Glowforge, a 3-D laser-printing startup, has delayed shipments of its first units by at least six months, the company announced to customers Tuesday.
The Seattle company raised $27.9 million in a 30-day crowdfunding campaign last October, breaking a crowdfunding record previously held by smartwatch Pebble Time. Thousands of customers pre-ordered the 3-D laser printer, which is designed to use a laser to engrave surfaces by cutting through pretty much any type of material.
Glowforge originally said the first orders would begin shipping by December 2015, and the goal was to deliver all the preorders by the end of June 2016.
Now, the company said customers would receive pre-orders in December 2016, and people who ordered after the crowdfunding campaign would get printers during 2017.
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The shipment delay was first reported Tuesday by tech news site Geekwire.
"We need to delay deliveries because of delays of a key component — our custom power supply," CEO and founder Dan Shapiro said in an emailTuesday. "While we have them now, the delays mean that if we went into production on schedule, we would risk quality problems. The extra delay is painful, but it's the only way we can ensure that the Glowforge printers that we ship out are as good as they should be."
The company expected to receive the power-supply units last November, but only received them this month, Shapiro's email to customers said.
He apologized and said pre-order customers would receive $200 worth of credits in the form of materials and a gift card to the company's design shop. All pre-order customers also will receive a 10 percent discount to buy designs and materials through Glowforge's store.
Glowforge also said customers could cancel their orders and receive a full refund.
Source → Glowforge delays shipment of 3-D laser printer
