3D Printers

The Speed of Ira3D's 3D Printers Takes Drawpon Lab to a New Dimension

Thanks in part to the intense activity carried out by its marketing manager, Ira3D is one of the companies that is most contributing to spreading awareness of the possibilities offered by affordable 3D printing in many sectors and businesses that are related to 3D and yet have not implemented it.  One recent case is that of Drawpon Lab, an international industrial design firm that now entirely relies on Ira3D’s Poetry Infinity 3D printer for highly-reserved, internal prototyping.

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Even now, although a bit less than in the past, companies are still hesitant to release too much information about internal processes. This is fortunately not the case with Matteo Cibelli, president and CEO of Drawpon Lab, who is actually enthusiastic about sharing the details of how Ira3D’s 3D printer has changed their approach to industrial design in every sector.

Until recently, we were working with CNC mills and a basic double extruder MakerBot. However, our prototyping needs required a larger build volume, faster speed and more precision,” Cibelli explained. “Being discrete about projects is part of our DNA so all prototyping needs to be carried out internally and not in outsourcing. That is why we began looking for a 3D printer that would fit our needs and the Poetry Infinity by Ira3D has satisfied us beyond expectations.”

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The Poetry Infinity uses a proprietary version of FFF called FLD technology (Fast Layer Deposition) which can achieve print speeds of up 400 mm/s, with up to 80% of estimated printing time reduction. The way it does this is by successfully handling very fast acceleration rates (up to 9000 mm/s²), which enable the machine to exploit its full speed potential without sacrificing accuracy.

Drawpon, which operates in the fields of  product, interior and urban design, used Ira3D’s 3D printer to create an extensive series of prototypes (such as the ones in these images), from small industrial components to large high-end design elements.

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Although, as a Simplify3D software user I was skeptical initially,” said Cibelli, “the native Ira3D software allows for excellent detail reconstruction. With layer size set at .08 mm, you almost do not even notice the stratification.” Cibelli goes on to compare the machine to a spaceship, which, he says, still needs to be fine tuned. “But the bases of solidity speed and resolution are out of this world,” he concluded.

For anyone with extensive professional experience in 3D CAD-based design, there is no doubt that introducing 3D printing in the workflow is literally like stepping into a new dimension.

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