From the front it looks like an Apple iPhone. From the side it looks a bit like a 3D printer. From an isometric perspective it is unique, but fits firmly within the same aesthetic vein as the Ultimaker 2 and XYZprinting’s Da Vinci, some of the best looking desktop 3D printers. Germany’s 3Dmedifab caught our attention earlier this week with its cool Cloudio2go 3D print pen and while the 3D print pen runs for funding on Indiegogo, 3Dmedifab has unveiled another surprise: a new 3D printer.
By now there have been so many FDM/FFF desktop 3D printers released that to stand out from the crowd on a crowd funding site, any new printer needs to offer a USP and perform it well, lower the cost of desktop printing whilst maintaining a strong standard of print output, or create a paradigm shift. The IceMan3D printer fits into the second category. Taking all of the now standard average features of a desktop 3D printer and adding some other previously seen feature, the team behind the latest 3D print pen has produced a very visually appealing printer with a 15 x 15 x 15 cm (6 x 6 x6 inch) build area with a promisingly low price.
The smart phone looking front face is pertinent, given that the printer can be controlled by a smart phone or tablet via wifi. The machine’s LCD panel is touch-based, which only adds to the cunning and useful touch-screen device analogy. The body of the printer is aluminium, adding a sturdy shell for the machine that is available in bright orange, bold black or clean white. Adding these elements to the look of the printer is a good product design. They communicate the identity as well as the functionality of the machine, which otherwise would merely be a cuboid form. However, it is, of course, what happens inside the 3D printer that matters.
Most of the other specifications are what you will find on any of a hundred other models. Suffice to say the printer does what is needed, but it does so at a highly competitive price.
LCD Panel: Colour and Touch
Connection : USB, SDCard and WiFi
Build volume: 150 x 150 x 150mm
Machine size: 350 x 300 x 350 mm
Printing speed: 120 mm p/sec
Printing layer: 0.1 – 0.3 mm
Nozzle size: 0.3 – 0.4
Model Accuracy: +/- 0.15/100 mm
Axis Position Accuracy: 0.01 mm
Printing temperature: 230 C (max 320C)
Filament: PLA, ABS, Laywood, Laybrick, Nylon, NinjaFlex, Bendlay, more
Printer structure: Aluminium
File format : STL, Gcode
System : WIN, LIN, OS X
Software: Iceman 3D software included
The IceMan3D is not aiming for the sub-500 dollar niche that has emerged as the race to the bottom entry level competition. There are some cool printers, innovative designs, interesting self-assembly kits, and worthwhile products in that niche. But in the next strata up, the $500 – $1000 niche, it shines brightly with an early bird price of just $649.
Solidoodle were the early masters of the pre-assembled cheap-but-functional cube 3D printer. With printers like the C2GO at $649 and Da Vinci at $499, Solidoodle now faces a run for its money. It costs more for a MakerBot, Ultimaker or Leapfrog, which now reside in a different strata, the $1000 – $2500 low cost prosumer niche, at least as far as this writer classifies. With those big names undercut, and the sub-$500 printers still tending to look quirky or ugly (with notable exceptions), the team behind the IceMan3D seems to have a good strategy. They seem to have ticked the ‘3D printer for the masses’ box, the ‘entry level hobbyist’ box, and possibly, given how good it looks, may even steal some interest from design students and designers looking for prototyping machines.
That said, the masses won’t be buying it as it can’t print a fully functioning electronic device – indeed if such things ever happen these type of printers are light years from that, and mass adoption. But, unless it is felt to be just ‘more of the same’ by makers and those looking to get in to 3D printing, I’d say this printer will sell. Well, at the very least, I’d buy one. You can find the crowdfunding campaign here and Cloudio2go / IceMan3D website here.
