RoboBeast 3D Printer Unveiled, Toughest Printer By Far

If you have ever used a 3D printer, you would know that almost all of them are extremely sensitive devices. Bump into one while it’s printing, and you have a real mess on your hands. If you were to tilt it at a 45% angle, forget about finishing your print. That’s until today.

Richard van As, has unveiled the RoboBeast 3D printer to the public, and it certainly seems to hold up to it’s name. Brought to you by the man who shot to fame for his Robohand invention last year, which has helped numerous of children, who otherwise would have no use of one of their hands, the RoboBeast was designed and prototyped in only in a few month’s time. Richard wanted to be able to bring his Robohand, 3D printed hands to desolate areas in Africa. No normal 3D printer could stand up to the pounding that would need to be dealt with, so he knew he had to create a beast of a device.

“I used to describe myself as ‘just a South African guy with an idea’,” says Richard van As, modestly, “Now I guess you could call me ‘just a South African guy with another idea’.”

The printer itself uses comp0nents which can be purchased off-the-shelf, and it will likely have a final build area larger than your typical Reprap printers, in which this is designed after. This means prints will be able to be larger than 200 X 200 X 200 mm.  The machine will eventually be equipped with a battery which can allow the printer to complete one adult robohand, approximately 5 hours. It is also equipped with an SD card loaded with pre-configured robohand sizes, meaning a few taps of the screen can print you out a new hand. Unlike regular 3D printers, this thing can be thrown around without worry. Even during print process you can shake it, or tilt it, and the print will turn out just fine. The extruder head can automatically calibrate itself to compensate for movement during a printing.

Richard intends to begin producing these in quantity soon, but will first take the prototype on its first real test, a rugged excursion. The total cost to build this machine was approximately $2,500.

Discuss the RoboBeast 3D printer