'New Matter' launching the MOD-t Affordable 3D Printer Soon via Crowdfunding Campaign

Looks like there will be a new crowdfunding campaign launching soon for a new 3D printer, called the MOD-t. It is from a company called 'New Matter', formerly known as IdeaShaper. They don't provide many details, but they are going to be "affordable". It should be interesting to see what the price will be, and if they try to compete price wise with the Micro3D printer that was just on Kickstarter.

Read more about this at http://3dprint.com/3413/new-matter-mod-t-3d-printer/

http://3dprint.com/wp-content/upload...atter-feat.jpg

They're a few weeks away from a crowdfunding campaign, and the best they have to show for their development is a rendering?

A rendering that seems to have no y-axis and no reel for filament.

Either they really wanted this render to look clean, or they were lazy.

I'm sure they'll get millions and laugh all the way to Mexico.

I've talked to some of the guys close to this company, and honestly I think they will be quite successful. Just my opinion though.

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Originally Posted by Feign

A rendering that seems to have no y-axis and no reel for filament.

Either they really wanted this render to look clean, or they were lazy.

I'm sure they'll get millions and laugh all the way to Mexico.

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Hi - I'm new to this forum. I've worked on the development of this printer, and I can assure you that the rendering is quite complete. Well, the filament spool is not shown, but the complete X-Y-Z mechanism is all there - it's just really minimal. I've done a fair amount of printing on a couple of their prototypes that are functionally equivalent but are not nearly as attractive as the rendering of the production design they used in their announcement. Unfortunately, I can't say much more until the crowdfunding campaign launches in a couple of weeks.

Lobo, what are you feelings about it? Will it be something we want to buy and use?

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Originally Posted by LoboCNC

Hi - I'm new to this forum. I've worked on the development of this printer, and I can assure you that the rendering is quite complete. Well, the filament spool is not shown, but the complete X-Y-Z mechanism is all there - it's just really minimal. I've done a fair amount of printing on a couple of their prototypes that are functionally equivalent but are not nearly as attractive as the rendering of the production design they used in their announcement. Unfortunately, I can't say much more until the crowdfunding campaign launches in a couple of weeks.

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My apologies for the snark earlier.

I'm a bit curious though, how it moves in the x-y axis... At first, I thought I saw the plate attached to a threaded rod across the middle of the enclosure, but now I see that it's a smooth rod, at least in the render, which makes less sense for how the plate could move on it in both x and y axis on it. For that matter, now that I look again, it looks like the middle bar in the Z axis is smooth too, is the smoothness of the apparent driving shafts intentional, or is it for the cleanliness of the render?

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Originally Posted by pardonme

Lobo, what are you feelings about it? Will it be something we want to buy and use?

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I hope you'll want to buy and use one. It's a very capable printer (ie, decent print speeds and good print quality) and they are aiming for really low pricing (they haven't settled on a final figure yet). The main advantage, though, is that it will be a very polished consumer device with much less of the fussing normally associated with 3D printers. In particular, they are working on a 3D marketplace that will essentially have pre-sliced objects that have been pre-tested with this particular printer, thus allowing the total novice to successfully print without having to know anything about the dozens of slicing parameters required for getting good results. (You'll also, of course, be able to design and slice your own objects if you have the know-how.)

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Originally Posted by Feign

My apologies for the snark earlier.

I'm a bit curious though, how it moves in the x-y axis... At first, I thought I saw the plate attached to a threaded rod across the middle of the enclosure, but now I see that it's a smooth rod, at least in the render, which makes less sense for how the plate could move on it in both x and y axis on it. For that matter, now that I look again, it looks like the middle bar in the Z axis is smooth too, is the smoothness of the apparent driving shafts intentional, or is it for the cleanliness of the render?

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No worries - I appreciate your skepticism. What you can't really see in the rendering is another rod under the build table in the Y direction. These X & Y rods are not actually smooth but are toothed splines that drive the table in X & Y. And the center Z rod is actually a threaded rod. (The rendering doesn't really have enough resolution to make out these details.)

You can just see the top of the hole for the y-axis rod immediately below the z-axis rod in the render.

Here are some more interesting details about the MOD-t:
http://3dprint.com/3535/new-matter-mod-t-details/

"Instead of having the extruder, which is where the build material is expelled from, move on all three axes, they have changed the mechanics around quite significantly. The MOD-t 3D printer will feature an extruder that only moves in the Z direction, while the build plate will move in the X and Y directions."

The MOD-t movement isn't special. That's how a "knee" or quite a lot of vertical mills are setup. The down side with how they show it is that the machine envelope is needlessly large, or it further constrains the XY build area.

I don't know what cartesian 3D printer moves the extruder in all three axes. Maybe it's common in the big-name high-dollar machines. A Mendel-type is often set up to move the extruder in the XZ axes, and moves the table in the Y. Makerbot & Ultimaker move the extruder with an XY gantry, with a Z platform moving.

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Originally Posted by JRDM

"Instead of having the extruder, which is where the build material is expelled from, move on all three axes, they have changed the mechanics around quite significantly. The MOD-t 3D printer will feature an extruder that only moves in the Z direction, while the build plate will move in the X and Y directions."

The MOD-t movement isn't special. That's how a "knee" or quite a lot of vertical mills are setup. The down side with how they show it is that the machine envelope is needlessly large, or it further constrains the XY build area.

I don't know what cartesian 3D printer moves the extruder in all three axes. Maybe it's common in the big-name high-dollar machines. A Mendel-type is often set up to move the extruder in the XZ axes, and moves the table in the Y. Makerbot & Ultimaker move the extruder with an XY gantry, with a Z platform moving.

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True enough - the Mod-T isn't particularly unique because of which axes move the table and which move the extruder head. It's unique because the X-Y mechanism is incredibly minimal (see my early posts in this thread), and the only thing that moves at high speed is the build table itself. This both reduces the part count and reduces the amount of moving mass because the table is very light. The lower moving mass further reduces the cost of motors, motor drivers, power supplies, etc..

Is there a way to get notified when the crowdfunding starts?

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Originally Posted by Ken

Is there a way to get notified when the crowdfunding starts?

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There's a place at the top of the New Matter website to sign up to get notification of the crowdfunding launch.

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Originally Posted by LoboCNC

Hi - I'm new to this forum. I've worked on the development of this printer, and I can assure you that the rendering is quite complete. Well, the filament spool is not shown, but the complete X-Y-Z mechanism is all there - it's just really minimal. I've done a fair amount of printing on a couple of their prototypes that are functionally equivalent but are not nearly as attractive as the rendering of the production design they used in their announcement. Unfortunately, I can't say much more until the crowdfunding campaign launches in a couple of weeks.

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If this is the same LoboCNC as http://jrkerr.com/lobocnc/index.html then his positive review should be respected. I have experience using his CNC and was impressed with his extensive knowledge of both the hardware and software.

Been working with 3D printers for about 2 years now and the M3D and this one seem to be on the right track for consumer desktop 3D printer.

In my experience and cantilever design is total failure. Truly, any moving bed was failure. (MB you know who you are). Most of that was due to the acceleration of the beds mass, leading to vibration. Now that you are only moving in 2-d, you'll have uniform Z-axis acceleration for the print bed.

I'm very curious to see how the separated mechanics will operate in unison.

My assumption is you'll get the speed of having a fixed extruder while maintaining the capability to do high delicacy prints (something cantilever beds super fail at (( in comparison with non-moving bed printer))).

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Originally Posted by Sky

If this is the same LoboCNC as http://jrkerr.com/lobocnc/index.html then his positive review should be respected. I have experience using his CNC and was impressed with his extensive knowledge of both the hardware and software.

Been working with 3D printers for about 2 years now and the M3D and this one seem to be on the right track for consumer desktop 3D printer.

In my experience and cantilever design is total failure. Truly, any moving bed was failure. (MB you know who you are). Most of that was due to the acceleration of the beds mass, leading to vibration. Now that you are only moving in 2-d, you'll have uniform Z-axis acceleration for the print bed.

I'm very curious to see how the separated mechanics will operate in unison.

My assumption is you'll get the speed of having a fixed extruder while maintaining the capability to do high delicacy prints (something cantilever beds super fail at (( in comparison with non-moving bed printer))).

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Yes, I'm the same LoboCNC - thanks for the vote of confidence! One thing to be clear on is the distinction between a cantilevered bed that moves in Z (very difficult to do) and a cantilevered extruder that moves in Z. With a cantilevered extruder, all you need to do is accurately position a single point (the extruder nozzle) in space. Because the mass of the extruder is constant and the drag loads from laying down filament are small, you can position accurately without needing a hugely stiff structure. With a cantilevered build table you are not only need to worry about the position of the table but also the orientation of the table plane. Tiny deviations in your mechanism (rod straightness, etc) can cause the table to tilt which really magnifies these errors at the perimeter of the table. Also, just the weight of printed object can cause the table to deflect if the structure is not incredibly stiff. In general, though, it's hard to make any sweeping statements about the best place to put your X, Y and Z motion axes because so much depends on the actual implementation. For what it's worth, I've printed tiny 10 tooth 2mm pitch timing belt pulleys on the Mod-t prototypes, so it should be capable of pretty detailed prints.

And regarding the M3D printer - it'll be nice when New Matter finally releases some specs and pricing - it will make an interesting comparison.

BTW, New Matter has just informed us that the MOD-t will be launching on Indiegogo on May 28th and it will be priced at less than $300! More details at http://3dprint.com/3755/new-matter-mod-t-indiegogo/

It looks like New Matter has released a video explaining their X-Y drive mechanism:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmn9BIwsE1w

This is the patent-pending technology they are talking about. The entire X-Y drive consists of 2 pinion rods and one molded build table. (Plus motors, of course.)

Has anyone found any indication on when they might be shipping the first units?
I hope it isn't going to be one of those crowd funding campaigns where they say it wont ship till 6 months after the campaign, and then after a whole lot of "unexpected" delays its another 6 months behind. It looks like a pretty talented team behind New Matter so lets hope they've got everything sorted and ready to ramp up production as soon as they hit their funding goal and get the units out fast.

Oh... I get it now! Okay, I like this now.

Just have to make sure it stays very clean. And is the plate just riding on ball bearings against the bottom of the enclosure?

Also agreeing with Yorke. It takes at least a year to get from funding to shipping. Anyone with a six month timeline on a hardware project and few scheduled milestones sets off all the red flags for investors with any experience at all in mass production. (not to say they don't get funded... There seem to be a plenty of investors with no experience in manufacturing, and they love that promise of instant gratification.)

No matter how good the team or how ready they are, it takes about a year to make any kind of production line unless you're outsourcing everything or making something obscenely simple like coasters or t-shirts. Not due to anyone on the team, but because of outside production bottlenecks and regulatory hurdles. All in all it takes about nine months just to get through the EPA and OSHA red tape before you touch your factory floor. (Not just an American problem... Many major industrialized countries make it even harder to legally run a factory.)

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Originally Posted by Feign

Oh... I get it now! Okay, I like this now.

Just have to make sure it stays very clean. And is the plate just riding on ball bearings against the bottom of the enclosure?

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Yes, you do have to keep chunks of filament out of the gears. In practice, I'm not that tidy and most of the time any debris gets pushed along the pinion rod and out of the way. Only once did I have a mis-print due to a large chunk of filament in the gear.

Also, the build plate has feet in the corners that normally glide just above the flat surface at the bottom of the enclosure. Normally the build plate does not want to tip, but if you have an off-center center-of-gravity, one of the feet may touch down as you move to the extreme X-Y positions, but the transition is smooth and not noticeable.

Hi,
What about the possible "clattering"?? (I don't know if this is the right word to describe it), I refer to the little up and down movements due to the gears itself. If the bed is not held into the gears, with some guides as most printers do, every time a tooth is pushing the bed, it can move upwards instead of moving in the same plane. All the more if the bed is unbalanced and one of its feet is touching the base.
I know the movement could be mostly imperceptible but when I'm trying to print something with 0.05-0.1 mm layer thickness, that little movement could be very important in terms of quality.

Theoretically, the involute profile of the gears will give perfectly level motion. But of course, the gears are not perfect, and there will always be a tiny amount of up & down movement. In the prints we've tested, there is no noticeable up & down wobble in the print surface. (I'll try to get some hi res photos to post soon.) Also note that the main benefit of a really fine layer thickness is to hide the layer lines, and the layer lines still disappear even if there is a tiny about of variation in the build platform height.