Sep 14, 2015 | By Alec

With desktop 3D printers becoming household objects in garages, workshops and makerspaces all over the planet, both makers and startups have recently been ‘rediscovering’ other making machines such as CNC mills and laser cutters as excellent secondary making tools alongside a 3D printer. That, in turn, has led to the development of a series of interesting multi-functional, 3D printer/milling/laser cutting combinations, but perhaps the most promising one has only just been announced. Called the Adam and developed by Italian startup Northype, this interesting machine not only combines 3D printing, laser cutting and 3D scanning into a single machine it is also open source to enable to design and integration of many more modular making heads.

As Leonardo from Northype explains to 3ders.org, the Adam is not the only multi-purpose making machine, but definitely the most flexible. ‘Adam is special beacuse thanks to interchangeable headtoolset, it's a 3D printer, laser/engraver, mill machine and 3D scanner. The headtool platform is open source so everyone can design a tailormade headtool,’ he explains.

And that, he says, is the core purpose for which the Northype team developed the aptly-named Adam: ‘The idea was to create a product easy to use, with a hypothetically infinite potential, a product of dreams for every true creative at a price accessible to many,’ Leonardo tells us. 'Adam uses a fixed carriage, which you can insert the various additional modules on. During the kickstarter campaign it will be possible to purchase the modules for 3D printing, laser, cutter and 3D scanner. But the headtool platformwill be totally open source, so as everyone will be able to customize the headtoolfor their own use.’ One example given was making a pen holder than can enable computer-controlled drawing on a sheet of paper, but the sky is obviously the limit in this case.

However, this doesn’t mean that they’ve compromised on 3D printing quality either, it seems. As the Northype team explains in their press release, the 3D printing module with feature a 0.4 mm nozzle (for 1.75 mm filament) and features a heated printbed to enable the 3D printing of just about material from PLA and ABS, to nylon and even LAY-WOOD filaments.

But the other modules seem just fine too. The laser module is perfect for cutting paper, cardboard, plyood, polystyrene, MDF and even leather, while the mill can do anything you expect of it. ‘The scanner module 3D is designed to be able to acquire a 3D model of a real object. 3D scanner is easy to use and scan real object has never been easier,’ they say of perhaps the most promising component. ‘Adam is designed for creative people, thanks to interchangeable headtools continuously developing in the next future there will be further implementations as extruder for fluid materials,’ Leonardo tells us.

In short, the Adam multi-purpose making tool seems to have a lot of fantastic qualities going for it, of which the last is yet to be named: as part of the Kickstarter campaign, the early bird price will be as low as €899 (or approximately $1000) – an excellent price for any multifunctional 3D printer. The campaign is expected to start in a few weeks, so more information about this machine will follow in the near future.

 

 

Posted in 3D Printers

 

 

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Northype wrote at 9/14/2015 9:24:58 PM:

Thank you Alec for a great post! For more info: http://northype.cc



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