Today’s edition of the Dutch free newspaper ‘Spits Nieuws’ contains a half-page article about 3D-printing. The article is about the current state of the technology both in medical and home applications and of course the possibilities that lie ahead, citing our own Martijn Elserman and showing off the Ultimaker (with a really big picture!) as ‘one of the first 3D printers for the consumer’:

We will also feature in some other media very soon…

Behind the screens we are of course busy as ever working on production (and capacity), support and development. We have some open positions – help us make a difference in how and where things are made!

You asked, and we have listened! Some long awaited progress.

Lead time is going down!

Todays DHL shipment 1 of 2

From our new building, we’re finally able to start catching up with demand. Big shipments are sent out today, leaving expected lead times at just above 3 weeks!

More affordable shipping

We’ve added shipping alternatives and negotiated with DHL to get better rates.

• DHL shipping costs are lowered by 20% as of today.
• For small parts under 200 grams, there’s a new, very affordable postal method (between € 8.50 euros for NL and € 13.50 Worldwide)!
• For parts and PLA up to 2 kg, costs are € 28.50 worldwide, and even lower in europe.

The UltiController available!

The UltiController is now available! See the following movie to see how nice it turned out!

Get yours in the store right now…

Other developments

• We’re expanding our team to help customers in the best way!
• We’re cooking a new firmware, which radically increased performance compared to the current official firmware!
• We’re adding individual parts, one by one, for all you tinkerers! Tip: see the revised drive bolt, which is easy to detach and clean.

May 16–May 20 (exhibition 3 June) | Rotterdam

DEAF is back! The festival presents a wide range of program segments, including a large exhibition, concerts, performances, seminars, workshops and an academic symposium. Ticket sales started.

This years theme: The Power of Things
How things relate to each other, how they connect to each other, and how biological, cultural, social and technological structure, form and networks arise from out of those processes will be the focus of the artists, designers and scientists in the 2012 edition.

Check out the ‘Crafting the Future’ workshop on 3D printers and textiles. Abuse the Ultimaker to create three-dimensional textiles, under professional supervision of Joris van Tubergen (Protospace/Ultimaker) and Mika Satomi & Mili Tharakan (Swedish School of Textiles). Don’t miss this opportunity and subscribe for the workshop!

Extended program information and tickets: http://www.deaf.nl

A while ago Taylor Alexander 3D printed fully functionaly rotor blades on his Ultimaker for his RC-helicopter. This time, another amazing accomplishment was made, which is supplementary… the “PL1Q Vampire, the 3d printed quadcopter”. Its total weight is just 231.6 g at it is pretty strong, printed out of PLA plastic.

The files for this ‘thing’ can be downloaded here!

See also this video of one of his flights:

Make sure to watch Peter’s other video’s too.
Do you know why I’m so excited about what we’re doing with Ultimaker?!

These kinds of responses REALLY get me up early in the morning and enjoy the long ride to our new Ultimaking Headquarters:

RepRap has profoundly changed my life. With Ultimaker, the team and I want to give access to this same experience to as many people around the world as we can! After PC’s have changed our lives so pervasively, the power of Personal Fabrication has just been unleashed!

Thanks, Peter from Sweden! You made my day!

~ Erik

For the solo exhibition of Alicia Framis in the Rabobank headquarters Utrecht, the Netherlands, Joris van Tubergen made an interactive installation using an Ultimaker 3D printer. Together with software developer Miguel Jimenez he developed the ‘Screaming Room’: A stand alone installation where the scream of a visitor is instantly translated into a shape printed by the Ultimaker. Without any intervention of an external operator this installation produces unique art pieces by the visitor: For free! The 3D art piece, made of biodegradable plastic, is a gift to the screamer.

Joris van Tubergen: “This could be the start of a new type of art: Production Art. Every 20 minutes the installation produces unique objects on site. Art pieces by Alicia Framis, but with an intervention of yourself: The form of the piece of is based on your scream.”

Joris van Tubergen – www.rooiejoris.nl
Miguel Jimenez – www.fablogica.com
Daily Future – www.facebook.com/dailyfuture
Alicia Framis – www.aliciaframis.com

The installation will be running for 5 months until September 1^st 2012.

Hi Everyone!

Finally some communication again! We have been quiet for a while, not because we didn’t do anything, but because we were so busy with lots of things!

Our plan is to communicate better and more!

Let me summarize a few points of things we have been working on the last 2 months.

New Building

Finally we moved out of the studio of Martijn! His house became way too small for all our activities! Also, him and his family deserved to have their house back. After looking around for a building, we found lots of expensive office buildings, but when Martijn found an old abandoned school building, we fell “in love” with it. We agreed with the local government that we could rent the building for a very reasonable price, only when we did the investment to get the building “alive” ourselves. So we had to arrange a new heating system (just in time, it’s freezing outside!), dig a trench for a gas pipe, clean the whole building, fix the leaking roofs, replace most electric wiring, get furniture and computers, install IT equipment and – not the least important – find great people to come and work with us. So please see the fragment below to get an impression of our new “Headquarters”!

Production

Big shipment coming up!

Support

We are proud of all people helping us out at the forum and the googlegroups! Without you guys we could never have done what we do right now! We’d like to continue to work on making the Ultimaker a Plug-and-Print machine!

Development

We have an interesting feature cooking that makes your Ultimaker much easier to use!

I hope you liked our update on what we are up to.

Groeten uit Holland!

Siert, Martijn, Erik

And the rest of the team:

Harma, Tamar, Bart, Anita, Lindsay, Menno, Vincent, Sander, Aike, Nikki, Marrit, Martijn, Merle, Calliope, Julius, Florian

What do you do when you have your Ultimaker, you start experimenting.
Taylor Alexander did some experiments and printed some very precise thin parts, rotor blades for his helicopter and they work perfectly. Whats next a bigger helicopter maybe?

The Ultimaking Ltd. team is looking for dedicated, brilliant people who want to help us make a difference in how, and where, things are made! Are you, or do you know someone, who is just perfect for the job? Get in touch with us!

Join the Ultimaker team!

There are positions in support, operations (management) and a position as a community manager. Also there are internship positions available. You will be working in a young and passionate team. You will have male and female colleagues. There is lots of room for your ideas, as we are still inventing new ways to better handle the immense growth resulting from “industrial revolution 2.0″.

Where do I sign up?
Read the info at the jobs page…

Lots of people visited the 3D printing event during the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven. A lot of Ultimaker operators printed and showed what they made. It was nice to meet you guys.
30 Ultimakers printing



Joris with his portable Ultimaker on batteries


Harma watch your fingers!


Florian testing a gun


Nice prints Florian

We’re giving away a complete Ultimaker 3D printer! The only thing you have to do is submit a great design to the contest.
The first prize is an Ultimaker 3D printer and a 3D print of the design, 2nd Prize is a 3D scanner and a 3D print of the design and 3rd prize is a 3D print of the design. Price winners will be announced during the 3D Printing Event, October 25 2011, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

3D Design Competition

We will be present during the Dutch Design Week at the 3D printing event.