Replicator 2: the most advanced desktop 3D printer

MakerBot Industries introduced a new generation of its famous 3D printer. The Replicator 2 model is much better than the previous one: it provides a resolution of 100 microns instead of 270 microns and can print an item with a volume of 6.7 dm ³ (+ 37% to the past).

Replicator 2 the size of a large microwave can be placed on the desktop near the computer. The model sells for $ 2199 in the company's store in Manhattan, as well as offsite . The printer works from under Windows XP and 7, Mac OS X and Ubuntu.



Unfortunately, with the release of Replicator 2, the manufacturer decided to abandon Open Source. Joseph Prusa, lead developer of the RepRap 3D printer, which became the basis for the first version of Replicator, is extremely outraged that they could do this: “Then they received about $ 10 million in funding, and everything started to change. More recently, they released an open clone of the “replicator” on Kickstarter, and now they have taken all my designs with Thingiverse, compiled them into one package and closed it, ”says Prusa. He intends to remove all of his work from Thingiverse in the coming days so that no one else can use them, and calls on everyone else to do so .

It should be noted that the Czech engineer Joseph Prusa is a true fan of the Open Hardware movement, he even did it on handOpen Hardware Foundation logo tattoo .

MakerBot not only does not lay out the design of its printer, but also released the closed-source 3D editor MakerWare , although before that they had used Skeinforge from a Brazilian programmer for many years, who does not have a 3D printer at all, says Joseph Prusa.