Boots Industries is a Quebec City, Canada, company that was founded in 2012 with a mission to spread the excitement of a printing technology that may allow everyday users to create three-dimensional objects from various plastics. Their latest adventure is the unveiling of a 3D printer whose parts they say can be assembled quickly, the BI V2.0. "Our assembled components remove the longest and trickiest steps from the equation (i.e. stringing the pulleys, wiring the towers etc.). With our simple to follow instructions the partial assembly will take between 30 minutes and an hour of work."
Boots Industries has been selling both fully assembled printers and DIY printer kits but now the company is taking pre-orders for their BI V2.0 on Kickstarter, after which they will offer the new printer on their online store. A key feature of the new printer is that the Boots Industries designers offer a larger build volume, which in turn expands options for what people can make.
The makers have already surpassed their $30,000 goal; at the time of this writing they raised $36,450.41 with still 23 days left to go. The BI V2 team said it was derived from the insights they gained from their previous line.
Providing details on the new BI V2.0, they said: "Our design can support up to triple extrusion and can print virtually any 1.75 mm filament extruding at up to 240 degrees Celsius," They called attention to the printer's "self-replicating" design, which can empower the user to share the technology with others. "Once you receive the BI V2.0, you can print, improve upon and share components so that anyone can build their own printer at a very low cost." The BI V2.0 3D printer does not need a computer for operation; one can use an integrated LCD controller.
Boots Industries turned to Kickstarter to advance the new machine's design and production. "Although our BI V2.0 is definitely ready for production, we still plan to make several last minute 'cosmetic' improvements. For example we will be tweaking the lengths of electrical wires and sleeving around the delta head. These modifications will not impact the delivery schedule of the BI V2.0, but we felt it was important to mention that we will tweak a few details to make your printers look even better!"
For pledges of $79 and higher, users receive all the BI V2.0 printed parts, For pledges of $653 SD or more, users get a BI V2.0 3D printer with heat bed, LCD controller and auto-level probe. About $1,120 gets a fully assembled printer with heat bed , LCD controller, auto-level probe, and two hours of training on designing 3D parts and operating the BI V2.0 optimally. Estimated delivery dates in 2014 vary depending on the type of pledge and appear on the Kickstarter page.
