We’re changing our name from 3D Hubs to Hubs.
Since we began our company, the 3D printing part of our business has shifted from “all we do” to only a part of the services we offer. Today we provide a wide range of manufacturing services, including CNC machining, sheet metal fabrication, as well as 3D printing.
We're no longer just a 3D printing service. We're making all custom part production more accessible than ever before through instant quoting, immediate Design for Manufacturability feedback, and smart order routing in our distributed network of Manufacturing Partners.
Therefore, we feel the time is right to drop the “3D” from our name and continue as Hubs.
Note: If you’re a 3D Hubs user, this name change will not affect your account or your orders. The only differences you’ll notice are that web links to www.3dhubs.com will now take you to www.hubs.com, and you’ll be contacted by someone with an email address ending in @hubs.com from now on.
3D printing was just the beginning
Since the inception of our company, we’ve been driven by the mission of making custom part manufacturing more accessible.
We’ve always believed a globally connected manufacturing network was the answer, instead of the more traditional centralized model. A network of digital manufacturing facilities (or “hubs”), accessible through an easy-to-use online platform. This approach would allow us to offer a wide range of manufacturing services with practically unlimited capacity at competitive prices.
Our starting point was building a peer-to-peer 3D printing service. Connecting people who needed 3D printed parts to people with printers – an idea which quickly grew into the largest 3D printing network in the world. We named ourselves 3D Hubs to represent the different 3D printing hubs globally that comprised our network.
We then started to look at the manufacturing industry as a whole, searching for more effective ways to help engineers source parts and bring their products to market faster.
We became more than a 3D printing network. We developed a platform, taking advantage of technological advances like machine learning, to instantly price, source and automatically check parts for Design for Manufacturability. We built out our network of premium manufacturing partners, enabling us to add CNC machining, followed by sheet metal fabrication and injection molding, to our list of services. And, just a few months ago, we joined forces with Protolabs, with the combined aim of creating the world’s most comprehensive digital manufacturing portfolio.
The name Hubs catches up to where we are now.
Driving the future of manufacturing
It’s been truly amazing to support more than 120,000 engineers so far with world-transforming ideas like exoskeletons, climate change-fighting drones, and low-earth orbit satellites in sourcing custom parts to bring their initial ideas to life and scale their businesses fast.
Now as Hubs, our mission remains the same. We’re continuing to – and always will – make custom part manufacturing more accessible, even for very complex parts or high volumes no other manufacturer can produce.
For us, a distributed manufacturing network paired with an automation-driven platform is the solution to achieving this goal. With this approach, we can rebuild manufacturing into an industry that requires less transportation and inventory, and transform it into one that increases efficiency, and is overall more sustainable. We can’t wait to show you what the future of manufacturing looks like.
