I could build this for under 1000 USD using standard off the shelf parts.
Good point Mitchell. There is an opportunity for someone to come out with one that, once the parts are finished, separates the parts from the powder automatically within the machine, thereby minimizing powder contamination within the room.
There will be a new opportunity for us designers as these SLS printers come into being within the maker crowd. The opportunity is going to be selling 3D files for practical items. We haven't really had that opportunity for FDM / FFF printers because of the limited capability of their output. I have a website,
print-it-in-3d.com that I made specifically for this purpose. Nothing at the site now, but I'll get working on that later this winter.
I was going to mention Norge Systems the day it came out, but people in this forum tend to get highly perturbed when talking about home printers.
What does this mean for Shapeways as a business? Shapeways' mainstay is based on this type of printer, so how will Shapeways be able to operate in the coming years? Shapeways will be fine I think. I could see Shapeways buying a number of these and offering an overnight service for small items using them. Shapeways used to sell a FDM based service, but I guess that was too problematic on the output end, as these types of printers are not very reliable. Also, there will come new technologies in 3D printing that everyone is going to want but that none of us can afford and Shapeways will always fill that need. In addition, it will be more than a decade before the majority of makers have large SLS printers. So Shapeways will take care of that need too.
I think the main change that we will see with Shapeways is moving from novelty to practicality as far as products are concerned. This is already starting to become true for the jewelry aspect of the business.