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Wow, that's a lot of funding for just another resin 3d printer. We have had printers like Form1 in the low-cost segment. I'm surprised about the funding amount

Wow, that's a lot of funding for just another resin 3d printer. We have had printers like Form1 in the low-cost segment. I'm surprised about the funding amount, as the market is currently very very stagnating.

webXL 11y ago
I dunno. Seems about right these days for the "cool" factor. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." That video looked pretty magical to me.
- mcphage 11y ago
  > That video looked pretty magical to me. Is that the first resin-based printer you've seen? Because I agree, they look pretty cool. But this one doesn't look particularly different, just faster.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
hanniabu 11y ago
Their method of manufacturing is different than others. It makes the process faster, allows for greater detail, eliminated the issue of having layers which weakens the structure, and it allows for much more complex designs without the need for temporary structures. I think their funding is well placed and will indeed give the 3d printing industry a shake up on the consumer market.
- mcphage 11y ago
  Different from other resin printers? It doesn't seem different than them, at least from this material.
  - 542458 11y ago
    That's the impression I get. It's certainly better than traditional SLA, but still maintains all of SLA's major disadvantages (material/consumable/machine cost, low speed, resin smell/fumes/toxicity, general mess, part decay/degradation over time, limited materials). The tech might take over the SLA space, but I doubt they'll take a significant bite out of other printing processes.
    - Veedrac 11y ago
      > low speed This is one of the primary things they advertise most improvement on. Their graphic[1] shows massive speed increases. I don't know about most of the things you've mentioned, but it also looks like it provides far higher quality output than other products, given that it uses continuous deposition and the projector is precise enough to form smooth curved surfaces. [1] http://3dprinting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Carbon3D-CLIP-ultra-fast-3d-printing-2.png http://3dprinting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Carbon3D-CL...
      - 542458 11y ago
        Whoops, you're right - it does have speed benefits. That said, I really doubt that chart they're showing off. I know our SLA machines could print something significantly larger than the maximum object size on the Carbon3D machine in less than the 11.5 hours they list. I would like it see what the actual test case is.
        Veedrac 11y ago
        I don't know what the test case is, but going from the article[1], at 100µm layers it prints at 500 mm/hour. Form 1+ claims 10 to 30 mm/hour at this resolution, so Carbon3D is 20-50 times the speed. That puts Form 1+ about 2-3 times as good as the graph suggests. CLIP (Carbon3D's name for their tech) isn't layer-rate limited, but cure-rate limited so the comparison isn't quite fair. [1] http://www.sciencemag.org/content/347/6228/1349.abstract http://www.sciencemag.org/content/347/6228/1349.abstract (free access if you sign up for an account)
  - saulrh 11y ago
    Quantitative improvement, not qualitative. They don't need to separate the resin from the base plate after every layer, which means vastly improved speed and precision and much less complexity. It's the difference between a car that can go 5 miles per hour and a car that can go 50 miles per hour - only quantitative improvement, but now you have a reason to use it every day.
    - mcphage 11y ago
      Of course, in manufacturing they're competing against injection molding, which can go a metaphorical 100,000 miles per hour.
      - saulrh 11y ago
        But has its significant limitations, notably that it takes a colossal machine and days to weeks to design, optimize, and machine a mold. Injection molding works great if you want to get to Pluto, but it'll cost you two years, a partnership with NASA, and a thousand tons of LH2 and LOX, and that cost remains constant even you just want to hit the supermarket. Current 3d printers can get you to the grocery store pretty well, but you're out of luck for anything bigger. Carbon3d offers a new middle ground - fast enough and good enough for small production runs, but without the titanic constant-time overhead demanded by injection molding. This isn't going to be used for parts that you need ten million of. It'll be used for parts that you need a few hundred of.
        Retric 11y ago
        Seems like there is a huge opportunity for 3d printing injection molds. It's probably more a tool chain question than an actual 3d printing question. But, by reducing the cost gap from mid-scale 3d printing to full scale production seems like a large potential net win. AKA, if the costs are similar at 10k and drop after that.
        minthd 11y ago
        3d printing of injection molds is already being used for some low volume medical products.
  - blhack 11y ago
    It prints about 100 times faster than other SLA printers. http://carbon3d.com/ http://carbon3d.com/
sciencedangyou 11y ago
You do realize they were on the cover of Science Magazine? I don't understand how people think there is nothing technically new here when one of the most prestigious peer-reviewed journals in the world features your paper on its front page.... http://www.sciencemag.org/content/347/6228.cover-expansion http://www.sciencemag.org/content/347/6228.cover-expansion
- dekhn 11y ago
  There is a trite, but not completely inaccurate statement about Science: if it gets published there, it's likely to be sexy and wrong.

webXL 11y ago

I dunno. Seems about right these days for the "cool" factor. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." That video looked pretty magical to me.

mcphage 11y ago
> That video looked pretty magical to me. Is that the first resin-based printer you've seen? Because I agree, they look pretty cool. But this one doesn't look particularly different, just faster.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

hanniabu 11y ago

Their method of manufacturing is different than others. It makes the process faster, allows for greater detail, eliminated the issue of having layers which weakens the structure, and it allows for much more complex designs without the need for temporary structures. I think their funding is well placed and will indeed give the 3d printing industry a shake up on the consumer market.

mcphage 11y ago
Different from other resin printers? It doesn't seem different than them, at least from this material.
- 542458 11y ago
  That's the impression I get. It's certainly better than traditional SLA, but still maintains all of SLA's major disadvantages (material/consumable/machine cost, low speed, resin smell/fumes/toxicity, general mess, part decay/degradation over time, limited materials). The tech might take over the SLA space, but I doubt they'll take a significant bite out of other printing processes.
  - Veedrac 11y ago
    > low speed This is one of the primary things they advertise most improvement on. Their graphic[1] shows massive speed increases. I don't know about most of the things you've mentioned, but it also looks like it provides far higher quality output than other products, given that it uses continuous deposition and the projector is precise enough to form smooth curved surfaces. [1] http://3dprinting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Carbon3D-CLIP-ultra-fast-3d-printing-2.png http://3dprinting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Carbon3D-CL...
    - 542458 11y ago
      Whoops, you're right - it does have speed benefits. That said, I really doubt that chart they're showing off. I know our SLA machines could print something significantly larger than the maximum object size on the Carbon3D machine in less than the 11.5 hours they list. I would like it see what the actual test case is.
      - Veedrac 11y ago
        I don't know what the test case is, but going from the article[1], at 100µm layers it prints at 500 mm/hour. Form 1+ claims 10 to 30 mm/hour at this resolution, so Carbon3D is 20-50 times the speed. That puts Form 1+ about 2-3 times as good as the graph suggests. CLIP (Carbon3D's name for their tech) isn't layer-rate limited, but cure-rate limited so the comparison isn't quite fair. [1] http://www.sciencemag.org/content/347/6228/1349.abstract http://www.sciencemag.org/content/347/6228/1349.abstract (free access if you sign up for an account)
- saulrh 11y ago
  Quantitative improvement, not qualitative. They don't need to separate the resin from the base plate after every layer, which means vastly improved speed and precision and much less complexity. It's the difference between a car that can go 5 miles per hour and a car that can go 50 miles per hour - only quantitative improvement, but now you have a reason to use it every day.
  - mcphage 11y ago
    Of course, in manufacturing they're competing against injection molding, which can go a metaphorical 100,000 miles per hour.
    - saulrh 11y ago
      But has its significant limitations, notably that it takes a colossal machine and days to weeks to design, optimize, and machine a mold. Injection molding works great if you want to get to Pluto, but it'll cost you two years, a partnership with NASA, and a thousand tons of LH2 and LOX, and that cost remains constant even you just want to hit the supermarket. Current 3d printers can get you to the grocery store pretty well, but you're out of luck for anything bigger. Carbon3d offers a new middle ground - fast enough and good enough for small production runs, but without the titanic constant-time overhead demanded by injection molding. This isn't going to be used for parts that you need ten million of. It'll be used for parts that you need a few hundred of.
      - Retric 11y ago
        Seems like there is a huge opportunity for 3d printing injection molds. It's probably more a tool chain question than an actual 3d printing question. But, by reducing the cost gap from mid-scale 3d printing to full scale production seems like a large potential net win. AKA, if the costs are similar at 10k and drop after that.
        minthd 11y ago
        3d printing of injection molds is already being used for some low volume medical products.
- blhack 11y ago
  It prints about 100 times faster than other SLA printers. http://carbon3d.com/ http://carbon3d.com/

sciencedangyou 11y ago

You do realize they were on the cover of Science Magazine? I don't understand how people think there is nothing technically new here when one of the most prestigious peer-reviewed journals in the world features your paper on its front page.... http://www.sciencemag.org/content/347/6228.cover-expansion http://www.sciencemag.org/content/347/6228.cover-expansion

dekhn 11y ago
There is a trite, but not completely inaccurate statement about Science: if it gets published there, it's likely to be sexy and wrong.