T3D’s Mobile Phone-Activated SLA 3D Printer is Only $169 on Kickstarter

Jeng-Ywan Jeng

8 years ago

T3D is a startup spin-off from National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST). In 2008 (priority in 2003), NTUST granted a US7320946B2 patent to use DLP for SLA 3D printer. Since 2012, the mobile phone is employed as the light source to cure the specific visible sensitive resin. NTUST is the first one to carry on this innovative research activity worldwide. The resin cured by the low intensity light is a critical technology which took around 5 years to improve the curing time of the resin with 100um layer thickness from 5 minutes in 2012 to 20 seconds in 2017. T3D owns the receipt of this specific resin and therefore set a reasonable price of US$10 for 100ml for user. There are 6 different colors available now.

The mobile phone light not only cures resin, but also the Bluetooth in mobile phone is used to connect to the Arduino motor driver with Bluetooth receiver. By connecting to WiFi on the mobile phone, you can connect to the cloud server with more than 5,000 models to be chosen to print. The camera of the mobile phone is used as the 3D scanner to take images and send to cloud to construct a 3D model for the user. A rotational table with 3 different resin tanks is designed for multicolor printing. This is the first design that can print multicolor parts in an SLA type 3D printer worldwide today. Even the glass of the mobile phone is used to be the support of thin film in resin tank. We utilize existing functions on the mobile phone in this innovative T3D 3D printer. The T3D 3D printer is also affordable, because it uses only one Z-axis with most of the functions of the user’s mobile phone or tablet.

T3D is a cyber physic system (CPS) machine that can connect to cloud by WiFi and motion control by Bluetooth. The camera is a vision integration device of smartphone. The hardware and software are open source. Therefore, T3D is the best teaching tool for Industry 4.0.

One of the biggest problems startups face is the delay of manufacturing and delivery. Therefore, T3D invites XYZprinting as an important partner for manufacturing and delivery, because XYZprinting is one of the largest 3D printer companies with excellent capability for manufacturing and delivery.