LumiFold TB to Debut at Maker Faire Rome

Italy’s Lumi Industries’ journey into desktop 3D printing began over five years ago with development of the initial LumiFold—unique in its affordability and portability. Soon after came the formal inception of Lumi Industries, and multiple campaigns on both Indiegogo and Kickstarter, with their latest innovation about to be on display in multiple upcoming venues, along with pre-sales to start soon in their on-line store.

When Lumi releases a new product it is always worth checking out due to the inevitable new and unique details offered—from the stylish LumiPocket in 2015 to the LumiKit, the LumiForge DLP 3D printer, and more.

The LumiFold TB will take its rightful place in the 3D printing market soon and is described as ‘the most compact 3D printer ever.’ This will be first in an ongoing series of more compact devices. Upon realizing this 3D printer is emerging from Lumi, you must wonder what the aha moment will be as you peruse the trademark features. Here, we find new hardware that relies on a tablet to fabricate a wide range of products in Daylight resins. This particular LumiFold brings all of the other strengths from this series too, as it is remarkably thin and spacesaving; in fact, when closed it is 18x28x8 cm—and when open, reaches 18 cm, offering 10cm height for 3D printed objects.

Developments since 2015 regarding this line also now treat users to a redefined accuracy level (up to 25 microns on the Z axis), along with a much stronger electronic board, and a design that is even more stylish. The LumiFold TB is compatible with SLA, DLP, and LCD resin processes.

“For us, user-friendly running, affordable price range and especially compactness have always been our key values at the base of our products. In fact, we were the first one, back in 2013 right at the first Maker Faire in Rome, to introduce the idea of portability in resin-based 3D printing with LumiFold, a maker project, for a printer which was even foldable!” said Davide Marin, Lumi Industries founder and CEO.

“We like to experiment, and we choose to use a tablet as light source for our first model. It was the best choice to show the extreme compactness this line of 3D printers can reach, together with the possibility to give a new life to your iPad as an active player in 3D printing. Unlike already seen project using a smartphone, we are using an iPad Mini model 3 or 4, with a resolution on XY axis of 78 microns, ensuring a wider printing area of 10 by 10 centimeters without the hassles of mobile phone functions (call/messages).”

Once a user places the tablet under the vat, an app controls slicing and processes the 3D file, and then all that is needed is a click on the start button. The LumiFold TB is connected to the tablet via Bluetooth.

“The idea of this system has been in my mind for years like an obsession” says Davide Marin. “Finally, in 2015 I was able to file a patent application and launch officially the idea of the New LumiFold. Since we started working at the development of an open innovation project for a multinational company, I was able to proceed in the project development only during my free time. But finally, it is here and working just I have imagined. The next step is to apply the system on an LCD version, while a filament one is also in the pipeline, compatibly with all our other projects, so we are looking for collaboration to speed up the process, anyone interested?!”

You can check out this new offering by Lumi Industries at the next Maker Faire Rome from  October 12-14, at Smau Milan from October 23-25, at Formnext Frankfurt from November 13-16, and soon it will also be available for presale in the online store on line.

Following are specs for the Lumifold TB:

• Printer size: 28x18x8 cm when off and closed
• Printer size when fully open: 28x18x approx. 18 cm
• Building area: 10x10x10 cm
• Resolution X/Y 78 micron
• Resolution Z: up to 25 microns
• Resins: day light resins
• Light source: iPad mini 3/4 (other tablets and even phones can be also used, however the current device was specifically designed for the iPad mini 3/4), and an App has also been designed to work on IOS
• Bluetooth connection between tablet and printer
• Patented design

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