About a year ago, I saw an incredibly large, incredibly fast and quite stylish desktop 3D printer, the Hotrod Henry Supercharged.
At the time, Vienna-based aye aye labs was still working on the machine and hadn’t even finalized performance benchmarks. While the machine has a truly unique exterior style, the innards of this box are what really counts.
The machine has two outstanding features, the first being its rather large build volume. The production version of the HRH Supercharged can build objects up to an amazing 350 x 350 x 600mm, about the largest you can get without going “off desktop”.
The second important feature of the HRH Supercharged is that word, “Supercharged”. The machine includes a special controller board from CreatItReal that enables extremely fast printing movements. How fast? Well, this machine can literally print up to 450mm per second, which is an awful lot faster than your typical 60mm per second desktop 3D printer. Of course, you only get those speeds in optimum conditions, as the machine will be slower when performing trajectory changes. Nevertheless, it’s a very fast machine.
That speed is a particular advantage when combined with the large build volume. A print of such size might take days to complete on a machine with typical print speeds, but the HRH Supercharged should be able to reach completion far sooner.
The HRH Supercharged can also print layers as small as 0.05mm, but large prints at that resolution would take a very long time to complete, even with the added speed. Fortunately, the machine can also print at 0.3mm layers, which should speed up larger prints that don’t require much resolution.
An interesting add on is a larger-sized nozzle, which, when combined with the speed, could result in a printer capable of producing large objects in record time. The standard nozzle is 0.35mm, but the company also offers a 0.5mm nozzle just for this purpose. More plastic can be extruded in the same time, speeding prints.
As you can see in the image, the build chamber is entirely closed, which enables higher reliability for longer print durations. Heat is provided by a heated build plate, which also enables printing of many types of plastics beyond PLA. In fact, the maximum extrusion temperature of the hot end is a very warm 400C.
High speed printing is best done with a certified high-speed filament, although you can attempt to print fast with any filament. Regardless, the HRH Supercharged can accommodate up to 2kg spools for unattended long run printing.
The machine has just been launched on Kickstarter, with early-bird pricing set at €5,990 (USD$6,700). This is a major discount over the initial pricing we had been expecting at €9,900 (USD$11,000). There are a couple of variations in pricing for obtaining different sets of materials, but again, good deals.
The campaign’s target is only €75,000, representing sales of only a small number of machines, so it’s quite likely they’ll succeed.
One tough question you’ll have to answer: what color case will you choose?
Via Kickstarter
