Helix 3D Printer on Kickstarter
Hey guys, yet another pretty cool 3D Printer I stumbled upon on Kickstarter today. The Helix 3D Printer is seeking $95,000 over the next 28 days.
Quote:
Helix is our solution for those who want an affordable, professional 3D printer.Our vision is to make professional-level 3D printing widely available to engineers, architects, k-12 schools and universities, maker spaces, machine shops, and anyone else that doesn't have $15,000+ up front and $8,000+ per year for service and materials. We want to produce affordable machines that ship assembled, calibrated, ready to print, and won't require service every couple months because of a stretched belt or worn out plastic drive pulley. We've designed and built Alpha and Beta units in the last few months, and now, we'd like your help to finish our development and get to production.
Here are our goals:
- Make professional, large build volume, plug & play 3D printing widely accessible for engineers, architects, small manufacturers, students, machine shops, maker spaces, etc.
- Take the frustration out of affordable 3D printing for people that depend on it as part of their living or want to incorporate it into their businesses or classrooms
- Fully calibrate software and firmware for printing with difficult build material/support material combinations such as nylon/PVA
- Purchase manufacturing equipment so we can more cheaply produce many of the precision-machined parts we're currently sourcing elsewhere and reduce the cost of Helix for the user
- Set up a larger and more efficient assembly space to further reduce the cost of Helix for the user
Here’s what Helix has so far:
- 30 liter (more than a cubic foot) build volume with heated bed
- Our own dual Exact Retract Extruders - the absolute BEST extruder you can buy
- X/Y gantry with custom-made precision anti-backlash lead screws and machined billet aluminum carriers (NO BELTS!)
- Print head speeds up to twice as fast and locational precision three times more accurate than typical belt-driven 3D printers
- Beautiful enclosure with large windowed access door and lighted interior
- TIG welded steel build platform carrier
- Ability to print large ABS and nylon parts without warping
- Dual all-metal, actively cooled E3D hotends
- Multitude of material choices including ABS, Taulman nylon, PETT, PLA, PVA, HIPS, polycarbonate
- Autonomous micro-SD card printing with ViKI panel and Azteeg X3 control board
- Ships fully assembled and calibrated with two spools of filament and software ready to install
- 250+ hours of print time on the Beta unit
Here is a quick Video:
http://vimeo.com/76218721
