Mcor ARKe Desktop Paper 3D Printer

For years, 3D printer manufacturer Mcor has stood out for their paper-based 3D printers. Today, they have announced the release of their first desktop printer. The Mcor ARKe utilizes the same Selective Deposition Lamination technology to print solid, sturdy paper models as its industrial predecessors, and it also prints in full color. The printer, which will be available in the second quarter of 2016, is already making waves, having been named a CES 2016 Best of Innovation Awards Honoree. Read more at 3DPrint.com: http://3dprint.com/113949/mcor-arke-desktop-printer/
http://3dprint.com/wp-content/upload...s-1024x266.png

Finally! These older and larger machines are awsome, I've seen them working. This is real ***3D Desktop printing***.

Questions: Availability in Europe? A4 paper-size feed?

so around £4000 for full colour printer.

If you're thinking about getting one - bear in mind that for some things they are brilliant, for others - not so useful.
For artistic models, fivurines, extrdued photos etc - these are unbeatable for the money.
For small or intricate models or things with interlocked or moving parts - not so good.

Over the last 2-3 years the odels they exhibit at shows have improed immesuarably. These days it's hard to tell the difference between a mcor full colour paper mache print and a full colour stratasys objet print - given that there is a 10x price difference between the two systems. The mcor setup is impressive.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by curious aardvark

so around £4000 for full colour printer.

---

UK based?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by curious aardvark

If you're thinking about getting one - bear in mind that for some things they are brilliant, for others - not so useful.
For artistic models, fivurines, extrdued photos etc - these are unbeatable for the money.
For small or intricate models or things with interlocked or moving parts - not so good.

---

Agreed, I now have a regular filament depositing printer, I know the (many) differences.
My usage would be the artistic aspect, especially the colour possibilities.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by curious aardvark

Over the last 2-3 years the odels they exhibit at shows have improed immesuarably. These days it's hard to tell the difference between a mcor full colour paper mache print and a full colour stratasys objet print - given that there is a 10x price difference between the two systems. The mcor setup is impressive.

---

That is also true. The MCOR selling price is still high, but possible. Stratasys would be out of my reach, although they produce fine results.
And MCOR has a physical size advantage.

I'm still unclear how the machine removes excess paper around the models. Can someone enlighten me?

Thanks.

some breaks off - but I believe it's dunked into a tank and the rest is dissolved.
You can't use normal paper.

The website doesn't give much help - doesn't even seem to be anyway to buy supplies: knives, ink & paper. All consumable items that you would think would be for sale on the website.

It works by spraying both a resin fixative and ink to impregnate the paper. The resin bonds the layers and parts together and a knife cuts round the layers on each sheet.

Pretty sure they said you have to dunk it in a tank of water and what's not impregnated with ink and resin just dissolves away.
So it's definitely not standard paper.

But there is absolutely nothing that explains that on their website.

I haven't used one, but I've seen them and talked with the representatives at shows. This was before they debuted the new desktop model, but I don't think the technology is radically different. They did say these machines use regular A4 typing paper, and there was no mention of soaking the parts to remove waste material - where did you see that? When I spoke with them, they explained that you have to pick out the extra paper - like "weeding" a stencil. This does make some sorts of parts -like the nest of gears - difficult if not impossible to make. But for most things, it seems like it should work okay, and should be a lot more economical than other color 3D printing systems.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Gamecockrock

I'm still unclear how the machine removes excess paper around the models. Can someone enlighten me?

Thanks.

---

There is a whitepaper: http://mcortechnologies.com/resource...s-white-paper/

Scroll down to the fifth entry, download it and on page 4 you will see an example. The machine doesn't remove excess paper, you do it yourself. The machine (by means of the software) prints it (less glue, extra cuts, etc.) so it is easier for you to do so.

Regards,
Wim.

Pretty sure last time I had a long chat to the mcor folks they'd started using soluble paper and a better resin.

Nope - must have been thinking of something else :-)
Ah I remember - there's an ink that uses a special paper and normal inkjet printer. Got them confused :-)

Here's a proper explanation that you don't have to sign up to anything to read :-)
http://mcortechnologies.com/dispelli...printing-blog/