MakerBot Opens Large New Factory in Brooklyn

1. Introductory speech

   MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis speaks to a crowd on Friday about the company's new factory.

   Image by Mashable

   

2. Close-up

   "Gumballs." The MakerBot store in Manhattan has hundreds of these balled-up, 3D-printed figurines stored in a gumball machine -- purchase a token and one of them's yours.

   Image by Mashable

   

3. "I can make anything"

   Crew members in the factory's sub-assembly area.

   Image by Mashable

   

4. Red, white and blue

   Retail toys, printed by MakerBot, available for purchase at the company's New York store.

   Image by Mashable

   

5. Insides

   A worker assembles a circuit board.

   Image by Mashable

   

6. "Get to the chopper!"

   A 3D-printed toy helicopter.

   Image by Mashable

   

7. Routine check-up

   A few workers in the factory's Assemble section.

   Image by Mashable

   

8. More toys

   All 3D printed.

   Image by Mashable

   

9. Intricate detail

   And it was all yellow.

   Image by Mashable

   

10. Inspection phase

    Hard at work.

    Image by Mashable

    

11. The MakerBot Replicator 2

    Here, the Replicator is making a collection of toy apples.

    Image by Mashable

    

12. It all checks out

    More workers at the factory.

    Image by Mashable

    

13. Same machine ...

    ... different outcome.

    Image by Mashable

    

14. Packaging

    Workers preparing to ship out the printers.

    Image by Mashable

    

15. Gotta hand it to you on this one

    This "Robohand," designed for anyone who's lost a finger to accidents or amputations, was designed by two men working 10,000 miles apart -- one in Seattle, the other in South Africa.

    Image by Mashable

    

16. Packed up

    Ready to go.

    Image by Mashable

    

17. Colorful design

    In 3D-printed cube form.

    Image by Mashable

    

18. Trial and error

    Checking for potential bugs before the devices are sent to the next station.

    Image by Mashable

    

19. Mobius strips

    Just as trippy when they're 3D-printed.

    Image by Mashable

    

20. The final product

    Looking quite shiny.

    Image by Mashable

    

21. Vintage

    The MakerBot "Mixtape": It's 3D printed and works as an mp3 player -- available at the firm's store in Manhattan.

    Image by Mashable

    

3D-printing firm MakerBot opened its new — and much larger — factory in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Friday.

The 50,000-square-foot building is located in the borough's Sunset Park neighborhood. Its main purpose is to accommodate the company's growing staff — they plan to increase by more than 50 over the summer — and extend production on a product for which demand is rapidly growing.

"We were 120 employees at the start of the year. Now we're at 267," Bre Pettis, MakerBot's CEO, told Mashable. "The game is on. There was no market for this when we started, so we kind of had to create one from the ground up. People are starting to realize that, with this, you really have the superpower to create anything. It's the next industrial revolution."

Clients range from schools and entrepreneurs to tinkerers and big corporations like NASA — everyone seems to want in on the action.

The new factory operates in a traditional step-by-step format, with sub-assembly, assembly, inspection and packaging stations. All printers are hand-assembled using materials from Brooklyn-based manufacturers; a few of the smaller pieces are even 3D printed by MarketBot themselves.

You may have seen 3D printing in the news a lot over the past few weeks — specifically, regarding the use of the technology to print firearms. Pettis assured that it's not the kind of activity MakerBot encourages.

"We make MakerBots with the intention of them being used creatively and positively," he said. "On Thingiverse" — the company's website with designs available for download — "you have almost a hundred thousand options. We have a 'No Deadly Weapons' policy, so when people upload designs for things like that, people can mark it as 'inappropriate' and it comes down. That's our stance on it."

We were lucky enough to get a sneak peek at the factory's ribbon cutting on Friday — which was appropriately snipped by a pair of 3D-printed scissors — and tour the different work stations. Take a look through the photos above.

Here's a look at the firm's MakerBot Replicator 2 in action, too, creating a set of toy apples:

MakerBot launched in Brooklyn in 2009. The MakerBot Replicator 2 is available for $2,199, and the MakerBot Replicator 2X sells for $2,799. Find out more on the firm's website.

Do you own a 3D printer? Or do you plan to buy one? Tell us what you think about the technology below.

Image by Mashable