The Flux is an all-in-one 3D printer, 3D scanner and laser engraving machine and it blew past its Kickstarter goal in only two hours after being launched, and it sold out all of its $499 early bird printers in under 24 hours.
The Flux’ crowdfunding campaign was requesting $100,000 and only two days later it has taken in almost $500,000 with more than a month to go. While Kickstarter has long been fertile ground for 3D printers to seek exposure and success it’s been a while since a campaign blew up this quickly.
This sounds like a pretty exciting new 3D printing product and it’s easy to see why it became popular so fast. The Flux is essentially a basic FFF 3D printer with an integrated 3D scanner. While 3D printer and 3D scanner combo units aren’t really anything new, the Flux has a modular design that allows you to swap out the 3D printing head for other modules that fit with different tool sets and printing heads.
While I tend to not be a fan of all-in-one or dual use machines, I can certainly understand their popularity. My problem with them is if one part of the unit goes out you have to get an entirely new one, you can’t really replace the part that’s damaged. The modular nature and price make that less of a risk, but it is still a concern.
You can see how the modular system works in the Flux Kickstarter campaign video:
As you saw, the modules are attached to the movement arms with extremely powerful ball magnets so swapping between different tool sets is pretty easy. The creators of Flux promise that as technology improves the modules can easily be replaced without having to replace the entire machine, and that includes replacing any damaged modules.
The Flux has also included a laser engraving module, which can be added on to your backing pledge. I also noticed a CNC milling module in the video so it is a safe bet that will be a future option or perhaps a stretch goal. In addition to the various tool sets available there are plans to release alternate 3D printing extruders so users can easily switch between 3D printing in plastic, ceramics and even chocolate.
While the campaign looks to be a huge success, as we’ve seen in the past even large amounts of money aren’t always enough to make a new company successful. Based on the slick design, low price point and the requirements to manufacture what could end up being several thousand 3D printers the Flux designers are probably counting on an extremely large Kickstarter payday.
At its current rate, the campaign could feasibly reach several million dollars, but even that may not be enough to meet what sounds like very ambitious deadlines. Either they have some financial backing already in place and the Kickstarter was just advertising – not unheard of – or they are going to need to hit the ground running at full speed when the campaign closes on December 21st. What we’re being shown certainly looks impressive however, and I’m really hoping that this is the first of many products that get the combo unit concept right.
