The FABtotum PRISM Brings Stereolithography to their All in One Personal Fabrication Station

Two years ago a small Italian startup hit the big time when their FABtotum Personal Fabricator took Indiegogo by storm and blew past their original $50,000 goal. By the time the crowdfunding campaign had closed, FABtotum had raised an impressive $589.564 to start production on their desktop, multi purpose fabrication machine capable of FDM 3D printing, CNC milling, engraving and 3D scanning. The impressive debut led to an impressive first product only five months later that did just what they said that it would, all for about $1,400. But even from the beginning the team from FABtotum promised that they wouldn’t stop there and would continued to develop new modules that would increase their machines capabilities.

Today the company is bringing their first new module to Indiegogo and it really ups the ante on their original all-in-one machine by adding the first of several new functions, an entirely new 3D printing process. The FABtotum PRISM module adds Stereolithography (SLA) 3D printing to the list of desktop manufacturing processes that it can be used for. The PRISM module includes a new laser head that can be swapped similarly to the printing/milling heads, as well as a removable resin vat that can easily be attached to the printing bed.

The PRISM installation and setup was designed to be extremely easy and only require a few simple calibrations so users can quickly get started with SLA manufacturing. The print head was designed to be capable of focusing higher concentrations of power per area unit at a fraction of the cost by flashing light only when and where needed. That improves the speed of the photoreactive process as well as reduces energy costs.

The PRISM module

“While conventional solutions have a fixed energy output, PRISM can virtually scale up to higher levels that today are still unavailable for standard DLP systems. This means that PRISM can even cure a single pixel in an instant, where other systems would require more time to solidify smaller objects, due to the low energy emitted per area unit,” explained the FABtotum team.

In addition to the new SLA functionality, the original FABtotum machine will still be capable of FDM 3D printing with PLA, PETG, ABS as well as more advanced printing materials like NYLON, HIPS and PC. The 3D milling head is capable of cutting soft foams, brass, wood, aluminum and even producing printed circuit boards. And of course it is still an advanced 3D scanner that generates highly detailed point clouds using a combination of several technologies at the same time, including its built-in hi-res camera, a touch probe and a laser scanner.

Take a look at the Indiegogo campaign video for the PRISM module:

The FABtotum PRISM crowdfunding campaign is being launched today on Indiegogo and will run until mid-September. So no one is going to feel left out, the new PRISM module will be released as an add-on package for those who already have a FABtotum. It will also be offered bundled together with the entire FABtotum Personal Fabricator package for new buyers. As with all of the previous FABtotum printers and 3D printing heads, the PRISM is completely open source and the development team openly encourages users to provide constant feedback to continue to refine and develop their printer.

The FABtotum team has promised to continue to develop new print heads with new functionalities to further expand the machine’s capabilities. Previous to launching the PRISM campaign, they just delivered the latest and most advanced version of their Hybrid Head capable of FDM 3D printing, CNC milling and engraving in a single head. The next planned swappable module will be the Laser Head, which will allow the machine to be used to laser cut, etch or engrave. Let us know what you think of the new module on our FABtotum forum at 3DPB.com.