Formlabs, a seller of 3D printers and related products, announced a partnership with 3DPrinterOS to bring 3D printer fleet management and cloud support capabilities to Formlabs’ printers.

This will enable Formlabs to offer fully cloud-supported slicing capabilities by allowing it to print the design directly from the web browser without having to download files. This also removes workflow bottlenecks and potential threats to security. 

With cloud availability, customers of Formlabs will also be able to scale printing across a large number of printers and users.

Analyst QuickTake: Offering cloud-based software for 3D printing is a common approach taken by many startups in the space– Markforged, Raise3D, and Zortrax to name a few. However, unlike FormLabs which chose to add this capability through a partnership, its peers have chosen to do so through software developed in-house. One of the purposes of combining cloud services is to address the inability to carry out scaled printing which is a main issue in the AM space.