Aimed at Bringing Open-Source Farming to Consumers, Cool Idea! Award Grant Helps FarmBot Maintain Momentum
June 21 2017 - 11:00AM
Business Wire
Production grant empowered company to move
beyond crowdfunding stage
In this age of non-GMO, home-grown and fully traceable produce,
backyard food gardening is on the rise.
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FarmBot is an open-source, small-scale
farming machine that gives individuals the power to create a
digital garden using a desktop, laptop, tablet or phone. Through
their Cool Idea! Award, the product's designers leveraged Proto
Labs' on-demand injection molding service to decrease production
costs and increase quality at scale. (Photo: FarmBot)
FarmBot hopes to capitalize on this trend with a
first-of-its-kind, open-source, CNC small-scale farming machine.
FarmBot gives individuals the power to create a digital garden
using a desktop, laptop, tablet or phone. Home gardeners then build
(or buy) the actual hardware and machinery needed to manage the
farm automatically, including planting and watering crops.
First launched in June of 2016, FarmBot founder Rory Aronson and
his team crowdfunded support for FarmBot and completed an initial
production run to provide working units to crowdfunders and early
customers.
While looking for a way to speed up production of FarmBot
hardware parts for the company’s second run, Aronson ran across the
Proto Labs (NYSE: PRLB) Cool Idea! Award. He knew that being able
to leverage funding for production of part molds and parts could
have a significant impact on the company’s speed-to-market.
“The reaction to FarmBot has been incredible, and we are excited
to continue sharing this product with more customers around the
world,” said Aronson. “The Cool Idea! Award came at the perfect
time for us as we are transitioning from smaller quantities to
larger production volumes.”
With the Cool Idea! Award grant, Proto Labs will enable Aronson
and his team to continue refining some of their machine components,
adding more parts to the FarmBot parts store. The store allows
customers to build and customize their own units with pre-stocked
parts. Initially, Aronson and his team have been using 3D printing
and CNC machining for production. “While these methods have worked
great in the prototype phase, now that we are increasing our
quantities, we needed to look at other processes to decrease
production costs and increase quality at scale,” mentioned Aronson.
The award will help the team manufacture injection-molded parts as
FarmBot continues to require larger quantities that 3D printing or
CNC machining cannot produce at the needed quantity and quality for
FarmBot’s continued progress.
Demand continues to grow for FarmBot, presenting an opportunity
to move past the startup phase and to meet this momentum head-on
through larger and more sustainable production runs. “FarmBot’s
versatile application for everyone, from individual gardeners to
educational institutions, is generating a lot of excitement in the
maker community. We’re confident we can meet the growing demand
thanks to the award,” said Aronson.
“The Cool Idea! Award enables innovative ideas to come to life
regardless of where a product is in its development lifecycle,”
said Proto Labs founder Larry Lukis. “By helping FarmBot make the
jump to faster and larger production runs, they can now scale and
bring this technology to more customers.”
To learn more about FarmBot and for an interactive 3D tour,
visit https://farmbot.io/ or follow FarmBot on Facebook, Twitter or
Instagram.
About the Proto Labs Cool Idea! AwardOffered by Proto
Labs, the Cool Idea! Award helps entrepreneurs bring innovative
products to market through grants that support product prototyping,
testing and production. For more details and to apply for a Cool
Idea! Award, go to protolabs.com/cool-idea.
About Proto LabsProto Labs is the world's fastest digital
manufacturing source for custom prototypes and low-volume
production parts. The technology-enabled company uses advanced 3D
printing, CNC machining and injection molding technologies to
produce parts within days. The result is an unprecedented
speed-to-market value for designers and engineers and an on-demand
resource throughout a product’s life cycle. Visit protolabs.com for
more information.
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Proto LabsSarah Ekenberg, 763-479-7560Public Relations
Managersarah.ekenberg@protolabs.comorMedia
Contact:Padilla for Proto LabsTim Nelson,
612-455-1789tim.nelson@padillaco.com
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