Ultimaker

History

Ultimaker BV is a Dutch 3D printer company which was founded in 2011 by Martijn Elserman, Erik de Bruijn, and Siert Wijnia. Ultimaker started selling their products in May 2011. The company's foundation was laid at ProtoSpace Utrecht where Siert Wijnia organised two workshops to build the RepRap Darwin 3D printer. Erik de Bruin and Martijn Elserman assisted at those workshops. Frustration from their inability to get the Darwin design to work led to the inspiration to create their own design. Instead of sticking to the RepRap principle that their printer should be able to print its own parts, they designed their printer to be built mostly of lasercut plywood parts, that could be produced orders of magnitude faster than printed parts at the time. Their first prototypes bore the name "Ultimaker protobox" but newer prototypes were just titled "Ultimaker". Two Beta-workshops were organised at ProtoSpace Utrecht starting in September and December 2010, each consisting of 10 Monday evenings. In March 2011, Ultimaker ltd. released their first complete product, the "Ultimaker" (renamed in 2013 to "Ultimaker Original") under a Creative Commons BY-NC license.

Their first software ran under a modified version of Replicator-G. They changed this later to Cura because more and more users started using this software in favor of Replicator-G, which was originally produced with Makerbot in mind. When the lead developer for Cura started working for Ultimaker, Cura became the lead software product for Ultimaker.

Products

Contrary to the RepRap project founded By Adrian Bowyer, Ultimaker is not focused on an end-goal of self-replication. Their product is designed to make high quality prints. Ultimaker sells the Ultimaker Original family as a DIY kit and the Ultimaker 2 family pre-assembled.

Ultimaker's 3D printers currently print using acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polylactic acid (PLA). Ultimaker's printers also can print with other thermoplastics such as Nylon and Acrylic (PMMA), but this may be a little difficult.

Ultimaker Original

Ultimaker Original is a predecessor of Ultimaker 2 and was released a few months after the company was founded. Ultimaker Original can be modified to the user preference. In 2012, the Ultimaker Original was awarded Fastest and Most Accurate 3D printer available by MAKE Magazine.

Ultimaker 2

Ultimaker 2 is the successor to the Ultimaker Original and was released in September 2013. MAKE magazine classified the Ultimaker 2 as the "best open-architecture 3D printer of 2014" and named it runner-up in the category "Prosumer FFF".

Ultimaker 2 Go

The Ultimaker 2 Go is a compact and portable design that comes with a travel case for easy transportation. Released date April 2015. This printer along with the Ultimaker 2 Extended are the newest additions to the Ultimaker family of printers. Awarded 2nd place in the Most Portable category in MAKE Magazine's Digital Fabrication Shootout 2015.

Ultimaker 2 Extended

Released date April 2015. Awarded 1st place in the Best Large Format category in MAKE Magazine's Digital Fabrication Shootout 2015. Rated as a top 5 3D printer by 3DForged.com.

Ultimaker 3 and Ultimaker 3 Extended

The Ultimaker 3 was released on 18 October 2016 and introduced professional dual extrusion 3D printing for the desktop. Thanks to a simple but accurate lever mechanism the second extruder is raised and lowered based on its activity status. Among the new features are: