@mbanzi shows live on tv the preview of Arduino Materia 101 – the 3d printer to be presented at @MakerFaireRome pic.twitter.com/31jBr99NuF — Arduino (@arduino) September 27, 2014

Arduino, known for creating an easy-to-use microcontroller revolution, is about to launch its own 3D printer.

The Arduino Materia 101 made its global debut earlier today on the official Arduino twitter account with a photo of a boxy white and teal FDM printer and a note that Arduino co-founder Massimo Banzi is showing the printer live on Italian TV. It also states that the printer will be presented next weekend at Maker Faire Rome.

In the image, the printer appears to have an LCD screen, a control knob, and a switch on the front plate. A filament spool holder with a matching color scheme sits attached to the right side. The mechanical bits are obscured, so details about its extruder or print bed size aren’t clear, but we’ll be looking forward to learning more shortly.

The machine is the biggest piece of hardware that Arduino has yet to launch. It’s an interesting move for the company, but not an entirely disconnected element, as many of the printer developments in the 3D community have used Arduino boards for control. Moreover, it further indicates how bigger companies are starting to embrace and release 3D printers — just last week, traditional power-tool manufacturer Dremel launched their own, the 3D Idea Builder at MakerCon.

Any further information about this printer? Please leave a note in the comments below. We’ll update as we learn more as well.

UPDATE: the Italian 3D printing site 3discover.it reports that the printer is a collaboration between Arduino and Italian 3D printer maker Sharebot, showing one additional angle of the machine.

UPDATE: From the Sharebot site, it looks like the Arduino Materia 101 has many similar features to the Sharebot Kiwi 3D. If this is indeed a rebadged machine, expect something with a 140mm x 100mm x 100mm print capacity (5.5in x 3.9in x 3.9in), that prints with 1.75mm PLA filament. While those prints are not particularly large, the overall size of the Kiwi machine is also diminutive at 310mm x 350mm x 330mm (12.2in x 13.77in x 13in). It also has print-from-SD card capabilities. We’ll continue to check if these indeed share the same specs. The Kiwi 3D starts at 696€ (~$882).