Functionalize Launches Extremely Conductive 3D Printer Filament on Kickstarter

[Brian_Krassenstein]

Functionalize is launching a Kickstarter campaign on November 10th to raise $100,000 to fund a production facility for the patent pending Functionalize F-Electric, a 3D printing filament that is a thousand times more electrically conductive than any other thermoplastic material — and enables the user to produce electronics in a streamlined, one-step process as items such as motors, components, and chips can be placed directly into the item being 3D printed. Check out more details: http://3dprint.com/22669/functionalize-kickstarter/

Below is an example of an electronic item 3D printed with the Functionalize filament:

[Feign]

Oh man, I really really want to pledge for a spool of this stuff... But there's no business plan, no production schedule and a promised delivery date in less than five months... Much as I want to, I just can't risk money on an iffy campaign like that.

[Brian_Krassenstein]

It will be interesting to see what becomes of this material. I don't disagree with your comments, however, this is only a material, and not a 3D printer, so 5 months is not necessarily too soon. It's amazing how quickly new materials have been coming to market as of late. Exciting stuff indeed.

[Feign]

I understand what you're getting at with it being a much more simple product, but take for example, the Circuit Scribe pen. The ink was fully developed at the time of funding and it took nine months to set up an assembly line to fill pens with the ink to get to customers. And that was a realistic amount of time for such a project to take. Mass manufacturing any new product involves more than just manufacture and assembly, it has to go through the compliance processes of hundreds of regulations from almost a dozen government agencies (depending on state in the US, and the scope of regulatory compliance burdens is vastly different in different countries, of course), none of whom care about anyone's shipping deadline.

[miketout]

Hi Feign,
This is Mike Toutonghi, and I thought I'd try to address your concerns here.

In fact, I've actually made the material using exactly the same process we will use when scaling up. What I've invented is both the composite material and the process that enables us to do that.

As far as regulatory issues, granted there may be some issues in other countries, we actually started the effort in Czech Republic and have both an EU company as well as a US firm. Regarding approvals required, for small firms, volumes in our range, and nanomaterials in polymers, the US process should take up to one month for approval as long as there are no major issues, which would be surprising given our material's composition. The longest lead time required will likely be production equipment delivery, but at the scale of our target, it's the same type of equipment, only larger, than what I've been making it with to date. I purchased pre-production equipment almost too early in the R&D process for that reason. We also have our own twin screw extruder, which won't be a new expense for the campaign to cover, but will help us produce.

The material R&D is complete, and we have equipment to make it at pre-production scale right now. Part of the challenge in doing so immediately is that I started the effort in Prague and have moved to Seattle for family reasons. We will be both buying new equipment capacity as well as moving our existing equipment to the US. We are in fact, already in the process of doing that, and Kickstarter backers will benefit from our existing assets as well as help us close the gap to production.

Your comment raises some good questions, and I will almost surely post an update with more detail soon. Thanks.

[curious aardvark]

A fairly important point

On the kickstarter page it says you get the filament for $71.
But on the next level up $299 - it doesn't mention any filament just a printed toy.
And for $399 you only get 2 rolls of the filament and some more toys.

Not sure who you're aiming your campaign at - but given it's a campaign to launch a very conductive filament - you're not exactly giving much of it away. And I would think the sort of people who really want this stuff will either already have the toys, or would want to make their own.

The 1lb for $71 is about the same price as ninjaflex. So that's not overboard.
But you're far more likely to get people just going for multiple $71 pledges to get the filament than for the higher amounts to get some toys, glue, conductive ink etc. All stuff you can get for a few bucks from the web anyway.

At least that's the way i see it.

And looking at the campaign page - that's reflected in the current pledges too.
You'll get more money if you 'sell' more filament and less 'stuff' (I was leaning towards 'crap' but went with 'stuff instead :-) .

[Feign]

I pretty much concur with Curious Aardvark... Though the $71 pledge gets you a 1/2 lb spool... So technically twice as expensive per pound as NinjaFlex.

Still, it's not what someone is going to use as a primary print material, so it should go a long way.

And Mike while you're here, can I suggest you try electroplating some of the stuff? If the filament has a low enough resistance that it can be electroplated with a metal, you've got a real winner here.

[miketout]

Thanks for the feedback. We do have good reasons for our pricing of each item, which I can explain in a moment, but based on the response, we also realize that you're right about what people want. We do plan to add some new reward levels today to address what you are saying.

On pricing of the material, we would love to be in a position to provide the material at a lower price, but the price we have at $140/lb is really at a point where we can run a campaign at the volume we'd produce under about $500K in funding and be sure that we cover delivery and have some left over to bridge from there to a self-funding, growing business. As Feign points out, and as we have found, you really don't need that much of it in most cases, and compared to the cost of conductive inks that we also include in some of the kits, its extremely inexpensive for the utility it provides. At the price we're offering, people could print small controllers and circuit boards as products and have good margin.

Regarding the items, our thinking was this... we're actually excited about the material, and believe that it can enable a turning point. If we, as a community, can enable a flourishing market where someone could download and print Arduino boards, Ara modules, active, interesting useful objects, that will empower people and be a real positive change. If, and that is an if, our funding level helps that happen, regardless of how many of these signed and number "toys" people buy, we actually believe that since they are the first in history, that people might want them. We don't plan to build out a 3D printing service bureau, and each of these items, besides the flashlight, still has remaining product design (no, the Levitator prototype does not look like the final Levitator will), testing, iteration, and sometimes parts that have yet to be selected and can be expensive to buy or make (faster magnet core, as in the Levitator video). We believed that by offering these items as historic, 3D printed items, people who weren't makers and didn't own a 3D printer could participate in the change and help support it to make it happen. In return, the signature and number on these items can't be 3D printed and won't be on any more of them ever again. Of course, people have to believe in the concept for adoption to make a big enough difference for these items to be valued. We perhaps didn't talk enough about our vision, or people don't see it that way. Except for the flashlight, which is low enough in price that overhead, delivery, and the spirit of getting a historic item for supporting us become the reason for its $25 price, those rewards would have the value for their price, because we would make sure they do before delivering them. We saw those as really a "thank you" to the people who supported the idea, so they would just be part of helping make it happen.

We are going to take your feedback seriously and post new rewards very shortly that will have easier entry points to both the material and the extra tools/knowledge we have in the kits that people will need to be successful when making things. If the campaign is not overfunded, we will deliver, and we will also likely pursue more traditional funding approaches. In that scenario, we will definitely be more focused on serving investors and shareholders. I would prefer to directly serve the needs of creative engineers and makers who are the real people who can make the personal industrial revolution happen. At this point, we will add the new rewards and see how things go Thanks.

[Brian_Krassenstein]

Mike Toutonghi, the founder and CEO of Functionalize, says it was the experience of working on a school project with his son to build a rocket, and the tedium of long sessions soldering the electronics for the rocket, led him to build a lab and make graphene and nano-composite materials he could incorporate into various polymers. The ultimate goal was to create a conductive 3D printing filament which would allow him to make electronic components. What he came up with, F-Electric, was the solution to the problem. You can read the whole story here: http://3dprint.com/55698/conductive-...nting-filament