FORT WORTH, TEXAS, May 13, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Allied Electronics, a trading brand of Electrocomponents plc (LSE: ECM), announced today that they are offering a line of 3D printers and supplies from 3D Systems (NYSE:DDD), one of the leading manufacturers of this cutting-edge technology.
"This is very exciting for us," said Allied Product Director Marie Dawson. "3D printing promises to revolutionize many areas of design, manufacturing and production, and we're excited to bring this technology to a wider audience."
Allied will carry both the Cube, an entry-level device for printing in one color, and the CubeX, a larger device that can print geometries as big as a basketball in up to three colors. Both printers utilize ABS and PLA thermoplastic material for printing, and are priced at a level that will make them attractive to a wide audience. Allied will also offer a line of 3D scanners and supplies to complement their 3D printer offerings, allowing customers to purchase an entire solutions package.
"Complementing our hardware offering is the availability of DesignSpark Mechanical, a 3D design program offered exclusively through Allied and our parent company in the UK, RS Components," said Elisa Weber, Director of Brand Strategy for Allied. "A groundbreaking free software package, DesignSpark Mechanical quickly and easily builds three-dimensional models and prototypes, without the use of expensive CAD programs. It's intuitive and easy-to-use, and the designs created in it can be output in STL format for exporting to a 3D printer."
Rejeev Kulkarni, VP, General Manager, Consumer Solutions Business for 3D Systems said, "Partnering with Allied on the Cube and CubeX will help us reach a large and important demographic: designers and engineers who seek the ability to easily and affordably create prototypes as part of the creation of world-changing products. By working together like this, we hope to bring 3D printing to the forefront of technology, revolutionizing the industry in the same way that the introduction of laser printers revolutionized a dot-matrix world."
About Allied Electronics
Allied Electronics is a small order, high service level distributor of electronic components and electromechanical products with 48 sales offices serving the United States, Mexico, and Canada. With more than three million parts online and more than 110,000 products featured in the Allied Catalog, engineers and purchasers often look to Allied for a broad range of product solutions from over 300 world-class suppliers. Allied Electronics and RS Components are trading brands of Electrocomponents plc (LSE:ECM), the world's leading high service distributor of electronics and maintenance products headquartered in Oxford, England. www.alliedelec.com
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About RS Components
RS Components and Allied Electronics are the trading brands of Electrocomponents plc, the world's leading high service distributor of electronics and maintenance products. With operations in 32 countries, RS offers more than 550,000 products through the Internet, catalogues and at trade counters to over one million customers, shipping around 44,000 parcels a day. Products are sourced from 2,500 leading suppliers and include electronics, automation and control, test and measurement, electrical and mechanical components.
About 3D Systems
3D Systems is a leading provider of 3D printing centric design-to-manufacturing solutions including 3D printers, print materials and cloud sourced on-demand custom parts for professionals and consumers alike in materials including plastics, metals, ceramics and edibles. The company also provides integrated 3D scan-based design, freeform modeling and inspection tools. Its products and services replace and complement traditional methods and reduce the time and cost of designing new products by printing real parts directly from digital input. These solutions are used to rapidly design, create, communicate, prototype or produce real parts, empowering customers to manufacture the future.