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Formlabs

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Formlabs is a 3D printing company that charges its customers $875 to $11,899 per printer for the permission to use third-party materials on hardware they already own.[1] In July 2024, Formlabs acquired Micronics, a startup building a $2,999 desktop SLS printer funded on Kickstarter, and immediately canceled the product.[2][3] The cheapest SLS printer Formlabs sells starts at $28,989; the Micron would have cost roughly 1/10th that price.[3][4]

Formlabs
Basic information
Founded 2011
Legal Structure Private
Industry 3D printing
Also known as
Official website https://formlabs.com

Consumer impact summary

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Overview of concerns that arise from the conduct towards users of the product (if applicable):

  • User freedom
  • User privacy
  • Business model
  • Market control

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User freedom

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  • Formlabs charges a per-printer license fee ranging from $875 (Form 4) to $11,899 (Fuse 1 series) for the permission to use third-party materials on hardware the customer already owns.[1]
  • The Form 2 uses proprietary DRM-chipped resin cartridges. Formlabs committed to supplying consumables through 2023, then left the end date ambiguous; by September 2024 consumables were still available but with no guaranteed supply timeline.[5][6]

Incidents

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This is a list of all consumer-protection incidents this company is involved in. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the Formlabs category.

Open Material Mode

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Formlabs requires a one-time per-printer software license to unlock the use of third-party resins and powders on its printers. The license, called Open Material Mode, costs:[1]

  • $875 for the Form 4
  • $1,999 for the Form 3 series
  • $2,499 for the Form 4B
  • $3,999 for the Form 3L series
  • $4,999 for the Form 4L
  • $11,899 for the Fuse 1 series

Without the license, users can only load Formlabs' proprietary DRM-chipped resin cartridges.

On the Formlabs community forum in September 2023, Form 3 pre-order customer rkagerer stated that paying "$6k (per printer!) for the capability" might "expose them to litigation risk given the original marketing and sales assurances" that Open Mode on the Form 3 had been promised pre-release. Another user, Reine, asked "Is Formlabs idea to charge me three times the cost of a printer to use 3rd party resins?!" Other commenters wrote that "no normal person is going to buy a 6k add on" and questioned who would buy the $6k option.[7]

The license is free for accredited educational institutions.[1] As of January 2026, Open Material Mode is included with new Form 4B & 4BL purchases, but owners who bought the same printers before that date must pay the full license fee.[8] Formlabs' warranty terms state that failure modes caused by third-party materials are excluded from standard warranty coverage, adding financial risk on top of the license cost.[1]

Form 2 deprecation (2019—)

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Formlabs announced the end of active support for the Form 2 in April 2019, following the launch of the Form 3 series. The company committed to selling resin tanks, cartridges, and build platforms through at least 2023.[5] The Form 2 uses proprietary DRM-chipped resin cartridges. Without an authorized cartridge, the printer runs in a limited mode that disables the heater and wiper functions, causing a reduction in print quality.[9]

By September 2024, nine months past the stated deadline, Form 2 consumables were still available but Formlabs hadn't provided a firm end date. Users requested concrete timelines to plan investment decisions; Formlabs didn't respond in the thread.[6] Once Formlabs stops selling Form 2-compatible cartridges, owners of the $3,500 printer will have no official consumable supply. The printer becomes unusable even though the hardware itself still works.[5]

Third-party developers attempted workarounds. ProtoART produced a Universal Cartridge, a DIY modification kit installed into an existing cartridge that allowed third-party resin use with heater and wiper functions enabled.[9] The Universal Cartridge is compatible only with Formlabs firmware versions through 2.2.0; the product reached end of life and is available only while supplies last.[10]

As of 14 June 2026, the Universal Cartridge is out of stock and discontinued.[11]

Acquisition of Micronics (2024)

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Main article: Formlabs acquisition of Micronics

Formlabs acquired Micronics on 11 July 2024 and canceled the Micron desktop SLS 3D printer the same day.[2] The Micron had launched on Kickstarter in June 2024 at a starting price of $2,999.[3] The campaign raised over £1 million from 431 backers.[12]

SLS (Selective Laser Sintering) printers use a laser to fuse nylon powder into parts without support structures. Traditional industrial SLS machines from manufacturers like EOS[who?] and 3D Systems cost from $200,000 to $500,000 or more.[4] Formlabs' own SLS offering, the Fuse 1+ 30W, starts at $28,989.[4] The Micron at $2,999 would have undercut the Fuse 1+ 30W by approximately 90%.[3]

Formlabs CEO Max Lobovsky acknowledged this price gap in an interview with TechCrunch, stating that Formlabs had achieved a "5x leap in starting price" with the Fuse 1 and that Micronics was "trying to do another 5x beyond that."[13] Per Tom's Hardware, "Boppart will join the software side of Formlabs while Chan will lead the development of Formlabs next generation printers."[14] The Micronics brand was discontinued and the Kickstarter was canceled.[13]

3D Printing Industry reported the acquisition as producing "new accessible SLS 3D printers forthcoming," but no such product has shipped as of April 2026.[15]

Formlabs offered backers a full refund plus a $1,000 credit toward any current or future Formlabs printer and a free Open Material License.[16][17] By December 2024, backers reported on the Formlabs forum that the promised $1,000 credit had not been delivered months after submission. Some backers who attempted to use their credit toward a Fuse 1 purchase were denied a $5,000 discount for unspecified reasons. The forum thread was auto-closed in July 2025.[17] A $1,000 credit toward a $28,989 SLS printer represents a 3.4% discount for backers who had pledged for a $2,999 machine.

Products

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  • SLA printers: Form 1, Form 1+, Form 2, Form 3 series (Form 3, 3+, 3B, 3B+, 3L, 3BL), Form 4 series (Form 4, 4B, 4L, 4BL)
  • SLS printers: Fuse 1, Fuse 1+ 30W
  • Software: PreForm (slicing & print preparation)
  • Post-processing: Form Wash, Form Cure
  • Automation: Form Auto, Form Cell

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Open Material Mode". Formlabs. Archived from the original on 16 Jan 2026. Retrieved 14 Jun 2026.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Formlabs Acquires Micronics to Develop the Next Generation of Accessible SLS". Formlabs. 11 Jul 2024. Archived from the original on 11 Jul 2024. Retrieved 14 Jun 2026.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Peels, Joris (11 Jul 2024). "Formlabs Buys Nascent SLS 3D Printer Competitor Micronics". 3DPrint.com. Archived from the original on 11 Jul 2024. Retrieved 14 Jun 2026.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "How to Compare SLS 3D Printer Prices". Formlabs. Archived from the original on 21 Apr 2026. Retrieved 14 Jun 2026.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 DKirch (2 Apr 2019). "Ongoing Support for the Form 2". Formlabs. Archived from the original on 15 Jun 2026. Retrieved 14 Jun 2026.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Form 2 availability of consumables". Formlabs Community Forum. 2024-09-17.
  7. ↑ rkagerer (12 Sep 2023). "Open Material License $6k per printer". Formlabs. Archived from the original on 15 Jun 2026. Retrieved 14 Jun 2026.
  8. ↑ KevinH (27 Mar 2026). "PSA to All form Form 4B & 4BL owners (Open material mode)". Formlabs. Archived from the original on 15 Jun 2026. Retrieved 14 Jun 2026.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Stevenson, Kerry (12 Sep 2019). "A Universal Cartridge For Form 2 3D Printers, But Should You Use It?". Fabbaloo. Archived from the original on 15 Jun 2026. Retrieved 14 Jun 2026.
  10. ↑ "Universal Cartridge Module for Formlabs". Lectronz. Archived from the original on 14 Jan 2026. Retrieved 14 Jan 2026.
  11. ↑ "Universal Cartridge Module for Formlabs". Lectronz. Archived from the original on 15 Jun 2026. Retrieved 14 Jun 2026.
  12. ↑ "Desktop SLS start-up Micronics acquired by Formlabs". Develop3D. 11 Jul 2024. Archived from the original on 4 Dec 2024. Retrieved 14 Jun 2026.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Heater, Brian (11 Jul 2024). "Formlabs acquires 3D printing startup Micronics mid-Kickstarter campaign". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 11 Jul 2024. Retrieved 14 Jun 2026.
  14. ↑ Bertacchi, Denise (11 Jul 2024). "David vs Goliath: Desktop SLS Kickstarter Ends with Acquisition". Tom's Hardware. Archived from the original on 12 Jul 2024. Retrieved 14 Jun 2026.
  15. ↑ Tyrer-Jones, Alex (11 Jul 2024). "Formlabs acquires Micronics, new accessible SLS 3D printers forthcoming". 3D Printing Industry. Archived from the original on 11 Jul 2024. Retrieved 14 Jun 2026.
  16. ↑ "Formlabs Acquires Micronics to Further Advance Accessible SLS 3D Printing". Formlabs. 11 Jul 2024. Archived from the original on 12 Jul 2024. Retrieved 14 Jun 2026.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 facfox (27 Dec 2024). "Formlabs' breach of promised Open Material License and $1000 credit to Micronics Kickstarter Backer". Formlabs. Archived from the original on 7 Apr 2026. Retrieved 14 Jun 2026.
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