After the launch of a much-anticipated crowdfunding campaign, Gizmo has officially reached its Indiegogo goal of $95,000 with nine days left to go. The success of the campaign does not come as a surprise, given the speed claims the Australian company has made about its printers. With a second projector added on, the Gizipro 2X is capable of printing at speeds of 2 mm per minute.
As impressive as these claims may be, Gizmo has had quite a few beta testers seem to confirm the quality of the machine. Among these testers was iMakr, the 3D printing retailer that will be selling Gizmo 3D printers in their own shops in London and New York and on their website. The retailer has given the Gizipro 2X an “A” rating, determining that it was possible to achieve 2 mm per minute printing speeds when fabricating hollow objects and 3 mm per minute when printing solid objects.
Because the Gizmo machines can 3D print with any photopolymer designed for DLP and SLA machines, their line has the potential to disrupt the jewelry, dental, medical, and electronics markets typically targeted by DLP manufacturers. The ability to 3D print high-resolution objects in castable materials has been the main selling point of DLP machines. Capable of reaching layer thicknesses as fine as 70 microns or finer, Gizmo 3D’s range could be valuable to those wishing to 3D print rings or dental crowns that will ultimately be cast in metal.
For instance, DLP technology is already used to create a large number of hearing aids on the market, due to the ability to mass customize batches of devices at once. To demonstrate the potential of Gizmo’s machines for such an application, the Aussie startup 3D printed the casing for the hearing aid above. Without the second project, the “super speed add-on”, they were able to 3D print the casing in one hour, with an XY resolution of 93 microns and Z resolution of 50 microns. When it was added, they say they were able to 3D print twenty in one hour.
About the test print, Gizmo writes, “This was the first print we did testing this resin for the very first time and it worked on the first try. The part is very smooth.It proves that our printers can be used to print items for the hearing aid industry and thatwe can use another third party resin on our machines. The resin is actually a dental casting resin by pro3dure.com that we used to to print this hearing aid casing while we wait for the hearing aid resin. Normally this hearing aid casing is printed and then silicone is injected into it. Once the silicone is set, the casing is broken off.”
They further demonstrate the potential for the use of Gizmo 3D printers in the medical field by 3D printing a spinal model. Printed in 3.5 hours at 0.5 mm per minute, the model has a resolution of 169 microns on the XY axis and 8 microns on the Z. Thanh Dental Lab has also begun testing the use of the system for producing dental models. Of course, it’s not limited to use in the medical field, as engineer Sam McFarlane implemented a Gizmo 3D printer for mass producing objects for an art exhibition, which you’ll see in the video below.
The Gizmo line can handle just about any resin, though it’s recommended that, for medical use, PRO3DURE’s material is used, while FUNTODO’s industrial blend should be used for mass production. At the moment, iMakr sells the FUNTODO material and will be selling Pro3dure soon.
Now that the company has fulfilled its Indiegogo goal, we’ll have to wait and see if its disruptive potential is as high as it might seem. So far, 2016 has seen a few game-changing technologies emerge, with Carbon’s CLIP technology now offered through four service bureaus and the OLO smartphone 3D printer blasting off on Kickstarter. 2016 may be the year that 3D printing begins reaching towards its true potential.
