Sinterit Introduces Powder Sieve to Complement the Lisa 3D Printer – First Desktop SLS System on the Market

In 2014, we were introduced to Sinterit, founded by a group of former Google employees who formed their own 3D printer company. Their first product was the Lisa, an affordable SLS 3D printer that debuted in 2015. The 3D printer and the company have both shown a great deal of promise, with Sinterit bringing in a fresh €1.1 million in funding this year from FIT AG. The appeal is easy to understand – SLS (selective laser sintering) machines have traditionally been industrial-sized and industrial-priced, with costs running well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Sinterit Lisa, meanwhile, is a desktop-sized SLS 3D printer that costs around $15,000.

Now the young company is introducing a new product – not a 3D printer this time, but a tool to make SLS 3D printing even easier for consumers. Sinterit has developed a sieve for the Lisa 3D printer that automates the powder sieving process, making it faster, easier and cleaner. It’s also eco-friendly and cost-effective, allowing the user to reuse the powder multiple times.

With dimensions of 338 x 330 x 585 mm, the sieve is a little bit smaller than the 3D printer, and can sieve five liters of powder, greatly reducing the requirement for time-consuming manual work. After the sieving is complete, the device automatically shuts off. Users can also change a mesh in the sieve to optimize it for different powder materials.

Terms like “plug and play” or “user friendly” don’t generally make you think of SLS 3D printing right away, but they fit the Lisa and its accessories, including the sieve, well. The Lisa itself does not require calibration; it’s ready to go as soon as it’s removed from the box. A four-inch touchscreen, built-in camera and WiFi capabilities make operation and monitoring easy, and recently Sinterit added a couple of new features including automatic leveling of the powder surface and automatic setting of the bed height. A few of the Lisa’s specifications, to refresh your memory:

• Dimensions: 65 x 55 x 45 cm
• Weight: 35 kg (77 lbs)
• Build volume: 150 x 200 x 150 mm
• Layer thickness: 0.075 – 0.175 mm
• Print bed: Heated

The Lisa spreads layers of nylon powder and sinters them with a laser. Materials include the finely detailed PA12 Smooth and the flexible, rubberlike Flexa Black. Advantages of SLS 3D printing over FDM or SLA include the ability to produce complex parts with moving components all in one piece, as well as the ability to 3D print without supports. The Lisa makes complicated builds easy, which is in line with Sinterit’s mission to simplify additive manufacturing through their extensive software knowledge.

In addition to the sieve, the Lisa is sold with a sandblaster that cleans excess powder from completed 3D printed objects. The three machines together create an end-to-end system that makes every stage of the SLS process simple, quick and relatively inexpensive. If you’re interested in purchasing the system, you can contact Sinterit directly or find a local reseller here.

Sinterit is based in Krakow, Poland and ships its products all over the world. Though it’s only three years old, the company seems as though it’s been around for longer, racking up an impressive number of awards already in its three years of existence. Sinterit won the formnext Startup Challenge in 2015 and the FabCon 3.D Start-up Award in 2016, while the Lisa was named the “Best New Polish Printer 2015.” The company has stayed busy, creating accessories such as the powder sieve, which allows users to have a full additive manufacturing factory right in their own offices and homes.

For more information, you can contact Sinterit here. Below, you can see a video of the full Sinterit Lisa system, complete with sieve and sandblaster:

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