Eco-Friendly 3D Printing: Samantha Snabes, Co-Founder of re:3D

Inspired by her travels with the Johnson Space Center’s “Engineers Without Borders” team, Samantha Snabes has helped launch some of the largest and most affordable industrial 3D printers in the world. Her company, re:3D, is the manufacturer of the Gigabot, a giant 3D printer that boasts a build volume starting at 30X the size of desktop printers. The eco-friendly Gigabot sells for one-tenth the cost of typical industrial printers, can print directly from plastic waste, and has customers in more than 50 countries.

In this podcast, Snabes shares her observations of how 3D printing is radically transforming the way we think about product design. “The vision for what you will make changes as soon as you start printing it,” she says. “Designers will often say within the first three layers, they’ve found a way to improve their idea. Just starting to see the outline of the physical form inspires new ideas.” Snabes also chats with Jon about her experiences in the Mississippi National Guard, where she serves in an emergency response unit for hurricane and disaster relief.