MakerBot Automated Build Platform Launched!
We’ve launched the MakerBot Automated Build Platform! I’m endlessly happy about this. I’ve hacked on this for the past year. I began full time work about two months ago when I started working at MakerBot Industries.
The Automated Build Platform is a totally new way of printing your 3D objects. For the first time ever multiple objects can be printed in succession without the need for human intervention. Up until now, the 3D printing industry has been focused on making one part at a time. You had to manually remove your object from the build surface and prepare your machine for the next build. This is true for all other 3D printers on the planet. MakerBot is the first to bring to you a truly automated 3D printing experience. That era is over and the new dawn of personal manufacturing has truly begun.
Read my previous posts to see how the project developed into its current incarnation:
It’s an awesome addition to the CupCake, and it has all the printing advantages of the MakerBot Heated Build Platform built in. Optimized to work with the beautiful and reliable MK5 MakerBot Extruder, you can look forward to watching your desktop factory auto-eject your dreams into a parts bucket of unending awesomeness!
You can listen to a discussion of the ABP in an interview with Liz Blessing .
is the print area 100×100 or 100×80?
mctrivia
2010.09.13 at 14:28
It’s 100×85 mm. You also lose 23 mm along the z axis.
Charles Edward Pax
2010.09.13 at 16:07
Congrats!
Andrew O'Malley
2010.09.13 at 14:34
Congratulations Charles for a very nice job! I have been following your efforts on this for a long time. As to support for your efforts, I just placed my order for Automated Build Platform, along with MK5 head on the MBI-shop
This is getting all too exiting – now I can truly have an small automated factory in my workshop 
And besides – this could be an major step towards winning that Gada(?) prize ?
Henkka
2010.09.13 at 16:11
Thank you. I’m pretty excited to have this out in the world and seeing all the cool stuff people do with it. I’m also excited to have more time for other projects. I’m working on the bot farm right now.
Charles Edward Pax
2010.09.13 at 23:05
I don’t mean to rain on your parade ( as I thin the ABP is awesome), but two things you said are incorrect:
“he 3D printing industry has been focused on making one part at a time. ” and “This is true for all other 3D printers on the planet. ” – clearly you haven’t been paying attention to the RepRap Mendel project, becuase for over 6 months, it’s been quite happily printing multiple objects at once in the 200×200 build volume using a multi-object format called a RFO file ( which contains multiple STLs loaded and laid-out in a “tray” format).
the format specification is here: http://reprap.org/wiki/MultipleMaterialsFiles
and here’s an actual printed tray:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sKFX5zDfq4o/SwhbrccVj8I/AAAAAAAAAb8/vCc_3vNCca4/s1600/tray1.jpg
Buzz
2010.09.13 at 22:34
AWESOME!
And congratulation on being hired!! I’m sure that your innovations will benefit us all.
I see you’ve switched to PET as the conveyor? Is that because of the higher tensile strength or because of different adhesion-properties?
I’ve ordered one right away to fit it onto my Huxley (mini-mendel). The relatively small build envelope is perfect for it.
B.t.w. the quick-fit couplings are nowhere to be found on this side of the pond! A real shame but I found a way around it:
http://blog.erikdebruijn.nl/archives/144-Another-non-printed-part-less.html
Erik de Bruijn
2010.09.14 at 04:43
Nice!
tamberg
2010.09.14 at 16:54