MakerBot (www.makerbot.com), which is regarded as a pioneer of desk-top 3-D printing, has launched Method — “the first ‘performance’ 3-D printer”.

The company says that ‘performance’ 3-D printing bridges the gap between desk-top and industrial 3-D printing by incorporating features that were previously only available on industrial 3-D printers.

It has ‘leveraged’ industrial technologies andexpertise from Stratasys and combined them with the accessibility and ease of use for which it is known.

Nadav Goshen, MakerBot CEO, said: “Businesses are under pressure to innovate and bring products to market faster. Current desk-top 3-D printers derive their DNA from hobbyist 3-D printers and are insufficient for many applications in the professional segment.

"Method is the next step in helping organisations adopt 3-D printing on a larger scale.

It is built for professionals who need immediate access to a 3-D printer that can deliver industrial performance to shorten their design cycles.”

Method is designed to achieve repeatable and consistent parts with ±0.2mm dimensional accuracy, as well as vertical layer uniformity and cylindricity.

MakerBot says that this level of precision has been limited to industrial-grade 3-D printers until now, adding that Method delivers industrial-level performance at one third of the first-year cost of ownership of an entry-level industrial 3-D printer.

The company was founded in 2009 in Brooklyn and is a subsidiary of Stratasys Ltd.