This week the home-brewed Ester SLS 3D printer and the Sintratec both launched crowdfunding campaigns on Indiegogo, looking to bring desktop laser sintering (LS) 3D printers to market. Both campaigns are very different, but signal what the market has been wanting for a while now, the beginning of a new class of desktop 3D printers.
The desktop 3D printing market is dominated by FFF/FDM 3D printers of all shapes, sizes and price ranges. With several hundred models of 3D printers to choose from, there is no shortage of molten plastic spewing robots. But I think it’s clear that we are reaching the limits of what the technology can do. While there are still advancements in software that could improve print quality, computer programming can’t alter the laws of physics. The surface tension of liquefied plastic is always going to leave striation marks, and advanced slicers and programs to optimise print orientation is only going to reduce them marginally.
The only other blip on the at-home 3D printing radar is the type of printers that use photosensitive resins to print. Many SLA and/or DLP printers like the Form1 have found a lot of success, and the market has seen a lot of new machines recently. But striation is still an issue, although there are more software and hardware options for the technology to explore. But the limited material options are a significant roadblock.
The potential for extremely detailed prints using the laser sintering process could give makers a new 3D printing option. Similar to FFF/FDM printers, LS can be adapted for a nearly limitless amount of materials, and with the right design even the hassle of needing to clean prints can be overcome. The two new SLS 3D printers that just launched crowdfunding campaigns on Indiegogo are worth a look for very different reasons.
I’ve covered the Ester SLS 3D printer previously when her creator Brandon Fosdick posted the results of his three year project. Fosdick just launched his campaign on Indiegogo looking to raise $50,000 to complete his desktop LS 3D printer with the help of his backers. While he’s not offering a retail printer, he is offering interested makers the opportunity to join him in the final development process by backing him and receiving what he’s calling a Developer Kit. In any other industry, asking your potential customers to help you refine your product would be a death sentence, but the maker community is an entirely different beast.
Ester is still in search of functional firmware, desktop software, a final product design and a unified control board. But the technology looks sound, the hardware that is in place looks solid, and the printer already is producing 3D printed parts. You can see the Indiegogo campaign video here:
On the other end of the spectrum is Sintratec, a desktop LS 3D printer that is being sold as a complete, market-ready printer kit and the creators have also launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. They are looking to raise $175,000 to produce their first generation of desktop LS printers and expect to ship the first units in July 2015.
You can see the Sintratec LS 3D printer in action in their Indiegogo campaign video:
Obviously Ester is not going to make it to market before the Sintratec, but both printers are selling different experiences. Sintratec is selling the complete package for early adopters who want to be through the door first, while Fosdick’s Ester is aimed directly at people who don’t want to be told what the technology can do but want to help develop what it can do.
While neither 3D printer is breaking new ground with print resolution or speed, it is just the bottom floor of an entirely new class of desktop 3D printer. Laser sintering is one of the more prolific and dependable industrial 3D printing applications and there is the potential for a level of quality in resolution and materials that neither FFF/FDM or SLA/DLP seems capable of producing. It remains to be seen if the 3D printing industry is looking for at home LS printing, but I don’t think that it’s a very risky bet.
