14 DAY TRIAL // Full-color 3D printing technology is rare, and when it does show up it has limits, particularly in the way of material, extrusion rate and detail. Now, though, we may have finally found the one that will live up to our hopes.
You see, a company by the name Global Trend Trading Technology has posted a new project on the Kickstarter crowd-funding website.
Even though the name of the company doesn't suggest any sort of interest in 3D printing technology, a 3D printer is what that new project is all about. A full-color, powder-based 3D printer.
That's right, this isn't an FDM printer, where plastic filament is heated and forced out through an extruder, drop by drop.
Instead, the 3D printer uses powder. It puts the powder on a bed, moves the print head over it to deposit a binding layer, as well as color, and then the roller layers another level of dust on top of everything. Basically, the new 3D printer builds objects by binding powder together with color, layer by layer.
The 3D Pandoras 3D printer
That's the name of the 3D printer, and we dare say that the product definitely looks like a box, although a particularly tall, vertically-standing one.
The product has a build volume of 300 x 292 x 140 mm, which is the same as 11.8 x 11.5 x 5.5 inches. The print resolution, meanwhile, is 9600 x 2400 dpi. The printer should be capable of moving at 10 mm per hour, or 0.4 inches per hour.
All in all, not bad for a contraption 5.5 feet / 1.67 meters tall. A pretty big size considering that some of the smallest 3D printers are smaller than a monitor, height-wise anyway.
Of course, you'll probably have to spend more on build materials than if this were an FDM printer or SLA model that uses resin. After all, you don't only need the powder, but also the clear curing agent and the clear binder.
The curing liquid is needed because, once the print is finished (powder and curing agent), the object needs to be bathed in the curing liquid, to further strengthen the printed object.
Availability
Given the promise of the new printer, we're pretty sure the funding goal will not fail to be reached. Indeed, in just one day the company has raised a fifth of the $100,000 target (€77,284).
You need to pledge at least $2,999 / €2.319 for a 3D Pandoras, and then $3,499 / €2,704 once the first 30 printers have been claimed. The retail price will probably be of $3,999 / €3,092, which is the pledge needed once another 80 printers have been claimed.
