A DIYer's delight, Google's Project Ara modular smartphone has garnered a lot of attention for its piecemeal approach to personalization via miniature components and 3D printing.

The Ara team last year partnered with 3D Systems to produce a high-speed printing platform for the phone, and this week, 3D Systems offered a preview of some of its early progress.

In anticipation of the January 2015 launch date, 3D Systems has taken a step back from the typical "reciprocating platform" found in many contemporary 3D printers.

Instead, the company is aiming for more productive print rates ("of millions and hopefully billions of units") with a continuous motion system, built around a racetrack architecture. This machine, the team said, ditches the frequent acceleration and deceleration process in favor of a continuous flow with "off ramps" for additional steps.

"The dynamic and evolving technology that is changing the way we think and make is also changing the way it thinks and makes," 3D Systems said in a blog post.

The Project Ara open hardware platform launched in October under Motorola's care; but when Google sold its handset division to Lenovo this year, it held onto the build-it-yourself Ara project.

During last month's Project Ara Developers Conferencethe first of three scheduled this yearGoogle announced the $50 "Gray Phone," an intentionally boring device expected to be personalized.

Consumers recently got a peek at a prototype of the phone's structural frame in a video highlighting electro-permanent magnets which keep in place components like an application processor, keyboard, extra battery, or pulse oximeter.

"Rather than chucking your whole device for a new camera, you simply slide out the old one and clip in the new one," 3D Systems said. "Badda-bing, badda-boom: you have a better phone with less waste."

The 3D printing firm is also working with Carnegie Mellon University and X5 Systems on printing functional components like antennas. According to this week's update, modules will be printable in full spectrum CMYKWT color plus support, in hard and soft composite materials.

"The combination of exponential creation technology with exponential information technology translates to unprecedented capability and adaptability for the consumer," 3DS CTO Chuck Hull said in a statement. "The scale of this project and its practical functionality are an exciting step into the future."

Google last month released version 0.10 of its Module Developers Kit, opening the door to developers looking to get in on the ground floor of the Ara smartphone.

For more, see Project Ara Is Technology's Best Hope for a Maker Nation.

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