May 18, 2014
Columbus, Ohio based Sculptify announces the development of an innovative personal 3D printer, which allows users to "print with limitless material options," says the startup. The 3D printer works with pelletized plastic instead of standard filament, using a new 3D printing method called FLEX - Fused Layer Extrusion.
"We want to make 3D printing easier for everyday use but also expand versatility for enthusiasts and professionals," said Slade Simpson, Sculptify Co-Founder and CEO. "Our goal is to deliver a 3D printing system which offers a wide range of printing materials at significantly reduced cost. We'll be able to print using many different types of thermoplastics."
Founded in 2013 by Simpson and mechanical engineer, Todd Linthicum, Sculptify's goal is to bring more choices to the 3D printing community and to those new to the 3D printing world. Using high-precision components and a next-generation computational system, Sculptify's new 3D printer allows for massive material expansion.
Pelletized plastic is the raw material typically used to mass-produced consumer products. They are affordable, and have a variety of choices ranging from hard and durable, to soft and flexible.
"Pelletized plastics offer an appealing alternative to filament [the current standard in personal 3D printers on the market]. They are not only more affordable, but also create an inviting experience due to their ease of use. We believe this will attract new customers to 3D printing and to Sculptify." said Simpson.
The details of the printer is not revealed. But Simpson said plastic pellets are easy to use with the Sculptify 3D printer.
"If you can load a coffee maker, you can print with pellets in the Sculptify 3D printer. Simply grab your bag of material, open the printer lid, and scoop in the material of your choice. After a few short minutes, the system will be heated and ready to print - that's it."
One of the material that Sculptify has been testing is TPU pellets, or Thermoplastic Polyurethane. TPU is soft, flexible and super durable, similar to common rubber, and is commonly used to make sporting goods, footwear and device cases. Watch the video below that Simpson demonstrates samples made from TPU pellets, such as simple gaskets, tool grips, bottle opener, flexible fabric and RC tires.
Sculptify plans to launch a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign in Q2, 2014, offering production units to Kickstarter backers in exchange for funding donations. The company will need the funding to set-up operations, manufacturing, and distribution by campaigning on Kickstarter. Stay tuned!
Posted in 3D Printers
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Hello What shore hardness is this TPU Rubber? Thanks John
RenatoT wrote at 8/27/2014 3:02:20 AM:
This is the right concept of the printing!
Tosky wrote at 6/27/2014 6:59:27 PM:
The problem of the fix head moving bed leads to only 1/4 build area of the bed. The build will be very small compare to other moving head design.
Tosky wrote at 6/27/2014 6:51:01 PM:
The problem of the fix head moving bed leads to only 1/4 build area of the bed. The build will be very small compare to other moving head design.
Laird Popkin wrote at 5/19/2014 11:07:06 PM:
This is tricky to make work, so if they've done so, that's awesome. The big challenge is that extruding pellets has variable speed output based on temperature, the volume of loose pellets of plastic pushed by the auger into the nozzle, viscosity, etc. This is very different from extruding filament into a print, which uses precise control over the filament into the hot end in order to control the volume of extruded plastic. So in the demo machines that I've seen that "printed from pellets" they always extruded the pellets into filament, which then formed a loose length of filament, which is then printed from, so they're really two very loosely coupled machines, not one machine. And you can't freely stop/start filament extrusion, because it causes irregularities (gravity vs. melted plastic!).
Bob wrote at 5/19/2014 10:11:45 PM:
Hallo boys, goals is already obtained, many peoples talk about it, then is free reclame and they receiving attention with minimum energy. clever initiative
Patrick wrote at 5/19/2014 10:09:17 PM:
I think is simple 3D printer machine with filament extruder bonded, because question is how granulate could be melting and push inside extruder? Other point is retraction system, nice will be look...........
lassi wrote at 5/19/2014 3:01:43 PM:
it's probably fixed head(or head moving in z) and bed moving(note: they are not the first to do it either). Still a bit iffy to not show the actual printer and instead show parts.
alidan wrote at 5/19/2014 7:26:31 AM:
well... with how it works i thought about it for a while. if you can extrude filament, why cant you go straight to printing? so here is my thought, they probably have a bigger hot end, and to make sure the printer doesn't "run out" of pellets, they probably have a smaller hopper that goes with the print head, and it re zeros every now and than to get more material. you can find out how much material a project will need, so it probably keeps 10-20% more than necessary at all times. or the print head is a fixed position, and the bed moves around instead, not ideal, but it would allow for a more robust printhead, and a large hopper. now the main thing this addresses is cost. pellets cost about 5$ a kilo where filament is 30+ even if this wasn't the best printer in the world, the cost factor alone is something to consider it over others. what i'm interested in more than how they do it is clean up and time it takes to print.
Patrick wrote at 5/18/2014 10:38:49 PM:
it's impossible to see how granulate to transform in filament and in printed parts, why? Who want put money for no info?
Bertrand Busson wrote at 5/18/2014 6:11:41 PM:
is like Freeformer technological "AKG"? Germany Arbourg Gmbh
TK wrote at 5/18/2014 5:28:23 PM:
How do they check if a print will succeed? IE How do they check at any given time how much pellets are available, particularly start or real time? This does make it sound like it'll be a big and maybe loud machine if it grinds up the pellets... Have they tried mixing pellets say to change color over a print (see point above on real time supply levels)?
Ma Earth wrote at 5/18/2014 4:43:37 PM:
these pellets are what is most commonly found in the ocean, not sure if this is the best idea to now put them into the hands of the consumers, we know how that usually goes. how about those rice/bamboo sustainable filament pellets instead?
El. from LTF wrote at 5/18/2014 4:35:20 PM:
Do you know why they are not showing the printer itself? Yes, because it should be extremely large, ugly and noizy. Just imagine combining one type of machine (full-size filament extruder) and the other completely different thing - 3D printer. It would be horrible, and all this fuss with pellets is just cheap marketing. There is a reason why 3D printers weren't created for pellets in the first place. And this reason is that extrusion of raw pellets is not as simple as the extrusion of complete filament.
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