14 DAY TRIAL // Tools are tools, but they, too, are made with other tools. On the engineering front, its gets even more complicated, because the equipment used to make a car motor or a rotor has to be tougher, enduring. Which means that it needs to be made of special materials.
Metals are one thing, and there are a few 3D printers that can create objects from it. Polycarbonate and nylon are used often too, though.
Airwolf 3D has just introduced a 3D printer that can handle those materials. It's not the first, but it is the cheapest you'll have seen so far.
The name of the thing is Airwolf 3D AW3D HDx, and the price is of $3,495, which corresponds to €2,550, give or take a couple Euro.
Knowing how seldom exchange rates matter here, though, it's more likely that customers from Europe will have to play a sum closer to €3,500 if they want one of these things.
Either way, it's a low price, not at all close to the $5,000 / €5,000 of other printers (some of which use plastic), or certain other, specialized ones that cost in the tens of thousands. The AW3D HDx ought to score a fair few orders for this alone.
Anyway, the newcomer can print engineering-grade materials and doesn't make a mess, or need to be part of some sort of factory assembly line.
Since it's basically a box with fancy insides, you can place it on your desktop and use it there. Sure, if you're an amateur tinker, you'll probably put it in your garage or barn somewhere, but it's still really space-efficient.
The build volume is of 12 x 8 x 12 inches / 300 x 200 x 300 mm (1,150 cubic inches / 18,878 cubic centimeters), while the minimum layer thickness is of 0.06 mm.
The patent-pending JRx (jam resistant) hot end is key, and can heat up polycarbonate, Bridge nylon, Nylon 645 and over a dozen other materials at 315 degrees Celsius / 599 degrees Fahrenheit.
The ultimate purpose of the Aiurwolf 3D AW3D HDx 3D printer is, in the company's own words, to “to bring imagination to the desktop.” You can even use it (to make tools or mechanical gizmos, etc.) without having it hooked up to a computer, thanks to the MatterControl software (custom configured) and Marlin firmware.
Good news for existing customers of Airwolf 3D too: if you already own an AW3D XL or AW3D HD 3D printer, the JRx hot end can be purchased separately.