Makerbot Facing Class-Action Lawsuit Over Replicator Build Quality

Berkut99 · July 15, 2015

Something I'm sure the makers here might have been following already, but really just broke the news as having trancended possiblity into reality today. Anyone who's walked into Micro Center in the past 2 years or so has probably seen a Makerbot Replicator being demonstrated.

1st source:

http://3dprint.com/80760/stratasys-class-action/

2nd Source:

http://makezine.com/2015/07/14/makerbot-faces-class-action-lawsuit-over-faulty-extruders/

From 2nd source:

The suit claims that MakerBot and Stratasys knowingly sold customers products with issues that would cause performance problems, while using these sales to show market growth to investors. By the time the truth of these issues had come to light, shareholders had lost millions of dollars.

At the heart of these issues is the MakerBot Smart Extruder. The Smart Extruder is a device that was touted as a way to simplify 3D printing by automatically leveling the build plate and pausing the print if the filament jams or runs out. In reality, the smart extruder has been known for jamming and clogging easily and causing degradation of print quality over time.

First news post for me--rip it apart as you please.

I think there was a post sometime back regarding Makerbot's parent company Stratasys laying off 1/4 of their staff, but a couple articles make mention of this lawsuit being something that shows that Stratasys can't get a break from. If they did in fact have production issues and could not resolve them over numerous RMA's, then I see the justification for the whole legal endeavor.

Personally, I'm just somewhat releived that I've become aware of this potential design flaw before my company made a decision to invest in a Replicator for our prototyping work--it was on the shortlist as a replacement for our Da Vinci. Not so much anymore, but replacements are not exactly widespread.

But I don't hold to any of the rumors that there's malice behind Makerbot's poor quality control, it's just that they don't have the experience and capacity needed that they thought they did and it's just simple incompetence. In fact, I think this is probably going tolead into the beginning of a major reformation of the 3D printing market. I've always felt that, despite the usefulness of 3D printing and the excitement it generates, it's a niche manufacturing segment that's being oversold and overhyped as something for the common consumer and simply causing frustration for the garage-based maker/engineer.