We’re starting to observe a collision between the lowering prices of commercial 3D print gear with the rising prices of increasingly more capable personal 3D printers. Today only a few thousand dollars separate the two. One example of a commercial unit that’s priced very effectively is the Asiga Pico, a small volume resin-based 3D printer. The coffee maker-sized Pico uses UV light to cure a resin into solid shapes. While you can get the same type of technology from other manufacturers, the Pico is definitely small volume: several models have build volumes ranging from 30 x 40 x 76mm to 35 x 22 x 76mm. That’s quite small, but oh, what you can do with it!
The resolution on the Pico is incredibly accurate with layer sizes in the one micron range. That’s 0.001mm. Tiny! It’s possible to produce the most delicate small objects.
Typically the machine is used for producing wax prints for metal casting. In other words, Jewelry.
Asiga also provides a plastic resin and another suitable for medical use.
One very interesting feature is a special teflon “membrane separation” process that permits printed objects to be removed from the bed with “almost no force”. This means that objects can be especially delicate, where they would not survive extraction on other resin machines.
The price for this, you ask? Only USD$6,990. Not much more than a couple of MakerBots.
Via Asiga
