For 3-D printing companies, producing in the stock market hasnt been easy
Summary
3-D printing technology has exponentially progressed over the past decade, but it has not been a straight line up of financial success for companies like Shapeways and MakerBot (now part of Stratasys), which both made the original CNBC Disruptor 50 list in 2013. Then in 2012, it brought 3-D printing to the U.S. with a factory in Long Island City, Queens, housing 50 industrial printers and able to churn out millions of consumer-designed products a year, from art to fashion, lamps, necklaces, gadgets, games, drones, medical devices and robotics. Schouwenburg and his co-founders Marleen Vogelaar and Peter Weijmarshausen came up with the concept of allowing individuals to upload a part that they wanted to Shapeways website, pricing it and then shipping it to them directly. Stratasys, which focuses on additive manufacturing, and Makerbot, a leader in desktop 3-D printing, merged in 2013 to bring the two markets into one corporate entity. "If you fast forward 10 years later, that didnt materialize, and were still at that stage where 3-D printing is used more and more, but it hasnt replaced traditional manufacturing," Schouwenburg said.