Say that title three times fast! Continuing to bring 3D printing into the 21st century, MarkForged, the company responsible for the continous composite 3D printer launched last year, has announced the creation of Eiger, a cloud-based, collaborative software for designing and 3D printing with the Mark One Composite 3D printer. Eiger gives Mark One users the ability to access, modify, and 3D print models through Google Chrome.
The Mark One uses their proprietary technology to 3D print continuous carbon fiber, Kevlar, or fiberglass with one print head, while using traditional 3D printing materials, like ABS, with the other. This leads to reinforced plastic parts with a greater strength-to-weight ratio than aluminum. With their new software release, users can work on the project from different parts of the world and print on a local Mark One 3D printer, bridging the physical and digital worlds.
The company boasts that Eiger makes for quick slicing, as users can avoid downloading and slicing large files on their computer. Eiger also uses smart support generation and can route the composite material through parts for 10x the strength. Moreover, fiber density and directionality can be edited on a layer-by-layer basis, to determine the strength and flexibility of a given print. And, to make room for the future of manufacturing, the printer can be paused for users to embed electronics.
Greg Mark, founder and CEO of MarkForged, said of the cloud software, “We thought we’d show part of the potential of the cloud today by rolling out a cool new capability as we unveil our software. As of today, the Mark One supports embedding of functional electronics and metal structures inside our continuous composite 3D printed parts. Your printer will notify you – via the cloud – when it is time to place your inserts.”
The Mark One 3D printer is available for purchase through the MarkForged website. With connections at MIT, you can expect that this is only the first of the big announcements from the company to take place this year. To see more of Mark One, watch the video below, and to learn more about the company, you can read our Executive Interview with Greg Mark here.
