When I was a kid, we were all entranced, cooking, rolling, and slicing up a storm, experimenting with our EZ Bake ovens, and one motorized PlayDoh contraption after another. The occasional chemistry set came and went as well — with all of these items coming to us at the holidays usually. Our parents took them out of the boxes, helped with assembly, and then left us to our own devices. We’ve come a long way as to what’s left under the tree these days, and it’s a lucky child indeed who received his own 3D printer this year, with Xery catering to the younger set with the attractive, amusing, and somewhat familiarly named Lapple.
Featuring a shiny red, candy apple veneer, the Lapple is a wonderful piece of equipment for kids who have an interest in science and for parents who are concerned about promoting STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education in their budding basement scientists and geniuses.
Xery is an established Chinese company known for their diversity, with their hands in manufacturing 3D printers from the industrial to professional to desktop level. In a nod toward the family and teaching them while they are young, Xery has added the Lapple to their lineup of user-friendly products while allowing for child safety with a closed design so that it’s attractive for use in the classroom, school or home library, and desktop or dining room table. The Lapple is small enough and durable enough to offer great portability for kids and families, as well as teachers.
The pint-sized machine is exceptionally easy to operate. Xery has made a design specifically geared toward children, with a learning curve for operation said to be only ten minutes. The Lapple features one button for operation, which is certainly appealing as well. Featuring a layer resolution of 0.1 to 0.4 mm and a build size of 100 x 100 x 100 mm, the shiny 3D printer should draw kids in at their level in terms of size, capacity, and speed. The Lapple offers a standard sized nozzle (0.4mm), but also a smaller more delicate one (0.2mm) which Xery assumes will appeal to children for designs involving jewelry, science projects, and objects involving small parts.
Without a heated bed, and only using ‘green’ PLA filament, Xery offers their own XBuilder software with the 3D printer which is easily used by touch and offers a number of ‘intelligent’ options so that kids can pause and continue operations easily on their own, as well as slicing easily for quality prints. They have the option to print in multi-color as well. Many files are available for free download from Xery, with constant updates so that children should be able to find a variety to choose from if necessary.
The software, XBuilder, is supplied by Xery and only runs on Windows PCs. With the number of features to draw from and a pricepoint of $300, this is a very attractive product that we look forward to hearing more about. Have you had experience with this product, or another 3D printer that you found was really well-suited for children? Tell us about it in the Lapple 3D Printer forum over at 3DPB.com.
Xery is a subsidiary of WestingCut, founded in 1990. WestingCut has three different branches in China for industry and trading.
