BCN3D has been quietly making some interesting moves.
The Spanish 3D printer manufacturer is one of the oldest in the business, and I recall seeing their equipment at trade shows over a decade ago. Nowadays, they’ve moved on from those primitive machines and offer a range of industrial and professional 3D printers.
Their flagship 3D printer for the past year has been their Omega I60. It’s an IDEX machine, sporting two independently moving toolheads. BCN3D was one of the first companies to market this technology, and they have refined the design in the I60.
They’ve introduced their own line of filaments for the Omega I60, including:
- Impact ABS
- Tooling CF (carbon fiber reinforced PA6)
- Resistant Nylon (PA6 + PPA)
- Proto (for functional prototyping)
The last material is pretty interesting, as BCN3D describes:
“It surpasses PLA in strength, is more user-friendly than ABS, and delivers a surface finish superior to PETG. On top of that, Omega Proto offers great layer adhesion, creating stronger bonds between layers than what is achievable with typical prototyping materials.”
What’s next for BCN3D? We were told they are working on a high-speed version of the Omega I60. At this point, they are able to print at 200mm/s on 0.2mm layers. While that may sound a bit slower than the 500mm/s machines often advertised, that speed is almost always done at 0.1mm layers, where far less material is being deposited.
BCN3D told us they don’t really have to change the hardware much to achieve these speeds, as the Omega I60 was pretty robust to start with. Most of their challenges revolve around tweaking the print parameters, with some work to adjust cooling, belts, and a few other minor items. The higher-speed version should be available in January.
Corporately, BCN3D has recently received a “pivotal” investment round. Unfortunately, the company revealed neither the amount of investment nor the source of the funds.
The funding has allowed BCN3D to launch a new factory to produce equipment, located in “a European technology hotspot”.
While the secrecy from BCN3D is very curious, the new investment will certainly provide the company with advantages over its competitors: investment is very hard to obtain these days, especially for 3D print companies that have been tarnished in the minds of investors by several failed large investments in poorly managed companies.
Via BCN3D
