All of the machines we are talking about used the cheaper, less accurate fused filament fabrication technology. That’s because the superior technology of stereolithography (SLA), which uses UV light to cure a photosensitive resin, can be an entire order of magnitude more expensive. That’s until today…
This afternoon a company based out of Melbourne, Florida, called iBox Printers may have just ignited an all out war within the desktop 3D printing space. They’ve just launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for their iBox Nano 3D printer. Touted as the world’s smallest and most affordable resin-based 3D printer to ever hit the market, the printer is being made available to early bird backers for just $189.00, in their drive to raise $300,000 for full scale production.
The machine which has a laundry list of minimalistic features including size, weight, energy consumption, and most importantly price, measures just 4 x 3 x 8″, and is only 3 pounds.
As the world’s first LCD based UV resin printer, the iBox Nano is able to fabricate objects quietly, with the option to plug it in, or use it’s 10 hour capacity battery for portable 3D printing. Any device with a web browser will be able to send data to the Nano and have it fabricated. This means that if you are in the other room with your iPhone, iPad, Android device or laptop you can initiate a print, without any requirement to download complicated software. Below you will find
- Printer Technology: Stereolithography (LCD)
- Build Envelope: 40 x 20 x 90mm
- Resolution X-Y: 328 Microns
- Print Material: iBox Resin or Makerjuice
- Power Consumption During Print: 2.7 Watts
- Maximum Z Precision: 0.39 Microns
- Print Volume: 29 db
This printer is not for someone looking to 3D print large objects, as you can tell from the build envelope listed above. The main goal of iBox Printers in the development of this machine was to create a
Let us know if you intend to, or already have backed this project. Discuss in the iBox Nano forum thread on 3DPB.com. Check out the Kickstarter pitch video provide below.