Race to the Bottom vs Feature Laden

[jlmccuan]

I wonder how many of these price leader companies are living in the real world. Given real world expenses of administration, product liability, warranties, and a sustainable margin, a $500 machine would likely have around <$200 in components and labor. How inexpensively could the control board retailing at >$100, 4 steppers retailing at >$60 and a power supply be bought? That still leaves all the fasteners, hot end, framework, slides or wheels, bed, wiring, shipping container, promotion, assembly, administration, etc. UL and CE listings don't come cheap either. Even small companies keeping those certs have at least one employee whose main function is to keep up those listings. To be the Ford of the 3d printing world this company would have to operate in the real world with litigation, R&D, brick and mortar and profit margins.

With that in mind, just what would this printer look like? What would be a likely build volume to satisfy the general consumer? What features would need to be included to make that product truly unbox, push a button and successfully print? Would multiple materials be available or would it be PLA, ABS, or some new all around media? Would the user be restricted to only proprietary media? What might the user interface be for a real push button with no knowledge of slicing or design software?

In no particular order, my thoughts.

Probably a proprietary media as jamming some random material through this machine would result in calls to tech support because prints were failing. Allowing other makes of media would therefore increase costs.

I could see the ability to use multiple materials if the filament were somehow recognizable to the hardware automatically and not require user intervention. Heck, I even forget to change slicer profiles sometimes so the average user surely would have problems.

The design would like have to have a nice look, possibly with exterior finish options to fit in to home decor.

Build volume would perhaps need to be at least 6"x6"x6".

Certainly auto zero and auto bed leveling would be necessary. There would also need to be a bed surface that required no coatings for the material used. Probably wifi ready and a memory card device as well. Internet connectivity would likely be a selling point.

A warranty period of at least 90 days and free parts for an addition period.

Live 24 hour tech support unless it was truly a push button, bulletproof setup. Even then, unless the manufacturer supplied all the printable objects as well, users would attempt to print objects that would have issues.

What else?