Ethan Baehrend, 19, Founder and CEO of Creative 3D Technologies announces the launch of his company and its first completed product, Duo, a powerful all-in-one 3D printing solution, merging specialty printing styles from multiple types of 3d printers into one.
With Duo, Baehrend and Creative 3D Technologies aim to significantly improve accessibility to high-performance 3D printing technology through Duo's vast array of features. Priced at $8,800, Duo is significantly less expensive than similar volume printers while offering more features, reliability, usability, and printing capabilities that other underwhelming and function limited 3D printers simply don't.
Baehrend, a recent high school graduate, bought his first 3D printer at the age of 13 and started an online business refurbishing 3D printers that same year that lasted for over five. He gained active investor Creative ITC to fund Creative 3D's pre-seed round, enabling development and direct testing of the marketplace to find market fit, "Duo received a surprising response, which is reaffirming after years of development," said Baehrend. After being the youngest founder exhibitor at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2018 and 2019 Rapid + TCT displaying Duo's prototypes, it'll soon be available to order.
"Trying times of 2020 delayed our launch and set us back, our momentum has returned, we've adapted and we're excited to introduce a fresh perspective to the marketplace!" states Baehrend. "Relocating to manufacture from Chicago to Austin, Texas allows us to efficiently and effectively produce and distribute our printers here in the U.S.! We're presently raising funding to set up in-house production and finally get our exciting printers out to the awaiting masses!"
Creative 3D Technologies takes a unique approach to production, utilizing custom production tools and their own products to create printers. Early funding is the company's greatest barrier to entry due to in-house production setup costs, but the benefits of this approach are immense and immediate, making their model very efficient while enabling constant product improvement, continuous stress testing, and high levels of quality control.
"Duo was created to be disruptive," continued Baehrend. "I found that needing three to over six specialty printers to print specific formats of parts was aggravating. It should be just one."
The types of 3d printing Duo combines are:
- Large Format Printing
- Precision/Detail Printing
- Batch Part Printing
- High-Temperature Printing
- Smart/IoT Connected Printing
- Mixed/Multiple Material Printing
- Flexible Material Printing
- Abrasive Material Printing
- High-Speed Printing