“We need things faster!” Booms the market, in the face of ontological uncertainty and ecological collapse. “Always faster!” Now that the Internet has supplied a continuous source of instant gratification and Amazon has brought that same feeling into the world of retail and package delivery, other retailers must follow suit. Shape up or ship out, as they say. And 3D printing service bureau Shapeways is shaping up to ship out their 3D prints even faster by introducing a RUSH 2 & 3 Day Production pilot program.
Shapeways users can now sign up for the Rush Pilot, to allow items printed in unpolished White Strong & Flexible, within the build envelope of 150x150x200mm, to be shipped from Shapeways’ factory 2-3 business days after an order has been placed. The company outlines the delivery times in a blogpost:
Target Ship Day for North America, Australia, and New Zealand: Leaves our factory in 3 business days for orders made before 2pm CET / 8am EDT. Orders placed after that time will be counted towards the next business day.
i.e. Order placed on Tuesday 7am EDT, parts are shipped end of day Friday. Order placed on Thursday 4pm EDT, parts are shipped EOD following Wednesday.
Target Ship Day For All Other Geographies: Leaves our factory in 2 business days for orders made before 2pm CET / 8am EDT. Orders placed after that time will be counted towards the next business day.
i.e. Order placed on Tuesday 7am EDT, parts are shipped end of day Thursday. Order placed on Thursday 4pm EDT, parts are shipped EOD following Tuesday.
All of this is still very experimental, so there are some caveats. Rush orders will be twice the regular price for the White Strong & Flexible material. If Shapeways has hit its daily-maximum capacity for Rush prints, no more rush orders may be placed and the material status page will indicate that. And, to ensure that the print gets to its destination quickly upon RUSH printing, Next-Day Shipping will need to be selected. The ‘Print it Anyway’ can be invoked with RUSH orders and those participating in the pilot program will have the option added to their checkout options.
So, we’ll see how it goes! If it works and the company gets its hands on even more employees and printers, we may inch closer to obtaining prints at the same rate as when we order stuff on Amazon!
