Mark Two: The Latest in Industrial 3D Printing at the Desktop, Offering Strength & Speed

February 1, 2016 by Bridget O'Neal 3D Printers 3D Printing 3D Printing Materials

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The team at MarkForged would like to see virtually every engineer reap the rewards of their innovations in 3D printing, clearing the way for high powered hardware to sit right on their desktops. And they continue to evolve with this goal, now offering even more features with the release of the Mark Two. Whether you are printing out car parts or the body of a musical instrument, the technology of MarkForged allows for the creation of extremely strong and durable prints in carbon—and now, before most of us even had time to really absorb the impressiveness of the Mark One 3D printer, the MarkForged team is offering up even more features in this new release.

By now, most of you are aware that 3D printing in industrial materials seems to be emerging as the biggest player in this much-discussed new industrial revolution. Offering the chance to fabricate incredibly strong, reliable components, this latest and very serious trend in 3D printing is being explored by many manufacturing companies for a variety of industrial applications, and already with no shortage of equipment and materials to choose from within a competitive marketplace.

While we hear about 3D printing often in seriously complex industrial settings, MarkForged arrived on the scene a couple of years ago with their Mark One 3D printer, undeniably the heavy hitter for pushing the boundaries at the desktop as it 3D prints using continuous strands of fiber-based materials. We’ve also continued to report on MarkForged’s progress as they’ve inked deals with major resellers, along with their latest offering via cloud-based software.

Offering one of the few machines today that still truly defines the term “revolutionary,” the Mark Two 3D printer is meant to allow the advancement from prototyping to making extremely strong parts for real use. With a build volume of 320 x 132 x 160 mm, this printer uses materials such as carbon fiber, Kevlar, fiberglass, and nylon, and in doing so creates incredibly strong parts. Items like batteries and sensors can even be embedded in complex 3D prints.

For industrial applications, the power is in 3D printing—and the MarkForged team, led by founder Greg Mark and an inspired group of experienced engineers—wants to translate that power even further into the desktop realm. With the release of the Mark Two, it’s hard to believe that the team is offering up a new 3D printer that is even more user friendly and produces parts that are even stronger, but their intent is to take all the goodness of the Mark One to the next level. That means users can look forward to:

Fiber reinforcement in features that are 15 times smaller than before
40% faster fiber printing process
Increased print reliability with additional sensors in the print head
A host of incremental improvements in software, hardware, and materials to enhance the overall experience

The Mark Two prints with two printheads: one builds nylon parts, and the other is a revolutionary, new composite print head to reinforce those parts with continuous fiber. This printer also comes with MarkForged’s browser-based 3D printing software, Eiger, which is user friendly, and runs on any computer system.

The Mark Two print bed also clicks into place with 10 micron accuracy, and if you are adding components, it allows you to remove the print bed, integrate electrical components, and then return the bed and put the printer right back into process. Along with all of this, MarkForged is also announcing their new Enterprise bundle. This should prove particularly appealing to those in the aerospace and automotive industries as it allows for the 3D printing of fiber materials with a heat deflection temperature of 140°C.

This newest 3D printer will retail at $5499. Are you interested in a demo? If so, click here to send in your request. Discuss this new release in the Mark Two 3D printer forum over at 3DPB.com.

Mark Two specifications