Home Depot and MakerBot Industries announced Monday that they are teaming up to sell 3D printers to the public.
The two companies will sell the technology in select stores throughout New York, Illinois, and California, as well as on Home Depot's website, according to CBS News. MakerBot will also make kiosks available in a dozen of the home improvement company's stores in nine cities to show customers how to operate the printers.
"This is a step toward bringing MakerBot 3D Printers to the mainstream," Jennifer Howard, spokesperson for MakerBot, said in an email. "Home Depot customers are DIY'ers, gardeners, tradesmen, professionals and families - they are also a great community that likes to create and build things, which goes very well with 3D printing."
Cities that are currently holding demonstrations of the technology at their Home Depot stores include Emeryville, East Palo Alto and San Carlos, SFGate reported.
"We're not just plopping it on Home Depot's shelves, we have dedicated staffers to explain it," said Bre Pettis, CEO and co-founder of MakerBot. "For so many people, it's new technology- still almost science fiction. One of our biggest challenges is educating people about what 3-D printing is and what they could personally do with it. Where it gets exciting is when they take their passion and connect it to a MakerBot."
MakerBot believes that making the printers available at Home Depot will allow it to get more consumers involved in 3D printing. The Brooklyn-based company is looking to do so by showing how the technology can be used to make replacement parts, product prototypes, collectible items and other objects, CBS News reported.
"Imagine a world where you can 3D print replacement parts and use 3D printing as an integral part of design and building work," Pettis said.
Several of MakerBot's models are currently available at Home Depot, such as the Replicator Desktop 3D Printer, the Replicator 2-Desktop 3D Printer, the Replicator Mini 3D Printer and the Digital Desktop 3D scanner. Different types of filaments for the printers are also being sold at the store, CBS News reported.
The printers cost between $1,375 and $2,899 on Home Depot's site, and can also be purchased on the MakerBot website. While the printers are being demonstrated in Home Depot, anyone can buy MakerBot's 3D products and can get designs, software, files and apps from Thingiverse.com, the 3D printer maker's website.
