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The California-based startup gained fame last spring by offering on Kickstarter a budget-friendly Trinius multifunctional machine that combines the capabilities of a 3D printer and a laser engraver. This time, the company offers a 3D printer at an even lower price and with all the amenities. The project has already raised over half a million dollars.
The machine, dubbed the Obsidian, is set to fill the gap between extremely cheap but labor-intensive construction sets and convenient but expensive professional-grade 3D printers. The development of the device has been going on since 2015, while a Singaporean engineer with 30 years of experience was responsible for the electronics, and a designer who works for a large automotive company was engaged in the external appearance. Singapore-based OEM-company Flextronics and Taiwan-based Foxconn are to be engaged in production. The latter, by the way, produces almost all iPhones, and the CEO and founder of Kodama Michael Hasmann previously worked for Apple.
The capabilities of the device to a large extent depend on the configuration. The printing area reaches 120x120x120 mm, the layer thickness varies from 50 to 350 microns. The printer is built on an aluminum chassis with QuadRap kinematics, but it is not equipped with a closed chamber, although a table heated to 100 ° C is available as an upgrade. The device prints at temperatures from 180 to 250 ° C, and almost any of the most popular thermoplastics - PLA, ABS, PET-G, nylon, polycarbonate, various composites based on polylactide and even carbon fiber options - can be used as consumables.
Chipping of coils is not provided. Of course, some materials will require platform heating. The nozzle is quick-detachable, and the bar feed is carried out according to the "Bowden" scheme. Interestingly, in the future, the company intends to offer tungsten nozzles. The optimum print speed is estimated at 60 mm / s with a maximum positioning speed of 200 mm / s. Printer firmware is based on Marlin. The device accepts standard G-code, so any of the most common programs - Cura, Slic3r, Simplify3D, etc. can be used as a slicer.
Despite the low cost, the printers will ship fully assembled. The price directly depends on the offer: the basic version is available on Kickstarter for $ 99 at a retail price of $ 199, the option with an LCD display and the print resume function after power outages will cost $ 149, and for a full-fledged machine with an LCD display, on-board camera, a heated table and a mobile application for iOS and Android will have to shell out already $ 249.
