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"       3D printers come in many forms: big, small, oblong, plastic, metal, and more. It seems that for every personality, there&amp;#039;s a printer. However, even with the additive manufacturing boom accelerating in the last few years, most printers share a common denominator\u2014a four-digit price tag. For the professional that price may be worth it, but a hobbyist might be harder to sell. David Jones and Michael Armani want to sell a 3D printer everyone can afford. How does $300 sound?  The Micro 3D printer (or M3D) prints small. as the name suggests. It&amp;#039;s maximum print height reaches 4.5 inches, but its size economy, low weight (2.2 lbs), and various color options (blue, green, black, silver, and orange) are clear indicators that this is a machine marked for the common consumer, someone looking for an affordable entry point into this new tech space. &amp;quot;I got this idea that everyone wants a 3D printer they can afford and they want one that&amp;#039;s not a pain in the ass,&amp;quot; says co-founder Michael Armani, a bioengineer Ph.D. who met Jones while at the University of Maryland, College Park. &amp;quot;We had this constant, back-and-forth dialogue\u2014how do we make it look good and maintain low cost? That resulted in 15 innovations.&amp;quot; These tweaks on the standard printer included a new micro-motion sensor chip, rigid carbon fiber rods, and a ceramic heater, to name a few.  One other major design change was to make the printer more energy-efficient. The M3D uses 5 volts and 15 watts, ten times less than the MakerBot Replicator 2. &amp;quot;As you increase power, your cost multiplies,&amp;quot; Jones says. &amp;quot;You need higher power motors, which are heavier, and then shipping costs increase.&amp;quot; Jones says starting with a low-energy focus helped them price point so low. Even at a low cost, Jones and Armani say, quality is competitive: The machine prints in 50-micron resolution at 60 mm a second. The M3D printer made its debut at this week&amp;#039;s New York 3D Printshow and will launch on Kickstarter in March. Early birds will get a $100 discount, bringing the price down even further to $200. As the Kickstarter continues, the price will increase. The micro machine will still go through two more iterations and more software tweaks before the printers are ready to ship.       Meanwhile, only a few short steps from M3D&amp;#039;s booth at the 3D Printshow, was BigRep, a 3D-printing startup from Berlin. Their space was simple: a small table displaying business cards, spec sheets, and a small TV monitor, and next to it, a 5-foot tall, 440-lb 3D printer. Known as the BigRep ONE, it is the largest fused deposition modeling (FDM) printer in the world. Inside its 5-foot exterior, the BigRep ONE can print creations up to 45 x 39 x 47 inches, making it possible to make large designs on a 1:1 scale. That&amp;#039;s exactly what artist and founder Lukas Oehmigen wanted before starting work on the ONE two years ago. Oehmigen, along with his college friend Marcel Tasler, hoped to wrench large-scale 3D printing from corporations and give the option to consumers. Despite its giant size, the machine is still pretty accurate, providing 100-micron resolution. But will require a pretty large monetary investment\u2014a cool $39,000. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/a10078/macro-and-micro-the-biggest-and-smallest-3d-printers-16493060/>