One thing I didn’t know about the DragonFly is that it was built – inside and out – in a mere 17 months, by a young woman who had just graduated from college. Lena Kotlar, a 2014 graduate of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, joined Nano Dimension shortly after leaving school and quickly became the company’s R&D Mechanical Manager. Her first achievement? The DragonFly 2020. Kotlar and her team designed the printer at lightning speed compared to the time it takes to develop many 3D printers. Considering the DragonFly’s complexity, not to mention the fact that it’s an unprecedented kind of printer, the speed of its development is even more impressive.
According to Kotlar, she owes a lot of the speed and success of the DragonFly’s development to SOLIDWORKS software. She and her team relied on a variety of applications from the software giant to design and render the printer before producing it.
“Every bit of the unit — mechanical parts, the housing, wires and cables — was designed with SOLIDWORKS,” Kotlar said. “We used the software’s simulation capabilities to ensure the parts would work correctly together and the unit would function properly while building 3D printed circuit boards.”
An official release date has not yet been announced for the DragonFly 2020, but it appears to be getting closer as recent announcements of partnerships with distributors have surfaced. If the massive amounts of industry excitement and investor interest are any indication, the printer is likely to be a huge success upon its release, and Kotlar’s name is likely to become well-known very quickly. Having designed and built one of the most innovative and eagerly anticipated 3D printers to hit the industry – practically as soon as she graduated from college – there’s no telling what else Kotlar may contribute to 3D printing in the future. She is certainly going to be one to watch. What do you think? Lets discuss in the DragonFly 2020 PCB 3D Printer forum over at 3DPB.com.