Spanish Company LEÓN3D Announces New LionCrewer 1.0 SLA 3D Printer – Priced Well Under 2000€

For years, the go-to technology for at-home consumer level 3D printing has been fused deposition modeling (FDM), where a spool of plastic material (filament) is melted and extruded onto a build platform, one layer at a time, in order to build up a 3-dimensional object. While other technologies exist, these technologies have remained quite a bit more expensive than FDM.

Stereolithography (SLA) is one of these other technologies. This type of 3D printer uses a vat of photopolymer, which is hit by a light source such as a laser or projector, in order to cure (harden) the liquid resin. This is also done layer-by-layer until a 3-dimensional product is born. Up until just recently SLA printers were priced at $3000+ with many in the $10,000+ range.

One Spanish company, named LEÓN3D, has informed 3DPrint.com that they will be releasing a new laser based SLA 3D Printer this coming September. It is the first ever SLA 3D Printer developed in Spain. The printer is actually being shown off at MulaFest, this weekend in Madrid.

The LionCrewer 1.0, as it is called, will be priced at between 1,700 and 1,800 Euros, and it will be able to 3D print using both “photolithic and biomechanic resins,” according to Jesús López de Uribe of LEÓN3D. The printer will print with a maximum resolution of 0.03mm, optimal resolution of 0.05mm, and standard resolution of 0.1mm. It will also feature a decent size build volume of 80 x 80 x 80mm.

The LionCrewer

At just 1,700 – 1,800 Euros this printer is more affordable than many of the FDM 3D printers on the market today. SLA printers are capable of much higher resolutions, and objects printed on them show very little evidence that they have been printed on a 3D printer. It should be interesting to see what the market for these machines is like in Spain, and if the company decides to sell it throughout Europe and perhaps the United States.  There have been other affordable SLA 3D printers announced as well, in the past few weeks.  This appears to be a new trend in the consumer level 3D printing market.  Some of the more recently announced affordable SLA printers include the Sedgwick, the M-One, and the mUVE 1.

What do you think about this upcoming SLA 3D Printer?  Discuss in the LionCrewer 3D Printer forum thread on 3DPB.com.  Check out the video below: