The MakerBot Replicator 2 3D printer will be sold on Amazon's new 3D printer store, the company announced on Friday. The New York-based firm said a limited number of Replicator 2 units would be available on Amazon by the end of the month. The 3D printer is already sold directly through the company's own website.
The Replicator 2 is MakerBot's fourth-generation 3D printer and the company bills it as one of the easiest and quickest ways to build professional-grade models and prototypes.
"We are excited to see Amazon embracing 3D printing and devoting an online store to the technology," Bre Pettis, CEO of MakerBot said in a press statement. "Being a part of Amazon takes 3D printing and the MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer to a whole new level, and reaches a much broader consumer market. We're pretty excited about this opportunity."
Ironically, while MakerBot's 3D printers can create products from scratch without much assistance from humans, the printer itself is built entirely by hand at the company's factory in Brooklyn, NY.
TechHive recently toured MakerBot's brand new 50,000-square-foot facility where workers assemble the Replicator 2 and develop new products, such as a 3D scanner to be released in the fall.
"Industries that have settled, where it does not change for years and years, you can afford to put in for heavily automated machines but we came out with a machine last January and we came out with another machine in September," Pettis said in an interview with TechHive. "You have to be limber and actually making these machines with a person's touch on them; it really adds value to them. Don't get me wrong, though, I love robots."
MakerBot is one of the most successful 3D-printer manufacturers in the industry and at $2,199, the Replicator 2 is among the more affordable offerings currently available. Still, that doesn't make it cheap and it's likely still going to be a little while until the still-nascent consumer 3D-printing industry evolves to a point where prices are accessible to average buyers.
