Dell Orders 5000 Zortrax 3d Printers

[RedSox2013]

Back in May of 2013, a company called Zortrax burst onto the scene with their very own Kickstarter project to fund their 3D printer idea. They ended up blowing away their stated goal of $100,000 by raising over $179,000. This has turned out to just be the beginning of their success. Today they announced that Dell has signed a contract with them to purchase 5,000 3D printing units. Going by the retail price of the printer, this deal could be worth close to $1 million. Zortrax stated that Dell had actually contacted them during their Kickstarter project at the end of May, however it was hard for them to really come up with a deal at the time.

Here is a Look at their consumer based 3D Printers:


What makes this deal surprising is that these are not manufacturing based printers. These are for consumers. They will likely go on the desks of thousands of Dell employees. This could really start a global trend towards office 3D printers for most tech employees.
“Frankly speaking, we were surprised that any company, even a company like Dell, wants to place such an order! But after a while we realized how many printers we use in our own office… For a designer who prints a large number of prototypes it is much more useful to use 10 smaller printers on one desk, which operate simultaneously, rather than one with a larger build volume,” said Tomasiak.

[jimc]

i have been watching this printer for a while. i think for the money its about the nicest thing out there. really great piece. if i was in the market for a new fdm printer i would be all over this one.

[Larry]

i have been watching this printer for a while. i think for the money its about the nicest thing out there. really great piece. if i was in the market for a new fdm printer i would be all over this one.

Seems like the executives at Dell think so as well. There are a huge number of printers out there, many created by large corporations. It really says a lot about Zortrax being selected from all of those. I recall this on Kickstarter back in may and was very impressed as well.

[jimc]

yes what caught my eye was that it appeared that they were in poland but on the kickstarter they had a new jersey address as well.

[Razorette3D]

What exactly will 5,000 Dell Employees use these printers to print? Seems a bit overboard to me.

[old man emu]

What exactly will 5,000 Dell Employees use these printers to print? Seems a bit overboard to me.

I don't see them going to every Dell employee. They will use a small number of them to train their sales people and then have stock-in-hand for quick delivery to customers. I recently did some grunt work foe Dell unpacking and setting up computers for a Local Government body (Local Government = County, Municipality etc). We had 400 workstations, monitors and phones to do. When Dell does a roll-out, it does big ones.

5000 printers divided amongst the number of Dell's corporate clients is not much.

Old Man Emu

[jimc]

either that or they are going to be private labeled and dell will slap their logo on it and sell them.

[frederick78]

I don't see them going to every Dell employee. They will use a small number of them to train their sales people and then have stock-in-hand for quick delivery to customers. I recently did some grunt work foe Dell unpacking and setting up computers for a Local Government body (Local Government = County, Municipality etc). We had 400 workstations, monitors and phones to do. When Dell does a roll-out, it does big ones.

5000 printers divided amongst the number of Dell's corporate clients is not much.

Old Man Emu

Don't you think that Dell would have purchased more industry level 3D Printers if they wanted to use them for creating stock? Also, why not buy from a reputable company like MakerBot or 3D Systems if they wanted a consumer level 3D Printer?

[jimc]

well they are no dummies. the only issue when it comes to makerbot is that you pay about double for what you can get as good somewhere else. im sure makerbot was on their list and zortrax wasnt the only printer they considered.

[old man emu]

You would be surprised at the price mark up on electronic equipment. Dell probably negotiated a price equal to about a third the retail price.

OME