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Issue #578 : : October 25, 2008 |
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Z Corp's band new 3D printer takes the best features of their other models, and puts them into a bigger box. Technical product manager Dave Tedder describes his ZPrinter 650 as the biggest, highest resolution, fastest 3D printer with five printing colors.
How ZPrinters Work Z Corp's printers use a 3D printing technique different from all other 3D printers: 1. A layer of powder is laid down on a flat bed. The layer is 0.004" (.1mm) thick. 2. Inkjet-like cartridges squirt colorized binder fluid onto the power, forming the first solid outlined on the layer. 3. The flat bed drops down by 0.004". 4. The process repeats, at a speed of 2-4 layers per minute.
5. When done, the 650 printer vacuums away some 80% of the leftover powder. The rest of the powder is removed manually with a vacuum tube inside a hooded area. Nearly all of the leftover powder is reused for the next print job. 6. The finished part is porous, so finished 3D prototypes are typically dipped in glue to make it hard and take on a good looking finish.
The printer actually uses HP11 inkjet heads from Hewlett-Packard. This model of printhead is designed to work with reservoirs of inkjet fluid; Z Corp substitutes binder fluid. In the 650, there are five cartridges, one each for clear. black, pale cyan (light blue), pale magenta (pink), and pale yellow. Printing with the clear print head on the white powder results in white parts. By mixing the five colors, any 24-bit color can be simulated -- just as with inkjet printers. This is used to great effort for decals, where the surface of the 3D prototype can be covered with texture maps, such as flat buttons on a VCR. "It's like raster, instead of vector; an inkjet printer, instead of a pen plotter, and is the basis for our speed advantage," Mr Tedder summed up. Even the resolution is similar to that of inkjet printers: 600 x 540dpi x 0.004".
New in the 650 What's new in the 650 is that it adds black. This creates more vibrant colors; it also allowed Z Corp to change the cyan, magenta, and yellow to lighter tones, for better colors. By quickly switching between colors on each layer, even multi-colored diagonal parts can be built up. This is Z Corp's largest 3D printer. It creates models up to 15 x 10 x 8" (38 x 25 x 20 cm), which seems small to those of us unfamiliar with 3D printing. It's big enough to make prototypes of running shoes and small architectural models. My house could be reproduced at 1:40 scale. By printing components, larger models can be created, and so the ultimate model size is not constrained to the size of the build platform. Using the optional ZEdit Pro software, you can deconstruct large models, have the ZPrinter print the sections (with knock-outs and pins), and then manually assembly the sections into the larger whole. Mr Tedder said that "touch time" is reduced by 40% in his new printer. For example, the colored binder is added by lugging in cartridges -- no spills. The powder is vacuumed into the machine from the bucket in which it is delivered. Many task that the users initially manually in the past are now automated by the new 3D printer and the accompanying software. The price is $59,900, and the unit becomes available in November. No out of the Inbox this week, because I am prepping to leave for next week's 4th Annual IntelliCAD World Meeting. It's Oct 29-31 in Athens, Greece and I plan to blog the event at worldcadaccess.typepad.com More info on the conference: www.intellicad.org/WorldMeeting2008 - - - These news items were posted during the last week at the WorldCAD Access blog <worldcadaccess.typepad.com>:
WorthWhile Web http://www.technologyreview.com/web/21558/page1/
http://www.xs4all.nl/~egbg/counterscript.html
Letters to the Editor Re: Discussing the Future of CAD "[Charles Graham asks,] 'We can't be that far away now, can we?' We are very far away. "In addition to the software and hardware issues, there is the issue of knowledge. The architect who creates the building model does not have the detailed knowledge of the myriad products encapsulated and connected within a building that would be needed to incorporate accurate and complete details within the building model. This is not to say that at some point, interchange and interoperability among different levels of models will allow that. However, that point is very distant. "The earliest attempts at moving between a full-building BIM model and a component model have been with structural steel and precast concrete, in part because those trades were using BIM and/or 3-D modeling on their own. It has not been easy and the lack of a dominant software player makes it more complex. "There is one design build firm that was using proprietary software for this years ago (modeling both the building and the precast); I'm not sure how far they have progressed and it was limited to a specific type of office building. "Depending on the nature of the owner and the project, the design-build firm may be constrained on what package they use. This lack of consistency in packages (and who drives it) discourages serious investment in modeling. "None of which is to say BIM is not valuable, just that it has been oversold -- witness the unrealistic expectations in the letter to which I was responding. And to date it's biggest payoffs are not in eliminating trade-specific detailed drawings, but in other areas: spatial conflicts, scheduling, estimating, design development, and operations (post-construction the model is very helpful to the facilities manager)."
Re: Stronger US$ To Hurt US CAD Co's "One thing Carl forgets to mention is that the exchange rate went from $1.20 (to 1 Euro) in 2006 to $1.60 in 2008, which is an increase of 33%."
The editor replies: "So, Autodesk just about made back the 35% in US taxes through currency appreciation."
Spin Doctor of the Moment "Customers with old, unsupported releases are missing out. Outdated software can’t offer some of most exciting innovations, e.g., support for new data exchange standards like DXF and DWG, enhancements like Undo and Redo, or any of the best capabilities added in each year's releases."
Notable Quotable "XP gets another six months on Death Row: Downgrade proves too popular"
"But Windows 8, now that's going to really rock!"
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