SLA 3D Printers Hit Intermold Korea 2015

This month, I went to Seoul to see the goings-on at this year’s Intermold Korea and Koplas Shows to see if there was anything new or interesting, and found a few things. Of course, there was plenty of stuff there, so I had to spend a sometime searching the sprawling forum for the 3D printer vendors, but after a determined hunt, I located their ‘neighborhood.’

The first vendor I came across was Yrobot, a local MakerBot reseller who had a complete selection of all of MakerBot’s latest gadgets, including the Digitizer. It was a bit early and the booth was just opening when I arrived so the crew was a bit busy, and I moved on.

Next, I found myself in front of what I thought was a somewhat undersized 3D Systems booth, and without a single machine in sight. I soon found out that this was a satellite booth for a new CAD/CAM software package called ‘CimatronE / GibbsCAM’ which 3D Systems has just acquired and began showing publicly. As it turned out, their main booth area was a few rows over. There, they had all the goodies you would expect on display, such as their industrial machines and their consumer Cubes, but my favorite was their little – dare I say ‘cute’ – ProJet 1200 Micro-SLA machine. Granted it is classified as a professional grade machine, and the $5,000 price reflects that, so I doubt I will get to play with one anytime soon.

The next three booths gave me hope that maybe I could get an SLA of my own someday. The first was HDC, a reseller for DWS and EOS. They were showing DWS’s new XFAB printer, a desktop SLA, as well as the EOS line of industrial machines. Across the way was the booth for the Korean-made Carima printers where they had several new machines including their new desktop (granted… big desktop) SLA, the DP110. Next was the SNC booth, a reseller for EnvisionTEC. While I was thrilled to see the EnvisionTEC desktop Perfactory SLA, as it turned out that was not the most interesting thing they had to show.

SNC is a multi-product reseller and solutions provider that represents EnvisionTEC, Weistek, and now the Blueprinter. Though I had read about it many time before, this was my first time seeing the Blueprinter in person. The Blueprinter looked to me, at least at first, like a large, white picnic cooler – at least, it was about the same size and shape. Needless to say, the similarity to a cooler ends with its exterior appearance. For those who don’t know, the Blueprinter is a new SHS (Selective Heat Sintering) printer that uses powder polymers and a thermal printhead to fuse the powder into solid objects. Here at 3D Printing Industry, we have visited this printer a few times before, and, while we are aware, that they signed a distribution deal in Japan last November this is the first time we have seen it in Korea.

I then found the Korean 3D printer company Rokit’s booth. They took a few minutes to show me their newest machine, the Edison AE (Advanced Engineering). The AE looks an awful lot like their Edison Pro, but seems to have a new buildplate and hotend extruder. The buildplate appears to be made of aluminum with a dark-colored, metallic insert that serves as the build surface. I was told that this new plate can reach up to 300˚ C (but I think the rep meant the extruder) so that it can work with specialty engineering plastics (hence the ‘AE’ name). They also told me they have the new ‘Edison 2’ out now, but that it is only available internationally, and won’t be available in Korea for another two months.

Needless to say, Stratasys, like 3D Systems, was there and in full form. Their sprawling booth was complete with all of their newest machines in their three main types; the ‘Idea,’ ‘Design,’ and ‘Production’ Series. I would have liked to have spent more time talking with them about the latest goings-on, but my time was short and I had to move on quickly. I next visited Sundo Solutions, a reseller for UP series of printers, including the UP Plus 2, UP Mini, and the new UP Box, the latest, and biggest one so far. The UP Box had some pretty interesting design features, including a sealed build area and air filter system, as well as the internal filament spooler.

In another area TPM (Trump Precision Machinery) of Japan was there with their Elite p series SLS industrial machines, as was ExOne and InssTek. While many readers may be familiar with ExOne, many may not be with InssTek, which is a Korean-based DMT metal 3D printer company. The machines they had with them were quite large and I sometimes wonder, when I visit shows like this, how they move such machines into such a crowded and busy space, where everyone is trying to set up and get ready for the upcoming exhibition.

While the above exhibits and displays were impressive, to say the least, for me the highpoint was the discovery of a new SLA printer from a Chinese manufacturer called Prismlab. I wasn’t able to determine exactly when this new machine was released, but I was at the Inside 3D Printing Expo in Shanghai last November and, even though Prismlab was one of the registered exhibitors, I do not recall coming across the machine, which would have been hard to forget.

Prismlab’s new LCD (SLA) 3D Printer cuts a very impressive shape. While the Prismlab crew did have several output examples for us to examine, some of prodigious size, I didn’t get to see it actually operating. Prismlab’s Rapid 600 machine at the show sat against the back wall of the booth looking for all the world like a medium-sized, shiny, jet black, futuristic refrigerator. When opened up, the enormous 324x576x576mm build area and resin tank it had came into view. But weighing in at a hefty 150 kilograms, it’s no lightweight.

Sound too big? Don’t panic, as this isn’t the only size available, the Rapid 600 is the largest of the group. They also have several smaller models, but ‘smaller’ is a relative term. For example, their Rapid200 model, the smallest of the group, has a build area of 108x192x192mm and weighs in at 70 kilograms and is also designed as a floor model – think “apartment refrigerator” size. While prices could not be determined accurately, one of the crew told me that the 600 would cost about $50,000, but this was a conversion from the Chinese to the Korean to the US currency values, something I am not really willing to rely on, especially since it was all done mentally, in the span of a few seconds, in a crowed expo hall.

My take-away from the show? SLA is growing up fast, currently it is popping up all over the place in the industrial/business areas, but I imagine it won’t be too much longer when home consumers, out to buy their first printer, may be faced with a real choice between an FDM and an SLA machine. We’ll see.