Micronics raised more than ten times its goal in June before being acquired in July.
There’s no shortage of 3D printing campaigns on Kickstarter (at time of writing, a search for “3D printer” resulted in over a thousand projects) but rarely do we see one as successful as Micronics. The start-up launched a June 2024 campaign for its Micron desktop selective laser sintering (SLS) 3D printer. From its initial goal $100,000, the Wisconsin-based company ended up raising over $1.3M before being acquired by Formlabs in July.
The promise of a desktop powder bed fusion (PBF) system with a price tag of $2,999 — less than a third of the cost of the Formlabs Fuse 1 — was clearly too good to pass up.
“We’re excited to welcome Henry and Luke to Formlabs,” said Max Lobovsky, Formlabs CEO and co-founder in a press release. “After meeting the Micronics co-founders at Open Sauce 2024, we discovered our shared vision for accessible, powerful 3D printing. The Micronics team’s talent and innovative spirit will help us to accelerate accessible SLS 3D printing to market and enable anyone to bring their ideas to life.”
“We are thrilled to join forces with Formlabs, a company we have long admired,” said Henry Chan, CEO of Micronics, in the same press release. “After the outpouring of excitement around our Kickstarter, we’re confident that this move will enable us to bring the best SLS 3D printing experience to users around the world by leveraging the incredible talent and experience at Formlabs. We are excited about this next phase in our mission to make digital fabrication even more accessible, and can’t wait to get started.”
While Micronics’ Kickstarter backers may be disappointed that they won’t be getting their Micron printers next year, Formlabs has stated that, “they will be refunded and receive a credit for any Formlabs 3D printer for use now or in the future.”
Engineering.com reached out to Formlabs to ask about the fate of the Micron, specifically whether it would be rebranded as a Formlabs product or if it was being scuttled altogether. This was the company’s response:
“Micronics mission to bring industrial-quality SLS to a much wider audience remains unchanged. With this acquisition, Micronics’ ideas and research will be integrated into Formlabs’ development roadmap. Micronics’ and Formlabs’ missions are closely aligned, and while we can’t comment on the details of Formlabs’ development roadmap, Formlabs is excited to continue making SLS printing even more accessible, which means developing SLS printers that are both more affordable and easier to use.”
