Genesis Duo & Uno 3D Printers to Launch on Kickstarter Starting at $249 Next Week

Kickstarter has been a tremendous platform for new 3D printer manufacturers to launch their machines on. While we have seen several projects fail because of a lack of sound business strategies, there have been plenty of companies which have gone on to become some of the leaders withing the desktop 3D printing space after initially raising funding on Kickstarter. We continue to see new 3D printers hit Kickstarter on a weekly basis, all bringing something a little bit different to the playing field.

On April 1, a company that we all may soon be familiar with, X3D Machines will hit Kickstarter with two new 3D printers of their own; The Genesis Uno and Genesis Duo.

“The secret to the low cost of our printer[s] lies on our meticulously designed exterior which strongly considers assembly and manufacturing cost,” explained Joshua Cruz, Founders of X3D Machines to 3DPrint.com. “To do this we have removed redundancy in box like printers, as well as making use of the strength of materials such as that the our tempered aluminum bed, extrusion gantry and sheetmetal exterior. Furthermore our exterior and multifunctional carriage components have a design patent in the process, to stay clear from legal extortion from big companies. We are also in complete support of the Reprap and open source community, so [we] will be making many of our part designs available and will make use of open source software such as Mattercontrol and Cctoprint. A big challenge we saw with the current 3D printer market was that many printers were over-engineered and neglected true manufacturing costs. We were able to reduce the cost and the number of parts needed to assemble a 3D printer by creating versatile and multi-functional parts.”

The Genesis Uno and Duo are very similar machines. Like their names imply, the Uno features one extruder, while the Duo features two. Other than that, the size of the machines themselves and their build platforms are all that separate the two from being identical.

With the Genesis Duo, X3D Machines looks to increase the speeds of dual extruder 3D printers by incorporating a light-weight, well-tuned bowden system into their printer, allowing print speeds of up to 150mm/s while maintaining a 50-micron resolution.

Both 3D printers will be part of the same Kickstarter Campaign which is slated for an April Fools launch date — we are fairly sure that there is no joke involved here though. The Genesis Uno will feature a very low “early backer” price tag of just $249, while the Genesis Uno will be priced $100 higher at just $349.

The specifications for both machines can be seen below:

• Print Size: Uno – 9″x9″x11″; Duo – 12″x12″x11″
• Dimensions: Uno – 16″x13.5″x15″; Duo – 17″x17″x15″
• Print Resolution: 50-300 micron
• Printable Material: PLA/ABS
• Build Platform: Aluminum/Removable Polycarbonate
• Filament Diameter: 1.75mm
• Nozzle Diameter: 0.3mm
• Print Bed Leveling: Auto leveling using special software
• Printer Body: Aluminum and Steel
• Connectivity: USB, Wireless, and SD card
• Operating System Compatibility: Linux, Mac, Windows
• Weight: Uno – 10.1 pounds; Duo – 11 pounds

Both of these printers appear to be high quality machines, available at low costs. It should be interesting to see if they can raise enough money to reach their goals. If so, there will be yet another affordable desktop 3D printer added to the mix within this ever-growing space.

What do you think? Will you be backing the Genesis Uno or Duo when their Kickstarter campaign launches next month? Discuss in the Genesis 3D Printer forum thread on 3DPB.com