier this year, many had hoped that the cost of the technology, which can reach as high as $250,000, would be dramatically reduced, as it had with the other 3D printing methods. It may be that that pattern is getting set to unfold, as one UK company called Norge Systems, which has announced a Kickstarter campaign for two lower priced SLS machines, the Ice1 and Ice9.…
The original post First Low Cost SLS 3D Printers Hit the Scene appeared first on 3D Printing Industry.