Skriware is a company based in both Poland and Sweden. And they’ve launched an innovative 3D printer with accompanying content solution.
The Skriware 3D Printer is a capable machine with some interesting properties. While it includes the now defacto-standard industry features of 0.05mm layer size, a color touchscreen, metal body, and the ability to print low-temperature materials like PLA and PET, we found a couple other features interesting.
The machine includes a unique magnetic print plate. We’ve seen this style of print surface offered by third parties as an add-on to desktop 3D printers recently, but never as an integrated part of the machine itself.
The idea is that once your print is complete, you simply lift out the magnetic print surface (with your print stuck on it), and give it a twist to release the print. This is far easier than prying off a stuck print with a dangerously sharp scraper, which is even worse if you have to do it inside the machine because the print surface is not removable. This awful scenario never occurs on the Skriware machine.
This low-cost machine also includes both WiFi and Ethernet connections, making it ideal to hook up to one of several cloud-based 3D print management services.
One missing element is an SD card reader, often the method of delivering GCODE to other manufacturer’s printers. No, Skriware goes to great lengths to explain that they purposely included a USB port instead of an SD card reader, simply because more people have access to USB methods. That’s quite true, as we experienced this personally at the Lab the other day when our SD card reader attachment fell apart when attempting to load GCODE onto an SD card. Not every computer has an SD card reader!
If there was something we could complain about with the Skriware, it would be that the print volume is a bit small at 150 x 150 x 130mm. That said, you can still print many useful items on this machine – and more if you segment your 3D model into parts that are printed separately.
Curiously, the Skriware 3D printer has a 0.3mm nozzle on its hot end, slightly smaller than the typical 0.4mm size most frequently encountered on other machines. This suggests that you could possibly print slightly finer details, if the machine is tuned properly.
Skriware has brilliantly identified one of the big issues with consumer 3D printing: the inability to create one’s own 3D models for printing. To solve this, they’ve created “Skricarket”, a 3D model repository with a difference: it’s integrated with your printer, so that you can select a model and immediately print it on your Skriware 3D printer.
“One click printing” is certainly a feature that many consumers would appreciate, but the challenge for Skriware will be to ensure their repository contains sufficient variety of quality items to keep people interested and using their 3D printer.
For now, though, you can support this project by pre-ordering a Skriware 3D printer. While the early-bird price of USD$800 is gone, you can still place an order for only USD$900 for one of these interesting machines.
As of this writing, they’re over two-thirds of the way to their ambitious goal of raising USD$500,000. It looks like they’ll make it.
Via Skriware and Kickstarter
