When you walk into the Shapeways headquarters in a sprawling New York City warehouse building, it doesn’t feel like a factory. It’s something different, somehow unforgettable, inevitably new. As it should be. This is one of the world’s first full service 3D-printing factories, and it’s not like any factory I’ve ever seen.
Founded in the Netherlands in 2007 as a spinoff of Philips electronics, Shapeways is a truly unique and delightfully simple service. If you want an object 3D-printed, all you have to do is upload the design’s CAD file to Shapeways’ website, pay a fee that mostly just covers the cost of materials, and then wait. In a few days, Shapeways will send the 3D-printed object to you, nicely bubble-wrapped and ready for use. It’s effectively an on-demand manufacturing service, a factory at your fingertips in a way that’s wonderfully futuristic.
via Gizmodo
