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Jeff Moe’s Aleph Objects is getting a lot of attention lately for its industry-leading LulzBot TAZ 3 desktop 3D printer; but Moe is quick to point out that his company is not a 3D printer company, it is an open source hardware company, and its first product happens to be a 3D printer.
“This commitment to Libre Hardware means that our hardware and software will never be locked down, become obsolete, or require fees and license upgrades over time,” Moe said. He and his team embrace the concept of empowering their customers as part of the spirit of innovation, and LulzBot users are encouraged to participate in the community conversation on the LulzBot forums about their products and how they can be improved.
A complete TAZ 3 can be purchased for just over $2,000. Those that have the patience and knowhow and wish to save some cash can actually download the company’s up-to-date, complete plans and assembly instructions, along with all the necessary software to run the unit, anytime, from anywhere with an internet connection. Then, after spending around $1,000 on components and several hours to assemble the unit, they’ll have their very own.
While that may strike traditionalists as odd, Moe is proud of the fact that what some might see as the worst possible scenario has happened to his company. Not only can anyone access the company’s development directory, updated hourly by Aleph Objects’ CTO, to build their own printer, they can access all the work ever done by Moe’s team on the product and clone the entire company. It’s already been done elsewhere in the U.S., and in Argentina, Spain, China and Taiwan.
“That’s a point of pride for us. It demonstrates that we have a robust product, built with leading-edge components, that provides the best capabilities in any 3D printer anywhere.”
Aleph Objects purchased nine acres and a 17,000-square-foot building in north Loveland, the former home of the Eldon James plastic injection molding company, and relocated its operations there in October.
The facility has allowed Moe to bring everything in house, where before he relied on some contract manufacturing for certain printer components. It also gives the company complete control over all phases of planning, design, production and R&D. Moe believes that the room where 135 LulzBot 3D printers are at work all day, every day, printing components to make new printers to be sold to customers is the biggest 3D printer cluster in the world.
The 25-person Aleph Objects team can produce a printer every 40 minutes on two assembly lines, and there is room to add a third line, if needed. An average week sees a pallet of 56 printers go out the door, and sales through Amazon Prime and Adafruit Industries, along with delivery through distribution centers in Chicago, Toronto and the UK ensure that delivery to buyers around the world is fast and efficient.
