The Final End Of Expensive Rapid Prototyping

[bevbor]

Well,

it seems like era of expensive 3D prototyping machines and materials is gone



They're talk that their machine will be available worldwide in Q1 2010. And it make things out of ordinal paper!



It mean end of pepakura suffering



Start to save money....

 

[Achille]

Saw this a couple months ago; I'm pretty excited for it. Best part is my dad seems rather interested in it as well.



However, I'd like to see a cost for the device itself before getting too eager over it.

 

[kensai111]

Do want! Good find Bev! Wonder what the price is going to be in comparison to current 3d matrix pritners that use plastic as a medium?



Cheers,

Kensai



EDIT: According to the FAQ's it only costs them $135 to build each machine.. wonder what we'll pay as consumers?

 

[Belakor]

Interesting... I'll have to keep an eye on that project



Also, if you're interested in low-cost 3D printing check out The RepRap Project and Makerbot Industries (My Cupcake CNC is being shipped in a few days ). Both are really low-cost (compared to professional machines) printers that work in ABS and HDPE, the RepRap also works with PLA and PCL (the Cupcake CNC from Makerbot Industries works with PLA too but they haven't perfected it yet). Even better is both are open source, so if you've got the equipment you can build them from scratch

 

[ACDCrockr209]

I just hope that i don't have to pay a ton of money just for an enery sword handle.



Looks cool though.



-Pony

 

[Achille]

EDIT: According to the FAQ's it only costs them $135 to build each machine.. wonder what we'll pay as consumers?

Regardless of the initial capital price point of the various machines, the maximum build (9.4litres or 316.33oz) of the Mcor Matrix costs under €94.00 ($135.00) to build, while a competitor having a cost per cc of €0.4 ($0.58) would be €3760 ($5,416.00). Any differential that might have been saved on the capital price of the machine is quickly lost.

Sorry, Kensai, looks more like it costs $135 to build a model that is about 316 oz. And, looking at the later statement, it looks like they are wanting to make it expensive, because you'll save so much on materials.

 

[Sherm]

Im very interested, but I'm worried I'll feel guilty for using so much paper...

At least I live in Oregon, where there are trees and lumberjacks everywhere (and by extension PAPER!!).

 

[GiR3892]

well i must be the only one so far in this topic that will keep the doing the original painful pepakura making but it does looks pretty sick

 

[Yodajammies]

Sorry, Kensai, looks more like it costs $135 to build a model that is about 316 oz. And, looking at the later statement, it looks like they are wanting to make it expensive, because you'll save so much on materials.

Not really.





But you can bet the machine itself is a several thousand dollar investment.





And an entire REAM of paper for an object the size of a baseball? A4 paper at this? eesh.

 

[DYSTORTED INC]

He said the cost was 20 thousand pounds.

 

[Loess]

He said the cost was 20 thousand pounds.

That's really not too bad for a rapid prototype machine. Hopefully the "special glue" isn't too expensive.

 

[CommanderFluffy]

24950 pounds. not cheap. i can buy a used cnc for that. or a robot arm

 

[rube]

This is hardly a new technology.

http://www.mne.psu.edu/lamancusa/rapidpro/primer/chapter2.htm#lom



Its main drawback is the lack of a temporary support material for hollow parts and large overhangs. There is better out there for similar money.

 

[Yodajammies]

For 32,000$ USD you can buy a shopbot and several hundred sheets of HDU which will hold up a LOT better than paper.



At a rate of 120$/32 ft^2, that's a fully functional CNC with 7,200 square feet of material.



I'm not nearly as impressed by this tech now.

 

[23Magnum]

This is hardly a new technology.

http://www.mne.psu.edu/lamancusa/rapidpro/primer/chapter2.htm#lom



Its main drawback is the lack of a temporary support material for hollow parts and large overhangs. There is better out there for similar money.

Just saw this thread. You beat me to pointing that out, Rube.



This is hardly inexpensive, but it is amoung the cheapest methods of rapid prototyping. This also produces more waste than many of the other methods.



Thing is that you're going to have drawbacks with any rapid prototyping method like Rube already pointed out with this one.

 

[Gearsofhalo]

btw I saw a statement saying in ireland they sell it for what is the equivilant of $22,000 USD!!!

 

[paradoxdj]

this sounds cool but the one problem i have with it is that you have to use a ton of paper per object and the object has to be solid which isn't good for making armor...unless your molding it.