Monoprice announced a very low-cost dual extruder 3D printer last month, but we didn’t know how well it worked until we watched this video.
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The Spectrum of Color 3D Printers
You have a monocolor 3D printer and you want colors? You have a few options, but not all of them may fit into your budget.
The simplest approach is simply buy differently-colored filament. However, you’re still printing in one color unless you print multiple pieces in different colors and then connect them together. For example, imagine a 3D print of a car with a red body and black tires.
A second approach is to use a second (or third or fourth) extruder, each of which can potentially be loaded with a different color. This is increasingly frequently done, but results can be tricky unless all extruders are perfectly aligned.
If you really want actual RGB color, you have a couple of more expensive options to consider: One is the 3D Systems CubeJet, which retails for under USD$5,000. It can produce full, RGB color objects using a powder process. However, the objects produced are relatively fragile and require infiltration after printing with various kinds of fixatives.
Another more expensive option is the MCOR Iris, which uses a paper-cutting process to produce full-color objects. Colored patterns are pre-printed on sheafs of regular paper, which then are cut, glued and gradually built into rather strong objects. How strong? We have an MCOR-printed bottle opener that actually works - and it’s made of paper! The Iris costs around USD$40,000, though, so it may be outside your budget.
3D Systems’ new flagship color 3D printer, the ProJet 4500, prints full-color RGB objects using a more advanced powder process that doesn’t require infiltration. It’s available for around USD$70,000.
The new Objet 500 Connex3 from Stratasys can print using ten different 45-color /material palettes. If your color design can fit into one of their palette schemes you can achieve a finely detailed, brilliantly colored print. However, the Connex3 will set you back around USD$350,000.
And that’s about it for color 3D printing options today.
The World’s First Snap Together 3D Printer
Designed in 2011 at a local machine shop in Fullerton, California, the modular Snap 3D printer has come a long way in the past few years.
Originally constructed from wood and held together with store bought components, today’s Snap 3D has become a fully functional 3D printer capable of servicing the prototyping needs of anyone from students to startups.
Build around a colorful, precision milled HDPE frame, the Snap features a 203 x 203 x 203 mm (8 x 8 x 8 in) build volume and can print at a 0.1 mm (100 micron) resolution, exactly the same as its $2,000 counterpart the Replicator 2.
Building models using PLA plastic, the Snap 3D weighs a scant 7.25 kg (16 lbs) and features both USB and micro SD connectivity. With a heated Helios print bed, the Snap is novel not only for its technology but for its construction method as well.
Read more at ENGINEERING.com
Finally, a 3D Printer Statistic
At CES 2014 MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis dropped a stat we’d been waiting to hear. Pettis claimed that MakerBot has sold and shipped over 44,000 MakerBot 3D printers so far.
We’re excited because such information is very hard to come by from 3D printer manufacturers. While most manufacturers will claim (correctly) that their sales are “through the roof” or “doubling every week” or some such statement, rarely are actual machine counts said.
We can draw some conclusions from this. We can speculate that MakerBot, being one of the first and most well-known 3D printer companies, has shipped more than almost all other personal 3D printer manufacturers. This puts a cap of, say, 50,000 machines on any other vendor. After MakerBot, we suspect most of the manufacturers have much smaller product volumes, with the exception of 3D Systems’ Cubify line.
We suspect between MakerBot and Cubify, perhaps 100,000+ machines have been shipped. Add in, say, 100,000 from other manufacturers and we could be at approximately 250,000 personal 3D printers out there.
More to come. Pettis expects to hit a million MakerBots in the near future.
Amazing Six-Axis 3D Printer Shown
Associate Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering Yong Chen of the University of Southern California has been experimenting with different mechanical arrangements for 3D extrusion printing.
Readers are likely familiar with the standard cartesian XYZ 3 axis configuration typically found in inexpensive personal 3D printers. You may also be familiar with the "delta" concept, in which three vertical axes can maneuver an extruder around the print bed. But Chen has gone further with the introduction of a six axis 3D printer.
The six axes operate similar to a delta unit, but offer the ability to tilt the extruder. This means, for example, this device can print on a slanted surface as the image above shows.
Even more amazing is its ability to print on a curved surface, as seen here in the example of a print pasted onto a glass bottle.
While these are indeed advanced functions, we're not sure how often they'd actually be used. Worse, the six axes require more components and that means more cost. However, research must be done to explore alternatives and that has certainly been done here.
Via YouTube
Would You Share a 3D Printer?
One secret known by 3D printer owners is that they can be a lot of work and expense. They are more expensive than consumer-grade paper printers and require much more care and feeding to get good results. These may discourage some from buying their own 3D printer. But now there could be another option: thinkklip offers a means of sharing 3D printers. It's hoping to be the "AirBNB or ZipCar of 3D printers". How does it work? According to thinkklip:
- We will help you to find others with similar interests and budgets who are ready to buy a 3D printer as a group.
- It does not have to be strangers, How about your fellow model airplane club?, Your cooking club?
- Online reputation works: Every user can simply check the online profiles of other members and decide who to follow or join.
- You decide the printer that you wish to purchase and what you want to contribute each of you.
- We will make you a proposal but you decide how you want to share your printer.
- Instantly the platform can create a document of co-ownership (publicly or privately) where all the details will be explained.
We've heard no feedback from anyone regarding thinkklip, but it seems like a concept worth exploring. We particularly like the idea of sharing the work, the exploration and the fun between a group of friends. Could this be your way into 3D printing?
Via thinkklip
Find The Best 3D Printer?
We've learned of a new source for comparisons of 3D printers: FindTheBest.com, which is a comparison and review site for products and services of all types. Now they seem to have added a section for 3D printers, at least the less expensive ones.
Their 3D printer section lists over 30 different devices as of this writing, and presents basic specification information about each device. You're able to sort the list by key factors such as price, number of extruders or layer height.
While the site does provide basic pointers to different machines and can provide an introduction to the most common personal 3D printing options, there is a lot more to the story.
The list shown is a mix of machines with different technologies, materials and service options, all of which should be considered when choosing your 3D printer. Certain technologies are better for printing particular geometries and certain materials are better for particular applications. Depending on your circumstances, you may want a device that has a well-developed support service, or perhaps a large sharing community.
The devil is always in the details, but with this service you can at least get a reasonable list of options to investigate.
Via FindTheBest
Polychemy Offers More 3D Prints
As interest in 3D printing grows, so does the requirement for amazing 3D prints. One interesting source is Polychemy, who market a collection of eclectic 3D prints by notable 3D artists.
Their catalog is not particularly large, but there are some terrific models stored within, some of which we've actually covered earlier. Artists include Joshua Harker, Andrew Baker, Dominic Qwek and Eric Van Straaten.
Models include a variety of artistic sculptures, jewelry and smartphone cases.
Via Polychemy
makexyz Makes Your Stuff
You're interested in 3D printing, but don't have a 3D printer. You also don't want to pay a high price to a 3D print service to obtain a print of your own 3D design. What do you do?
One option, aside from finding a buddy with a 3D printer, is to use the makexyz service. It's a low-cost, distributed 3D print service composed of a network of 3D printer owners willing to perform the print for you. makexyz produces a quote and dispatches your design to a nearby printer, who makes the item and ships it to you.
We spoke with makexyz's Nathan Tone, who answered some of our questions:
Fabbaloo: Can you print in something other than plastic? Colors?
Nathan Tone: Currently just ABS and PLA with wood, nylon and aluminum to be added in the next few weeks. More colors are being added every day. Currently red, blue, green, purple, clear, white, black, silver.
Fabbaloo: What kinds of 3D printer participants are you looking for? Brands? Material types?
Nathan Tone: All shapes, sizes and price points. From a Thing-o-Matic to an Objet Pro 30
Fabbaloo: What charge levels / rates will consumers pay for a given print? How do you calculate it?
Nathan Tone: Consumers save a pretty significant amount of money. What costs $20-$30 at shapeways and imaterialize is usually $10-$15 at makexyz.
Fabbaloo: What's in this for the printer operator? How much are they paid per print? Is it a percentage?
Nathan Tone: The printers set their own prices (a $ per cubic centimeter). So it's great for the printers; they can keep their printers humming and make some money / maker friends on the side!
So far makexyz says they've signed up "Hundreds" of participants, "with more added daily".
If you're interested in trying out makexyz, check them out at the link below.
Via makexyz
LeapFrog Sells 1000 - But How Many More 3D Printers Exist?
We received a note from Netherlands-based Leapfrog 3D Printers who, among other notable achievements, said they've sold their 1,000th 3D printer. It was a LeapFrog Creatr, evidently sold to someone also in the Netherlands.
This is quite an accomplishment for the small manufacturer, but it leads us to ponder: exactly how many personal 3D printers are now out in the world? In the past some manufacturers would publish numbers, but we kinda lost track around 25,000.
Since then there have been several developments:
- Cubify launched the Cube (and now CubeX) with a major marketing push and no doubt sold many thousands of units
- MakerBot has released two new 3D printers, the Replicator 2 and Replicator 2X, which likely were (and are) very popular
- Multiple smaller 3D printer manufacturers emerged, each selling at least dozens or perhaps hundreds of units
- Formlabs sold over 1,000 units in its Kickstarter campaign and many more afterwards
- Older, more primitive units have likely been replaced by more powerful personal 3D printers
So how many units exist?
We have no idea, but it's possible the number now exceeds 100,000 units.
3D Printing Outside The Box
Joris Peels proposes a radical idea for 3D printing: mobility. Longtime Fabbaloo readers will be familiar with the concept of a "build chamber", in which extruders or other printing mechanisms move about to create an object. The build chamber is based on the mechanical concept of three axes of movement, but it has a major limitation: objects must fit within the build chamber. If not, the extruder would have to "leave" the build chamber. That's not mechanically possible.
Peels proposes a different approach: abandon the "build chamber" concept entirely and use a robot arm mounted on a moveable chassis. 3D printing has previously been done with robot arms, but providing mobility would permit the arm to reach infinitely, enabling building massive objects. Erm, at least as high as it can reach, anyway.
The resulting "printer" might look like Peels' concept "TankPlusArm" above.
We like this idea and believe someone should give it a try, but we see a couple of challenges:
Safety. Moving mechanical parts are always dangerous and by keeping them within an explicit build chamber, we've "captured" the danger zone. Keep your hands out when printing! This won't be the case with a mobile 3D printer. We may have to fence them in and restrict access while printing takes place, although coding errors could generate some terrific YouTube videos.
Time. Extrusion-based 3D printing is very time consuming, as the print head must literally move over every solid spot on the printed object. Printing large-scale objects will simply aggravate the problem by introducing much more movement, and therefore increasing print time. Prints might take weeks using this approach.
What do you think?
Via VoxelFab
Looking for a Used 3D Printer?
The press typically covers announcements of new printers, but did you know you can find used 3D printers for sale at prices that are sometimes quite a bit lower than retail? We cruised through Ebay today to see what we could find: - ZCorp Spectrum 510 for USD$20,000
- 3D Systems Actua 2100 Rapid Plastic Prototype Printer for USD$4,000
Offers such as these are typical on eBay but vary from day to day. If it makes sense for you to own a high-powered commercial 3D printer, you might consider making a deal on eBay. Last week noticed a brand new Solido 3D printer at a very attractive price point, a 3D Systems ThermoJet Modeler sold for USD$1,850 and an Objet Eden 250 Polyjet printer sold for USD$31,610.
How could this make sense? Why wouldn't you simply use a 3D print service instead? Using a 3D print service probably is sensible for most people, but if your printouts are more frequent than occasional or perhaps your turnaround requirements can't handle a day or two of shipping, this could be a good option for you.
One interesting observation: there's very few hobbyist 3D printers for sale: no MakerBots and some RepRap part kits (typically for the Mendel version). At press time, only one fully assembled Mendel RepRap device was at auction. We suspect people love their kits so much they'd never part with them.
Via eBay
Eleven Year Old Boy Builds 3D Printer
Some may say 3D printing is a niche topic understandable only by ultrageeks, but we're reading about Justin Urke, an eleven year old from Auburn, California who not only can use a 3D printer, but apparently has constructed his own! Even though he modified the design to increase the size of the build chamber from 4x4 inches to 8x12, he found the most challenging element of the project to be the software.
We're not sure which printer design Justin based his design upon, but there are several he could choose from.
What does this mean? We think it shows two important things: first, there are sufficient designs, software and materials available to actually achieve this on your own. Second, it shows how capable young students can be if they have the passion to focus on a project that leverages the available information. Congratulations, Justin!
Via Auburn Journal
CubeSpawn
Another very cool KickStarter project has appeared: CubeSpawn, by James Jones. The project's concept is to establish a standard approach to linking personal manufacturing machines together based on the common cube shape. In this vision, 30cm square cubes are placed adjacent to one another, and each contains some type of manufacturing machine. Results from one cube are passed to the next cube for further manufacturing.
The project envisions standard cubes with "the basic 20 or so industrial capabilities". With a library of functions like that, one could potentially assemble a manufacturing plant simply by arranging the appropriate selection of cubes in the right sequence and providing some coordinating software. According to CubeSpawn:
If the cubes can pass what they are working on between them and each cube can do one of more steps in making something, then a large collection of cubes with the basic 20 or so industrial capabilities, could make almost anything -- that is, anything of a size that would pass through them, of course.
In video Jones explains his goal to produce a set of standards that permits easy creation of a complete manufacturing process from end to end. He's starting by building two prototypes in 0.5m size.
If you'd like to support open hardware, we'd encourage you to contribute to this very interesting project. Good luck, CubeSpawn!
Via CubeSpawn and KickStarter
3D Systems Unveils The Biggest!
3D Printer manufacturer 3D Systems demonstrated their new Projet 5000 Large Format 3D printer at the EuroMold conference. Is this just another 3D printer? No - there's something unique about this one.
It possibly has the largest build chamber available in a 3D printer today: a staggering 55 x 39 x 30 cm. To accompany that statistic, the Projet 5000 can also run for an amazing 80 unattended hours, due to its ability to hold up to 8 material delivery modules.
For those applications that absolutely require the large build size, this will be welcome news. No word on pricing yet, but it's probably more than we can afford.
Via 3D Systems
SOLIDO SD300 Pro
Israeli-based SOLIDO announced a new 3D printer: the SOLIDO SD300 Pro, which succeeds the previous SD300. The SD300 uses Plastic Sheet Lamination technology to produce 3D objects:
The materials used in the SD300 Pro are a combination of PVC (PolyVinyl Chloride) and our own adhesive which results in rugged yet inexpensive models. These models can be machined, drilled, finished and painted and show no distortion over time.
Available material colors are: Amber transparent, Red, Blue, Black and Cream, and the layer thickness is 0.168mm. The moderately sized build chamber is 16 x 21 x 13.5 cm, able to handle small objects easily.
SOLIDO makes a point that this is an office device:
Anyone can operate the SD300 3D Printer. The model build process requires no intervention and the replacement of consumable materials can be done by anyone - it is no more complicated than changing cartridges on a copy machine or a 2D printer. The SD300 creates no ambient dust or residue so there is no cleanup required after each build.
While not quite as green as MCOR's paper 3D printer, SOLIDO does include a recycling kit with each printer, enabling you to easily return unused raw material back to SOLIDO.
The best part: the price of the SD300 Pro is only €2,950 (USD$4,375). Does this make it a sub-USD$5,000 3D printer? We think so!
Via SOLIDO
Sciaky's EBF3
Following on from our previous posts on the promising EBF3 technique (Electron Beam FreeForm Fabrication), we bumped into a video showing a commercial implementation from Sciaky. The video shows the build process as well as highlighting the key benefits:
- Drastically reduce material costs
- Dramatically shorten lead times
- Slash machining time
- Save over costly forgings or castings
- eliminate wait time for dies, moulds and billets
The resulting object looks a little rough, but the normal approach is to follow up with some serious machining time to complete the object. According to the video, the part above was printed with Titanium Wire source material over a period of 56 hours. It's to be followed with approximately 60 hours of machining. The total 116 hours is lower than using traditional manufacturing techniques.
The Sciaky printer also accepts powder material as well as wire fed, and can print an amazing 15-40 pounds of material per hour sustained, with even higher burst rates. It can even alter the chemistry or alloy during printing.
We're adding Titanium Wire to our weekly shopping list right now!
The MIT Food Printer
MIT's Fluid Interfaces Group is working on the design of a concept device that if made popular, would revolutionize how we cook, eat and even socialize.
The device shown above (and don't get your hopes up, that's merely a conceptual image) would store a variety of raw food elements in cartridges. The cartridges would be swapped into the print head, which can hold several simultaneously. A 3D model, or "recipe" would drive the head to the right spots to deposit juicy material in a delicious pattern.
This "personal food factory" implies many things:
- A new (or enhanced) 3D data format would have to be designed to accommodate for the new food and cooking oriented features - heat sequences, wait times, etc.
- An ecosystem of recipe repositories would erupt, complete with rating systems, images and taste tests. And then: Pirate Food!
- A highly competitive industry providing raw food materials would emerge, likely starting from home food designers, but moving up to industrial scale operations, too
- Grocery store shelves would be stocked with Tassimo-like food factory cartridges, perhaps organized into "meal kits" containing all the ingredients and recipe files for themed events. We'd probably like the bean burrito package
- iPhone apps would permit selection of meals remotely, allowing one to eat immediately after arriving home
And that's not all. We can imagine digital food would fundamentally alter remote meetings and teleconferences too, when you can eat the same dainties as they folks on the other end.
Ominous statement at the website: "This project is currently starting."
Via MIT
MCOR Matrix 300
The Irish MCOR scientists still believe they can print 3D objects on paper - and they are correct! This past week they announced their latest 3D paper printer, the MCOR Matrix 300, pictured above.
The new model apparently provides some interesting advantages over previous models:
- Faster turnaround (however, we saw no statistics on this) at similar cost
- Sleek design (see image above)
- Enhanced software that simplifies the process, including optimized waste removal
- Smooth curves and "parts that have a real tactile finish"
- Parts with "variable stiffness"
And of course, the MCOR's previous advantages still exist: very inexpensive print media (paper) and ecologically friendly, suitable for use anywhere. The 300 is slated to roll out to UK and Ireland in January.
Via MCOR
ZCorp Goes Monochrome!
If the motion picture industry changed from color to black and white, we'd be concerned. The same would be true for ZCorp if they dropped their color technology and retreated to "monochrome" mode for their line of 3D printers. That's not exactly what's going on here: they've announced a new Monochrome 3D printer. Sounds strange, doesn't it? Most 3D printers today are monochrome - but ZCorp's printers use their proprietary Polyjet technology that permits use of more than one color within the same print operation. We think that point of view alone gives a hint of the current state of 3D printing.
So, on to the announcement. It's the ZCorp 350, billed as an inexpensive way to acquire "high-end functionality". What's "high-end", you ask?
- automatic material loading
- snap-in binder cartridges
- integrated recycling of unused build material
- self-monitoring operation
- control from both the desktop and printer
- 0.8 in/hour (20 mm/hour) vertical build speed
- 8 x 10 x 8 in (203 x 254 x 203 mm) build size
- 300 x 450 dpi resolution
- office-safe build materials, aggressive dust-control, and zero liquid waste
Now that might seem like a high price for hobbyists, and it is. However, this device is not aimed at the hobbyist market. It's for professional users in offices that today cannot afford their own 3D printer. Yes, there are 3D printers in this price range, but they don't have the same features. And in an office environment, those features mean dollars. Without the timesaving features, someone will have to do extra work, and those minutes will add up to big savings in the long term.
Via ZCorp
[UPDATE] Commenter kyphon is correct: ZCorp does not use PolyJet - that's Objet's multi-material technology. We suspect someone left the resin out at the Fabbaloo offices and we must have inhaled deeply. Sigh.