science

Ultimaker

Ultimaker is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Ultimaker rather than just read about it. In short: Ultimaker is a 3D printer manufacturing company based in the Netherlands, with offices and assembly lines in the US. They make fused filament fabrication 3D printers, develop 3D printing software, and sell branded 3D printing materials.

Key takeaways

Ultimaker belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Ultimaker to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Ultimaker from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Ultimaker is a 3D printer manufacturing company based in the Netherlands, with offices and assembly lines in the US. They make fused filament fabrication 3D printers, develop 3D printing software, and sell branded 3D printing materials. Their product line includes the Ultimaker S5 and S3, Ultimaker 3 series, Ultimaker 2+ series and Ultimaker Original+. These products are used by industries such as automotive, architecture, healthcare, education, and small scale manufacturing.

History Ultimaker BV is a Dutch 3D printer company that was founded in 2011 by Martijn Elserman, Erik de Bruijn, and Siert Wijnia. Ultimaker started selling their products in May 2011. The company's foundation was laid at ProtoSpace Utrecht where Wijnia organized two workshops to build the RepRap Darwin 3D printer. Two Beta-workshops were organized at ProtoSpace Utrecht starting in September and December 2010, each consisting of 10 Monday evenings. Erik de Bruijn and Martijn Elserman assisted at those workshops. Frustration from their inability to get the Darwin design to work led to the inspiration to create their own design. Instead of sticking to the RepRap principle that their printer should be able to print its own parts, they designed their printer to be built mostly of laser cut plywood parts, that could be produced orders of magnitude faster than printed parts at the time. Their first prototypes bore the name "Ultimaker protobox" but newer prototypes were just titled "Ultimaker". In March 2011, Ultimaker ltd. released their first complete product, the "Ultimaker" (renamed in 2013 to "Ultimaker Original") under a Creative Commons BY-NC license. The Ultimaker Original was distributed as a Do It Yourself kit that hobbyists and technicians assembled themselves. It could print objects up to 210 mm x 210 mm x 205 mm at a maximum resolution of 20 microns.

Company milestones 2013

The Ultimaker 2 is released. The target markets are home-users, schools, and libraries, small businesses, and industrial designers who use 3D printing for rapid prototyping and production. 2015

Ultimaker's revenue doubles, with 35% of new customers coming from the North American market. 2017

Ultimaker's U.S. presence grows to include a network of 37 re-sellers. 2018

Ultimaker partners with material manufacturers DSM, BASF, DuPont Transportation & Advanced Polymers, Owens Corning, Mitsubishi, Henkel, Kuraray, Solvay and Clariant to create material profiles for printing high-level engineering plastics and composites. Ultimaker opens a facility in Singapore to service Asia, Pacific and China markets and expands its manufacturing presence to three continents. 2018

The Ultimaker S5 is released. This is the company's first "large format" 3D printer, and it is also the first Ultimaker that can print with composite materials, such as Glass and Carbon Fiber Filled Nylons straight from the factory with no modifications needed. 2019

Arkema joins material alliance program and releases FluorX filament. The company moves its headquarters to Utrecht, The Netherlands. The Ultimaker S3 is released. The S3 is a smaller version of the S5 and is practically very similar to the Ultimaker 3, though with an LED touchscreen identical to that on the S5 and a hinged glass door. The S3 also includes presets for composite materials, and a re-engineered feeder wheel to accommodate them. 2020

The Ultimaker 2+ Connect is released. The printer is an updated version of the Ultimaker 2+, featuring a TFT touchscreen in place of the older LCD and rotary control wheel, the SD Card slot has been replaced with a USB slot, the feeder wheel has been upgraded and the build plate has been improved. 2022

Ultimaker and MakerBot announce merger, completed in August. NPM Capital owns 53.5% of the combined company, while Stratasys owns the remaining 46.5%

Software

Their first software ran under a modified version of Replicator-G. They changed this later to Cura because more and more users started using this software in favor of Replicator-G, which was originally produced with Makerbot in mind. When the lead developer for Cura started working for Ultimaker, Ultimaker Cura became the lead software product for Ultimaker. Cura rapidly became a favorite of 3D printing enthusiasts. A YouMagine Survey found that 58% of users surveyed used Cura, compared to 23% that used Slic3r. On September 26, 2017, the company announced that Cura had achieved one million users. This announcement was made at the TCT show. With the release of Cura 4.0, Ultimaker users were able to back up their files to the cloud. As of 2020 the software was processing 1.4 million jobs per week.

Printers

Ultimaker Original

The Ultimaker Original is the predecessor of the Ultimaker 2 and was released only a few months after the company was founded. The Ultimaker Original is sold as a kit containing laser-cut wood and technical components. The printer must be assembled by the user and is thus able to be tailored to the user's preference and modified to their will. In 2012, the Ultimaker Original was awarded Fastest and Most Accurate 3D printer available by MAKE Magazine.

Ultimaker Original+

The Ultimaker Original+ is the main successor to the Ultimaker Original. It has an upgraded 24V power supply and heated build plate, however, it is not compatible with dual extrusion due to the limitations of the power supply.

Ultimaker 2

The Ultimaker 2 is Ultimaker's first out-of-the-box 3D printer. After transportation, the user must calibrate the build plate and insert filament before printing. The Ultimaker 2 was released in 2013 and laid the foundations for a further two printers to be added to the family before it was upgraded in 2015. Like the rest of the family, it uses an SD card to print and an LCD screen and rotary wheel to navigate through its menus. The Ultimaker 2 is also single extrusion only.

Ultimaker 2 Go

The Ultimaker 2 Go is a compact and portable version of the Ultimaker 2. The printer has an exceptionally small build volume of just 120x120x115mm, allowing it to be moved from place to place in the special backpack provided. The Ultimaker 2 Go's smaller size does come at a cost, however as the build plate is not heated and it is thus highly recommended to apply masking tape to the build plate before printing.

Ultimaker 2 Extended

The Ultimaker 2 Extended is technically and physically identical to the Ultimaker 2, except for its 100mm higher build volume. It and the Ultimaker 2 Go were released simultaneously in April 2015.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ultimaker

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ultimaker claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Ultimaker before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Ultimaker ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Ultimaker

In research: Ultimaker appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Ultimaker in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Ultimaker is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 3D printer companies, Dutch brands, Dutch companies established in 2011, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ultimaker outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Ultimaker in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Ultimaker means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Ultimaker out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ultimaker in simple terms?

Why does Ultimaker matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Ultimaker?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Ultimaker.