FormLabs, the same folks that are bringing the Form 1 3D printer to market, has had a roller coaster year. After launching on Kickstarter with a huge reception — backers pledged almost $3 million during the course of the campaign — the company ran into an obstacle when 3D Systems Corp. sued both FormLabs and Kickstarter for patent infringement.
Today, however, the company has announced on its blog that things are still going well, with engineers “hard at work building ten beta Form 1 printers.” The beta units will have design upgrades from the alpha units the team has been working with, and will allow for further prototype testing.
The team hopes to optimize user experience, component durability and print accuracy during testing.
It’s unclear at the moment whether or not the impending lawsuit will affect FormLabs estimated ship times, but from the perspective of this blog post announcement it would seem that Maxim Lobovsky and co. are staying on track despite the slight derailment from 3D Systems.
In related news, FormLabs is currently using Kickstarter funds to grow out the team, adding a few new positions to the software team (which, by the way, has tripled since FormLabs launched on Kickstarter). The hope is that Form 1 owners can transcend the land of CAD and work in FormLabs very own creation software.
This jibes with FormLabs quest to bring 3D printing to the masses, not just the designers and engineers. If you’re interested in a job with FormLabs, check out the job postings here.