XYZprinting Inc (三緯), the second-largest producer of 3D printers in the world, yesterday launched its first 3D food printer. The device — able to print edible chocolate, cookies and pizza — brings 3D printing technology to kitchens.
XYZprinting — the 3D printer arm of the New Kinpo Group (新金寶集團) — said the 3D food printer is a milestone for the company as it combines manufacturing technology with the food industry.
The printer is the company’s first device to use ingredient capsules to produce edible items.
Photo: CNA
“We are working with different suppliers of food ingredients to go with the machine,” company chairman Simon Shen (沈軾榮) told a media briefing yesterday. “We believe that in the future 3D food printers might be used in space to print out food for astronauts, a topic NASA is researching at the moment.”
XYZprinting’s 3D food printer would be on the market by June next year, Shen said. The device would retail at an affordable price, compared with rivals’ expensive price tags of between US$3,000 and US$5,000 per unit, he said.
With new models to hit the market next year, the Greater Taipei-based company aims to more than triple its sales of 3D printers to between 120,000 and 150,000 units next year, from this year’s estimated 40,000 units, Shen said.
The one-year-old company also expects to make a profit next year after reaching the break-even point this quarter, Shen said. The gross margin for its 3D printers is higher than 10 percent, he added.
Research house Gartner Inc forecast that global 3D printer shipments next year would grow to 217,350 units, compared with 108,151 units recorded this year. Shipments would more than double every year over the next four years to reach more than 2.3 million units in 2018, Gartner said last month.
“Next year, we plan to introduce high-end 3D printers for business use [such as jewelry companies]. We are not only capable of making low-cost machines,” XYZprinting’s market development division senior manager Gary Shu (舒家誠) said.
Yesterday, XYZprinting also launched a 3D printer with a built-in scanner, which is the company’s first 3D-printing machine combining a printer and a scanner.
“The new 3D printer should provide 3D-modeling capability for the ordinary consumer,” Shen said.
The device, code-named da Vinci Aio, is available via online retailers, including Taiwan’s PChome Store Inc (商店街市集) and the US-based Amazon.com.
The 3D printer has a price tag of NT$26,990, which is much lower than the NT$76,560 asked for a similar model by AIO Robotics, according to XYZprinting.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS