This summer, we covered the Elemental, a unique stereolithography (SL) 3D printer from Australia-based Hardcotton. The big innovation that Hardcotton brought to SL 3D printing was a pressure control system that the company believes brings down the cost and raises the quality of high-resolution 3D printing. Five months have passed and, now, the company from down under is ready to flip 3D printing on its head, via Kickstarter.
Hardcotton explains on their Kickstarter page that their patent-pending pressure system allows for more precise control over the build platform in the printing process. As the laser zaps and hardens a vat full of UV-curable resin, layer by layer, the pressure system raises the build platform. How the system works is by using a three chamber process. Like a straw sucking up liquid, the printer first uses a pump to pressurize the liquid resin. Then, a valve mechanism slowly releases the pressure, raising the printbed up with each layer, which the company claims offers much greater control than traditional, mechanical means. Hardcotton CEO Scott Pobihun gives an in-depth explanation at about minute 16:30 in the interview with AllThings3D embedded below:
This system also opens the Elemental 3D printing process up to using low-cost liquids as support materials. The team explains that thinner, less viscous printing resins float on top of denser materials, like saline. Instead of using more resin to support printed layers and potentially wasting the material, Hardcotton suggests, “[t]he [denser] material surrounding the cured resin holds the resin in place long enough for the laser to cure the resin above it.”
Such a process lowers the cost of materials used in 3D printing, but the printer itself is affordable as it is on the crowdfunding campaign. Early birds can now get the Elemental for as low as $820, rivaling even the most affordable of FFF 3D printers, but with Z-layer thicknesses much finer, as fine as 1 micron and an XY resolution is 24.4 microns, thanks to the 405nm laser. The company claims that the Elemental requires little set-up or calibration out of the box. The Elemental also operates via SD-card or Bluetooth.
Altogether, the Elemental looks like a really appealing machine. Then again, members of the 3D printing community have been burned by crowdfunding campaigns before, so backer beware. I can say this, though, from the AllThings3D interview above, the CEO seems like a nice enough guy. Then again, I’ve read people wrong in the past. But not often! Anyway, don’t trust me; watch their campaign video below or visit their KS page and see what you think.
