14 DAY TRIAL // While XYZPrinting seemed happy looking at the mid-range and low-end 3D printer market, 3D Systems decided to focus more on quality at the IFA 2014 event. Specifically, it brought out both its small and its biggest printer for the consumer FDM class.
The 3D Systems Cube is basically a compact consumer printer with a price of around $1,099 / €1,099. Altogether it measures 13.3 x 13.3 x 11 inches / 335 x 338 x 280 mm, but its build volume is of 6 x 6 x 6 inches / 152.5 x 152.5 x 152.5 mm.
You only need the Cubify app (for Mac OS X and Windows, freely supplied with the printer itself) to initiate a print process. It even works over Wi-Fi.
Moreover, you can copy print files from your PC to a USB sick and connect the flash drive directly to the printer, to print right off it. Good for when you make a model at work or at home, but the printer you have access to is somewhere else, not connected to the computer through the network.
Both ABS and PLA plastics are supported, at a thickness of 200 microns (for speed) or 70 microns (for detail). There's enough material in each cartridge to print 13 to 14 mid-sized objects through Plastic Jet Printing (PJP). And with dual jets, you can even combine two colors if you want.
The CubePro Trio is leagues beyond the Cube
The Cube sounds like a great high-end consumer printer, but it still has to make some concessions in order to maintain a relatively accessible price point.
If it's quality you want, though, 3D Systems, through its Cubify brand, has created a much larger printer with three print heads.
Called CubePro Trio, it has a price of £3,440 / €4,300 / $5,100 (although exchange rates are usually misleading in this) and a build volume of 200.4 x 270.4 x 230 mm / 7.88 x 10.64 x 9.05 inches, which is the largest for this class of printers.
The triple-extruder system is the most important part, however. You see, it allows you to create objects with up to 24 colors and 3 different materials (ABS, PLA, and Nylon). All the while keeping layer thickness at 70 microns.
Not quite the same as full-color 3D printing, but most of those technologies are experimental right now anyway.
A color touchscreen display and Wi-Fi capability allows you to easily print whatever you want, whether from a computer, mobile device, or, again, a USB flash drive.
Below you can see a short image gallery of the printer as it appeared at IFA 2014, although the glossy finish of the outer case worked against it somewhat (it's a closed-chamber style, unlike the Cube, which we also took a few shots of).
