3D Hubs is already powering through 2015 with a number of big news stories: the release of their public API, the embedding of their 3D Print button on a number of important sites, and a steady increase in partnerships for their worldwide 3D printing meet-ups. Today, 3D Hubs has announced a series of new perks for its network of more than 16,000 3D printer owners.
With five new community partners, 3D Hubs has made it possible for their users to get discounts on a variety of 3D printing products. Depending on the amount of orders fulfilled by the 16k+ hubs, 3D printer users in the 3D Hubs network can receive up to 25% off of filament from Proto-Pasta, FDM and resin materials from Madesolid, buildplate sheets from Buildtak, the Astrobox cloud 3D printing extension from AstroPrint, and Filabot‘s filament extruder. These deals come in addition to 3D Hubs’ existing deal with Colorfabb, allowing hubs to get discounts on the Dutch manufacturer’s filaments, as well.
The Perks Program is a great way for the distributed manufacturing site to enable similar deals that large-scale manufacturers might reap through bulk purchasing, thus enabling lower priced goods for customers. Leveraging the growing numbers of their network, 3D Hubs is able to obtain bulk discounts for their own community, potentially fueling the future of distributed manufacturing. It sounds like a small bit of news, but, as a piece in the larger picture of decentralized production, it could have a big impact.
