Titan 1 Desktop SLA 3D Printer from Startup Kudo3D

It wasn’t all that long ago that if you wanted a desktop additive manufacturing (AM) system, you were limited to material extrusion printers like those offered by Stratasys. Then came Formlabs and the first desktop stereolithography (SLA) printer, the FORM 1. It didn’t take long for other companies to follow Formlabs’ lead and now consumers have a choice of desktop SLA models to choose from, including a new model from 3D Systems.

Startup Kudo3D has spent the last couple years developing its own SLA printer, which it has named Titan 1. Rather aiming the digital light projector at the top of the resin tub, Titan 1 works with a bottom up model.

From the website:

… the separation force between the cured resin layer and the bottom of the resin container still limits the minimum feature size, printable mechanical structures and build volume. Founder Ted Syao spent 16 months full time to develop and perfect a patent pending passive self-peeling technology (PSP) for bottom up SLA. PSP employs a flexible resin container to enable a self-peeling process that minimizes the separation force. By minimizing the separation force, features as tiny as a strand of hair can be preserved during the printing process.

To go along with the bottom up design, Titan 1 offers a build envelope of 7.5 x 4.25 x 9.5 in. (19.05 x 10.8 x 24.13 cm). It has a resolution of 100μm XY and 1μm Z, with a print speed of around 1.3 in./hour. The company also claims that its PSP technology, which uses Teflon to prevent sticking, results in a resin tub that is more highly resistant to reactive resins than those produced by its competitors.

According to the company, one of the reason’s Syao started Kudo3D was to offer an affordable product that could produce professional quality parts. While final pricing hasn’t been set, rumors place the Titan 1 at $1,999 for a kit or $2,249 for a fully assembled system. If that price turns out to be true, this new 3D printer will be less expensive than either Formlabs or 3D Systems’ offerings.

Kudo3D has also hinted it may launch a crowdfunding campaign to raise additional capital, so backers may be able to pick up the system at an even lower price.

Below you’ll find a video about the Titan 1.

Source: Kudo3D