Hi makers,

What a year it has been and we’re now heading to 2022! With 2021 marking another year of the pandemic, its effects were seen in every aspect of daily life. However, it’s always grateful to have friends and families around and we hope that Snapmaker has accompanied and brought you a sense of joy and happiness.

A LOT has happened this year as well in Snapmaker. We launched a new range of product lineups including Snapmaker 2.0 AT & F models and its addons; we reached our fifth milestone and witnessed this significant moment with our users and business partners globally; we doubled the number of members in our company to 300 in 2021…Following the timeline below, let’s cut to the chase and take a quick recap on 2021!

January

• Started the trail maintenance in the US and Europe
• Attended Virtual CES 2021

February

• Announced the closing of a Series A funding of millions of dollars
• The 5th Snapmaking Contest themed on upcycling
• Launched Affiliate program

March

• Conducted user profile survey to improve user experience 
• New warehouse in Australia

April

• The Snapmaker 2.0 Rotary Module & Emergency Stop Button available for pre-order

May

• Attended TCT Asia and showcased the Snapmaker 2.0 Rotary Module

• The 6th Snapmaker Internal Makerathon
• The Launch of StarMaker Program 

June

• Luban user interface upgrade
• Cohosted MOVEIT 3DP SHOW CONTEST with Elegoo

July

• The official release of Snapmaker 2.0 Air Purifier and CAN Hub

• Opened the Snapmaker US online store

August

• Launched our 5th-anniversary celebration campaign themed with “Make it Happen”

• Started FAQ update and troubleshooting guide 2.0
• Luban 4.0 released

September

• Snapmaker 5th-anniversary global sale
• Our channel partner Manchester Metrology showcased Snapmaker at TCT UK

October

• Snapmaker Virtual Party first went on YouTube live stream
• Revealed our first brand video
• The launch of Snapmaker 2.0 F models and AT models

• Introduced Snapmaker Care
• New warehouse in the UK
• The 7th Snapmaker Internal Makerathon
• New office in use

November

• The launch of Snapmaker 10W High Power Laser Module

• The Snapmaker Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals
• Our channel partner iGo3D attended Formnext and showcased the latest Snapmaker 2.0 AT models
• Luban 4.1 released

• The number of employees is close to 300

December

• New warehouse in Canada
• Conducted Luban user experience survey
• Customer Service satisfaction rate increased to 98.9%
• Snapmaker made its debut in Urbanbird’s offline store in Germany 

Hardware

Snapmaker 2.0 Rotary Module (addon):

Being the most desired product among our current users and early backers, the Snapmaker 2.0 Rotary Module was officially launched in April 2021. It adds a 4th axis to your Snapmaker, making it an extremely mighty desktop CNC machining powerhouse, and much more. We’re happy to see that it has received positive feedback in the community!

Snapmaker 2.0 F Models (Modular 3D printer) & Snapmaker 2.0 AT Models  (Modular 3-in-1 3D printer): 

Unveiled on Oct 15, 2021, on Snapmaker’s first virtual party via youtube live stream, the Snapmaker 2.0 F models are standalone 3D printers with the flexibility to expand, while Snapmaker 2.0 AT models are upgraded models of Snapmaker 2.0. 

The upgraded model made improvements on the Power Module, 3D Printing Module, and Linear Module. For details regarding the improvement, please refer to the blog post here.

Snapmaker 2.0 Air Purifier (addon):

We said hello to the Snapmaker 2.0 Air Purifier in July. Incorporate with Snapmaker 2.0 Enclosure, the Snapmaker 2.0 Air Purifier helps remove smell and reduce the fumes coming from the 3D printing, laser cutting & engraving process, providing an extra layer of safety for you and your loved ones.

Snapmaker 2.0 CAN Hub (addon): 

Released together with the Snapmaker 2.0 Air Purifier, the CAN Hub is a 4-in-1 docking station designed for effortless charging and data transfer to allow the connection of Enclosure, Air Purifier, Emergency Stop Button, and other upcoming addons. 

Snapmaker 10W High Power Laser Module (addon):

Available for pre-sale on November 19, 2021, the 10W Laser Module is equipped with the most cutting-edge laser beam splitters, effecting a power leap from 5W to 10W. This means you can now play with a wider variety of materials and hammer out more projects.

Software

We released the Luban v4.0 in August, introducing a brand new designed user interface, refined workflow mainly for Laser and CNC G-code Generator, and re-implemented slice backend in C++ to have a great performance improvement on toolpath generation.

In December, v4.1 was released. It added support for 10W High Power Laser Module, including the Auto Focus feature, upgraded Camera Capture feature, and updated Case Library. We also added STL to SVG support for laser cutting, extended predefined profiles with recommended parameters for common laser materials. With “Rotate on Face ” on the rotation panel with suggested faces introduced, you can choose placement faces based on Overlap Area and Support Volume required.

Customer Service

With a more well-trained customer support team, we solved 31, 365 tickets this year and our satisfaction score has risen to the highest 98.9%. In the meanwhile, the requester wait hours were reduced with a great leap from 36.1 to 22. 

Community Engagement

We love to meet makers all over the world. However, due to the pandemic, we were not able to travel around and visit the events globally. We attended the Maker Faire Shanghai this year and met our users face-to-face, learning about the new projects in the International schools that have incorporated Snapmaker into their courses. 

Despite the physical limits, there’s always a way for the connection. In 2021, we regularly shared brilliant cases, hosted Snapmaking Contests and giveaway events on social media to interact with current users and reach out to more makers all over the world. 

The 3D-printed dragon printed by @3dprintingdoctor went viral on social media! It reached more than 24 million people on Facebook with 8.6K comments and 15M views. Among all the social media events, Share Your New Year Wishes was the most popular one with over 1000 entries!

We also launched the Star Maker Program aiming at stimulating the communication within our community as well as the connection between users and the Snapmaker team. By far we have received dozens of showcases and records on how they were made, including Halloween CNC decorations, 3D printing X ceramics, and so on. Take a look at these great ideas and get some inspiration!

Logistics

Introducing new warehouses in Australia, the UK, and Canada enabled faster delivery speed and lower shipping costs for customers shopping in our online store. Due to the impact of the global pandemic, many of the parcels were held by customs and caused a longer time for inspection. We sincerely apologize for the unexpected delay and appreciate your patience while we work to get your parcel to you.

Global Market

In July, to improve the shopping experience, we opened a new online store for customers in the US and celebrated the opening with a wave of promotions. 

As for global channels, we have 23 more channel partners joining us, coordinated with top-tier 3D printing channel partners and opened up our channel market in North America. 

Snapmaker Academy

As we’ve promised to you in 2021, we’re putting more effort into making Snapmaker Academy a more informative platform. In 2021, Snapmaker Academy brought you 14 articles and videos on project tutorials, resources recommendation, general knowledge, and product maintenance for 3D printing, laser engraving, and CNC carving. You can find useful information here. 

What’s new in 2022?

Looking back, it’s indeed a fruitful and significant year! Thank you for being with us on this journey and putting your faith in us. Your support, creative ideas, and valuable feedback mean a lot to us. Starting our business on Kickstarter in 2017, we’re more than excited to see that our community is growing tremendously and getting stronger. So what to expect in 2022?

First thing first, new products of course. In the third and fourth quarters of 2022, the Dual-extruder Module and new machines are coming! Keep an eye out on our blog posts, newsletter, and social media channels for more details.

Committed to presenting content that adds value to your creative journey, we never stop our efforts in building Snapmaker Academy into a place where you can learn to make something wonderful. Staying true to this mission, Snapmaker Academy in 2022 will continue to provide step-by-step guides and tutorials for you to progress from beginner to professional, evokes your inspirations on popular and useful WHAT, WHY, and HOW topics, and witnesses your growth in this wonderful making journey with Snapmaker. 

We’ve been listening to our user feedback and are launching the Snapmaker Luban Beta Program. Play a role in improving Luban before its next releases and get early access to the latest features and updates. As a member of the program, beta testers can take part in shaping Luban software by test-driving pre-release versions and letting us know your timely and effective feedback. There’s also an extra bonus for beta testers, stay tuned!

In terms of customer service, the Extended Warranty service will be launched and each customer will be able to track the status of the product you purchased. In addition, more optimized maintenance service is coming on the way. In the future, Snapmaker’s responsive and licensed maintenance contractor will be located in more countries to offer support for users around the globe with greater convenience. 

Committed to our mission to empower everyone to create freely in the physical world, Snapmaker will be dedicated to making fine tools as always. Let’s keep making something wonderful in 2022! What do you expect from us this year? We would love to hear your voice! 

Happy making,

Team Snapmaker