I wonder what type of machine they are putting in each store. Staples was doing a trial of this last year in belgium, and had mentioned they were going to be doing this more widespread this year. I think there was a ton of overhyped news going on in 2013 about 3d printing, and we all (myself included) thought that market would catch on much faster than it actually did.
There is a little bit of information at[1]:
Average prices per pop depend on object complexity. However, Jones estimates the range to be anywhere between $15 for simple jobs to $500 for complicated prototypes to $1300 for complex jobs for large corporations. Services from the inhouse designer, who charges $75 per hour, are not included in these costs.
...Although obviously that is a huge range. I too would like to see an example workflow.
[1]http://www.forbes.com/sites/rakeshsharma/2013/08/19/ups-may-...
I got some info about this from my local UPS store a few weeks ago. They can print STL or Autocad files, and have a designer on call who can create a CAD file from drawings at a reasonable hourly rate.
They couldn't give me an exact rate for the cost of printing, but said it was typically around $30 per cubic inch. The actual cost depends on how much support material needs to be printed and a small object that requires a lot of support material would cost more than something like a cube.
The printer they were using at my local store was a Stratasys uPrint SE Plus.
They have one in each of the Dakotas, but none in my home state of Michigan. They have two in Minnesota, but none in Michigan. They have one in Kansas. None in Michigan. Lousiana, Arkansas, and Alabama. But none in Michigan.
Who in the hell asked for 3D printing in North Dakota? With a population of five in the entire state?
I believe UPS Stores are franchises, so I assume it's more about the individual store owner and whether or not they are interested/tech savvy enough in 3D printing technology to put it in their store.
Actually it doesn't surprise me that it would be in North Dakota - lots of oil exploration and little engineering companies, seems like plenty of potential demand.
Looking to the locations in Texas, 2 of them aren't in major cities proper, but are in higher income suburbs (Frisco north of Dallas, and The Woodlands north of Houston)
'pears I have two, equidistant north and south of me, Menlo Park CA and Mountain View. Miles away! but not one in the UPS store 10 minutes' walk from me.
