The world of 3D printing is expanding very fast, influencing a variety of industries and coming out with a lot of exciting applications. For the 3D printing industry to grow steadily, it needs to involve a variety of people from different age groups and different professions like creative designers, software professionals, material engineers, mechanical experts – to name a few.

3D Printing has always been accessible to a select few enthusiasts but now, a new company aims to take 3D printing out of labs and into schools. Mission Street Manufacturing based in Santa Barbara, has come out with Printeer, a 3D Printer specifically designed to enable children and K-12 schools to easily 3D print designs.

Unlike other printers, the Printeer 3D Printer doesn’t require any advanced skills and does not need a computer. The users don’t even need to learn or use a CAD program. All you need to do is to open a simple ipad app in a wifi environment and use simple touch controls to make shapes that can be printed by the printer. The device uses a thermo plastic filament called PLA, which is non-toxic and safe for the kids to use.

The Printeer 3D printer is very compact with dimensions of 16-inches by 9-inches, with a height of one foot. Coming to the print capacity, the device boasts of a 6 x 4 x 5 inch removable build platform, which is very convenient to remove the finished parts. The machine has a transparent case that prevents accidental contact with heated or moving parts and also enables the kids to see how the colourful parts like motors, pulleys, belts, and sliders work together. The startup is trying to raise at least $50,000 on crowdfunding site Kickstarter to start the project, and aims to ship the first units by October this year. In fact, it is already working with schools and educators in California to test its new printer. Price might be slightly high at $549, but it might make a very interesting birthday gift to your enthusiastic kids.

Full Technical Specifiations of Printeer

• Size: 16 in. wide, 9 in. deep, 12 in. tall
• Weight: 12 pounds
• Build volume: 6 in. by 4 in. by 5 in.
• Nozzle size: 0.5 mm
• Filament: 1.75mm PLA
• Spool capacity: 1 pound of filament
• Removable bed
• Automatic bed leveling
• Custom iPad design software
• RepRap g-code compatible
• Entirely wireless (except for power)
• Requires wifi to operate
• Built using a variety of open-source hardware and software