www.3ders.org

Nov.9, 2013

A team of Australian and Chinese designers and engineers have designed a 3D printer that could redefine what 3D printing should look and feel like.

"When designing Rapide One we looked at all the current 3D printers in the market... What we found in our research is that there was a big gap in the market between the low-end 3D printers and professional-quality 3D printers." says the team Rapide 3D.

Rapide One was born. Rapide One is a 3D printer which uses FDM technology to produce 3D print designs. "We think we have created a design that is easy-to-use but rivals the output of high-end printers at a fraction of the cost." notes Rapide 3D.

Rapide One's design is innovative, dynamic and fresh. It comes with a unique fully enclosed Gaming PC-looking housing and a simple to use cartridge system. The large glass front and back ensure you can view the print with ease. The interchangeable cartridge system placed in the top of the printer not only saves space but also allows easy change of color on the fly. You simply load up to 500gms of filament into the holding tray for your prints.

Rapide One's chassis has been crafted from the aircraft grade aluminum to provide a solid foundation. A polished aluminum heat bed is not only flat and level but very stable, which means limited warp or curling in the print process.

Rapide One can print layers as thin as 100 microns (0.004 in) with features as small as 300 microns (0.012 in) in a build volume of 160 x 160 x 160mm. The entire Rapide One is 532 x 449 x 345mm when closed.

The software for Rapide One is designed to be simple and intuitive. A key advantage of the Rapide One's software is the ability to precisely generate beautiful designs. Rapide One can print using either a Mac or PC.

When the Rapide One is released, it will also come with ABS, PLA and PVA filament developed specially for Rapide One.

Specs:

• Chassis: Aircraft Grade 7 Aluminum
• Body: Aluminum, Glass, PVC
• Build Platform: Heated, polished 356F Aluminum
• XYZ Bearings: Wear-resistant, slider K bearings
• Stepper Motors: 1.8 degree step angle w-1/16 micro-stepping
• Layer Resolution Settings: High: 100 microns [0.0039 in] / Standard: 200 microns [0.0078 in] / Low: 300 microns [0.0118 in]
• Positioning Precision: XY: 11 microns [0.0004 in]; Z: 2.5 microns [0.0001 in]
• Filament Diameter: 1.75 mm [0.069 in]
• Nozzle Diameter: 0.4mm
• Software Supports: Windows (XP 32 bit/7+), Ubuntu Linux (12.04+), Mac OS X (10.6 64 bit/10.7+)
• Weight: 21 kg

Rapide One is designed to be scalable and to incorporate a dual extruder in the future. Rapide 3D's future printers will also include the possibilities to print both sugar and chocolate.

Rapide S

Rapide 3D has more than 11 years experience with design and development of advanced technology and have offices in Perth, Melbourne, Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou and design and development facilities in China. The company started the Rapide project in 2012 and in 18 months, they have produced 3 generations of prototypes, a production run of alpha machines and a run of beta machines. Currently the chassis with components and industrial design are already complete, Rapide 3D is now testing the software with prototypes.

Rapide One is set to launch on indiegogo on Nov.18, 2013. The retail price of Rapide One with single extruder is $2,499, but indiegogo supporters will receive special treatment for being early supporters: $1,499 (Early Bird) or $1,649 for Rapide One with one cartridge of ABS or PLA.

The first full-production shipment is set to release in January 2014 to early contributors, and February 2014 for other contributors. The internal components will be manufactured in Wuhu, China and the final assembly and testing will be done in Shenzhen, China.

"We didn't invent the 3D Printer but we believe we have moved the benchmark for what a 3D Printer should be and in the process made professional quality 3D printing a reality for many." says the team.

Posted in 3D Printers

 

 

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Peter Paul Puijn wrote at 4/18/2014 8:02:10 PM:

Hello, I am nou in China can I visit your company this week. I'm intrest in your 3 d printer. We are a company from Holland. Hope to hear soon. Regards Peter Paul Puijn Tel .0031641559920

Dan wrote at 11/11/2013 12:06:04 PM:

"I like the look of these "plug-and-play" style printers but I can't help thinking the person that buys one will be so pissed off when the nozzle clogs and they can't get any access to fix it."// With nozzles no problems are present. I used year the 3D UP Mini printer and never them at all didn't touch. And here the non-automatic platform is certainly very inconvenient and annoying thing. I hope soon it will correct.

Dan wrote at 11/11/2013 8:47:44 AM:

"Not much new, apart from that specific fancy case, you can get similar or better specs on cheaper printers"// Yes, in such case there is absolutely nothing special, but such thing in an interior looks much better. As it is good, as FORM1, for example. With such things it is simple to work more pleasantly and they look and function as finished product, instead of as an experimental prototype.

Ben Roberts. wrote at 11/11/2013 4:31:13 AM:

I like the look of these "plug-and-play" style printers but I can't help thinking the person that buys one will be so pissed off when the nozzle clogs and they can't get any access to fix it. Unfortunately the FDM process isn't ideal for set-and-forget devices. I don't have to monitor my machine constantly (Leapfrog Creatr) but even after successfully starting a print, I often go back to find the machine has stoped extruding or the print has peeled off and got stuck to the extruder/hotend.

anonanon wrote at 11/10/2013 10:53:51 PM:

Why does reading this article remind me of the Buccaneer? Oh right the 'fulfillment cartridge'. We're dealing with, for all intents and purposes, plastic wire. Not a few ounces of really messy printer ink. Are you going to make your cartridges refillable or do I have to order a new one?

Jason wrote at 11/10/2013 1:52:50 PM:

Afinia mechanics packed into PC enclosure !!! ROTFL. The receipt to make Rapid One even today - Buy Afinia, buy PC enclosure, put Afinia into PC enclosure - for 1800 USD you can made Rapid One even today. The car toys on the picture are epic - why when Chinese are involved in some project it is always kind of joke and lies.

Jack wrote at 11/10/2013 6:35:48 AM:

Not much new, apart from that specific fancy case, you can get similar or better specs on cheaper printers

jd90 wrote at 11/10/2013 3:10:18 AM:

I work with aluminum and I don't know what "grade 7" aluminum is. It sounds like BS. 356 aluminum isn't anything special. It's a long list of fairly ordinary specs. Their web site crashed. Poor impression. Fancy looking shell on a set of ordinary looking specs used to impress people that don't know what those specs mean.

Prateek wrote at 11/9/2013 9:40:56 PM:

has the peek melted? It does show a black liquid on top of the heater block

Jack N. wrote at 11/9/2013 7:56:02 PM:

2k for again RepRap, come on there is nothing other than reprap in shiny housing 1/16 steping, repetier software MK extruder bag of reprap parts for 300 usd plus PC housing.

Dan wrote at 11/9/2013 5:31:20 PM:

Great. This definitely should became a trend - to create personal 3D-printers with good design and innovative "look and feel". It's not so difficult especially counting on good accessibility of rapid prototyping services with hi-end additive manufacturing equipment.

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