Formlabs

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, & 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.^[4][3] Founded in 2011 by MIT Media Lab students Maxim Lobovsky, David Cranor, & Natan Linder, the company raised $2.95 million on Kickstarter for its first printer & has since raised over $230 million in venture funding.^[5]

• 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 company acquired Micronics in July 2024 & canceled the Micron, a $2,999 SLS 3D printer that had raised over £1 million from 431 Kickstarter backers.^[3][6] Formlabs' own SLS printer, the Fuse 1+ 30W, starts at $28,989.^[4]
• 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.^[7][8]

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.

Formlabs acquired Micronics on July 11, 2024, & 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.^[6]

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 & 3D Systems cost $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 roughly 10x.^[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 & that Micronics was "trying to do another 5x beyond that."^[9] Per Tom's Hardware, "Boppart will join the software side of Formlabs while Chan will lead the development of Formlabs next generation printers."^[10] The Micronics brand was discontinued & the Kickstarter was canceled.^[9]

Tom's Hardware headlined its coverage "David vs Goliath" & reported that the Micronics branding would be discontinued.^[10] 3D Printing Industry reported the acquisition as producing "new accessible SLS 3D printers forthcoming," but no such product has shipped as of April 2026.^[11]

Formlabs offered backers a full refund plus a $1,000 credit toward any current or future Formlabs printer & a free Open Material License.^[12][13] 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.^[13] 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.

Formlabs requires a one-time per-printer software license to unlock the use of third-party resins & powders on its printers. The license, called Open Material Mode, costs $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.^[1] 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.^[14] Formlabs' current tiered pricing on its store lists $1,999 for the Form 3 series and $875 for the Form 4.^[1]

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.^[15] 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]

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, & build platforms through at least 2023.^[7] The Form 2 uses proprietary DRM-chipped resin cartridges. Without an authorized cartridge, the printer runs in a limited mode that disables the heater & wiper functions, reducing print quality.^[16]

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.^[8] 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.^[7]

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 & wiper functions enabled.^[16] The Universal Cartridge is compatible only with Formlabs firmware versions through 2.2.0; the product reached end of life & is available only while supplies last.^[17]

• 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

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