# Big Announcement May8th!?

**URL:** <https://forum.formlabs.com/t/big-announcement-may8th/13078>\
**Category:** General Discussion\
**Created:** [May 1, 2017, 5:31pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/big-announcement-may8th/13078 "2017-05-01T17:31:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Will\_Howden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f07891/32.png) [@Will\_Howden](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/Will_Howden)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 5:31pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/big-announcement-may8th/13078/1 "2017-05-01T17:31:38Z")

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Any one have any insight as to what Formlabs are announcing?

Form 3 or Form2+ or…??

Will

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**Author:** ![MattKeeter](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/forum.formlabs.com/mattkeeter/32/12053_2.png) [@MattKeeter](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/MattKeeter)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 5:36pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/big-announcement-may8th/13078/2 "2017-05-01T17:36:28Z")

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> [@Will\_Howden](#):
>
> Any one have any insight as to what Formlabs are announcing?

Yes.

😛

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**Author:** ![kevinduhe](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/forum.formlabs.com/kevinduhe/32/7999_2.png) [@kevinduhe](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/kevinduhe)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 5:36pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/big-announcement-may8th/13078/3 "2017-05-01T17:36:51Z")

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My guess…and I could be completely and utterly wrong (I usually am, just ask my wife) is that it will not be a F3 or 2+ yet. My guess is they will announce a new printer at FUSE.

From their email “find out how Formlabs is completing our powerful stereolithography (SLA) system”

That tells me they are announcing some sort of add-on, accessory? Maybe their own curing chamber? Maybe they have finalized some of their hyped resins like ceramic or the other dental resins? Maybe its the breakfast maker they announced last month!!! 😜

Edit: or maybe they will open up the F2 like they did F1/F1+ and allow us to change settings, etc!!!

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**Author:** ![kevinduhe](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/forum.formlabs.com/kevinduhe/32/7999_2.png) [@kevinduhe](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/kevinduhe)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 5:44pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/big-announcement-may8th/13078/4 "2017-05-01T17:44:16Z")

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Now that I think about it, the convention is RAPID + TCT, a manufacturing convention. Possibly something to do with rapid manufacturing, better management of printer farms, more in depth mold making tools. IDK there are a lot of things they could announce that would “complete” their system. I could think of more but I’m probably wrong across the board. We’ll just have to wait a week and see! 🙂

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**Author:** ![jdipaolo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/forum.formlabs.com/jdipaolo/32/7684_2.png) [@jdipaolo](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/jdipaolo)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 5:52pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/big-announcement-may8th/13078/5 "2017-05-01T17:52:43Z")

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Well the animated liquid waves in the announcement email has me thinking that maybe it is a new fancy resin tray add on for the Form 2 that uses similar tech to the Carbon 3D printers for continuous curing. No more peel and wipe.

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**Author:** ![kevinduhe](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/forum.formlabs.com/kevinduhe/32/7999_2.png) [@kevinduhe](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/kevinduhe)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 5:55pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/big-announcement-may8th/13078/6 "2017-05-01T17:55:45Z")

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Hmm well it does say “take a first look at new **hardware** ” so my open F2 theory is off the table.

I thought the image was smoke, but you could be totally right.

My bet is still on Waffle resin!!!

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**Author:** ![Randy\_Cohen](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/forum.formlabs.com/randy_cohen/32/1500_2.png) [@Randy\_Cohen](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/Randy_Cohen)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 6:16pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/big-announcement-may8th/13078/7 "2017-05-01T18:16:03Z")

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I think I’m safe in saying it’s not a waffle/pancake printing accessory.

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**Author:** ![kevinduhe](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/forum.formlabs.com/kevinduhe/32/7999_2.png) [@kevinduhe](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/kevinduhe)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 6:17pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/big-announcement-may8th/13078/8 "2017-05-01T18:17:41Z")

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Every time I get my hopes up…

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**Author:** ![rclaborne](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/forum.formlabs.com/rclaborne/32/8369_2.png) [@rclaborne](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/rclaborne)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 7:08pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/big-announcement-may8th/13078/9 "2017-05-01T19:08:42Z")

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I think I’m safe spending time at the bench and finding out in 7 days.

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**Author:** ![gjgomes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@gjgomes](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/gjgomes)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 7:48pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/big-announcement-may8th/13078/10 "2017-05-01T19:48:31Z")

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Based on the description from them, I would guess a post-curing chamber. It is a logical next step and they are missing out on revenue. I don’t want partially cured parts, I want fully cured parts. Bonus points if I can just take a print out of the Form 2, put them in a magic box that rinses, cures, removes supports, and sands it…

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**Author:** ![kevinduhe](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/forum.formlabs.com/kevinduhe/32/7999_2.png) [@kevinduhe](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/kevinduhe)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 7:56pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/big-announcement-may8th/13078/11 "2017-05-01T19:56:01Z")

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kinda like the washing machine that automatically xfers your clothes to your dryer, or one machine that does both! Maybe one day.

The UV chamber is most likely although it would jeopardize the entrepreneurs who have already started selling their designs.

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**Author:** ![Jason\_Daenzer](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/forum.formlabs.com/jason_daenzer/32/5515_2.png) [@Jason\_Daenzer](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/Jason_Daenzer)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 9:04pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/big-announcement-may8th/13078/12 "2017-05-01T21:04:33Z")

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My guess would be a device for cleaning prints in circulating IPA, maybe even ultrasonic. Since the image in the email looks like moving liquid with parts submerged.

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**Author:** ![kevinduhe](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/forum.formlabs.com/kevinduhe/32/7999_2.png) [@kevinduhe](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/kevinduhe)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 9:45pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/big-announcement-may8th/13078/13 "2017-05-01T21:45:17Z")

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> [@jdipaolo](#):
>
> Well the animated liquid waves in the announcement email

I honestly didnt know what you meant by this until I forwarded the email from my Outlook corporate mail to my gmail. Now I see the trippy fast motion animation. Now that I see this @Jason_Daenzer could be right!

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**Author:** ![yoderkl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/7ab992/32.png) [@yoderkl](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/yoderkl)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 10:07pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/big-announcement-may8th/13078/14 "2017-05-01T22:07:38Z")

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In the blog they say:

“Get a sneak peek at the future of Formlabs and 3D printing: we’ll be showing live demos of products to come and announcing some very big news. The future of Formlabs **_isn’t just about stereolithography and the Form 2_**.”

Maybe it’s not print related at all? A scanner perhaps? With this push for an “end to end” workflow for digital dentistry, AND their recent partnership with 3Shape (a 3D scanning company) it possibly makes sense to me! Could you imagine a 3D scanner with the quality we expect from FormLabs, at the price point we also expect from FormLabs? 💯 ✔

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**Author:** ![Randy\_Cohen](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/forum.formlabs.com/randy_cohen/32/1500_2.png) [@Randy\_Cohen](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/Randy_Cohen)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2017, 2:22am UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/big-announcement-may8th/13078/15 "2017-05-02T02:22:06Z")

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It’s clear FL has more than one thing to announce. We’ll all just have to bide our time to find out what, I guess…

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**Author:** ![Jason\_Daenzer](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/forum.formlabs.com/jason_daenzer/32/5515_2.png) [@Jason\_Daenzer](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/Jason_Daenzer)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2017, 4:43am UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/big-announcement-may8th/13078/16 "2017-05-02T04:43:06Z")

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It would be great if they developed desktop SLS the way they did SLA.

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**Author:** ![timmy](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/forum.formlabs.com/timmy/32/9621_2.png) [@timmy](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/timmy)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2017, 1:55pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/big-announcement-may8th/13078/17 "2017-05-02T13:55:50Z")

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A CLIP desktop printer - the only REAL advance in 3d desktop printing that makes sense. No layers, 25-100x faster than SLA, stronger and more heat tolerant parts, etc. i hope they have teamed with Carbon 3d to bring this technology to people instead of just huge companies. if they haven’t collaborated with Carbon 3d THEY NEED TO… as a retired engineer i hereby offer my services to them (if they need help) to get this done; we are tired of waiting.

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**Author:** ![Zachary\_Brackin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/4da419/32.png) [@Zachary\_Brackin](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/Zachary_Brackin)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2017, 4:10pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/big-announcement-may8th/13078/18 "2017-05-02T16:10:14Z")

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I’m up for anything that improves printing.

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**Author:** ![hx19035](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f0a364/32.png) [@hx19035](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/hx19035)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2017, 9:01pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/big-announcement-may8th/13078/19 "2017-05-02T21:01:24Z")

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Merging with Gesswein.

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**Author:** ![hx19035](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f0a364/32.png) [@hx19035](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/hx19035)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2017, 9:04pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/big-announcement-may8th/13078/20 "2017-05-02T21:04:21Z")

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Continuous Printing is 100% the future. Peel/Separation and true SLA (slow etch-a-sketching) is dying. In fact our organization is holding still until ‘continuous’ becomes more prevalent. It’s definitely our next big investment.

[Next page](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/big-announcement-may8th/13078.md?page=2)
