By Elisha Hartwig2013-01-22 16:18:54 UTC

Consumers are always on the lookout for truly innovative products, and this is no different with Formlabs, maker of a low-cost 3D printer that was embraced before it even came to market. But along with innovation often comes ethical or legal issues, and for the founders of Formlabs, that issue is the potential to use printers to create plastic guns.

The Formlabs team behind this innovative product are three MIT graduate students Maxim Lobovsky, David Cranor and Nate Linder. The three met in 2009 in MIT's "How to Make (Almost) Anything" class, and founded Formlabs together in September 2011.

Formlabs shattered its $100,000 goal on Kickstarter, and raised $2,945,885 — making the Form 1 3D printer the highest-funded tech campaign in Kickstarter history. The Form 1 can be pre-ordered at the discounted price of $3,299 through its website. Your products will be delivered in May; all pre-orders for April delivery are already sold out. Most 3D printers cost tens of thousands of dollars, so $3,299 is extremely low-cost, to put that price in perspective.

SEE ALSO: 3D Printer Breaks Kickstarter Tech Funding Record

If you've ever wanted to print 3D objects at home on-demand, now is your chance. Formlabs has completed development of the Form 1 3D printer, which is said to revolutionize the 3D printing landscape. Although there are a lot of 3D printers in the market today, the Form 1 is innovative and affordable compared with similar products — it is the highest-resolution low-cost 3D printer and uniquely uses a process called stereolithography.

We chatted with Maxim Lobovsky, who comments on Formlabs' Kickstarter success, offers some advice for aspiring tech startups and briefly touches on potential legal issues with 3D printing. Read on for the highlights.

Q&A With Maxim Lobovsky, Co-Founder of Formlabs

These days, we're seeing more and more 3D printers on the market — what differentiates the Form 1?

The Form 1 is interesting for a couple reasons: 1) It is the highest resolution desktop printer available by far, and the reason for that is it uses a different process than any of the other desktop printers out there. It uses a process called stereolithography, as opposed to all the other low cost machines that use a process called fused deposition modeling (FDM) and our process allows for much higher accuracy and smaller features, and smoother surfaces than the FDM process does. We brought the technology which is gold standard to 3D printing and was only available in more expensive printers; we brought that down to a desktop and low cost. The other reason is that we made a complete end-to-end system with the software, machine, materials everything designed to work together, work out of the box; it's not meant to be maintained by the user. And in the end it is in a different class from the other desktop machines out there which are really kind of hobbyist, with our machine the goal is the get great quality output and use it in some other project.

How do you see the Form 1 changing the tech landscape?

I think there are a lot of applications for 3D printing and Form 1 will contribute to all of those: prototyping for new products, one-off parts for manufacturing and research, art or jewelry applications; we'll do all of those things but what we're most excited about is how we'll actually help people doing what we did, which is doing product development on a shoestring budget, launching on Kickstarter and stuff like that. This is actually the perfect tool for people doing a lot of work like that, so it's kind of a virtuous circle that we've built.

Can you shed some light on your incredible success with Kickstarter?

I think Kickstarter worked really well for us. Initially we were worried that Kickstarter wasn't perfectly aligned for the prosumer, higher-end product that we wanted to produce because it sort of looks a little hobbyist and informal. But I think it worked out great. We really focused on looking professional and showcasing the product and why it's innovative. We put a lot of effort into nice photography and a good video, but you know in the end it really comes down to people recognizing that this is a new and interesting product, and that's the most important thing.

SEE ALSO: Everything You Wanted to Know About 3D Printing But Were Too Afraid to Ask

Why did your team decide to use Kickstarter instead of similar platforms, like IndieGoGo?

I think Kickstarter is the premier platform at this point; it has the biggest user base and more importantly for us, because it does some amount of curation of its projects it generally has higher quality content I would say, and it's important for us that we're seen in that light.

What social platforms did you leverage to build awareness of the campaign?

We tried to build it up before the launch by putting up the pre-launch website and doing teaser stuff on Twitter and that helped to get a number of people ready to go for when we launched. I think that is important because Kickstarter is a self-fulfilling prophecy, if you do well on the first day you get press not just about your product but about how well you did on the first day. I don't know if it's true, but it seems like how well you do on the first day really defines the rest of the campaign. So it is important to be ready to go.

What tips could you give to other tech campaigns using Kickstarter? Tech campaigns are the second category least likely to reach their funding goals on Kickstarter, only above dance.

Honestly I think that's a good thing and maybe the ratio needs to be even lower, because I think typically people aren't raising enough money or charging high enough prices for their actual hardware products on Kickstarter. Especially if it is your first product, people categorically always underestimate all the costs it's going to take to deliver their product. To generalize, some advice I could give is you have to prove that you can deliver on your product and it will do what you say.

Most people have a good idea for a product that somebody wants, and that part is maybe the less hard part, the harder part is convincing people that you can do it and it really is what you say it is. The biggest thing is to do everything well from the graphic design to the video — high production quality is important. One thing we did and what other successful campaigns have done was to get industry experts or people recognized in the field to talk about your video and your product, I think it helps to get a lot of third party approval. The biggest thing is tech projects need to get more serious about thinking about what is it actually going to take to deliver the project they want and on what timeframe.

Are you worried about any upcoming legal action on 3D printers? Could Joe Schmoe be allowed to print a gun, for example?

I think 3D printing is definitely going to bring up some interesting questions, copyright and things like that; we're following it as closely as anybody. Honestly, I think people may be overblowing the whole situation, I'm generally optimistic and I think things will work out generally positively. On the gun issue, 3D printers will change some of that, but generally you can do with 3D printers what you could do with other tools before, so I don't think 3D printers in everybody's home means there are going to be guns everywhere. That's not the case.

Watch the video below to see the Form 1 3D printer in action. What would you print if you had a 3D printer? Let us know in the comments below.

Image and video courtesy of Kickstarter, Formlabs

One 3D Printer's Astonishing Kickstarter Success

消费者总是在寻找真正创新的产品，而这与Formlabs，被接受之前就来到了市场上低成本的3D打印机制造商没有什么不同。但随着创新往往来自道德和法律问题，并为Formlabs的创始人，这个问题是使用打印机创建胶枪的潜力。

这背后的创新产品的Formlabs队有三个麻省理工学院研究生马克西姆Lobovsky，大卫Cranor和Nate林德。这三个满足2009年在麻省理工学院的“是怎样炼成的（几乎）任何东西”级，并创办Formlabs一起在2011年9月。

Formlabs破灭Kickstarter上的$ 10万个的目标，并提出了$ 2945885 - 制作表格1 3D打印机Kickstarter的历史最高资助的高科技运动。该表1可以预先订购在$ 3,299通过其网站上的折扣价。你的产品将交付日;都是前期订单四月份交割的已经卖完了。大多数3D打印机花费数万美元，所以$ 3,299非常低的成本，把该价格来看。

参见：3D打印机打破Kickstarter的技术资金记录

如果你曾经想在家里按需打印三维物体，现在是你的机会。 Formlabs已经完成了表格1三维打印机，据说这是革命性的三维打印景观发展。虽然今天有很多的3D打印机在市场上的表1是创新，经济与同类产品相比 - 这是最高分辨率的低成本的3D打印机，唯一使用一种称为立体光刻工艺。

我们聊马克西姆Lobovsky，谁在Formlabs“Kickstarter的成功评价，提供了一些建议为有抱负的科技初创，并简要介绍了与3D打印潜在的法律问题。请继续阅读的亮点。

Q＆A与马克西姆Lobovsky，联合创始人Formlabs的
这些天来，我们看到在市场上越来越多的3D打印机 - 怎样区分表1？

该表格1有趣的是一对夫妇的原因：1）它是最高分辨率的桌面打印机可到目前为止，因为这个原因是它采用了不同的方法比其他任何桌面打印机在那里的。它采用一种称为光固化过程，而不是使用一个称为熔融沉积成型（FDM）过程中的所有其他低成本机器和我们的方法允许高得多的精度和更小的特征，和更光滑的表面比的FDM过程一样。我们带来的是金标准，3D打印技术，是只有在更昂贵的打印机可用;我们带来下来到桌面，成本低。另一个原因是，我们做了一个完整的端至端系统与软件，机器，材料都旨在携手合作，开箱即用;它并不意味着要由用户来维持。而在最后，它是在与其他台式机在那里它们是真有种爱好者的不同的类，与我们的机器的目标是获得出色的输出质量，并用它在其他一些项目。

你如何看待改变了高科技的景观形式1？

我觉得有很多的应用程序3D打印和Form 1将有助于所有这些：原型开发的新产品，一次性部件的制造和研发，艺术品或珠宝的应用;我们会做所有这些事情，但我们是最兴奋的是我们如何将真正帮助人们做什么我们做，这是做产品开发在有限的经费，推出Kickstarter上之类的东西。这实际上是为人们做了很多这样的工作的完美工具，所以它是一种，我们已经建立了一个良性循环。

你能提供一些线索您难以置信的成功与Kickstarter的？

我认为Kickstarter的工作真的很适合我们。最初我们担心，Kickstarter的不完全一致的，我们想生产之类的，因为它看起来有点爱好者和非正式的产消合一者，更高端的产品。但我认为这工作具有重要意义。我们真的专注于寻找专业，展示产品，为什么它的创新。我们投入了大量的精力投入到漂亮的照片和好的视频，但你知道它其实就是要人们认识到这是一个新的，有趣的产品结束，这是最重要的事情。

参见：一切你想知道的关于3D打印，但太不敢问

你的团队为什么决定使用类似的平台Kickstarter的替代，像IndieGoGo？

我认为Kickstarter的是首屈一指的平台，在这一点上，它拥有最大的用户群，更重要的是我们，因为它的项目它一般具有更高质量的内容，我会说的策展的一些量，这对我们很重要，我们在光正看到。

你利用什么样的社会平台打造的运动的认识？

我们试图推出内放了发射前的网站，做的微博传情的东西之前建立起来，并且帮助得到了一些人准备走的时候，我们推出了。我认为这很重要，因为Kickstarter的是一个自我实现的预言，如果你做的很好，第一天你按不只是你的产品，但你做的第一天有多好。我不知道如果这是真的，但它似乎像你这样的第一天如何真正定义了运动的其余部分。因此，它是准备去是很重要的。

你能不能给使用Kickstarter的其他高科技运动什么秘诀？科技活动是第二类最有可能达到Kickstarter上的筹资目标，只有上面跳舞。

老实说，我认为这是一个好东西，也许比需要更低，因为我觉得一般人是不加足够的钱或充电足够高的价格为他们的Kickstarter上实际的硬件产品。尤其是如果它是你的第一个产品，人们断然总是低估了所有的费用是要采取救自己的产品。一概而论，一些意见，我可以给是你必须证明你能够提供你的产品，它会做什么，你说的。

许多人都对有人想要一个产品是一个好主意，这部分也许是不太困难的部分，更困难的部分是说服人们相信你可以做到这一点，它确实是你说的这是。最重要的事情就是尽一切顺利，从平面设计到视频 - 高生产质量是非常重要的。有一件事我们没有和其他成功的竞选做是得到业内专家，或在该领域公认的谈论你的视频，你的产品的人，我认为这有助于获得了大量的第三方认可。最重要的事情是高科技项目需要获得有关思考什么是它实际上将采取提供他们想要的项目，并在什么时间范围内更为严重。

您是否担心在3D打印机的任何后续法律行动？难道乔Schmoe被允许打印枪，例如？

我认为，3D打印是肯定会带来一些有趣的问题，版权之类的东西;我们下面就为紧密的人。老实说，我认为人们可能overblowing整个局面，我很普遍持乐观态度，我想事情会普遍积极评价。在枪上的问题，3D打印机将改变一些的，但一般你可以用3D打印机之前还是可以做的与其他工具什么的，所以我不认为每个人的家用3D打印机意味着将要枪支无处不在。这不是这种情况。

观看下面的视频，看看在行动的表格1 3D打印机。你会怎么打印，如果你有一个3D打印机？让我们知道在下面的评论。

图像和视频礼貌Kickstarter的，Formlabs的